21 Things You May Not Wanna Know About the 4th of July!!

As Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, British forces were on their way toward New York Harbor.  It began:

“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.“

Fast forward almost 2 and a half centuries later and we’re left with some facts about our modern day 4^th of July that may have left the die hard patriot founders of this country scratching their heads and wondering what the heck happened to the freedom they tried to secure for their posterity.

So here are 21 fascinating facts about the 4^th of July most people probably don’t know, and after they hear about em, wish they didn’t know.  Cause as George Carlin said, we Americans like our ignorance.

1. The succulent Hot Dog!  It’s one of America’s most popular foods you know…. with the average person consuming 50 of em every year. And, even though hot dogs are one of the most nutritionally bankrupt foods you can eat and have been found in study after study, to increase your colorectal cancer risk by 21% per 50gram serving (which is one hot dog), Americans still manage to choke down over 7 BILLION of them during peak hot dog season (which is from Memorial Day to Labor Day).   With over 155 million of them consumed on the 4^th of July ALONE! That’s enough to stretch from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles more than five times!  And speaking of choking something down…

Hot dogs pose another danger for your child that you may not be aware of—they are responsible for 17 percent of all choking cases among children, killing about 80 kids per year. 

1. On Independence day over 68 million cases of beer are sold around the country.
2. Unfortunately, the Fourth of July ranks as the deadliest holiday of the year, and I can’t help but wonder if the combination of beer and fireworks sales has anything to do with it.  Hey Sammy hold my cigarette and beer and watch this
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5. There were approximately 2.5 million people living in the United States on July 4, 1776. Today, there’s roughly 313 million
6. Independence Day commemorates the formal adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. However, it was not declared a legal holiday until 1941.
7. Uncle Sam was first popularized during the War of 1812, when the term appeared on supply containers. Believe it or not, the U. S. Congress didn’t adopt him as a national symbol of war and outright theft until 1961.
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10. The first two versions of the Liberty Bell were defective and had to be melted down and recast. The third version rang every Fourth of July from 1778 to 1835, when, according to tradition, it cracked as it was being tolled for the death of Chief Justice John Marshall.
11. The American national anthem, the “Star-Spangled Banner,” is set to the tune of an English drinking song (“To Anacreon in Heaven”).
12. The iron framework of the Statue of Liberty was devised by French engineer Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, who also built the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
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15. Fireworks were made in China as early as the 11th century. The Chinese used their pyrotechnic mixtures for war rockets and explosives.
16. Americans spend $203 MILLION just on CONDIMENTS for July 4th.  That’s more than the $193 MILLION we spend on hamburger patties.
17. But NO July 4th spending compares to FIREWORKS . . . nationwide, Americans spend at least $600 MILLION on fireworks for independence day alone
18. 97% of imported fireworks are from China.
19. As irony would have it and Americans struggle with an unemployment problem, with manufacturing jobs being exported to other countries…it’s interesting to note that on a day that supposedly celebrates American strength and independence, we get 88% of the U.S. flags that we wave to celebrate that independence, as a foreign import from, where else? China.
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22. The song “Yankee Doodle” was originally sung prior to the Revolution by British military officers mocking the unorganized and buckskin-wearing “Yankees.”
23. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on a “laptop,” which, back then, was a writing desk that could fit on one’s lap.
24. The average age of those who signed the Declaration of Independence was 45. The youngest—Thomas Lynch Jr of South Carolina at 27 years old. The oldest—Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania at 70 years old. Jefferson was 33.
25. The printed version of the Declaration was called the Dunlap Broadside; 200 were made but only 27 are accounted for.
26. The Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 men representing the 13 colonies. The moment marked the beginning of all-out war against the British. The American Revolutionary War is said to have started in 1775, however. The Declaration was signed more than two years after Boston officials refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, fueling colonists to dump the tea into the harbor in what became the infamous Boston Tea Party.
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29. Furious at the December 1773 Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament in 1774 passed the Coercive Acts. The particular provisions of the Coercive Acts were offensive to Americans, but it was the possibility that the British might deploy their army to enforce them that primed many colonists for armed resistance. The Patriots of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, resolved: “That in the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon us by the strength of arms, our cause we leave to heaven and our rifles.” A South Carolina newspaper essay, reprinted in Virginia, urged that any law that had to be enforced by the military was necessarily illegitimate.
30. Besides the political tensions caused by unjust taxation, what was the straw that broke the camel’s back and forced the colonists to “dissolve the political bands” which had connected them with Great Britain?  Believe it or not and contrary to widespread public school indoctrination, it was the British gun control program that precipitated the American Revolution and the signing of the Declaration of Independence: the 1774 import ban on firearms and gunpowder; the 1774-75 confiscations of firearms and gunpowder; and the use of violence by the British to effectuate the confiscations. It was these events that changed a situation of political tension into a shooting war. Each of these British abuses provides insights into the scope of the modern Second Amendment. 
31. And today, this 4^th of July, this declaration of independence from tyrannical dictators and enslaving oppression, as you chug your beer and choke down your nitrite-laden hot dogs, give some thought to the real reason for the celebration of this holiday.  Take a look around, notice the very real strong hold of governmental oppression, snap yourselves out of your media induced comas and prepare yourself for the advancing war.  It is coming….there’s no question about that.  The only question that remains, is: will you be ready….or will you go back to sleep?

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