Free Republic

Is nationalism a good thing or a bad thing? Some people say that nationalism is bad, whereas patriotism is good. In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "patriotism" is defined as love for one's country or devotion for it, even to the point of sacrifice. It seems that there is no excess of patriotism in this sense, as it's always positive. The Merriam-Webster gives this example of use of the term: "You may not agree with him politically, but no one can question his patriotism." The two examples offered by the same source for "nationalism", on the other hand, are: "The war...

“The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to 'create' rights. Rather they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.” – Justice William J. Brennan (1906-1997) U. S. Supreme Court Justice I know that God is still on the throne and that only He is our answer through his son, the King of Glory, Jesus the Messiah. As for this country, my heart hurts and especially during July 4th celebrations for what we once were and what we have now become. I need to write about this......

Introduction: utopia vs. nationhood By Roger Kimball | Volume 25, January 2007I think I know man, but as for men, I know them not.—Jean-Jacques Rousseau In a memorable passage at the beginning of The Critique of Pure Reason, Kant evokes a soaring dove that, “cleaving the air in her free flight,” feels the resistance of the wind and imagines that its flight “would be easier still in empty space.” A fond thought, of course, since absent that aeolian pressure the dove would simply plummet to the ground. How regularly the friction of reality works that way: making possible our...

Foremost among those victims are the Shiites of Iraq, of whom I am one. Shiite parties and 111 coalitions are poised on the verge of a great electoral victory. But who is this mass of people, politically speaking? What do they stand for? What kind of a state do they want? Since 1968, the Baath have been trashing the only idea that can hold the great social diversity of Iraq together: the idea of Iraq. Their answer to the question "Who am I?" was: You are either one of us, or you are dead. True to their word, they killed...

THEY'RE marching in Paris, throwing pies in Brussels and the Guardian continues in apoplexy. Still, I think the most astute reaction to the success of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his anti-EU, anti-immigration campaign came from the writer Stephen Vizinczey."There is no way," he said, "you can kill off people's desire to belong to a group which speaks their own language and has the same historic and cultural background, however low that culture and background is.The idea that the Germans and the British are just as much your family as your fellow Frenchmen - and vice versa - can be popular...