Free Republic

There were cries of joy in progressive​ parts of Rio on Wednesday as Brazil’s supreme court ruled that the former president Jair Bolsonaro should stand trial for an alleged coup plot. “No amnesty! No amnesty!” one elated lefty roared from his balcony into the sunny autumn afternoon. Across the bay in the city of Niterói, the composer Edu Krieger was so delighted by the prospect of Bolsonaro serving time he wrote a song – a parody of a Tom Jobim bossa nova classic called Waters of March – celebrating the downfall of the “coup-mongering fascist”. “It was a feeling of...

Not so long ago we were told that democracy would sweep the world. A new age of governmental decency would dawn for hundreds of millions. Peace, constructive trade and general good-will would follow.Now, as the number of real and nominal democracies continues to grow, we see little improvement in the human condition, no diminution of corruption, burgeoning discontents--and turmoil where we meant to implant peace.Even in the West, where democracy is deep-rooted, there's a crisis of mediocrity and will. Elsewhere, democracy has been taken as a license to loot, as a launching pad for demagogues, or as a means of...

Twice convicted of inciting racial hatred after she criticized the ritual sacrifice of sheep by Muslims during their Eid el-Kebir holy day, Brigitte Bardot (above) is making news again this year for much the same reason. Two French human rights groups took swift legal action against the provocative French screen siren, charging that her latest book Crî dans le silence is full of racist attacks against Muslims—though, of course, Muslims are of all races. The evidence of her latest offense: Bardot denounces the "Islamicization" of France and blames the degeneration of French society on her country’s liberal immigration laws. "For...