Free Republic

In recent days, America has produced an astounding spectacle. Americans desecrated and demanded removal of their own statues to their own heroes, including African Americans who fought for the Union; Hans Christian Heg, a Norwegian immigrant and dedicated abolitionist who modeled courage and gave his life in the Civil War; Taduesz Kosciuszko, the Polish-born designer of West Point who left money in his will to purchase freedom for American slaves; the World War II Memorial to the men and women who actually did fight fascism; and the Emancipation Memorial, a monument paid for by freed slaves, dedicated in a speech...

The statue of the Little Mermaid in the entrance to Copenhagen harbour has been daubed with the words “racist fish”. The 107-year-old statue has often been vandalised by protesters, ranging from pro-democracy activists to anti-whaling campaigners. As recently as January, “Free Hong Kong” was scrawled on the rock on which the 1.65-metre bronze sits. Protesters have variously knocked the mermaid off her perch, beheaded her, lopped off an arm and poured paint over her. Copenhagen police said no one had claimed responsibility for the latest assault. “We consider it vandalism and have started an investigation,” a spokesman said.

President Trump on Friday during a Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore lambasted protesters calling for the removal of Confederate statues, accusing them of wanting to “overthrow the American Revolution” and fundamentally change the country. “There is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished. Not going to happen to us,” he told a packed crowd. “Make no mistake, this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so...

Levar Stoney, the black Democratic mayor of Richmond, Virginia, made the executive decision to remove a statue of Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson on Monument Avenue to "expedite the healing process for the city." This demonstrated how cities with liberal majorities can take down statues in an orderly fashion without vandalizing them or pulling them down. Or it demonstrates how Democratic mayors respond to pressure from the self-appointed statue-removal squad. The left is interested in taking down all kinds of statues, which raises an obvious question: What about the statues the left has put up? No one's ripping those down. In...

The outrage over statues and the 'white' depictions of Christ is meant to detract us from the real endgame: the 'canceling of Christianity itself. Towards the end of his reign, Tuthmosis III of Egypt ordered the destruction of all the public monuments to his aunt, Hatshepsut, the former leader of Egypt. It wasn’t the first instance of iconoclasm that the world had seen, but it has become one of the most memorable.Iconoclasm — the deliberate destruction of images — has existed almost as long as man has walked the earth. When it took place, there were usually deep and profound...

Look at her! These people are straight up deranged. It really is like a religious cult. Kudos to that security guard and the guy dressed up as Frederick Douglass (who must be turning in his grave).

Tucker Carlson reported that it is highly unusual for the press to be evacuated from the briefing room. The mob is attempting to set up a “Black House Autonomous Zone” near the White House, similar to the CHAZ/CHOP lawless zone in Seattle. The Seattle zone has been plagued with theft, drugs, violence, and even murder in recent days. In DC, the mob also attempted to tear down the iconic statue of Andrew Jackson outside the White House and once again vandalized the historic St. John’s Church that they had lit ablaze just weeks ago.

It looks like the DC Metro and Park Police are taking a stand to drive back 'protestors' from destroying the Andrew Jackson statue in Lafayette Park. This is clear provocation. They're testing the limits of how close they can get to the White House. 4 min clip: Reporters are told to leave the White House amid reports protesters attempted to remove an Andrew Jackson statue nearby.

The Robert the Bruce statue was spray-painted with graffiti calling him a 'racist king'. Credit for photographs: Grant Stobbart THE Battle of Bannockburn site was found vandalised yesterday with graffiti branding Robert the Bruce a “racist king” and calling for his statue to be removed. Images on social media appeared to show markings on the wall at the visitor centre and the statue. National Trust for Scotland bosses, who operate the centre, said they were “disappointed” by the act. The general manager for Edinburgh and East, Stuart Maxwell, said: “We are very disappointed by the vandalism of the iconic Bruce...

The city of Portland, Oregon, has been taken over by the scum of the Earth and the mayor and city police have allowed it to happen. The masked group of thugs who call themselves “antifa,” which is supposedly short for “anti-fascist” though their actions are as fascist as they come, was at it again on Saturday in another violent protest in the city. Three demonstrators were arrested in the fracas, but judging by the videos shared on social media, a lot more arrests should have been made. More suspects are being sought in the defacing of a war memorial where...

In an article in the Wall Street Journal, on October 5, 2001, Francis Fukuyama declared that his "end of history" thesis remains valid twelve years after he first presented it shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Fukuyama’s core argument was that after the defeat of Communism and National Socialism, no serious ideological competitor to Western-style liberal democracy was likely to emerge in the future. Thus, in terms of political philosophy, liberal democracy is the end of the evolutionary process. To be sure, there will be wars and terrorism, but no alternative ideology with a universal appeal...

Offended by a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad etched in marble inside the U.S. Supreme Court chamber, a coalition of Muslim organizations is quietly pushing to have the artwork sandblasted into propriety. A petition signed by 16 groups across the country has asked that the larger-than-life frieze of great lawgivers be altered "in the spirit of religious tolerance and pluralism" because Islamic tradition discourages artistic renderings of people, and showing the face of Muhammad is considered particularly offensive. The Supreme Court refused to comment publicly on the controversy, but coalition spokesman Nihad Awad said there already has been one "fruitful"...

In these willfully ignorant, fiercely partisan times, let’s recall that we fought our bloodiest war to end human bondage. Almost three-quarters of a million Americans died in a complex struggle that began to right an inexcusable injustice. Now we’re re-fighting our Civil War with neo-Stalinist, fact-purging propaganda that makes cartoon villains of the dead. We rush to tear down statues of men we refuse to understand. We rob one group of citizens of their heritage to please another. And the president’s chief of staff cannot state facts about our history without triggering mob-rule outrage from those who could not even...

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Art Commission voted Wednesday to recommend the Stephen Foster statue in Oakland be removed. The recommendation is that the statue is removed from the public and placed in a place in private and "properly contextualized." The Pittsburgh Art Commission will recommend removal of the statue within six months. Foster, a Pittsburgh native who died in 1864, is famous for classic songs including “Oh! Susanna” and “Camptown Races.” Many of his songs were used in minstrel shows in which actors performed in blackface. The statue depicts Foster sitting above shoeless, banjo-playing “Uncle Ned,” a slave character from...

**SNIP** Others say race has nothing to do with these new monuments, unlike those erected in the early 20th century. "The problem was with some of the other statues that were put up, that were basically intended to intimidate people," said Danny Francis, commander of a Sons of Confederate Veterans unit in South Carolina. "We're not trying to oppress anyone - we're just historians. We welcome everybody." Francis' group dedicated a granite memorial Saturday on private land where Civil War enthusiasts from North and South re-enact the Battle of Aiken each year. The marker says: "Dedicated to the immortal spirit...

Crews arranged by Dallas officials removed a statue of Robert E. Lee from a pedestal Thursday and carted it away from a park named for the Confederate general. In an unannounced move, a large crane was brought through the city by a police escort to Lee Park, where it lifted the large statue from its pedestal late Thursday afternoon. City officials said in a statement that an art conservator monitored the proper handling of the statue, and police tactical officers with automatic rifles provided security. The statue was lowered onto a flatbed trailer for transport to an abandoned naval air...

A bid by Tennessee’s governor to remove a bust of Confederate cavalry general, slave trader and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol building was rejected Friday. The State Capitol Commission voted 7-5 against issuing a petition to moving the bust from the Capitol to the new state museum being built nearby. It would have been the first step in a lengthy process laid out by Tennessee’s “Heritage Protection Act” that limits the removal or changing of historical memorials on public property. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam called for the removal after last month’s deadly white...

In his fateful interview with Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect, Steve Bannon’s remarks about taking a tougher stand on trade with China, battling his enemies within the administration, and the futility of military action against North Korea generated the most headlines. But it was a widely overlooked comment about identity politics that offers the most important insight into the brilliant and cynical political mind of President Donald Trump’s now-departed counsellor and former campaign CEO. ‘The Democrats, the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ‘em,’ Bannon gloated to Kuttner. ‘I want them to talk about racism every day....

An independent K-12 Catholic school in the San Francisco Bay Area has removed religious statues from its campus in order to appeal to those of other faiths. Parents and alumni are concerned about San Domenico School's decision to remove a number of statutes and religious icons, especially those of Jesus and Mary, the Marin Independent Journal reported. "Articulating an inclusive foundation appears to mean letting go of San Domenico's 167-year tradition as a Dominican Catholic school and being both afraid and ashamed to celebrate one's heritage and beliefs," wrote parent Shannon Fitzpatrick in an email to school decision makers. "In our time...

A controversial statue in New York of a doctor who operated on enslaved women has been defaced by a vandal who spray-painted the word “racist” on it. The Daily News reports that the graffiti defacing the statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims in Central Park was discovered early Saturday. […] Sims was known as the father of modern gynecology. But critics say his use of enslaved African-American women as experimental subjects was unethical. …