Happy 4th to everyone - in the same boat as Cleo here - Ive removed about 50% of the links Ive checked in the last three days - due to js scripts installing all kinds of nasties on the gallery pages - to people putting up some stupid tshirt graphic for all the pics on their galleries/banners - a heck of a lot of "prior" trusted WMs too
UW - that whole Boston Tea Party thing is blown way out of proportion by history teachers in the US - it really had very little to do with Independence - as a matter of fact Concorde, Bunker Hill etc were a lot more influincing in the declaration - and to get the public sympathy it took a little book by Thomas Paine called Common Sense (still a worthwhile read BTW) to get the masses of colonists to support doing anything in a Continental congress.
Unfortunately our children in the US get taught a lot of little Mis-facts like that one and "columbus declaring the world was round lies" etc every day because even the teachers dont study history - they just teach what they are told by the school boards to do - and usually most of its wrong - its a damn shame that very few Americans can tell you about the Stamp Act(which was the origination of taxation without representation) - but most can tell you about a harbor full of Darjeeling - which had nothing to do with taxes