It had to happen. Almost every Independence Day some newspaper publishes a column taking the hair-shirt liberal position that America doesn’t deserve to celebrate July Fourth.

Yes, most liberals are as patriotic as any one else. Their criticism is a sincere desire to improve the country they love–a point some conservatives overlook. Love begets criticism. Ask any wife.

And, then, you run across the rump of the remainder. People who actually write “America has sinned” and should seek “penance” for its misdeeds, like this writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Or this one over at The Progressive.

Like the perfume of an empty vase, why do certain liberals always reach for religious language?

Chris Satullo is an official columnist for the Inquirer, which, until recently, won more Pulitzers than any other big-city daily. Now it publishes this:

So put out no flags.

Sing no patriotic hymns.

We deserve no Fourth this year.

Let us atone, in quiet and humility. Let us spend the day truly studying the example of our Founders. May we earn a new birth of courage before our nation’s birthday next rolls around.

His complaint is that foreign terrorists captured on the battlefield do not get exactly the same rights as Americans accused of committing violent felonies. To him, this is unconstitutional and a stain on our national honor.

Maybe it is a desperate bid for attention. Or maybe it is a revealing peek behind the curtain. You read it and decide.