I saw a fireworks demonstration one night all launched from peoples' headgear.
Posted on 07/05/2008 5:52:28 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
First, it was cow gas that was wrecking the environment.
Then gas-powered lawnmowers.
Now, it’s fireworks we’re supposed to worry about.
Fireworks, it was reported this week, are helping ruin both the Earth and our health.
Where most of us looked up at the sky last night and saw red, white and blue, some people, it seems, saw only the first.
Fireworks, some scientists are warning, are toxic, and you know what’s next. All those “ooohhhhhhhs” and “aaahhhhhhhhhhs” will soon be “booooos” and “baaaaaaaaahs.”
Except that people, many people, have had enough of “Enough.”
“No matter what you do, something is wrong with it,” said Jeff Thielke, a Germantown guy buying some fireworks with his family at the American Fireworks tent off Highway 41 in Washington County. “Even though some of these things have been done for hundreds of years probably.
“We do it (shoot off fireworks) once a year with the kids. It’s one of the few times to relax a little bit.”
Except that this is America. We’re not supposed to relax. We’ll get so relaxed, we are led to believe, we’ll fall asleep and leave the stove on or forget to breathe or something. Or forget to turn off the air conditioner and freeze to death.
Speaking of which, if you really are worried about the environment, “you should be more worried about turning your air conditioner on than lighting off fireworks,” said Matt Reiter, manager of the tent.
The tent sells all sorts of neat stuff, including sparklers and snakes and (my personal favorite) an exploding hat.
I suppose somebody will call and tell me an exploding hat is far too dangerous to tolerate. Somebody might drink too much beer and try to wear it on their head.
If so, I hope to get a picture.
But I digress. The story the other day was about big fireworks displays that release heavy metals and particulates and perchlorates and carbon monoxide and nitrogen and, man, I’m breaking out just typing the words. It was not about the little backyard stuff that many places have already outlawed.
Small backyard displays, nevertheless, are still primarily the ones that drive authorities crazy.
A guy by the name of George Oberlander knows that. Last Fourth of July up in Weston, Oberlander was asked to step down from the Planning Commission after shooting off fireworks in his yard.
Somebody, it seems, thought the way he celebrated our form of government made him unfit to be a part of our form of government.
Somewhere, clearly, we’ve gone astray.
Sure, fireworks can be slightly dangerous. Most things worth enjoying have the same problem.
For instance, I stopped by a great cheese and sausage place after buying my snakes and sparklers and brought home some cheese curds for the kids.
“Do you know how bad these are for our health?” the oldest one asked.
“Do you know how good these are for our mouths?” the second one retorted.
The first one thought it over and not only agreed, but one-upped him. Cheese curds, she decided, “are good for the soul.”
We spend too little time acknowledging that.
And way too much finding things to fear.
Didn't take too long..........
Mike Nichols is one of the few writers at the urinal sentimental whom I actually enjoy reading...:)
I did my part to piss off a liberal, took my grandson to the fireworks display in a nearby town last night going to another tonight, blew off about $25 worth in my backyard,tonight might fire off my shotgun for the extra push to drive a liberal nuts.
What’s Next?
Flatscreen televisions fuel increase in global warming
By John Bingham
Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 02/07/2008
The boom in flatscreen television could be fuelling global warming more than official estimates, scientists have warned.
Experts in California estimate that production of a powerful greenhouse gas used in their production has hit 4,000 tonnes a year - enough to match the annual carbon dioxide emissions of Austria.
Research published in New Scientist estimates that the industrial component - known as “NF3” - is 17,000 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But it is not covered by the Kyoto protocol because it was only made in tiny amounts when the agreement was signed in 1997. [snip]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/03/eatv103.xml
Consider the size of the Earth and how few fireworks are actually fired off worldwide each year. It makes people question the sanity of these nuts and the rest of their bilge that may have been otherwise believed.
Environmentalists care not a whit for our environment. They care about ruining our economy and bringing our nation to its knees. They use the same tactics as the muslims. Both groups are working to ruin our nation. They are making progress every day.
It is just a matter of time. I have been predicting this for years. It will be interesting to see if there is any push-back as fireworks are taken away.
I knew the left would use Global Warming as an excuse to castrate the national holiday by removing the most obvious manifestation: Fireworks.
“The day [July 4] will be the most memorable in America...[I]t ought to be celebrated with pomp and parade...bonfires and illuminations [i. e. fireworks] from one end of this continent to the other, from this day forward, forevermore”
—John Adams, 1776
But fireworks, beach-side bonfires, cookouts, & the like are NOT destroying this planet! People who would ban these types of activities are much more dangerous.
Disney is claiming that because there are fireworks at Disneyworld in Florida, it is forbidden for employees to bring a gun in their car and keep it locked up in that car in the parking lot.
So at least SOME people on the Left would say that fireworks make this a safer place.
So true. The whole 'green' thing is being oversold. Even the gullible grow weary of an incessant drumbeat.
I saw a fireworks demonstration one night all launched from peoples' headgear.
They can have my lit fireworks when they pry them from my ....OW! DANG, I should’ve talked faster.
Joe Klein last week said that everyone should kill their air conditioner. Not set it warmer in summer, get rid of the thing altogether.
The neo-prohibitionists are ludites who want us to give up the higher standard of living that makes the rest of the world WANT to live here.
Happy 4th to you, Cheesy Lady!
I wish Joe and these other idiots would lead by example.
Animals war with one another. Cats and dogs mark their territory.
Insects battle too.
If the Left is going to insist that homosexuality is not immoral because it is basic animal kingdom nature, then they lose their rallying point against war as well.
By his own example we are all supposed to live. In a socialist Utopia.
JOE KLEIN: Kill Your Air Conditioner (Time Magazine Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2008)
The unnecessary refrigeration of America has become a chronic disease. It seems to have gotten worse over the past few years, with thermostats routinely set at 68deg.F, and sometimes even 65 deg., in the (far too many) hotel rooms I've suffered on the campaign trail. "Americans seem to keep their houses cooler in summer than they do in the winter," muses Edward Parson, an environmental expert at the University of Michigan Law School. But it's hard to know for sure, since there are no comprehensive studies that measure air-conditioning trend lines...
I recall as a kid a time when fireworks were banned by the mayor and city council except on the 4th. The night of the announcement, my Dad, the hired hand and my brother and I went by the mayor’s house after dark and threw out a 100 pack of firecrackers in his front yard. Dad wasn’t one to talk and not take action.
They’d better start with China then. They set off fireworks at every celebration. (Not to mention, they manufacture a large amount of fireworks.)
It was too much fun.
We started a campfire in our yard, had smores, Bailey's with coffee, and enjoyed the magnificent night.
One errant firework went into our yard and we all started ducking. Haven't had that much fun in a long time. I reminded our neighbors that we are on their side. They chuckled and apologized. No harm no foul.
Probably more about putting a stop to the celebration of the 4th of July than about fireworks.
BooHoo...hey, Environmental(ly Ill)ist, if you got too much time on your hands, here is a suggestion - GET A JOB!!! Thank You!!
"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.
"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."
-- Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, "Had a Declaration..."
Accidents with fire works? Yes, of course. Stuff happens. Have you ever see a Funny Car careen into the spectators? An aircraft plummet into a crowd at an air show? A fowl ball crack a skull at Shea Stadium? We ether live life and enjoy life or crawl into a bubble.
matches of course.
Very true. They attack all our traditional symbols. They are trying to erase (rather than steal) our identity.
You do know he was referring to July 2nd, which is the day they voted for Independence, not July 4, the day they signed the declaration.
yes, they were invented by the Chinese... 8^)
Interesting that the Milwaukee Journal had to go outside the county to find quotes for this story on freedom.
On a personal note, up here in Ozaukee county, 25 miles north of Milwaukee a group of Obama supporters were roundly booed when they marched in our 4th of July parade yesterday. 4 sign-toters got the welcome they deserved. Good to see the 4th is still a patriotic holiday in some parts of the state.
Everyone that owns an AC should kill Joe Klein. Only way to get these idiots to stop is to make them fear for their lives.
And in supposedly “fireworks-free” Tacoma, WA, where I live, it more closely resembled Baghdad on Election Eve.
There was a (supposed) $149 fine for getting caught with fireworks. I saw nary a policeman in our neighborhood all night. They could’ve stuffed the city’s coffers with my neighborhood alone.
Now, granted, I had to yell out my bedroom window at some young men AFTER midnight because their firecrackers were disturbing my children’s sleep. Much to my shock and surprise, they were apologetic and polite and didn’t do anything after my verbal warning.
Squeeeeal.
Someone, somewhere, might ENJOY something!
This is a typical response of agenda driven liberals. What they really object to is any kind of display of patriotism. Like complaints about the environment, it’s just a means to an end, and that end is the destruction of traditional America.
Obama said we had to give up the SUV’S, eating all we want, and keeping our houses at a decent temperature...so it is coming.. just wait if obama is elected
Does not compute!
canolis in Manhattan.
Yes, he is. Please don’t anyone confuse him with the card-carrying COMMUNIST by the name of JOHN Nichols who writes for the same group of newspapers.
They are NOT the same person. :)
Tracer rounds! My absolute FAVORITE, LOL! :)
Invite some to your next party!
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