Recovering from BearFest

Happy Fourth, everyone!

First, as a cautionary note as people everywhere celebrate the birth of our country by blowing up a small part of it: nationalism is dangerous. It sounds like Richard Dawkins' critique of religion, but nationalism is a tool used by those in power to coerce the ignorant and downtrodden into actions that aren't in their best interests. Any absolutist paradigm that leaves no room for exceptions or free thought eliminates logic from decision-making, which is rarely a good thing. Howard Zinn of The Progressive provides an article that explains this better than I can.

This is a funny diagram of who really drives capitalist economies.

Walk like a fox, not like a cow. I tried this after reading Anthropik's article, and I'm a convert. This is a valuable revelation for anyone with foot, knee, or back problems.

DeputyDog gives a list of the 10 best natural phenomena. The first one listed will be familiar to anyone who has ever enjoyed a Macatawa sunset. This made me curious about some of the causes of the phenomenon in question, so I looked in Wikipedia, which has a really good rundown.

Salon provides a humorous look at a depressing subject - why nothing ever gets done on health care reform, probably the biggest immediate issue facing most Americans.

Jeff Stahler gives light to a sad truth that Michael Moore missed.

God Bless America? In some parts, if you visit America you lose your godlike status!

Classically Liberal gives us an intelligent and interesting look at economic conditions in the EU versus those in the US. In the EU, incomes are lower, and prices and taxes are higher than in the US. However, comparing this quantitative analysis with a subjective look at life in European cities is a powerful argument against purely using economic measures to define "quality of life". There is an intangible benefit to intelligent or artistic city plans, unique shops and areas, pedestrian-friendly public transportation, and collective community, all of which are far more prevalent in European cities (at large) than American ones.

Finally, to celebrate the 231th anniversary of declaring our independence from England, let's declare our independence from one of our biggest foreign policy boondoggles ever!