Columnist Rosa Brooks has an Independence Day reminder for the country:

[T]he Constitution also doesn't contain any footnotes that say, "Note to our descendants: This Constitution is intended for easy times only. At the first sign of trouble, feed this document to your dog. We won't mind. We only fought a war for it."

This Fourth of July, celebrate by rereading the Declaration of Independence, created by more or less the same crowd who brought us the Constitution, 11 years and one war later. Remember it?....

Wild stuff! To the founders, "all men" have "unalienable rights" -- not just U.S. citizens in the continental United States. (If the founding fathers were around today, Rush Limbaugh and Rudy Giuliani would pillory them as limp-wristed, latte-drinking, soft-on-terror liberals.)

Contributing editor Timothy Garton Ash says to forget us-versus-them and start a conversation on freedom. Columnist Patt Morrison gets patriotic with a viewing of the play "1984" and the Pixar flick "Wall-E." Penn & Teller's Penn Jillette explains why he said "I don't know" when asked about global warming.

The editorial board urges the EPA to stop requiring ethanol production, disagrees with a plan to charge more vehicle fees for state parks, and tells Bush to stop equivocating on an Israeli attack on Iran:

The consequences of an Israeli war with Iran are unpredictable, and it is nearly impossible to assess Iran's ability to make good on its threats to retaliate against the United States, presumably through its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah. The last thing the U.S. needs now is more instability....

On the letters page, readers discuss illegal immigration and family law. Orange's Karl Seppala asks, "Why are we always reading stories about how the choices illegal immigrants make hurt their families, with the presentation twisted to make it look like our laws are unfair?"

*Cartoon by Steve Breen, San Diego Union-Tribune