Fourth of July Archives - Orion's Cold Fire

04JUL2023 – Happy Fourth of July

July 4, 2023July 4, 2023 photog Current Events American History, Fourth of July

Well, now that Juneteenth is an official holiday, July 4th is left for us bad thinkers who believe in equality but not equity. The Fourth of July can no longer be celebrated but instead remembered as something that was once glorious but is now lost. Maybe one day we’ll regain it.

But this remembrance day will still be a time to enjoy family and friends and reflect on the achievement of the Founding Fathers and their rebellion.

Here’s a little reminder.

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness of his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: George Read, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Celebrating the Fourth of July as an Act of Defiance

July 3, 2022July 3, 2022 photog Current Events american exceptionalism, American History, Fourth of July

I didn’t celebrate Pride Month. I didn’t celebrate Juneteenth. I didn’t celebrate Black History Month or Women’s History Month or any other history month. I did celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Columbus Day, Washington’s Birthday and all the holidays we had back in the good old days. And I will be celebrating the Fourth of July.

The Fourth of July commemorates the War of Independence and the Founding Fathers’ courage and wisdom in creating a new nation and providing it with an enlightened Constitution that provided the framework for living a free life.

Nowadays those Founding Fathers and their Constitution are targets for hate and derision by the Left and anyone else who buys into their whole George Floyd/Black Lives Matter/anti-white campaign. To them the Fourth of July is just a reminder of all the injustice and racism they claim is inherent in America and its history.

Well. good. Let them disown the Fourth categorically and absolutely. Let them reject anyone who celebrates it as a deplorable enemy of all they stand for. That suits me right down to my toes. It makes my enjoyment of the fireworks and the barbecues and the parades that much the sweeter.

Tomorrow my grandchildren will be riding on wagon covered in July 4^th posters and other artwork of their design in a parade. The wagon will be pulled by a tractor that their father and uncle will be driving. And when they get to the town common, they’ll listen to music, speeches, poems and other patriotic thoughts that were written centuries ago by Jefferson, Paine and Henry. And I’ll stand on the side of the street and wave to them and applaud their efforts and afterward we’ll celebrate with some more hot dogs and hamburgers and watermelon.

And tomorrow night we’ll watch the local fireworks displays. They won’t be anything too spectacular. They’re not a patch on the ones I used to watch in New York City when I was young. Those were spectacular. But these are just as important. Maybe more so. They represent the local enthusiasm and will to celebrate the things that we believe in. This is us saying we are the United States of America. Anyone who says that this is a racist and evil country is not an American.

He is a parasite growing at the expense of his host. Eventually he hopes to kill off his host and replace him. Right now, we haven’t managed to find the drug that will kill this parasite. So, we have to suffer the symptoms. But we definitely don’t have to pretend that this creature is part of the body. We don’t have to cooperate with its destructive activities or treat it as a friend. Its only goal is our destruction and our only goal is to cut off its blood supply and poison it.

Well, all that is not the result of eating some hamburgers and shooting off some fireworks. But those are the things that give children the message that this is a country worth defending from those who would take away our freedoms and prosperity and replace them with poverty and dependency. So that makes celebrating the Fourth of July a worthwhile and strengthening endeavor. And based on the current propaganda it is also transgressive and defiant. It’s a thumb in the eye of the Biden administration and its “new world order.” After all what do parades, fireworks and barbecues have in common? Well, they all add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Chew on that Dementia Joe.

03JUL2021 – OCF Update

July 3, 2021July 3, 2021 photog Current Events, photog's Corner Fourth of July, OCF Update

This will be a quiet day on the site. We’re having our 4th of July family barbecue at noon today. Some folks wouldn’t be a able to make it tomorrow so the 3rd will take its place. The burgers and the dogs are waiting for my grilling and Camera Girl has already prepared everything but the corn.

The weather is plain awful for July. It’s sixty something degrees and it’s been raining on and off and sometimes in buckets full, for three days! The grass is growing like crazy and so are the weeds in the gardens. The only thing I can be happy about is I haven’t had to water the plants in four days. But I’d gladly trade that for some hot sunny weather.

So it’ll be slow on the site. I have a theme I’m working on about the false choice between white identity politics and civic nationalism but I want to get it just right. It’s really a case of acknowledging the strategy of identity politics that the Left is using and calling that what it really is. It’s anti-white hatred. And calling it out for what it is forces those who are going along with it to be seen as the aggressors and therefore a legitimate target for our retaliation.

On the photographic front I hear that Sony is coming out with an A7 IV in September. Anyway that’s the rumor. I’ll be renting it to see if it suits my needs and if it does, then I’ll trade up for my A7 III. But if I do it’ll be just as much to freshen my camera as anything. I really don’t need a better camera. The A7 III is the first Sony that does everything well enough to satisfy my needs. And the 24 mega-pixels is plenty enough for me. The new camera is supposedly a 40 mega-pixel sensor and that’s a lot of space on the hard drive. I guess I could just replace mine wiuth another A7 III. But we’ll see. camera gear lust can’t be completely sated even in the old.

So enjoy the day. I’ll post as I can. Stay tuned.

When in the Course of Human Events – Part 1

June 29, 2021July 1, 2021 photog Americana, Current Events, photog's Corner, Reclaiming the Family Declaration of Independence, Fourth of July, Separating From the Left

I am grateful to the Haters of America for putting their new Independence Day in June. I’ve always loved July as the finest time of the year. And not just because my birthday is slap dab in the middle of it or because it is the hottest and therefore the time when we in the north feel most vitally alive.

But also, because the Fourth of July was every young boy’s idea of the perfect holiday. You had it right in the middle of your summer vacation (back then we had all of June, July and August off). It included playing with and watching fireworks, eating huge amounts of barbecued food, corn on the cob and watermelon and drinking lemonade. We would go down to Coney Island and swim in the polluted waters of Lower New York Harbor and then watch the fireworks display that the city put on for us proles. It was a mighty fine time to be had by all and sundry. I can remember neighbors that typically spent most of the year yelling at their neighbors’ kids coming out and sitting on their porches and stoops and talking about the weather and the baseball teams and acting almost human. We didn’t really think about the patriotic aspect of it. After all we were boys and therefore barely human. But I am grateful to the Cloud People and Antifa and BLM and the illegal immigrant lobby and the LGBTQ Mafia and everyone else who hates the normal everyday things that America stood for. I’m grateful that I no longer have to share the Fourth of July with them.

And of course, the Fourth of July stands for more than just fireworks and hot dogs. But I wanted to start out with those things because they are the things that make it more than just important. They make it fun. And heaven knows we need as many things that can make us happy right now as we can get. I’m having the family over for a Fourth of July barbecue and the weather isn’t going to cooperate. After days of 90° weather, it’s going to be in the 60’s and cloudy. But that just means we’ll be able to have a baseball catch and play horseshoes without getting completely drenched in sweat.

We’re going to have a great time. After the barbecue I know Camera Girl will have desserts, splendiferous desserts. Ice cream and whipped cream will abound. And there will be Italian Cheesecake and maybe even pastries. And I’ll show my little 2 ½ year old granddaughter fireflies in the yard for her first time. And we’ll even shoot off a few small fireworks and then maybe watch some of the big stuff in the sky.

And I guarantee there will be not a whisper of white privilege or white rage or reparations or Juneteenth or Critical Race Theory. But there will be a little history lesson where I’ll find out if the boys all know what the Fourth of July commemorates.

And just to end this part of the post on the right note I’ll include some words that probably are more relevant today than they’ve been since shortly after they were written.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

They almost sound topical. We’ll take a swipe at it next.

When in the Course of Human Events – Part 2

The Fourth of July Is All Ours

July 2, 2020July 2, 2020 photog Americana, Current Events Fourth of July, Independence Day, Real Americans, the culture war, True Americans

Independence Day is a movie that I have spent a goodly number of hours mocking. And rightly so. One of my favorite targets is that truly annoying paeon to globalism when President Whitmore declares that because all of humanity is under attack and the final battle will be fought on July 4^th that from now on the Fourth of July will no longer be an American holiday but will be the Independence Day for the whole world.

I think it’s interesting that instead of that reality we live in a world where a large swath of Americans is now rejecting the Fourth of July as being racist and therefore un-American. Just as the American flag is now racist and to be avoided so too is our Independence Day. To the Left, the true Independence Day is Juneteenth. This goes along with their idea that America wasn’t founded in 1776 but in 1619 when slaves reached the colonies.

I think that’s great. It suits me to a tee. I prefer not to have to share the Fourth of July with these losers anyway. It goes along with all the other things which now are forbidden to them but we can celebrate exclusively and joyously. Christopher Columbus, Magellan, Henry Hudson, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson, Lewis and Clark, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, The Wright Brothers, Theodore Roosevelt, John J. Pershing, George S. Patton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong, Ronald Reagan and countless other great men who created a new world that inherited the Renaissance civilization from Europe and brought it to unparalleled heights in the formation of the United States of America. These are the people we read about in our history classes before the revisionists vilified them and replaced them with nobodies that fit better into the race and gender categories that they hoped to fill in their false history of our founding.

And I look forward to passing along all the details of how our country was actually built. And I won’t care about cataloging some of the darker incidents of our story. The cruelty and the war; the greed and the foolishness of some of the pages in our story. These things are human and looking at the whole course of human history I can say without fear of contradiction that the American chapter is the brightest and best part of the whole story.

So, rejoice my fellow Americans. And be glad that only true Americans now celebrate the Fourth of July and honor the lives of all the great men who built this land and made possible this most remarkable nation in all the history of humanity and anywhere on God’s green Earth. Gather together with your friends and family and grill some steaks or barbecue some burgers and dogs and eat your potato salad and watermelon and drink your beer and lemonade and have a baseball catch with the kids and jump in the pool and sit around and have some ice cream and watch the fireworks. And remember the Fourth of July when you were ten and tell your kids or grandkids about it.

I find it liberating to no longer make believe we are one people with a changing understanding of “who we are.” In reality we are one nation, the American people, that still believes all the things we always believed. And alongside this nation there is a hodge-podge of outsiders who do not want to belong. They have formed a coalition for the sake of trying to disinherit the Americans by convincing us that we are evil undeserving racists. But they have shown their hand too soon and the mask is off. They hate us and they are not part of us. We owe them nothing and we no longer have to accommodate them. They are a separate thing from us and deserve none of our sympathy or consideration. The only thing they require is our caution to avoid being harmed by their malice.

So, enjoy the Fourth and flaunt your happiness about it with your fellow Americans, especially in front of those who despise this country and its true history. It’s your holiday and your birthright.

All Outrage and No Fun Makes photog A Dull Boy

June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 photog OCF Fourth of July, July, Summer

In the immortal notes and lyrics of George and Ira Gershwin:

“Summertime, an’ the livin’ is easy

Fish are jumpin’ an’ the cotton is high.

Oh, yo’ daddy’s rich and yo’ ma is good-lookin’

So hush, little baby, don’ you cry.”

While statues of Lincoln freeing the slaves are being pulled from their pedestals maybe cotton fields aren’t the acceptable subject of song, especially with all that yo’ and mammy going on in the lyrics. But here at Orion’s Cold Fire we appropriate culture with a rakish grin and a tip of the cap.

Anyway, we are bearing down on July and anyone who has been hanging around here for more than a year knows that July is my sacred time. I live to have a week or two off during the hottest, sunniest, least wintery time of the year. It must be my Mediterranean heritage. Relaxing in a country environment during this time of the year with no work responsibilities is as close to heaven as I am ever likely to get either before or after death (being an irredeemable sinner).

Because of the COVID hoax I will be deprived of the annual pleasure of seeing all of my relatives this summer which is tragic. But I refuse to let this insanity cancel this most joyful time of the year and I intend to fulfill all my usual rituals and revel in all the things I enjoy. I intend to grill up a barbecue and eat watermelon and corn on the cob, enjoy potato salad and lemonade. I’ll watch old movies and listen to music that evokes memories of the best of times. I will photograph birds and bugs and flowers and I will sleep in a hammock under a tree and listen to the music of the wood thrush and the song sparrow (or at least a blue jay and a mourning dove). And for a few days I will ignore BLM and antifa and Nancy Pelosi and even my soulless boss.

But what I will not ignore is OCF and the good folks who come here to see what crazy things I’m talking about next. I will have things to say and reviews of things I like. I will share photos and anything else I think might be interesting. Things may slow down a little but there won’t be a gap. What hopefully will be missing is outrage. At this time of the rolling year I think it is more than desirable to forsake the doom and gloom that is so all encompassing in our daily lives and look for the good and happy and fun. I will seek out the traditional sources of wholesome happiness and sling them at you folks with both hands. I will accentuate the positive. I will be jolly if it kills me.

And so, this is my intention. It is possible that some new atrocity will preclude all this. If the Jacobeans come marauding down the highway and torch the Compound then most probably my plan for revelry will evaporate. Bad weather could throw a damper on my plans or illness could ruin it. But I wish everyone out there a very happy high summer, especially you folks in the northern latitudes. This is the time we look forward to during all those short snowy days and long frigid nights of winter.

Here Comes the Sun

04JUL2019 – OCF Update – Happy Fourth of July

July 4, 2019July 4, 2019 photog Current Events, OCF, Uncategorized Declaration of Independence, Fourth of July, Independence Day, July, OCF Update, ShatnerCon, ShatnerKhan, William Shatner

Just a quick update. I’m, of course, going to a family barbecue today. But I’m off for a couple of weeks and will use the time to test out some lenses I’ve rented the following lenses:

Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS and the Sony 1.4 and 2.0 teleconverters and the

Mitakon SpeedMaster 50mm f/0.95 Lens for Sony E.

I hope to have some interesting conclusions about these two products. I’ve been looking for a telephoto and think the 100-400 might be a more useful lens that the 200-600 that is coming out next month. And the 50mm 0.95 is probably not something I need but it might be fun to have such an extremely thin plane of focus in certain shots.

Shatner-Khan was postponed due to illness but I have plans to publish important original research on the subject in the weeks ahead.

And I plan to eat my share of hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob (hand shucked!) and watermelon in the days to come. To all of you enjoy our Independence Day and make sure that your children and grandchildren know the truth and don’t let them be misled by the Colin Kaepernicks and Nikes of the world. We had to separate ourselves from tyranny once before and we can do it again. In fact just by how we think of these people, we already have.