Have you noticed that whichever of your kids is going through a tough period is the one you love the most at that time? Love of country is the same way. Our country is in the worst trouble I can remember in my lifetime - even worse than the days of the Kennedy assassination and Kent State and Watergate - and yet I have never loved it more. These days, nearly all of us have a friend or neighbor serving overseas in a war that becomes more complicated by the minute. Nearly all of us know someone who has lost a home or job, and is not only willing to work, but eager, and still can't find employment. That's a state of affairs that seemed unthinkable a few years ago.

Then there's the oil spill. We sigh deeply when we hear the Orwellian-sounding BP spokespeople vow they're going to stay in the Gulf for as long as it takes to make things right. We know it can't be made right, at least in our lifetimes. That's why we avert our Diesel Watch eyes from the pitiful images of pelicans trying to lift wings glistening with oil. Dismayed that we can't apply good old American know-how, some of us are thinking it isn't such a bad idea for the Navy to go in and blow the well up. It's the same sort of simplistic but emotionally satisfying solution some advocated when Panama wanted control of the canal: fill'er back up with dirt and let'em have it. I, for one, can't bear to sit slack jawed in front of the live video feed of the ongoing disaster; it's hardwired into Americans to Do Something.

Meanwhile, as lousy as the situation with General McChrystal was, I was oddly cheered by the way it showcased our Founding Fathers'system of checks and balances. If we didn't have a free press, the general's ill-advised remarks wouldn't have been reported. And even Balenciaga Bags if they had, the resulting story could have landed the young reporter in prison instead of advancing his career. If we didn't have civilian control of the military, the president wouldn't have been able to call the general home. I made a point of watching the Rose Garden press conference live that day rather than catching it later on a sound byte; with its echoes of Truman and MacArthur, it felt like history in the making. (Old soldiers never die, they just give interviews to the "Rolling Stone," trying to be General Springsteen.)

But the president's powers have checks built in, too, and at about the same time the president accepted the general's resignation, a federal judge struck down the president's ban on deepwater drilling. Next, the press hollered hold on a minute - that judge has investments in oil! Again, our Founding Fathers'system kicks in. We citizens, many of whom have investments in oil ourselves, maybe even some we don't know Clip on charms about in our sad little 401(k)s, are entrusted to sort this out for ourselves at the polls. Simply brilliant.

As I watch the fireworks go off to the rousing strains of The William Tell Overture, I'll banish our problems to the back of my mind. I'll remember my first thrilling glimpses of the lady with her upraised torch and the Wright Brothers'surprisingly dinky airplane dangling from the ceiling of the Smithsonian. I'll remember small- town Independence Day parades in which my little boys marched along with big horns, proudly massacring "It's a Grand Old Flag." I'll remember the day Neil Armstrong took one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. I'll remember the night I returned home from months of living overseas; the first thing I did was to kiss the ground and the second was to find a hamburger. I'll sing our much- griped-about national anthem with its hard-to-hit high notes, and I'll love it with all
Other articles:
http://hi.baidu.com/sfbhnbgfj/blog/item/12b2cce9e025204278f055ff.html
http://ertyhvcfs.blogspot.es/1279252291/chopard-watch-flaunt-it-with-s/