Have a great holiday and consider this as you are relaxing.  The United States was founded on the ideal of individual equality and self-determination, with a minimum of government interference economically or in how citizens choose to live their lives.  However imperfect you may consider our history, we have since the founding been far and away the longest-lasting and greatest exemplar of that approach to government and we have done far more than any other country to improve the quality of life for not just our citizens but for those of other people around the world.  So I have no patience for the knuckleheads who belittle our history and historic values and those people generally reflect political and economic views that have proven time and again to be disastrous for the people living in systems governed by such views.  So be proud of your country, you are justified in doing so.

No posts for a couple of days, just resting up.  But check the podcasts, you can find them on the home page, I am starting a general series on the nature of our health system.