Free Republic

Imagine that following the bombing of Peal Harbor in December 1941, that FDR had prohibiting the use of the terms "Nazi" or "Japanese Imperialism" due to pressure brought to bear by German and Japanese-American lobbying groups. Or at the height of the Cold War that the US government had determined to ban the use of "Soviet" or "communism" for fear of offending the sensibilities of Russian-Americans or European socialists. Yet that is precisely what has happened following the revelation last week by the Associated Press that the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security has issued guidelines banning the...

Repeal Second Amendment, Analyst Advises By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer June 12, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - The Second Amendment guarantees the right of an individual to own guns and for that reason should be repealed, according to a legal affairs analyst who opposes gun ownership. "The Second Amendment is one of the clearest statements of right in the Constitution," Benjamin Wittes, a guest scholar at the center-left Brookings Institution, acknowledged in a discussion Monday. "We've had decades of sort of intellectual gymnastics to try to make those words not mean what they say." Wittes, who said he has "no particular...

Desperate times call for reality check Wednesday, April 18, 2007 3:37 AM Predictably, after the horrific events at Virginia Tech, many of the media have carried images of students standing in ritual circles engaging in the futile act of prayer. Are these not students who have been trained in science? Have they not learned that there is no such thing as magic? Also predictably, Evangelist-in-Chief George W. Bush has assured our nation that "Laura and I . . . are praying for the victims." While it would even be a waste of effort to pray for the injured survivors --...

Dear Friend, Join our Power of 2 (Webb2) Campaign! Deliver 2 more Webb voters other than yourself to the polls. Tomorrow, Democrats from across Virginia will go to the polls to choose their candidate for the U.S. Senate. I believe they have the chance to change the course of politics in the Commonwealth and across the nation, and indeed to begin to make history. With your support, I want to lead that historic charge and am confident that with your help I will win. The need for this change is the common theme I have heard from concerned voters over...

When confronted with acts of stunning atrocity, such as the attacks of September 11th, the Madrid train bombings, the two attacks in Bali, or the synchronized bombings in the London underground, many navel-gazing Westerners are prompted to ask, "Why do they hate us?" Although there's something off-putting about the implicit blame-the-victim mentality in a question like that, it nonetheless is a legitimate question to ask. Some people ask that question rhetorically: to them, the answer to "Why do they hate us?" always leads one place: it's our fault. To these people, any horrific act anywhere in the world is a...