Free Republic

What history we recall on the Fourth of July typically involves stirring words of freedom, and rightly so. But why stop there? After all, not every colonist in 1776 was a patriot, and at this particularly fractured political moment, we might do well to remember that, according to contemporary accounts, one third of Americans wanted revolution, one third were loyal to the crown and one third could go either way. Loyalists did more than talk; they formed Tory regiments and fought alongside the British, against their fellow Americans. Even those who did support breaking from Britain could be surprisingly lax...

Google, today, put up it's standard logo with no adornment. Just a small U.S. flag at the bottom of the page with a yellow ribbon. Compare this minimalist observance with the highly decorated GOOGLE logo commemorating all sorts of people and occasions -- usually avoiding anything that is considered patriotic.

President Barack Obama, addressing a tribal nations conference at the White House last week, announded that the U.S. government is now supporting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which includes a sweeping declaration that "indigenous peoples" have a right to lands and resources they traditionally occupied or "otherwise used." "Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired," says the U.N. resolution. The Bush administration had declined to support the resolution. At the White House Tribal Nations Conference, Obama reminded the group that...

Conservatives put on a spectacular display of scientific ignorance this month in the U.S. Senate. During the debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which would regulate carbon dioxide by setting a cap on emissions and allowing emitters to trade carbon allowances, most Republican senators questioned the reality of human-caused climate change or ignored the climate threat entirely and repeated the talking point that the bill would raise gasoline and electricity prices. It was as if they had been locked in an isolation booth for the past decade. Let's go to the highlights. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.: "The vast majority...

Adam Garcia wants everyone to know he never burned the American flag, which is one of the rumors he’s heard about himself. Watch Tribune reporter Nicole Birk's report Related Links Immigration tensions spark flag-burning Today's Top Stories News The 16-year-old is the Apache Junction High School sophomore who brought a Mexican flag to campus Thursday. He said he got the idea from friends to hoist it on one of three flagpoles there. It was before school, and before an American flag had been raised. “I wouldn’t have taken it down if it had been there, because I’m proud of that...

Many conservatives are absolutely perplexed by the question of what motivates liberals to take the patently wrong political positions they do. It’s difficult to explain it without believing such obviously wrong ideas like “liberals are just stupid”, or “they want to destroy our country”, but sometimes we resort to those explanations out of pure frustration. But what is the explanation? Why do seemingly good, intelligent people take positions that cause so much harm in the face of all the facts? I’ve finally stumbled upon the answer, and it’s so stunningly simple, yet profound in its implications, that it’s absolutely mind-boggling....

So it seems that the plotline for this season's '24' is that a dark, shadowy conspiracy of white American puppetmasters is exploiting the threat of terrorism in order to 'secure the flow of oil for the next generation,' manipulating a weak, dim-witted President to achieve their diabolical goals of world domination and economical power.

WASHINGTON — The FBI has thousands of pages of records in its files relating to the monitoring of civil rights, environmental and similar advocacy groups, the Justice Department acknowledges. The organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Greenpeace, are suing for the release of the documents. The organizations contend that the material will show that they have been subjected to scrutiny by FBI task forces set up to combat terrorism. The FBI has identified 1,173 pages related to the ACLU and 2,383 pages about Greenpeace, but it needs at least until February to process the ACLU files and until...

Predictably, many on the Left responded to my column, “Bring Back HUAC,” by accusing me of stifling dissent. I addressed these concerns in the second paragraph: Debate, protest and even conscientious objection to war are essential elements of our political system, which is why such activities are protected by our Constitution. Treason is taking up arms against our nation, or giving aid and comfort to our enemies. Sedition is actively encouraging acts of treason. Treasonous and seditious activities are illegal; they are not protected as free speech. I never expect liberals to debate me on what I actually said. These...

NASAWatch Editor's note: "CNN Headline news is flashing several pictures of NASA Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory standing on the tarmac receiving the bodies of the Columbia crew at Dover Air Force Base in February 2003 and claiming that the photos are of caskets containing war dead arriving home from Iraq in 2004."