Free Republic

Don't be put off that this is a home video. It's hard to believe this much patriotism still exists in the youth despite all the liberal indoctrination in our schools. These kids went through a lot of effort to honor SEAL team 10.

Obama Convention throw US Flags in the Trash -------------------------------------------------------- A note from Radarsite: Almost immediately after this article posted, Radarsite was beiseiged with hits from one particular website: The Hillary Clinton Forum. Obviously, this article hit a sensitive nerve with the Dems. Our article was picked up and subsequently generated a long - two pages long, so far -- comments thread. And, to their credit, many of the commenters have indeed expressed appropriate outrage. But, as might be expected with any controversial topic such as this, some readers just dismissed it as minor and unimportant. And, just as predictably,...

There's no cheering in the press box, Jerome Holtzman, the recently deceased dean of Chicago sportswriters, famously, and wisely, decreed in his classic oral history. He needn't have bothered, though. Reporters are hard-wired to sit, arms crossed and poker-faced, while the rest of the room cheers a politician or a pitcher. If we rise with the crowd's standing ovation, it's only to crane around the necks of the people in front for fear of missing something. On those all-too-frequent occasions when we meet to bestow upon each other the parchments and gee-gaws that guarantee no American journalist will ever go...

I just found out late last night that my local public high school is not saying the Pledge of Allegiance at any point during the school day. Is this the norm?? This information came to me via a foreign exchange student we are hosting who is in her senior year of high school at our local public institution. We were talking about her first week of school which commenced 8/27 and she said they have not done the pledge even once yet! She knew what it was, she knows the words - she learned them before coming here. But her...

I think this is the biggest moment in Icelandic sport history." - Iceland President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. It's hard to explain just how monumental was Iceland's win over Spain was in today's men's handball semifinals. Spain--with more than 40 million residents--had probably played stronger than any team in the tournament. Iceland has 300,000 residents, and has never won Summer Olympic gold. And yet Iceland never trailed in a 36-30 win, and breezed into Sunday's final against France. But that's too dry. When we asked Iceland's Sigfus Sigurdsson to explain what the scene would be like back home right now, he...

Just saw Kerri Walsh pause the interview after winning the gold to thank W for his inspiration, Class.

Sour-faced Bob Costas and Cris Collinsworth should take a lesson from the enthusiastic, America-loving Bela Karolyi. ---------------------------------------------------- Being the typical American family — 2.1 kids, house in the burbs, yappy dog — the Olympic Games have been running in the background pretty much non-stop at our house. In the evening, after work, I settle down with everyone else and watch what Bob Costas and company have for me that night. Maybe it’s just the fact that after three days both fish and avuncular TV anchors stink, but the NBC talking heads have gotten on my last olfactory nerve.....

Days before Denver's Democratic Convention, Barrack Obama is standing tall and striking back. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Tuesday urged his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, to stop questioning his character and patriotism. Obama spoke to the same veterans group in Florida that McCain addressed the day before when he accused Obama of putting his political ambitions ahead of U.S. national interests. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has the latest on the presidential campaign from Washington. Senator Obama told the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando, Florida, that Afghanistan remains the central front in the war on terrorism, and...

Obama was once again out there defending his patriotism, this time to the VFW in Orlando. In a sign of desperation, Barry flat out accuses McCain of raising the issue. If anything, McCain is one of the few who is not talking about Obama's patriotism. People can question Obama's patriotism all day long, but they are most definitely not reading from McCain's talking points. Here is Obama whining to a group of military veterans about attacks on his patriotism. I wonder how many in the room wanted to listen to this guy slam a true blue American patriot. [snip] So...

So affecting is his sincerity that we got three separate requests for this last night within minutes of it airing, one of them from MKH. As for Collinsworth’s question, I don’t know how to take it, frankly. From the transcript it reads like he’s making a neutral point about how American culture views patriotism, but watch his expression as he asks it. Clearly he’s not trying to get him to say, “Yeah, you’re right, it’s stupid to be proud of your country� in the middle of their Olympics coverage, but … weirdness. Good work by NBC, though, in dousing a...

Perhaps it was the unassuming nature of the book that caught my eye. Quietly, yet proudly, the non-descript book sat on the table, facing certain destruction as someone suggested “putting tape on it to hold it together.” It was almost as if I heard a “sigh of relief” at my rescue of it from a stack of books sold for a pittance at a farm auction – an inaudible bond between book and book lover. As I peered inside, its fragile pages were discolored by years of neglect and apathy. The words screamed out with pride and patriotism, true accounts...

Actor Ernest Borgnine: America 'an Amazing Country' By Justin McCarthy (Bio | Archive) August 12, 2008 - 15:37 ET    Veteran actor Ernest Borgnine, still acting at age 91, does not represent the mainstream ideology of the Hollywood elite, or even a potential first lady named Michelle. Borgnine, unlike most of his fellow Hollywood elitists, believes America is "an amazing country" and that one has to "prove" one is "a good American by being an American."Appearing on the August 12 edition of "Good Morning America," Borgnine promoted his new autobiography. When given the opportunity, Borgnine, the son of Italian...

When Barack Obama gave a speech on patriotism, he equated patriotism with the abstract concepts of "sacrifice" and "service to a larger cause." Senator Obama does not understand what patriotism is -- or how it works. A couple of political flubs forced Obama into his patriotic speech mode. It started last fall with the flag pin flap. Obama sometimes did -- and more often did not -- wear an American flag pin. Obama explained his refusal to wear the lapel pin thus: "After a while, you start noticing people wearing a lapel pin, but not acting very patriotic. Not voting to...

Most conservative political commentators tiptoe around the unpatriotic positions maintained by many liberals in America. We hear prominent conservatives say things like this, "I am not challenging Mr. Liberal's patriotism. I am challenging his point of view." The fact is that much of the new left is unpatriotic. And that is okay. The Founding Fathers knew that not all Americans would be patriots; in fact, they counted on it. In this article I will show why the culture of the left is not patriotic. My basic contention is that patriotism is now the responsibility of the right -- abandoned by...

Polish youth popularize new patriotism 31.07.2008 Open air battle re-enactments, rock concerts, mural and comic book contests, bicycle rallies, vigils journeys and city games are only some of the ways the new generation of Poles remember the country's history. Joanna Najfeld reports Commemoration of important events is no longer limited to solemn celebrations attended mostly by veterans. Increasingly often young people take initiative, get actively involved and find their own ways of paying tribute to the heroes of the past. Such is the case with the celebrations of the 64th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. [WARSAW RISING...

In the days after the attack, Krimstein said he felt an overwhelming desire to hang an American flag in his home, something he says he probably would not have done before the attacks. So he ran down to a “25-cent store,” bought a small flag on a wooden stick and taped it outside the window of his apartment. “I think I wanted to hang the flag so much because I just kept hearing in my head over and over again that we had been attacked, that what we stand for — our freedom, our ideals — was under siege,” he...

Rush Limbaugh is a patriot. Pure and simple, a patriot.I see him in the select company of other patriots like Paul Revere, Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin. Thankfully, he hasn't been asked to make a dying proclamation like Nathan Hale – "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country" – but I suspect he would, if it came to that.Oh, I know he's the big dog in radio, all radio, and not just conservative. And I know he's paid big bucks because of the millions that listen to him every week. And I'm aware...

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...

For years misguided intellectuals and social scientists have advised us to abandon the values, principles and work ethic that have made our country great and instead to embrace pacifism, fuzzy science, genocide of the unborn, acceptance of immoral behavior and generational guilt. It is sad that during one of our nation’s greatest celebrations, that we have to be reprimanded for our historical actions and urged as a nation to adopt an apologist marketing strategy to “Reintroduce America”, and sadly supported by the July 2, 2008 Bonanza columnist who has determined that people in other countries “fear” or “disrespect” Americans. My...

I don’t care whether you are a Republican, Democrat or Independent; all I know is that you are an American in heart and mind, even though, you may be like me, born of mixed heritage from immigrant families who escaped foreign shores to build lives here in this new land. You are still a product of this great melting pot of Americanism. Yes, my skin is olive and I am now an old geezer left over from WWII, where I served in the South Pacific, but sometimes age combined with many life experiences wakes us up, having given us some...

First there was the flag pin. Barack Obama refused to wear it. Then he refused to put hand to heart during the national anthem. He sat in a pew while his pastor trashed America. He explained to his rich pals in San Francisco that the hard working folks in Middle America "cling to guns or religion” because they are “bitter” over the tough economic times. Now Obama tells us that we shouldn’t worry about immigrants learning English; our focus should be on getting our children to learn Spanish. He added, "It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak...

We've all heard humorless America-haters promote themselves by announcing, As Thomas Jefferson said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." The first problem with that self-righteous bull is that Jefferson never said it. On the contrary, he warned of the dangers of political dissension carried to extremes. The earliest traceable provenance of the slogan goes back to an obscure 1960s lefty who just made it up (long before activist-historian Howard Zinn commandeered it). My fellow Americans, let me ask you: Were Abby Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Sen. Barack Obama's Weatherman Underground pals (who bombed their own country) really more patriotic...

Once upon a time, patriotism was a fairly simple thing. It was tribal identification writ large, an emotional attachment to a people and their land. In most of the world, where patriotism exists at all it's still like this -- tribal patriotism, blood-and-soil emotionalism. A different kind of patriotism emerged from the American and French revolutions. While American patriotism sometimes taps into tribal emotion, it is not fundamentally of that kind. Far more American is the sentiment Benjamin Franklin expressed: "Where liberty dwells, there is my country" Thus, most Americans love their country in a more conditional way -- not...

To ascribe a special grace to America is outrageous, as outrageous as the idea of special grace itself. Why shouldn't everyone be saved? Why aren't all individuals, nations, peoples and cultures equally deserving? History seems awfully unfair: half or more of the world's 7,000 or so languages will be lost by 2100, linguists warn, and at present fertility rates Italian, German, Ukrainian, Hungarian and a dozen other major languages will die a century or so later. The agony of dying nations rises in reproach to America's unheeding prosperity. An old joke divides the world into two kinds of people: those...

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today released its newest television ad entitled "Love." The ad highlights John McCain's record of putting his country first and taking on the tough challenges confronting our country even when it was not popular or in his self-interest. The ad will air on national cable and in key states.

Last week in Denver, almost all the values of the post-1960s Left were exhibited in one act. It happened on the Denver mayor's most important day -- the one in which he was to deliver his annual State of the City Address. The day was to begin with the singing of the National Anthem by the black jazz singer Rene Marie. But Ms. Marie had, by her own admission, long had other plans. Instead of the National Anthem, she sang "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," a song written in 1899 and often referred to today as the Black National Anthem....

As we celebrate Independence Day, perhaps it's fitting that Sen. Barack Obama brought up the subject of patriotism. It is, after all, the last refuge of a scoundrel. And it is precisely for that purpose Obama raised it. You see, he doesn't want it discussed, as for him it's a losing issue – from the racist pastor who screamed “God Damn America” from the pulpit to the wife who was ashamed of America until part of it nominated her husband for president. (The egomania inherent in which is equally disturbing.) Obama has much to explain and no good answers have...

When critics challenge Barack Obama's patriotism, his supporters have a ready reply: True patriotism has nothing to do with little flags on politicians' lapels. It's not about symbols; it's about actions. It's not about odes to American greatness; it's about taking on your government when it goes astray. But there Obama is, in his first TV advertisement of the general-election campaign, talking about his "deep and abiding faith in the country I love." And there, perched below his left shoulder, is a subtle, but not too subtle reminder: a tiny American flag. Obama's no fool. He may not believe that...

I have a ritual that I observe every 4th of July. It's a movie that I watch, one that brings out the patriotism in me and reminds me what this great nation of ours is all about. The movie is called 1776 and is based on the Broadway musical. It tells the story of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and the great men who helped to found our country. For most people, I daresay, the Independence Day holiday is nothing more than an opportunity to eat, drink and be merry. Hot dogs, beer and apple pie may be in...

WHEN OUR JOHNNYS AND JANES COME MARCHING HOME AGAIN When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again was an inspirational American Civil War Era song. (See http://www.contemplator.com/america/whenjohn.html for info, lyrics and midi download.) Today, most of us anxiously await the day our Johnnys and our Joes, our Janes and our Joannes, will come marching home again from the Mideast–after their long and arduous journey is completed, successful, and victorious. If that’s not how they return, their sacrifices and America’s casualties will have been in vain. Our Democratic/leftist brethren have learned from VietNam, when they literally spat on our returning troops. (Anyone who...

Cannot be posted due to copyright issues: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/patriotism-ndash-last-refuge-of-scoundrels-and-undoing-of-democratic-candidates-860886.html

The left is proudly saying “I’m not a patriot” when just moments ago we were being warned not to call them unpatriotic. Apparently some have not gotten the message. This appears to be part of the Obama syndrome. Rush Limbaugh has an entire list of things we can’t say about Barack Obama and his friends. And in his sudden pirouette with his American flag lapel pin, his newfound love of country, his bear hug of the second amendment, his “nuancing” of his position on the Iraq war. Now I know how the faithful Communist felt in the 1930s and 1940s...

Several reporters from The New York Times board the Q train at DeKalb Avenue during the morning rush and marvel at the diversity of the 128 passengers in a single subway car and see “all the homelands, all the ages, all the professions” that comprise “New York City in the summer of 2008.”The Stiletto offers her own tribute to our nation’s diversity on this, the 232nd anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from monarchal tyranny – especially the diverse ways in which we choose to pursue happiness (or not) - with this collection of articles: † Couch Potatoes (and those...

I am tutoring a going-into-4th grade boy this summer, just two hours a week. I have only had him one week so far. Today we were talking about the flag; I have one on my bulletin board. He said, "I sometimes like to put the flag on the ground and step on it." I said, "You DO? Why (you little booger)?" He said, "I sometimes like to do things that are wrong." I only had a few minutes left with him, so I spoke about reverencing the flag and those who had died for our country. I will continue to...

By Debbie Schlussel As we get ready to celebrate America's Independence Day, tomorrow, Parade Magazine asked both John McCain and Barack Obama how they define "patriotism." Their answers are telling. Although both wrote essays in response, I think the headlines tell you everything: * John McCain defines patriotism as "Putting the Country First." * Barack Obama claims "patriotism" means "Faith In One Another as Americans." HUH?! Sorry, Barack, but while that makes a great Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream slogan, a lofty feeling at the ashram, or even a description of a sex orgy, that's not what patriotism means. It...

President George Washington wrote a prayer addressed to “O most glorious God, in Jesus Christ” and ended it with this: “Let me live according to those holy rules which thou hast this day prescribed in Thy Holy Word. Direct me to the true object, Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Bless O Lord all the people of this land.” President Thomas Jefferson: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis — a conviction in the minds of the people...

What Is Patriotism? John McCain's answer: "Putting The Country First"Barack Obama's answer: "Faith In One Another As Americans"

Imagine how relieved John McCain must be. Barack Obama, magnanimous as always, has vowed not to question McCain’s patriotism. Whew! Because the last thing McCain wants is for anyone to bring up how he denounced America’s fighting men and women and compared them to Genghis Khan. Oh wait, that was John Kerry. But McCain doesn’t need people bringing up how ridiculous he would look in any sort of military environment. Oh wait, that was Michael Dukakis. Well at least he doesn’t have to worry about people talking about all his radical, America-hating friends. Oh wait. That’s Barack Obama. This year’s...

I was sitting at lunch with a colleague a few weeks back, and he mentioned that he did not understand the general media hubbub over Michelle Obama's unpatriotic statements. "So she said that she hadn't been proud of America in her adult life," he said. "So what?" I answered that many Americans, rightly, were offended at the idea that a prospective First Lady of the United States was not proud of her country. "If you don't believe this is the best country on earth, don't live here," I said. "That's 'love it or leave it,'" he answered. "I don't have...

You know, I was wondering when this was going to happen, when someone in the MSM would say Bush has ruined July Fourth? The Philadelphia Inquirer didn't disappoint by wallowing in the worst example of blame-America-above-all as well as the most extreme case of BDS that I've seen outside the kind of nutroot sites like Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground. A mainstream paper has now gone that extra mile to let us all know that America does not deserve a July Fourth celebration this year because of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, CIA secret prisons, and, lest you imagine otherwise, the...

The New York Post came up with three ways Barack Obama can prove he's really patriotic. Here's Fox and Friends reporting...

Recently, on a return flight from Washington D.C., I found myself sharing the plane with Jim Flaherty. It gives me no pleasure to approve of anything Jim Flaherty does – he has always seemed to me like a classic big little man who shouldn't be trusted to run a used car lot never mind the finances of a country. Still, I want to give him his due: the man who determines how much tax you and I pay, and how precisely the government goes about spending it, was flying economy. And when our flight landed, he waited in line to...

Got to hand it to him. It must have been tough to do. In a speech in which he invoked Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Adams, Truman, King, the Pledge, World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq, he does not mention America’s greatest attribute and the single-most powerful beacon to the world: American Freedom. Now Reagan knew what patriotism was. Compare Obama to this from Reagan. More . . .

Sen. Barack Obama did patriotism yesterday, today it is faith and by the end of the day both speeches will have been done in back-to-back states that swing: Missouri and Ohio. The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator plans to go to Zanesville, located in eastern Ohio, to visit a church program that provides food and clothing assistance to those in need.

INDEPENDENCE, MO. -- Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that no candidate should use patriotism as a "political sword" in the presidential race, vowing to push back against charges that he is not fervent about his country. Yet even as Obama repeated his call for a new brand of politics that avoids personal attacks, the day was dominated by an old-style clash over the military credentials of his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain. __________________________________________________________________ Air Force Col. George E. "Bud" Day, a Medal of Honor recipient who was McCain's cellmate in North Vietnam, said Clark's "backhanded slap" was "one of the...

The Fourth of July is a patriotic holiday but patriotism has long been viewed with suspicion or disdain by many of the intelligentsia. As far back as 1793, prominent British writer William Godwin called patriotism "high-sounding nonsense." Internationalism has long been a competitor with patriotism, especially among the intelligentsia. H.G. Wells advocated replacing the idea of duty to one's country with "the idea of cosmopolitan duty." Perhaps nowhere was patriotism so downplayed or deplored than among intellectuals in the Western democracies in the two decades after the horrors of the First World War, fought under various nations' banners of patriotism....

Barack Obama denounces the ‘poison of patriotism’ after attack on McCain Barack Obama asked supporters not to devalue Mr McCain’s war service Tom Baldwin in Washington Barack Obama declared that exploiting patriotism “too often poisons our political debates” as he sought yesterday to answer doubts about his love for America and distance himself from supporters who have demeaned John McCain’s military service. In a speech in Independence, Missouri, the Democratic nominee said: “I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign. And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.” His remarks came a...

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama The America We Love – as prepared for delivery Monday, June 30th, 2008 Independence, Missouri On a spring morning in April of 1775, a simple band of colonists – farmers and merchants, blacksmiths and printers, men and boys – left their homes and families in Lexington and Concord to take up arms against the tyranny of an Empire. The odds against them were long and the risks enormous – for even if they survived the battle, any ultimate failure would bring charges of treason, and death by hanging. And yet they took that chance. They...

I beg commentary on this article as I am wholly unable to bring myself to do so. Seeking guidance and common sense.

Tim Russert was an American. I'm not using the term in its patriotic sense, although he certainly was not just a patriot but an unabashed one at that. No, Tim Russert was an American in that very particular fashion that makes Americans the most distinctive breed of humans on the planet. He was an American in precisely the cultural sense that causes European elites -- and all too frequently our own -- to grind their teeth and look down their noses with such haughty disdain at the one population on earth composed of the entire world's rejects, refugees and descendants...