S4E13 - Happy 250th Birthday, USA!?!?

<p><strong>July 4, 2026 is the 250th Birthday of the United States of America.</strong> How are you planning to acknowledge this experiment in democracy that has lasted a quarter of a millennium? </p><p>In this Table Talk podcast Lamar and Tom talk about the 250th Birthday of the United States of America. To be honest, neither of these guys are too excited about it but they don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade. Tune in to learn more and why they feel as they do. </p><p><strong>Learn More</strong></p><p>The history of the United States of America is a complicated one. There is much to be proud of at our 250th birthday as a country. But, there are some things in our history that should prevent us from “getting on our high horse.”</p><p>Here are a couple of resources that give us a fair and loving look at ourselves. They could be a good way to acknowledge our 250th. </p><p><a href="https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-american-revolution" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The American Revolution</a>, A Ken Burns documentary now playing on your local PBS station. </p><p><a href="https://plus.thegreatcourses.com/the-skeptics-guide-to-american-history" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Skeptics Guide to American History</a>, is a course you can purchase from The Great Courses. It is well worth the money ($49.99 from the Great Courses Plus or $29.00 from <a href="http://thegreatcourses.com" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">thegreatcourses.com</a>. In this course you get some of the “back stories” of some of the most important events in American history. </p><p><strong>A 3rd Space Survey: Acts of Kindness</strong></p><p>Do you have an act of kindness that you’d be willing to share? You can participate through a <a href="https://forms.gle/5NQakn6bgeXpm2us5" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Forms Survey</a> at this link:<a href="https://forms.gle/5NQakn6bgeXpm2us5" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> https://forms.gle/5NQakn6bgeXpm2us5</a></p><p>There you will find two kindness questions we’d like you to consider and then respond to:</p><ul><li><p><strong>What is an act of kindness you’ve received that made a difference to you?</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>What is an act of kindness you have done which you hope changed another person’s life?</strong></p></li></ul><p>What do we do with the acts we learn about in this survey? We save them and feature them in our Thanksgiving show each year…anonymously unless you prefer we use your name.</p><p>Finally, please share this survey because an act of kindness shared begets others.</p><p><strong>How We Check Ourselves</strong></p><p>Fact Checking: Because there are a lot of things happening…some true, some false, some unbelievable…we use the following fact checking sites. Take a look for yourself:</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.snopes.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Snopes</em></a> </p></li><li><p><a href="http://factcheck.org" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>FactCheck</em>.<em>org</em></a> </p></li></ul><li><ul><li><a href="https://www.politifact.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Politifact</em></a> </li></ul><ul><li><a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>RealClearPolitics</em></a></li></ul></li><ul><li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Reuters FactCheck</em></a> </li></ul><p>Because media can have its own biases, we also rely upon these sites to help us get balanced coverage:</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Media Bias/Fact Check</em></a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>All Sides</em></a> </p></li><li><p><a href="https://app.adfontesmedia.com/chart/interactive" rel="ugc noopener n