Fireworks for Freedom!

Beginning Wednesday, I will be on the road to Alabama, where some buddies have invited me to shoot one of my famously fantastic consumer fireworks displays on the shores of beautiful Weiss Lake for the 4th of July.

En route to Alabama via East Tennessee, I'll be stopping by Wild Wilma's Fireworks to pick up some additional fireworks, although I've already got hundreds of dollars worth of stuff stashed down home. Assembling the show will require two days of hard work Thursday and Friday, with the assistance of my sons.

Nanny State worrywarts will tell you that fireworks are dangerous. Nonsense. The secret to safety, as I explained in a 2006 article for Reason magazine, can be summed up in four words found on the label of every consumer fireworks item: "Light fuse, get away."

So I'm going to be either on the road or working to build the show for the next couple of days, which means blogging will be light. Here's a little preview of what happens when we "light fuse, get away":

That's the 2-minute finale from our 2005 show. Notice that the explosions were so loud they drowned out the 400-watt P.A. system. The entire show ran 10 minutes and featured more than $2,000 worth of fireworks -- $2,000 wholesale. I buy by the case.