In the spirit of our nation's birthday, LOTS of terrific diaries were written on the meaning of patriotism, American history and other relevant topics, so I've expanded the list tonight to 17 diaries (one-time only offer!). The quality of the overall diaries today on the topic was
outstanding and I had trouble even cutting it down to these ... so please feel free to add any inspiring ones that I missed.
- Paul S Cilwa's Freedom from King George gives a nice overview of the events and concepts leading to the American Revolution.
- hekebolos' Bush Administration admits deceiving Congress!! examines the administration's argument in Hamdan that the AUMF basically suspended habeas corpus (and other unspecified rights), and reports on Justice Stevens' horrified reaction.
- Kayabiker's Patriotic Shopping: Blows Bin Laden's visually shows in a photo essay how patriotism sells - and how vulgar it can be - in this essay that dredges up some of the worst of Americana crap.
- Uthaclena's Capturing the Flag: the Symbols That Unite is a stirring essay on patriotism, our myths and our national culture.
- dengre's Abramoff's 10-1-2001 Email demands a Special Prosecutor argues that because the Bush administration is so obviously incapable of investigating itself, a special prosecutor is required to delve into the Abramoff scandal.
- RoddieH's Disjointed Musings on Fourth of July Eve looks at, for one thing, the religious beliefs of the Founding Fathers, through the lens of some recent excellent biographies of the group.
- tbrucegodfrey's Happy 4th from a conservative Kossack points out the irony of how liberals are much closer to traditional conservative beliefs than the neocons are.
- XOVER's Preemptive War: Future Use & Justification examines how a recently published paper sets up the arguments for preemptive war over "energy."
- JESchwartz's Bringing back "old money" values reflects on the loss of "old money" values - less ostentation, an acknowledged responsibility to provide for charitable work - and suggests that Americans begin to withhold admiration for those who flaunt their wealth.
- lucid's Shame, on shame contemplates the moral and social consequences throughout history of the personal feeling of shame.
- Thunder's This means war! Or does it? looks at the confusion of language surrounding our "war on terror" - "lawful" combatants, "enemy" combatants, "detainees" versus "prisoners" - and argues for a reclarification of language.
- mrsdbrown1's Mine's Bigger is a diary focusing on how a visit to the nation's capital brought on an uplifting revelation of hope in the midst of despair ... that this nation and this democracy are larger than this administration.
- GarySeven's Treason - and the Fourth of July is a well-written essay pointing out that America was founded on - gasp! - treason.
- bakunin661's Two Americas, a 4th of July essay outlines the ideals of an authentic democratic and patriotic America.
- Fides' A Declaration is an inspirational essay urging the taking back of our democracy, based on the Declaration of Independence.
- jlynne's The Ties That Bind urges reclaiming our patriotism through our support each other and our work toward retaking our country.
- downunder newt's Health care - International Perspective describes how Australia's universal health care coverage works.
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