HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY FROM THE CITY OF BIG SHOULDERS!

Here are fireworks looking out over Lake Michigan toward Navy Pier...

...and a view from the ground. A lot of cities have fireworks, but...

How many can give you Jim Peterik performing his "Vehicle" unplugged, with the crowd singing the horn part?

And how many can give you Off Broadway (USA)?

They got a good, good band with a U.S. beat... what else could you want for July 4th?

If you answered, "a respite for some of our troops at Camp Victory in Baghdad," you got that too. And they will soon be joined by Lena Haddix, a 73-year-old great-grandmother who recently finished a six-month deployment to Kuwait and then signed up for a six-month deployment to Baghdad.

I will be celebrating the fact that people with the highest standard of living and the lowest taxes in the Western World fought a sometimes unpopular war for our freedom. For some reason, the fact that this nation was started by "the colonial American elite" does not make me want to join Flag-burning Day activities. I'll be back to the usual o­n Tuesday. In the meantime, if you missed it, scroll down for a little bit o­n Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement posted Sunday.