Independence Day Gut Check

This Soldier would like to wish you all a happy and safe Independence Day.

Remember that the continued freedom of this great nation depends on two things:

1. The continued vigilance of a strong military who is dedicated to the ideals of liberty and to the mission of providing a common defense against all of America's enemies.

2. The continued vigilance of a well-educated, independent electorate who is dedicated to the ideals of liberty and the mission of providing for America's defense against all who would manipulate this system of government to undermine or pervert her.

As our brothers and sisters serve in despotic parts of the world, the citizens of the United States have a duty to ensure that the fundamental principles of liberty are preserved here at home. Far too many people are not even paying attention. Far too many people are allowing the elite in positions of influence to dictate what they know and how they feel about it.

Everyone has an opinion on Iraq, but most people cannot answer even one of the following questions:

(1) Where is Mosul located on a blank map of Iraq?
(2) What 3 provinces existed before what is now Iraq was unified under British occupation?
(3) What are a few fundamental differences between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam?
(4) What kind of political ideology did the Baathist party embrace? Who founded them?
(5) Why did the British imprison Khairallah Talfah (uncle who raised Saddam) during WWII?

Everyone has an opinion on the economy, but:

(1) Most people fail a 14 question test on the basics of finance.
(2) Most people cannot pass a basic economic test like this one.

So I ask: "Where are these opinions coming from?"

Clearly we are not forming them for ourselves. You cannot make an informed decision if your information is coming from someone who has already decided for you. If you look at the majority of "news" and "reporting" you will find that it is all speculation, polls, entertainment, distraction, and commentary. Come on! We are smarter than this.


"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent."

-Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Francis Hopkinson
March 13, 1789