U.S. Independence Day is a ...

Shit... I dream when the US can gain independence from US imperialism. Fat chance.

It's not so much vulgur as misogynistic.

We do live in a free country. Free of privacy, free of economic opportunity, free of decent education, free of decent health care, free of a decent social safety net. We are practically legendary for our freedoms...

I used to be proud--really proud--to be American.
We had our problems, sure, but
- we didn't assassinate people
- we didn't torture people
- we hadn't started a major war in 40 years
- the government generally obeyed the law, and when it didn't, someone called them on it.
We could hold ourselves out as a model for other countries.

None of that is true any more.

For a long time, I blamed it all on Bush and the Republicans,
but then we elected Obama and Democrats,
and it hasn't helped.

Now I'm weary and ashamed, and I don't know where to go next, literally or figuratively.

when a man like Snowden is branded as a traitor instead of a hero to the people (American or not). Today it is NSA (and whatever organization or government for that matter) owning a piece of our freedom, but it is not too hard to envision a not too distant future where they will own our minds (or soul... whatever you want to call it) when the Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) takes off. It used to excite me to think about the future of BMI, but unless we start to defend our freedom, I think WE as a species are all screwed.

Little of that was ever true. Now we just know more of it.

You must be seeing that through some sort of goggles.

When a citizen flees your country to a place like Hong Kong in order get _better_ treatment, you should wonder why you still believe you have a moral high ground to claim at all.

Snowden didn't flee to get "better treatment," he wasn't being mistreated in the US. He fled law enforcement because he broke the law. He is a fugitive from justice.

Not sure how you got that wrong.

Wait. We're supposed to thank you for giving us obesity-inducing food and perpetual copyrights?

This reminds me of George Carlin's rant which I would agree with how the fu** can you be proud of something you were born into, but had nothing to do with?

What is there to be proud of? How we dictate other countries? How the only freedoms we have are for material goods? How we have a country full of zombies that seemingly do not care about there rights, until they are charged with a capital crime. How the Brtis and French slaughtered the Native people of the land which you so conveniently call yours?

I am being sarcastic but also very real in this statement. Be proud of something you accomplish not something you are born into..

Indeed. And we're definitely the land of the brave too. C'mon, world, have you seen the shit we dare to eat?