OK, here’s an rc3.org first … I’m linking to a Peggy Noonan column. Do yourself a favor and just skip to the bottom, where she talks about the word “homeland.” Or better yet, just read this excerpt:

The second thing Mr. Bush should do is change the name. The name Homeland Security grates on a lot of people, understandably. Homeland isn’t really an American word, it’s not something we used to say or say now. It has a vaguely Teutonic ring–Ve must help ze Fuehrer protect ze Homeland!–and Republicans must always be on guard against sounding Teutonic.

As a brilliant friend who is also actually an intellectual says, “I think it’s creepy, in a Nazi-resonating way, any time this sort of home-and-hearth language is used by people who are essentially police. When police honestly call themselves police, or ‘domestic security,’ I salute and say ‘Yes officer.’ When they call themselves ‘Protectors of the Hearth’ I get the creeps.” He adds, “I’d argue we want to feel we’re pursuing our old values in a new more dangerous world” and suggests “trusty, familiar-sounding words as our touchstones.”

She goes on to suggest that “Heartland Security” would be a better name, so you can’t take her too seriously, but it does show that even some right wingers think the use of the word “homeland” to refer to the US is just a really bad idea.