The New American articles from April 2008

The New American archives from April 2008

The message of freedom.(FROM THE EDITOR)
April 14, 2008... The mission of this magazine is encapsulated by the slogan appearing on its cover every two weeks--"That freedom shall not perish." On the surface, that slogan seems so uncontroversial that one might ask why a magazine defending freedom is even...

Editorialist sums up the costs of the Iraq war.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... "Wasted dollars are just one of the costs. Nearly 4,000 U.S. troops and at least tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives. The conflict has left Iraq divided along its religious and ethnic fault, strengthened the theocracy in Iran, and...

Human-relations agency okays English-only sign.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... "This Is America: When Ordering, Please Speak English." When he posted the sign at his sandwich shop in 2005, Joe Vento received plenty of criticism from city officials and the minders of political correctness. But Philadelphia's Commission on...

Investment counselor wants the Federal Reserve abolished.(Quick Quotes)(Jim Rogers )(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... "I would abolish the Fed. [Without it] we don't have anybody printing money, we don't have inflation in the land, we don't have a collapsing U.S. dollar." Long a critic of Federal Reserve policy, CEO Jim Rogers of Rogers Holdings added that "no...

Hillary cites experience--but she didn't always.(Quick Quotes)(Hillary Clinton)(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... "In the late '60s, Clinton shouted along with the rest of us not to 'trust anyone over 30.' She never shouted, 'Let's rally around the person with 35 years of experience.'" Tufts University Professor Michael Goldman is not enamored by the...

State lawmakers continue to enact their own laws to curb illegal immigration.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... "They feel like they have to take it into their own hands because the federal government is doing nothing." State lawmakers have proposed hundreds of bills and many have become law according to attorney Sharma Hammond of the Federation for...

Fuel costs seriously impacting truckers.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... "A few years ago, $500 would have kept me rolling for two weeks. Now I'll be lucky to make it for three days." As the price of diesel fuel approaches a record-setting $4.00 per gallon, Cleveland truck driver Ricardo Caraballo spent $505 to...

Cute assessment of Abigail Adams.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... "I really admire her. She is the founding father of first ladies." Actress Laura Linney, who plays the wife of John Adams in the television series John Adams, additionally thinks Martha Washington was "boring." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Federal reserve angers realists by making $200 billion available to wall street banks.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
April 14, 2008... "The Fed is saying if you don't want those mortgages, then give them to us. The Fed thinks that inflation is the way to solve our problems, but all this does is create bigger problems." When the Fed responded to the glut of ill-conceived...

Inventing America: the blessings that made America the most prosperous society in human history are freedom, free enterprise, and entrepreneurship.(FREEDOM & ENTERPRISE)(Cover story)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] America's Founding Fathers understood that a free citizenry would prosper. If people were simply allowed to keep the fruits of their labor and make their own decisions, they would inevitably produce everything...

The great tax myth: by law we must collect tax: no good will come from replacing one tax with another. We will be free to keep what is ours only when a tax is abolished and replaced with nothing but reduced spending.(TAXES)
April 14, 2008... One of the bestselling books on economics today is The Fair Tax Book by Neal Boortz. The sole appeal of the book is that it promises to get rid of the IRS and the income tax. Of course, everyone hates the income-tax gatherers, and rightly so....

Sound money: key to prosperity: because sound money is a key to having financial security and enjoying the benefits of liberty, it should never be taken for granted and never be allowed to disappear.(MONEY)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In addition to many other praiseworthy features, our nation has always been known as a productive marvel. People don't come here to starve; they come to enjoy what could be called "the good life." One key reason why...

Making our neighborhoods safe: a fearful policy of zero tolerance for firearms does not provide safety or security; only an emphasis on personal responsibility over government dependence can do that.(FIREARMS & FREEDOM)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Facts are troublesome things. We are told by the enemies of private gun ownership that widespread availability of firearms can only lead to an increase in violence. For our safety, and "to protect the children," we...

Protecting family & country: America can best protect her own people and their freedoms by embracing the noninterventionist foreign policy our Founding Fathers envisioned.(FOREIGN POLICY)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nowadays, anyone who calls for less U.S. intrusion into the affairs of other countries is labeled an isolationist, and isolationism has become a dirty word in today's foreign-policy parlance. Liberal and conservative...

Our Constitutional Anchor: our priceless Constitution secures our God-given rights by keeping America safely anchored within the rule of law. We must not drift from its timeless principles.(CONSTITUTION)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "All men are endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights"--among them "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This self-evident truth, expressed so eloquently by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of...

Written in the Eternal Constitution: the eternal constitution of man's nature dictates that when we don't apply morality to restrain our own impulses, government will step in with ever-increasing controls.(MORALITY)(Essay)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sixty years before Christ's birth, great orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero watched plaintively as his republic faded before his eyes and Julius Caesar became the first Roman emperor. As today, some felt...

A most tremendous trifle: there is but one social custom that lies at the base of family, freedom, and civilization: marriage.(THE FAMILY)(Essay)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The picture can be found in most homes in America. In it, a bride, resplendent in her flowing white gown, stands proudly next to a groom, standing straight and tall in the finest apparel, their respective attendants...

Bedrock of Civilization: the family is the first natural society from which all other communities and nations spring, the very cornerstone of civilization.(THE FAMILY)(Essay)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. --William Ross Wallace William Ross Wallace was a poet, not an historian. Yet what historian would dare dismiss his famous dictum that "the...

Youth in our future: the children of the '60s and '70s rebels are growing up, and many do not like the Brave New World their parents' generation has foisted on them. They are our future hope.(YOUTH)(Essay)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Young men are fitter to invent y than to judge," said Francis Bacon, "fitter for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business." In a world of "settled business" largely run by...

The great information equalizer: the Internet enables people to easily exchange information, communicate in real time, and organize their efforts for change.(INTERNET)(Essay)
April 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Tell him to take his earphones out of his ears," the burly Baltimore police officer commanded several lanky teenage skateboarders who were apparently in violation of a local ordinance. One hadn't noticed the...

Reclaiming our country.(THE LAST WORD)(Essay)
April 14, 2008... Although our nation's Founders did not have the benefits of the Internet for communications between them, they certainly did extensively employ the "social networking" of their day to secure our rights and freedoms. Committees of Correspondence...

Treading on Amerityre.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
April 28, 2008... I just read, with great excitement, James Perloff's article on Amerityre (February 18 issue) and immediately went to the company's website to see how we could purchase these American-made polyurethane tires and invest in such a fantastic new...

2003 Justice Department memo authorized military torture.(Inside Track)
April 28, 2008... A March 14, 2003, memorandum written by Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo of the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel granted military interrogators broad authority to use harsh methods in questioning suspects deemed...

Supreme Court ruling rebukes President Bush.(Inside Track)
April 28, 2008... Mexican national Jose Medellin was arrested, tried, and convicted for raping and murdering two Texas teenagers in 1993. He was awarded the death penalty. But because he was not advised of a right to receive legal assistance from the Mexican...

Promised EU referendum won't be allowed in Britain.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... When the 2004 EU Constitution was making its way toward ratification by all EU nations, French and Dutch voters issued a resounding No in referenda in their nations. Because acceptance by all nations is required, that killed the constitution....

Free speech in broadcasting threatened by Fairness Doctrine.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... If Democrat leaders get their way, the Fairness Doctrine, a policy abolished by the Federal Communications Commission in 1987, will be reinstated to regulate the opinions aired by broadcasters. Talk-radio and religious broadcasters would be...

Ron Paul congratulates the John Birch Society on 50th anniversary.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Congressman Ron Paul has endorsed the John Birch Society in a statement recently received from his office. Dr. Paul stated, "The John Birch Society is a great patriotic organization featuring an educational program...

States keep up the pressure against North American Integration.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... Last year the Arizona Senate passed a resolution asking Congress to withdraw the United States from the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America and block any activity that seeks to create a North American Union. In contrast, this...

Memphis and illegal immigration and enforcement.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 34 workers, identified as Mexican nationals, at Memphis International Airport working on the new Tennessee Air National Guard base. The various contractors who hired them will likely not...

Charlton Heston passes away at 84.(Inside Track)(Obituary)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... Screen legend Charlton Heston, famed for his epic film roles in the 1950s and '60s and his activism on behalf of conservative political causes in the 1980s and '90s, passed away at his home in Beverly Hills on April 5. He was 84. His signature...

Call it hubris or, if you prefer, unadulterated arrogance.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "So?" When told that two-thirds of Americans do not support the way the war in Iraq is being conducted, Vice President Dick Cheney gave his disdainful response to a reporter and then discounted the polling...

Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama draws fiery response.(Quick Quotes)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... "His endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for thirty pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate." A supporter of Hillary Clinton for president, James Carville was very unhappy when New...

Ted has become a scientist.(Quick Quotes)(Ted Turner)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... "Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals." According to Ted Turner, the world will not be a very nice place in 40 years if action isn't taken to reverse the problem of global warming.

Former British Prime Minister frustrated over global-warming indecision.(Quick Quotes)(Tony Blair)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... "We have an agreement that there should be an agreement. But there's no agreement on what that agreement should be." While vacationing at billionaire Richard Branson's privately owned island in the British Virgin Islands, Tony Blair--now a...

Automakers look to China for engines and other parts.(Quick Quotes)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... "Today, it's South Korea and Japan, and tomorrow it's going to be China. It's only a matter of time before G.M., Ford and Chrysler are going to deal with the crisis they face by going to these countries.... Very few consumers ask: Where is the...

Texas congressman claims "surge" is no success.(Quick Quotes)(Congressman Ron Paul)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Under the 'surge' policy, the United States military has trained and equipped with deadly weapons those Iraqi militia members against whom they were fighting just months ago. I fear by arming and equipping opposing...

Homeland security boss puts blame for real ID on Congress.(Quick Quotes)(Michael Chertoff)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... "Showing up at the airport with only a driver's license from such a state will be no better than showing up without identification. No doubt this will impel many to choose the inconvenience of traveling with a passport." Pointing to the...

A bad investment: U.S. support for so-called "moderate" terrorists as the alternative to worse terrorists, as we have given in Palestine, is a recipe for disaster.(TERRORISM)
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Blowback: Unintended negative consequences from some action or policy. Tuly Wultz and his 16-year-old son Daniel were enjoying a Passover holiday dinner at a Tel Aviv restaurant when the suicide bomber struck....

Global blowback: backing terrorists and terror regimes has come back to haunt us.(TERRORISM)
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Long before 9/11, Osama bin Laden's terrorist activities around the world were being cited as a classic case of "blowback." Quite obviously, the CIA's support for bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and other radical...

House holds rare secret session: here's what the best information leads us to believe was discussed in the House's secret session.(CONGRESS)
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The House of Representatives held a secret session on March 13 for only the sixth time since 1812. After being sworn to silence at the request of Republican leadership, members supposedly discussed information...

The money trust's next move: the looming financial crisis has set the stage for giving the Fed broad powers over not just banking but the entire financial sector.(ECONOMY)
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is difficult to assign a starting point to the ongoing economic crisis that, according to popular wisdom, originated with risky mortgage lending. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve sys tem in 1913, market...

Don't spend money; save it: the Bush administration wants us to spend our way out of recession, but that won't benefit the national economy any more than it would improve our household budget.(ECONOMY)(George W. Bush)
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Somehow it always comes down to economics. In good times, the politicians play and play, and everyone figures that there is nothing that could go wrong. Suddenly we are all looking at the reality of recession....

Defending gun ownership: Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, answers questions about the Second Amendment, concealed-carry laws, and how best to argue for gun rights.(Interview)
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Larry Pratt is executive director of Gun Owners of America, a no-compromise pro-gun lobbying organization that supports the rights of gun owners guaranteed by the Second Amendment. He also hosts GAO's weekly radio...

Creating corruption: once the cradle of liberty, Massachusetts now has become a cesspool of political corruption, with spillover infecting the entire nation.
April 28, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Bluest State: How Democrats Created the Massachusetts Blueprint for American Political Disaster, by Jon Keller, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2007, 258 pages, hardcover, $24.95. The Brothers Bulger: How They...

Florida mom stops shooter.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Louise Zoller)
April 28, 2008... On the afternoon of January 25, Louise Zoller, along with her 11-year-old daughter, Morgan, arrived at Bobbie Noonan's Child Care in Cape Coral, Florida, to pick up her two-year-old daughter, Hannah. As Morgan attempted to enter the security...

Contractor helps family.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Scott McClurg)
April 28, 2008... The Luchsinger family of Onondaga Hill, New York, had undergone some severe trials. First their dairy farm was destroyed by fire, and then the father of the family, Jamie Luchsinger, was diagnosed with ALS, a usually fatal disease characterized...

Alert waiter saves woman.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Colt Haugen)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... Colt Haugen was working his shift as a waiter at a Colorado Springs Ruby Tuesday restaurant on January 3, when he observed a man dropping a pill into the drink of his female companion, who had momentarily left the table. Fox News 31, KDVR,...

Cuba under Fidel and Raul: the island nation has suffered greatly under the Castros, and though Fidel has stepped down, his tragic legacy remains, with brother Raul still at the helm.(HISTORY--PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)
April 28, 2008... On February 19, Cuba's radio and television stations announced that ailing 81-year-old Fidel Castro had stepped aside as the nation's leader. Their messages noted that the Cuban parliament speedily named his 76-year-old brother Raul as...

Police imposters.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Jorge Elugardo and Brian Kennedy)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... Two armed men, later identified as Jorge Elugardo and Brian Kennedy, kicked in the door to Cody Buckler's Fountain, Colorado, home at about 11:30 p.m. on January 21. They announced to 16-year-old Jesse Robinson, who had been sleeping on the...

Not keeping an eye out.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Bernis Martin)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... In Wilmington, Delaware, liquor-store owner Bernis Martin was not paying close attention to his surroundings at 10 p.m. on the evening of February 13 because he wanted to hurry from his store to get his wife "some roses for Valentine's Day"...

Pint-sized problem solver.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(James Pickett)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... Eighty-year-old North Texan James Pickett opened his door on February 9 to two young men. As soon as he did, the men "came through that door, stabbing and beating," Pickett told WFAA.com. The location and severity of Pickett's wounds testify to...

Surveillance and security.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Numan Pasqualine)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... On February 3, two men robbed the Quick Market in Racine, Wisconsin. One of the robbers had a gun. On February 15, two robbers tried again. Like the robbery earlier in the month, two men entered the store, one of them armed. But this time...

Rape interrupted.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... Forty-four-year-old David Fleming, a felon who had previously been convicted of rape, robbery, assault, and burglary, forced his way into a Brighton, Tennessee, house owned by his onetime girlfriend at about 3 a.m. on February 19. His "ex"...

Guaranteeing gas pains.(Correction, Please!)(on increased taxation on gasoline)
April 28, 2008... ITEM: The New York Times on March 25 editorialized in favor of increased taxation on gasoline and other energy sources, saying: "Higher taxes on energy mean other rich countries are more energy-efficient across the board. The average German or...

Taiwan's dangerous game.(THE LAST WORD)
April 28, 2008... On March 22, voters on Taiwan elected Nationalist Party candidate Ma Ying-jeou, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former Taipei mayor, as president of the Republic of China. Ma, who defeated Democratic Progressive Party candidate Frank Hsieh by a...