Reminder: Fireworks Illegal in Santa Barbara County

Only through the grace of God (and some heroic firefighters) did Santa Barbara not burn flat during Jesusita. All should remember the danger of fire and have a safe and happy Fourth of July.

I had nothing to do with it.

FIREWORK SAFETY, I say, do it yourself. Just be smart about it. “View the professional public fireworks displays and leave it to the trained professionals” is one of those lifesucking statements that everyone should mostly ignore. Independence Day night should be celebrated with incendiary stuff going off in every direction. Keep the dogs and pets inside and let it rip.

There’s a big difference between setting off your own fireworks and sitting passively while others do it for you.

The difference is like the difference between having sex and watching porn.

And, in both cases, the presence of a degree of risk is part of the difference.

What is with the kneejerk opposition to firework? Rarely are there any real problems. None of the serious wildfires had anything to do with fireworks.

Fireworks can be dangerous and technically are illegal in most of the County. Just like lots of things that are dangerous or made illegal because of silly laws we should look carefully before complying with laws that everyone ignores anyway in favor of liberty and freedom.

Some danger is part of life as is learning how to handle dangerous things without being hurt or harming others. It is an important lesson to pass on to your children.

If you celebrate the Fourth with fireworks, I hope you do so safely and with lots of smoke, fire and loud and big explosions.

I thought this day was about being free and independent...