Watchdog

Great call.
Still hands down the greatest rendition of the Star Spangled Banner ever performed at a sporting event.
IMHO

People may laugh and excoriate Ms. Houston for a lot of things she has done in her life, but no one can take this performance away from her, and certainly it is the one thing I will always remember her for.

Happy 4th, Neil Best and the Watchdog Nation
If you see a vet or an active duty type today, give 'em a hug.

I did better than that. I gave an Iraq War vet a spot on my softball team, even though he has difficulty hitting high-arc slow pitch. He is very fast, though. Which he should be, given that he is 20-plus years younger than most of his teammates.

It was a great job of lip synching.

" even though he has difficulty hitting high-arc slow pitch."

Slow pitch?
Tell him to try the other side of the plate.
I'm serious.

Dude, I'm talking about slow pitch in which some pitchers throw it 20-plus feet in the air and it comes straight down, causing accomplished young hitters to strike out on a regular basis.

Yeah.....I realize that.
"Accomplished hitters" are accomplished in a completely different game.
I repeat my previous advice.
Try it.
Hitting the ball hard somewhere is more important than jacking one out (Which I bet he is trying to do).
Go to the other side of the plate, and it's like starting all over again as a hitter, while having the knowledge of the basic mechanics involved in a good swing.
If he is "accomplished" he won't be swinging as hard and will become more focused on simply making good contact.
Do it for a coupla at bats (a game or two) and then switch back.

It's just a thought Neil....from 2 time zones away.
(Disclaimer....I have been playing/coaching/managing baseball --and HITTING- for 45 years now...I have dabbled in softball on occasion- and switched over to the right side of the plate from time to time).

Doctor 505.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Button Gwinnett was known for his high arc slow pitch prowess.

Well done Koots

VERY WELL DONE....

I wonder how many newspapers put that on their front page today?

And if they did.....how many of our citizens would FREAK OUT thinking that there was some plot afoot to overthrow what they perceive to be today's King George?
On the hand (she wore a glove), how many of our fellow citizens would REJOICE thinking that there was some plot to overthrow what they perceive to be today's King George.

In other news.....Orson Welles reports that the Martians have landed in New Jersey. Or was it the Hindenburg?

Oh the humanity.........

"Button Gwinnett was known for his high arc slow pitch prowess."

As was Francis "Lightfoot" Lee rumored to be the only switch hitter who signed the Declaration.

I've heard that drinking a bottle of ice cold Samuel Adams is a great way to Treat Paine.

Perfect for today, while watching my MLB-worst Pads battle those NL Worst division-leading D-backs. As of yesterday I would have considered this one of the most American things to do. And then Best began his quest to dispel another myth. Why can't you just leave Abner alone?

[clink] Cheers!

This is not the best anthem!! Go to You-Tube and search "1991 all star anthem". With the Iraq war just underway... listen to Wayne Messmer belt out the anthem in front of a packed house at the old Chicago Stadium for the 1991 NHL All-Star game. If you don't get goose bumps... you are not an American!!

Al has a point but his post requires too much effort for most WatchDoggies.

Click here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DP-W649wXiY

Nice job Chicago. Maybe this video deserves its own post?

WOW....
Thanks Al and Koots..

Just WOW!!!

I am mass e-mailing that link to everyone I know.

How did I miss that game?

I saw that live while working at a TV station in Providence, RI. Everyone watching had a tear in his/her eye and when we played it during sports in its entirety, our entire set was in tears. Stirring to this day.