OK you guys, as an expatriate Brit I listen every year to all this independence stuff with resigned stoicism. But dare I say we’re not the only country with an embarrassment called George. Barking madness is not confined to the UK, even mad cow disease has now been confirmed beneath these spacious skies. The thing that really gets me is that each year National Public Radio recites the Declaration and ends up sniggeringly with ‘on that day, George III entered into his diary, “nothing of importance happened today”‘. While we are on the subject of self-evident truths, how the hell did you expect poor old George to know that you lot had suddenly got all uppity. An MSN newsfeed? In fact he did not learn of it for several weeks until the first ship returned with the news. What he in fact wrote in his diary on that day was “Shit. I guess we screwed that one up royally”. What the hell. Happy birthday America. They can’t stay in power for ever.