Free Republic

There are, indeed, many reasons why people of Russian ancestry ought to keep their heads high. But just perhaps, the nation which my country - Sweden -nowaday manages to outdo in hockey rinks, although not in football/soccer fields (it was the other way around some decades ago) needs to rethink its self image. Russia of today is a giant, but sadly backward nation, presently going through a phase reminiscent of what took place in Italy during the 1920s and 1930s; she firmly believes in proudly waving a national banner and claiming territory, but her understanding of the very concept of...

Identity Is Our Best Defence Natan Sharansky, Special to the National Post Published: Monday, June 23, 2008The desire for freedom is a powerful force for peace and stability in the world. But as powerful as freedom is in the hearts of men and women everywhere, it is not the only force that moves them. There is another, equally powerful force at work. This is the power contained in identity. It is a force field little understood in the West, but one that influences and even directs events, from the broadest global and international politics to the most local and immediate...

Identity Necessary for Survival by: Melinda Zosh, June 09, 2008 Americans are fighting the war on terror with technology and weapons, but one man says Americans are lacking the strongest, most effective weapon—identity. Natan Sharansky, author of Defending Identity and the New York Times best-seller The Case for Democracy, spoke about the importance of attaining a sense of identity in a democratic society at the Heritage Foundation on June 3. “Identity, a life of commitment, is essential because it satisfies a human longing to become part of something bigger than oneself,” Sharanksy wrote in his book Defending Identity. Sharansky, a...

Every nation could be described as a manifestation of a unique trait of character and most countries furthermore nurture, give emphasize to and celebrate this national identity of theirs. Some examples of such key national characters (please DO comment if you feel inclined to); USA: Liberty Italy: Creativity France: Refinement India: Spirituality Germany: Self-discipline Finland: "Sisu" (a Finnish term meaning "To have guts") Britain: Elevatedness Denmark: "Hygge" (a Danish word meaning "Good-naturedness", of mind as well as of deed) Spain: Passion China: Cultivation Russia: Chaos - just joking, I would actually say "Heart" (in the sense of having a big...

We encourage our readers to circulate the following in its entirety. Instead of speaking for (or about) the Obamas, we will let them and their church speak for themselves. Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page...

If we examine the German model ie National Socialist, for nationalizing a business in a country we discover the following.The government doesn't seize the assests of the company and place its own people to take over and run the operations.No, what they do is take over the company with laws and regulations, just as we now see in our energy sector. The energy companies are not allowed to produce their product in the US without the approval of congress.I posted a paper here titled National Socialism, if you go and read that paper I think you will agree.

Next week, China's majority ethnic group, the Han, will celebrate the Olympic torch's arrival on Mt. Everest. It will be a pinnacle experience, literally, for a people who see the Beijing Games as their ascendency to restored world glory. One problem, though: Everest's peak is in Tibet. ADVERTISEMENT China's bursts of Han nationalism – often resulting in violent indignation – have been marked by such contradictions. Popular calls to boycott Western imports over the recent pro-Tibet actions against the torch, for instance, have been squashed by officials – to prevent boycotts of Chinese exports. A more worrisome conundrum for China's...

Italy's general elections two weeks ago resulted in an absolute majority for Silvio Berlusconi's rightist alliance. Mr. Berlusconi thanks his victory to the astonishing and pivotal electoral success of the Lega Nord, a constituent of his alliance. The Northern League completely wiped away the left in the north of Italy. It doubled in size and won a stunning 8.3 percent of the national vote, sending 60 deputies (+37) and 26 senators (+13) to Rome. In some northern regions it had the support of up to 50 percent of the electorate.

In the summer of 1863, Robert E. Lee led an ill-advised incursion into Pennsylvania. His army was defeated at Gettysburg, and thence afterward Lee beat a fighting retreat until the South lost the Civil War. One hundred and forty-five years later, the South--or what has become the South-Southwest--has won another kind of Civil War. It has transformed the sensibility of the country. It is setting the agenda for our political, social and religious mores--in Pennsylvania and everywhere else. This thought, which has been recurring to me regularly over the years as I've watched the Southernization of our national politics at...

New York Times Op-Ed opinion columnist William Kristol compared Barack Obama's remarks about the bitterness of white working class voters leading them to nationalism, religion and guns to Karl Marx. "The Mask Slips" published New York Times on April 14, 2008.

Like so many Chinese, Meng Huizhong was horrified by the violent Tibetan protests in Lhasa. She cringed at videos of Tibetan rioters attacking a Chinese motorcyclist. Her anger deepened as Tibet dominated her online conversation groups, until it settled on what might seem like an unlikely target: the Communist Party.

Obama's Black Identity Politics is Consistent With Jeremiah Wright’s Hate SpeechIf anyone believes that Barack Obama “just found out” about Jeremiah Wright’s vicious anti-American hate speech, we have a bridge in Brooklyn we would like to sell them. As shown by Obama’s own book Dreams From My Father, Obama’s deep involvement in Black identity politics–replace that with “White identity politics” to envision sheets, hoods, and burning crosses–is entirely consistent with his widespread involvement and association with racists, anti-Semites, and Catholic-haters. The bottom line is that Obama is not one of us and, by “us,” we mean mainstream America. To begin...

Projecting their own experience onto the rest of the world, Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. After all, in the United States people of varying ethnic origins live cheek by jowl in relative peace. Within two or three generations of immigration, their ethnic identities are attenuated by cultural assimilation and intermarriage. Surely, things cannot be so different elsewhere. Americans also find ethnonationalism discomfiting both intellectually and morally. Social scientists go to great lengths to demonstrate that it is a product not of nature but of culture, often deliberately constructed. And ethicists scorn value systems based on...

Projecting their own experience onto the rest of the world, Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. After all, in the United States people of varying ethnic origins live cheek by jowl in relative peace. Within two or three generations of immigration, their ethnic identities are attenuated by cultural assimilation and intermarriage. Surely, things cannot be so different elsewhere. Americans also find ethnonationalism discomfiting both intellectually and morally. Social scientists go to great lengths to demonstrate that it is a product not of nature but of culture, often deliberately constructed. And ethicists scorn value systems based on...

DES MOINES, Iowa - A state lawmaker who served in Iraq wants to ban U.S. or Iowa flags that are made in other countries. Rep. Ray Zirkelbach, D-Monticello, said he would introduce a bill that would prohibit the sale of foreign-made flags in Iowa. "I personally don't want my coffin draped in a Chinese-made flag when I pass away," Zirkelbach said. Under the proposal, business owners an operators could face fines of up to $625 if they sell a flag made in another country. They also could face up to 30 days in jail. The measure also would apply to...

As Adam Smith wrote in his 18th century book, "The Wealth of Nations," "When the regulation is in support of the workman, it is always just and equitable — but it is sometimes otherwise when in favour of the masters." Smith advocated high wages as beneficial to employer and employee alike, and he advocated the abolition of slavery. The distinguished American economist John Kenneth Galbraith said about "The Wealth of Nations:" “It is much celebrated by the ministry of the righteous right, few of whom have read it. “Were they to do so — disapproval of the corporate form,...

Eight people were detained by police in Lund on Friday during demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the death in 1718 of King Karl XII. Two people were formally arrested for violent resistance. One of those arrested is also suspected of attempted assault. Six others were detained. A few dozen people were involved in the march, according to police. Demonstrators from the '30th November Association' gathered outside Lund Cathedral at lunchtime on Friday. The association is made up of nationalist groups from the university town and was founded following the First World War. Counter-demonstrators met in the Lundagård park. A...

So Americans should be thankful they have one of the last functioning nation-states. Europeans, because they've been so inept at exercising it, no longer believe in national sovereignty, whereas it would never occur to Americans not to. This profoundly different attitude to the nation-state underpins, in turn, Euro-American attitudes to transnational institutions such as the United Nations. But on this Thanksgiving the rest of the world ought to give thanks to American national sovereignty, too. When something terrible and destructive happens – a tsunami hits Indonesia, an earthquake devastates Pakistan – the United States can project itself anywhere on the...

Around 25 activists from the "Black Sheep" group invaded the garden of the Swedish ambassador in Berne Friday, demanding political asylum in the wake of Sunday's victory by the right-wing populist Swiss People's Party (SVP), the Swiss news agency ATS reported. The group's name refers to a controversial campaign poster used by the SVP during the election depicting three white sheep on a Swiss flag booting out a black sheep. The SVP – which campaigns against illegal immigration, asylum abuses and demands the repatriation of foreign criminals – came out of Sunday's Swiss elections the comfortable winner, with 29% of...

Last week’s elections in Turkey prompted New York Sun contributing editor Hillel Halkin to recall an article he wrote for the Forward a dozen years ago about evidence he uncovered that Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, was half Jewish (his father being Doenmeh): Who but a member of a religious minority would want so badly to eliminate religion from the identity of a Muslim majority that, after the genocide of Turkey's Christian Armenians in World War I and the expulsion of nearly all of its Christian Greeks in the early 1920s, was 99% of Turkey's population? … Halkin...

The American Left is fond of bumper sticker slogans. One of their favorites comes from arch-wit Samuel Johnson, who once reportedly remarked, "Patriotism is that last refuge of a scoundrel." Johnson was describing false patriots – his 1755 dictionary defined "patriot" as "one whose ruling passion is the love of his country." Nonetheless, Leftists have rallied around the anti-patriotic banner. Their current leader is lauded scholar and campus hero professor Howard Zinn, quasi-Marxist author of the virulently anti-American "A People's History of the United States." On July 4, Zinn posted his most recent diatribe against patriotism: "On this July 4,...

Our correspondent hacks through the verbiage to explain what happened at the EU summit and what it means EU “foreign minister” A new post cumbersomely renamed the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to meet British demands that it appears not to conflict with national foreign ministers. For the first time it will mean an EU voice at the UN Security Council which could on occasion conflict with the British position because his or her mandate will sometimes be decided by qualified-majority voting. For example, the EU high representative could speak up in favour of...

In Turkey, the military and the government are engaged in an all-out struggle for power. The country is deeply divided, and decidedly unstable. Turkish writer Ahmet Altan describes his country's paradoxes and warns of the potentially dire consequences. Turkey is moving toward a great -- and possibly final -- settling of accounts. But it is not the feared divisions of race or religion which are at play here. The country is crippled by a more fundamental and dangerous divide (more...). The "cultural divide" reigning throughout the Republican years has become very deep indeed. The future of Turkey is in the...

You may know that certain of my more important essays are submitted for publishing to six different places. That is to say, I will send the same essay to a newspaper in Taipei, a newspaper in Hong Kong, a newspaper in Malaysia, a newspaper in Singapore and a newspaper in the USA. To the extent that it is publishable, I will also send it to mainland China's Southern Weekend or similar newspapers. After coming to Melbourne this time, I wonder if I can send the essays to seven places, with Melbourne Daily News being the seventh target. However, I charge...

Most thoughtful observers of the contemporary American polity are astonished that the highly partisan fight over the future of Iraq has almost entirely obscured the larger problem of which the Iraqi theater is but one front: the truly global conflict against Islamofascist ideologues and their enablers that is best described as the War for the Free World. If the ominous nature of this wider struggle to the death -- and the potentially grave implications for our society should we fail to wage it successfully -- are being lost on too many Americans, practically none of them is paying attention to...

“It is said of all great matters under Heaven: What has been long divided must unite, what has been long united must divide.” —Opening words of The Three Kingdoms Romance, a classic Chinese historical novel by Luo Guanzhong. The beginning of a new year naturally turns one’s thoughts in a numerical direction. Furthermore, as we look forward to 2007, our imagination is liable to overshoot and find itself contemplating the more distant future: the next fifteen years for example. Why fifteen? Permit me to explain. * * * * * * * The ideas I am going to put...

On a pleasant November morning, some 300 Japanese executives paid $150 each to hear a lanky math professor named Masahiko Fujiwara give a secular sermon on restoring Japan's greatness. Mr. Fujiwara spoke quietly, without notes, for 80 minutes. His message, a sort of spiritual nationalism, rang loudly, though: Japan has lost its "glorious purity," its samurai spirit, its traditional sense of beauty, because of habits instilled by the United States after the war. "We are slaves to the Americans," he said. ...Popular manga cartoons, another example, are a vivid entry point for school children and young adult males who read...

What time is it in Russia? By Jonathan Brent | Volume 25, October 2006 Moscow is now the most expensive city in the world, at least according to a recent, widely publicized report. Teenagers walk down Tverskaya Boulevard with stylish new cell phones pressed to their ears; they stop before shop windows that could line Madison Avenue; they treat themselves to ice cream and coffee at a wide spectrum of new foreign and domestic establishments. Restaurants of every sort serve every kind of food from pizza and hamburgers to sushi and the finest pre-Revolutionary lamb. “Moo-Moo,� with its enormous...

Turkey is once again sending a controversial message to Europe about its views on human rights. In the past year many of the country's leading writers and journalists have been prosecuted because of speeches and writings that "denigrate Turkishness". But next week, for the first time, an author is on trial not for what she wrote, but rather for the words spoken by a fictional character in her latest novel. The author, Elif Safak, faces six months in jail if convicted. In a café in central Istanbul Elif Safak receives words of support from customers. She is one of the...

After missing a deadline, the U.S. Department of Commerce finally has granted a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain complete disclosure of a congressionally unauthorized plan to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that critics say could lead to a EU-style alliance in North America. The plan is being implemented through an office within the Department of Commerce called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," under the direction of Geri Word, who is listed as working in the agency's North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, office.As WorldNetDaily previously reported, the White House has established...

Robert Pastor intends to give away U.S. sovereignty to a newly forming North American Union exactly as he gave away the Panama Canal to Panama during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.As we are taught in grade school, George Washington is the Father of our nation. If the North American Union comes into existence as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) asserts, then we all better get prepared for a new hero. Robert Pastor is the person most likely to be proclaimed the father of the North American Union, a designation consistent with his decades-long history of viewing U.S. national interests through the...

The noted blogger Fjordman is filing this report via Gates of Vienna. From Citizen to Subject — The Rule of Experts and the Rise of Transnational Anti-DemocratsBy Baron Bodissey At the end of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama pronounced that we had arrived at “The End of History”, and that capitalism and liberal democracy would now be the only global system left. But when I look at Europe today, I see democracies under threat because of an elaborate Eurabian bureaucracy and Islamic fanaticism. I see countries unwilling or unable to defend themselves against massive immigration/colonization. Has democracy become too soft...

Deutsche Welle has an interesting little roundup of European press reaction to Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, most of which appears to condemn the Israeli actions as “disproportionate.” As a corollary, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (of Spanish Flee fame) went on record stating that the results of the Israeli response to the agents of radicalization, fanaticism, conflict and instability will be “radicalization, fanaticism, conflict and instability.” The European reaction is instructive for several reasons: First, because it is indicative of the extent to which nationalism and national feeling has declined – there is simply little understanding of why...

John Hawkins apparently has taken on a mission to prove that the Bush Administration is not creating a North American Union to replace the United States, or a new currency -- the Amero -- to replace the U.S. dollar. Recently, in a blog debate on this website, I exchanged views with Mr. Hawkins. When Mr. Hawkins declined to respond in what the editors termed “Round 4” of that debate, I concluded Mr. Hawkins allowed me to have the final word because he lacked a convincing rejoinder. Now, we see Mr. Hawkins wants to carry on the debate but this time...

Immigrants: The Pay’s the Thing by Barbara Garson June 04, 2006 “There are no Americans willing to do those jobs,” says the man who needs his crops picked or his tables bussed. I’ve recently visited two countries where that’s actually true. Singapore and Switzerland don’t have enough citizens to fill all the jobs. So these two wealthy nations bring in vast numbers of guest workers from surrounding poor regions. Neither the Swiss nor the Singaporeans are particularly foreigner-friendly, yet the migrants cause very little tension internally and neither country requires militarized borders to keep hordes of poor people out. Singapore...

Hockey may be Canada's national sport but now that we're all North Americans, local ties, it seems, are the casualty of international competitiveness. It's happening again with Canada's mining giants Inco and Falconbridge. If North American integration confuses loyalties, it also rallies those on the further reaches of the ideological spectrum. When the Canadian prime minister recently visited the U.S. president, Linda McQuaig coyly suggested in her Toronto Star column that the question isn't how well these two conservative soul mates get along, but "What are they up to?"In the U.S., arch-conservative Jerome R. Corsi, in his Human Events Online...

LONDON -- When Spanish stock-exchange operator Bolsas & Mercados Espanoles lists shares on its own market today, opening itself to investors for the first time in its 170-year history, it will do so under one condition: You must ask permission to buy more than 1%. The Spanish government put the requirement in during May as BME, based in Madrid, was gearing up for its market debut. Under the rule, no investor can build up a direct or indirect stake of more than 1% in BME without consent from the country's market regulator, the Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores, or...

I am telling you guys, Dr. Jerome Corsi (co-author of "Unfit for Command" and "Minutemen") is NOT going to let this issue die. We owe it to OURSELVES to start paying attention. Mexican Trucks with cheap Mexican truck drivers will mean THE END of the American Patriot Trucker as we know it. (incidentally I come from a family of truck drivers so it also personal for me). Our own transport companies will set up mexican companies and run operations out of Mexico in order to "cut costs". Those "cuts" are OUR jobs! Sound familiar??? Please Read this. Please keep this...

June 22, 2004, 9:44 a.m. Post-Americans They’ve just “grown� beyond their country. By Mark Krikorian The Wall Street Journal editorial page published another of its periodic eructations on immigration last week. This one was essentially a campaign ad for Utah Congressman Chris Cannon, the administration point-man on immigration in the House of Representatives, who was forced into a primary (being held today) because of his avid support for illegal-alien amnesties. The reason for the Journal editorial, not to mention its sneering tone, is not obvious. Cannon is way ahead of his opponent, former state legislator Matt Throckmorton, according to...

For the fourth straight time, Mexico has been eliminated in the second round of the World Cup. This time, however, it was different. “El Tri” made a valiant effort against powerful Argentina yesterday, battling into overtime before a goal by midfielder Maxi Rodríguez sealed the match for the Argentines 2-1. This time, Mexico heads home with mixed emotions. “We're very sad because we fought so hard,” defender Rafael Márquez said. “But we've put on a good face for Mexico. We hope the people there are proud of us.”

Do you want to embarass a Japanese? Ask him to sing Japan's national anthem. It is indeed a real sleeper. It is old - no problem with that - but it is also outdated. Its title is Kimigayo. The words can be translated something like - "May you reign for a 1000 happy years Rule on lord/friend/lover till the pebbles by age grow and unite to great rocks with moss all over its strong sides." Doesn't that give you goose bumps? Problem is - it became somewhat of a nationalistic and militaristic anthem, and the lord came to represent the...

  I am a PROUD American! I was born an American. Unlike my grandparents, I was born in the greatest nation in the history of the world. Being born here didn't make me a real American. That took time. I became an American, slowly and decisively over my entire life. I learned to be an American, through experiences, and knowledge, and witness. I remember moments in my life that brought me to the realization that being born here, in America, is one of the the greatest blessing I had been given. As a young boy, I watched as my 92...

NEW YORK, NY, United States (UPI) -- As the rising price of oil drives up oil company profits, countries where the oil is drilled, such as Bolivia, are demanding more of a cut, a report says. Bolivia, where the president authorized a national takeover of oil and gas fields and pushed up taxes, is only the most recent example. Similar moves have taken place in Russia and Venezuela, while Britain has increased its taxes and state companies in Nigeria and Kazakhstan get better treatment than private companies, The New York Times reports. Bolivia hiked its taxes on oil companies from...

What's in a name? Quite a lot judging by the latest diplomatic spat between Japan and South Korea. Last week saw another twist in the disputed ownership of a group of islands lying between the two countries, which the Japanese call 'Kaneshima' and the South Koreans 'Dokdo'. The islands lie close to the middle of the Sea of Japan which separates the two countries, but the issue is complicated by the fact that both nations claim they fall in their own Exclusive Economic Zone. Though the isles are largely uninhabitable they are located in rich fishing grounds -- and the...

An open letter to the honorable President of the United States, George W. Bush. Mr. President, I'm sorry but I don't like what I'm seeing. You have abandoned your role as the leader of the Free World, and are now cow-towing to those who operate to the winds of political expediency. You, I, and the lampposts all know that, for instance, that investigations by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are going to come up with nothing. Been there, done that. You have been acting lately as if someone in your inner circle - Karl Rove? - has...

It used to be that only open-borders activists said it. Now the entire political leadership of the United States is saying it. President Bush is saying it. Sen. Specter is saying it. Even Sen. Bill "enforcement-only" Frist is saying it: "We are a nation of immigrants built upon the rule of law." Of course, that cute little addition about "rule of law" is nothing but boob bait for the Bubbas (a category of persons that, in the minds of our leaders, seems to constitute about three-quarters of the country); our leaders have as much intention to enforce the immigration laws...

For a political junkie, the Dubai ports debacle has been a bit like the movie “Pulp Fiction”—just one freaky story inside another, unfolding at a rapid pace and leading to an unexpected ending that made no darn sense and yet was really quite satisfying emotionally. I give it two thumbs way up. Unfortunately for the President, he played the part of “Marcellus Wallace” in “Port Fiction.” He talked tough at the start of the whole thing, but really took it hard in the end. (Bada bing!) And along the way we got to see Chuck Schumer support racial profiling, Hillary...

STATE DEPARTMENT cookie-pushers, Davos dons, Wall Street Brahmins, think-tank worrywarts and the Olympians of the European Union are all fretting about the troubling rise of "economic nationalism" in the West. ***************Snip********************* The beauty of the American free-trade consensus over the last few decades is that it split two outlooks that tend to go together: nationalism and socialism. In terms of economic policy, nationalism is indistinguishable from socialism. When you nationalize an industry, you socialize it. And what is the difference between socialized medicine and nationalized healthcare? ***************Snip*************************** And if we let them follow this path, we'll have the same problems...

72.2% Georgians believe that the problem of national minorities in Georgia should be settled like this: “to create the conditions to make them return to their historic territories.” The poll was conducted by BCG among 1,000 respondents. Other 18.8% think, in this case conditions should be created “to ‘Georgianize’ national minorities and assimilate them with the Georgian populate of the country.” 18.5% respondents see another way of settling the problem: “creation of conditions to make national minorities preserve their cultural and religious originality and simultaneously study Georgian to become participants of the Georgian state establishment enjoying full rights.” The results...

TOKYO - Miyako Masuda is a 23-year veteran of public schools here. Like many Japanese history teachers of her generation, she dislikes new textbooks that frame Japan as the victim in World War II. It bothers her that books claiming America caused the war are now adopted by an entire city ward. In fact, Masuda disapproves of the whole nationalist direction of Tokyo public schools. Yet until last year, Masuda, who calls herself "pretty ordinary," rarely went out of her way to disagree. Few teachers do. But when a Tokyo city councilman in an official meeting said "Japan never invaded...