PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, USA -- Independence Day in America is like Guy Fawkes Day in the UK is like Silvester in Germany -- it's just another fireworks holiday. While we didn't have the good sense to legalize the means of celebration in every state (I have to leave Pennsylvania -- where George Washington and the Prussian Baron von Steuben drilled the soon-to-be-victorious army at Valley Forge -- just to get a bottle rocket, you know?), we at least made it at a manageable point in the year. It ain't a national insurrectionist celebration -- death to terrorists, BTW -- unless you can float on an inner tube in swimwear in an out-of-ground pool with one of those beer sippy hats while you're celebratin' it. Never mind the nation itself! Timing is everything! Hold THIS truth to be self-evident! Happy Independence Day!

p.s. This bald eagle, just like the rest of them, is no longer endangered and will be posting tomorrow.