Also, too, I will be purchasing a large quantity of fireworks today, just as the founders intended. Those of you who don’t live in Real America are deprived of this important freedom, and I feel your pain.
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harlana
kerpow!
MikeJ
What about those of us with a cedar roof and deranged pyromaniac neighbors?
This is the excuse for not power washing the moss off yet.
PurpleGirl
Fireworks! Yay. I love fireworks displays. Tomorrow night is the Macy’s show. It’s on the Hudson River this year so I’ll only see the very highest explosions. When they have them on the East River I see most of the explosions, although not the lower ones. (My terrace is oriented to the south/south-west and I have a good view of mid-town Manhattan and Brooklyn.)
geg6
HA! Here in DFH Western PA, we just invade Real Merika Eastern Ohio for their explosives, which they conveniently place in large stores just across the state line. You must have a permit to buy or use such pyrotechnics here, but Ohio does not require any permit checks and the PA authorities can’t do much unless they actually catch you lighting the fuse. We DFHs, as usual, are smarter than Real Merika.
bkny
speaking of founders — a very cool discovery by the library of congress staff:
Jefferson changed ‘subjects’ to ‘citizens’ in Declaration of Independence
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 3, 2010; A01
“Subjects.”
That’s what Thomas Jefferson first wrote in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence to describe the people of the 13 colonies.
But in a moment when history took a sharp turn, Jefferson sought quite methodically to expunge the word, to wipe it out of existence and write over it. Many words were crossed out and replaced in the draft, but only one was obliterated.
Over the smudge, Jefferson then wrote the word “citizens.”
jackmac
Like geg6 we are fortunate to live close enough to a “Real Murican” state (Indiana) where we can drive to stock up on our explosives! And since the city of Chicago has scaled back its fireworks shows, well maybe we’ll just have to compensate!
Bruce Webb
You people East of the Mississippi are simply deprived.
Indian Reservations nationwide are largely exempt from State fireworks regulations, on the other hand they tend to be tucked away in inconvenient spots. Here in Western Washington the major reservations are all situated along I-5, making purchases of BIG fireworks and mortars oh so convenient.
Our local reservation, the Tulalip has for years hosted the appropriately named Boom City where you can openly purchase just about anything allowed under Federal law, and if they know you more than that. Legally none of the ‘boom’ stuff can be taken off the Reservation and Boom City does provide a place for you to set off your fireworks, but mostly people just load them in their trunks and go (the Sheriffs and State Patrol being more focused on drunk drivers). And while City and Town cops will shut you down, our rural areas in places have the sound and look of a war zone (with prettier colors).
And this isn’t a couple of road side stands, there are dozens of vendors willing to sell you things that make big noises, pretty colors (and oh yeah blow off your kids fingers and burn your neighbors house down-sometimes the Tree of Liberty has to be watered by the fire department).
Plus with the Legal Holiday falling on Monday, I am expecting that tomorrow night is going to be long and loud, particularly because it really doesn’t get dark enough for good fireworks until around 10PM.
Bnut
July 4th, about the only day I miss living in bum fuck Alabama. NY soshulists and their damn rules….
South of I-10
Mr. South has already stocked up on explosives, I am leaving in a few minutes to stock up on burgers and sausage, cause that is what the founders would have wanted.
QuaintIrene
My dog doesn’t. She’ll still be spending most of this weekend in the bedroom closet.
KCinDC
Kathleen Parker is back with her defense of her “Obama’s a girlie” column. Apparently it’s okay because (1) she doesn’t think of Obama as black and (2) he’s her cousin.
QuaintIrene
geg6, were you the one feeling so punk yesterday?
Redshift
I guess I live in Real Murica than, Nancy Pfotenhauer notwithstanding. I can get half-decent fireworks here, and if I want the real deal, I can drive a couple of hours to PA where the only requirement for out-of-staters to buy mortars and such is that you have to buy them in “dealer” quantities ($50 or more.)
However, considering the number of “test-firing” I’ve seen in the past couple of weeks, I think I’ll just sit back and watch.
debit
@QuaintIrene: My dog will either be under the bed or trembling under the corner table. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just for this weekend, but I have a couple of yahoos in the neighborhood who will continue to blow things up until they run out, which usually works out to be around mid August.
NovShmozKaPop
I deeply resent the loss of the right to blow my hands off. The Tea Party claims another former liberal.
WereBear
It can be worthwhile (though a bit late now) to invest in some doggie or kitty Valium to get them through it.
Chamomile tea, brewed strong and in teaspoons, has helped our kitten not throw up when she’s upset. We have it handy.
While dogs who have a problem with fireworks HAVE A PROBLEM WITH FIREWORKS, cats seem to be amenable to good modeling and reassurance. I’ve got some tips in this article:
How to help cats cope with upsetting stimuli
fucen tarmal
@geg6:
real murica is relative, because in eastern pa, you know where our tax dollars have a vacation home, they have fireworks stores, but only for non-pa residents…
a lot of fireworks stores in various states will only sell to out of state id holders, my pa drivers license made me more popular than the non-trad down the hall, my freshman year in college…
fucen tarmal
@KCinDC:
you buried the lede, but its ok, so did she.
so what she is saying is only white folks can be post racial….
goodbye sober day…
even if she is some whodat columnist, this type of stupidity makes me sad.
Anoniminous
I am concerned.
What is to stop Islamoterrorists from swimming the Atlantic, and then disguising themselves as Real Murakins©, and then purchasing several hundred tons of fireworks while our vigilance is relaxed, and then sneaking onto Ellis Island, and then BLOWING UP THE STATUE OF LIBERTY!!!!!11!!ELVENTYONE!!!!!
IT COULD HAPPEN!!!!!11!!ELVENTYONE!!!!!
And what is Obama doing about this clear and imminent threat?
Nothing. Nothing, I tell you, NOTHING!
fucen tarmal
@Anoniminous:
or worse real murkins…are fireworks store employees trained on real vs fake faux crotch hair? i think not!
and the only thing stopping them would be that they would be wet, which would ruin the fireworks, we must guard our towels with our lives!
Staging a Comeback
It is illegal to sell, purchase or set off fireworks where I am, but we will be going to the state-sponsored, socialistic fireworks show tomorrow eve.
Steeplejack
@fucen tarmal:
Kathleen Parker doesn’t perceive her “lens of race,” so she’s quite sure she doesn’t have one. What a pompous ass.
Mnemosyne
Argh. Nothing like walking into the bedroom and discovering that the cat has hocked up a hairball right in the middle of the bed. Especially when one’s spouse has been against allowing cats in the bedroom from the very first.
Guess I’m doing laundry today after all …
darms
I dunno, while I love setting off fireworks, especially the larger ones, there just hasn’t been very much I’ve felt like celebrating the last few 7/4s. Torture? Endless stupid wars? Mass looting by the richest 0.1%? 1% of our population in prisons? 58 dems in the senate a helpless minority, 41 r’s in the senate an overwhelming majority? What’s the point, those that read this blog know all this stuff already….
Arclite
The second amendment states:
For those of you having your constitutional rights infringed, I feel your pain. Here in Hawaii, we have no infringement, though you do need to pay our Communist overlord gov’t a permit fee for some kinds of fireworks.
Happy Fourth to you all!
licensed to kill time
@efgoldman:
Here’s a pre4th “fun with homemade fireworks” story. I’m still trying to figure out how he did that with a bunch of sparklers.
licensed to kill time
Arrrgggghhh. Chucked a hyphen bomb inadvertently and the whole page went wonky. I think I fixed it (edited out the hyphen), looks ok now in Firefox, but my apologies if it’s still borked in IE.
As gawd is my witness, I’ll never use hyphens again.
johnny walker
Ehh, if I can buy fireworks here in Commiefornia I’m pretty sure they fail as an indicator of Real Americandom.