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<p>Watching last night's Question Time, which was in Scotland and devoted half of its time to the question of Scottish independence - it was also the last QT before the September referendum -, confirmed and strengthened my opinion that England would be far better off without Scotland.</p>

Most everyone knows about America's 1776 Declaration of Independence. But did you know that on July 6 a year earlier, Congress initiated a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms? It's true. According to History, on July 6, 1775, just a day after our Founding Fathers issued their Olive Branch Petition to King George III, Congress gave just reason for taking up arms against Great Britain. In the declaration, they wrote they would rather "die freemen rather than to live slaves." Three months earlier, patriot resistance and "the shot heard round the world" had fired off in...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the fourth day of July. Whatever may have been the...

As a mother, it is almost impossible to imagine sending a child on a long and dangerous journey, alone, into the unknown. And yet that is what tens of thousands of parents in Mexico and Central America have done, hoping their children will find sanctuary in the United States. That tells you a great deal about the terrible violence and poverty in other countries. It also tells you a great deal about the United States.

To be independent is to be free -- not to receive free stuff paid for by others but to pursue our own happiness without diminishing the abilities of others to pursue theirs. Under King Obama we have lost much of our independence.Bill Whittle posted this video one year ago, on July 3d. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqZkTsmv4kw] Video link How would you answer the question at the end of the first verse of our national anthem?[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdP1CQEboIo] Video link Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Illegal Aliens [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jatwPTk1jWM] Video link...

Radio show host Edward Woodson, took to the streets of South Florida to ask it’s citizens what we celebrate on the 4th of July.We need to seriously examine what we teach our kids in schools, and immigrants in the so-called “civics” tests they are required to take before becoming U.S. citizens. Brace yourselves... WATCH:

On this Independence Day, it is valuable to revisit this topic. There is no doubt that we on the Right are the followers of the American tradition, while those on the Left follow the French. This alone explains a lot. Here, then, is Sean Busick’s superb essay… One of the many differences between the American and French Revolutions is that, unlike the French, Americans did not fight for an abstraction. Americans initially took up arms against the British to defend and preserve the traditional rights of Englishmen. The slogan “no taxation without representation” aptly summed up one of their chief...

the Gallup numbers show that in 2006 the United States was one of the top countries in the world when it came to satisfaction with freedom. By 2013 it had dropped out of the top 25% of all countries. A country in which 4 out of 5 people believe their government is corrupt is a country teetering between a populist uprising and a collapse into cynicism, passivity, and fatalism. These results suggest we will either renew our commitment to the rule of law, the punishment of corruption and the insistence on honest self-government or we will cease to be America...

DAD, WHAT'S UNABHÄNGIGKEITSTAG? "Is that when the thirteen colonies broke away from England?" My ten year inquired out of nowhere at 6 AM German time this morning. "Yeah, why do you want to know, eat your breakfast," I mumbled, too sleepy to be very curious. "Because I am afraid my teacher will ask me, since I am wearing this T-shirt and I'm the only American in the class." With an effort, I adjusted my gaze upward to his white T-shirt. It was brand new. Prominent on his breast was an image of the flag and below that: OLD NAVY FREEDOM...

A Period Is Questioned in the Declaration of Independence Every Fourth of July, some Americans sit down to read the Declaration of Independence, reacquainting themselves with the nation’s founding charter exactly as it was signed by the Second Continental Congress in 1776. Or almost exactly? A scholar is now saying that the official transcript of the document produced by the National Archives and Records Administration contains a significant error — smack in the middle of the sentence beginning “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” no less. The error, according to Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced...

Happy Independence Day FReeper FRiends!!!I am posting this on Thursday so we can have some silliness before the Holiday weekend.  Today is the anniversary of the day America broke up with England  To celebrate, I found a little song someone wrote on Tumblr:Cuz if you liked it then you shouldn’t have put your rules on itIf you liked it then you shouldn’t have put that tax on itDon’t be mad once you see our freedom hitIf you liked it then you shouldn’t have badly governed itWo oh oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh, wo oh...

The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region has told the BBC he intends to hold a referendum on independence within months. Massoud Barzani said that Iraq was already "effectively partitioned". While the Kurds would play a part in a political solution to the crisis caused by jihadist-led Sunni Arab rebellion, independence was their right, he added. Meanwhile, the first session of Iraq's new parliament has been adjourned after deputies failed to elect a new speaker. Acting Speaker Mahdi al-Hafez called off proceedings after most of the Sunni and Kurdish members of the House of Representatives did not return after a...

With a natural 3 day weekend coming for the 4th of July, Independence Day 2014, we have plenty of time for some of our favorites in movies, music and TV! What are you, my fellow FReeping Patriots, going to be enjoying? In your answers some of your fellow readers might find missing gems so offer up your favorites, famous and not.An EASY query for the scholars, what are the other non-floating Federal Holidays?

With the Delaware delegation deadlocked on the question of approving the Declaration of Independence in the Continental Congress, Caesar Rodney rode 70 miles in a thunderstorm the night of July 1, 1776 to arrive in Philadelphia as the vote for independence began the next morning. Rodney cast the deciding vote for Delaware in favor of independence, and would eventually sign the Declaration on August 2, 1776. Rodney's ride is depicted on the back of the Delaware quarter, issued in 1999.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for Kurdish statehood on Sunday, taking a position that appeared to clash with the U.S. preference to keep sectarian war-torn Iraq united. SNIP----- "We should ... support the Kurdish aspiration for independence," Netanyahu told Tel Aviv University's INSS think-tank, after outlining what he described as the collapse of Iraq and other Middle East regions under strife between Arab Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. Kurds, Netanyahu said, "are a fighting people that has proved its political commitment, political moderation, and deserves political independence".

Via Ace and HuffPo, I’m suspicious that a story potentially this big has been confined so far to a Kurdish news outlet. If you’re looking for signs of an impending partition of Iraq, which all of entire western media is, they don’t come any bigger. Where’s the Drudge siren?A few days ago, I tweeted that with Iraq in chaos, the Kurds might as well declare independence and upend the regional table entirely, to which maybe 50 people instantly replied, “What about Turkey?” Well, what about them? The Kurds of Iraq have the right to decide the future of their...

Today is 17th June, Iceland’s national day. It is a public holiday and one of the biggest festival days of the year. There are many official and unofficial events in practically every city, town and tiny village across Iceland. A parade featuring a brass band, the scouts and police in ceremonial uniform are widespread; as are speeches by local officials and a reading by Fjallkonan – the mountain woman. The mountain woman wears an ornate version of the Icelandic national costume, with gold trimmings. Symbolically, she is the spirit of the nation. In Reykjavík, the ceremony takes place on Austurvöllur...

Leadership of the "Donetsk People's Republic" has declared independence of the region and has sough accession to Russia. "Upon the results of the referendum held on May 11, 2014 and based on the sovereignty declaration of the Donetsk People's Republic, we, people of the Donetsk People's Republic, declare that from now on the Donetsk People's Republic is a sovereign state," co-chairman of the "Donetsk People's Republic" government Denis Pushilin said at a news conference on Monday. "We ask to consider the issue of accession of the Donetsk People's Republic to Russia," Pushilin said. SNIP-- After the collapse of the Soviet...

Yom HaAtzmaut 2014 begins at sundown, Monday, May 5th, and ends at sundown on Tuesday, May 6th

Lawmakers in Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestr on Wednesday passed a resolution calling on Moscow and the United Nations to recognise its independence. Transdniestr, a strip of land bordering Ukraine, broke away from Romanian-speaking Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Some analysts suspect Russia is eyeing the territory, which consists mostly of Russian speakers, in the wake of last month's annexation of Crimea. The resolution adopted unanimously by Transdniestr's self-appointed parliament on Wednesday called on the international community to recognise the region as a "sovereign independent state". "According to the universally recognised norms of international...