The New American articles from March 2009

The New American archives from March 2009

More than money at stake.(Letter to the editor)
March 2, 2009... I am writing in response to your article "Stay Healthy" in the January 19 issue. I agree with the author's opinions and conclusion. I would just like to add a few comments. First, the danger of socialized medicine goes beyond the increase in...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 2, 2009... CORRECTION: In "Holodomor: The Secret Holocaust" in our February 16 issue, a glitch in production caused one line of text to disappear between the bottom of one column and the top of the next (page 37). For the record, tile missing words are...

The government's and the Fed's latest bailout plans.(Inside Track)(Federal Reserve Board)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on February 10 outlined a "Financial Stability Plan" that would supposedly stop the financial crisis in its tracks through accelerated spending, borrowing, and money creation....

Newsweek: "We Are All Socialists Now".(Inside Track)(stimulus programs by the government)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... Newsweek magazine published the following headline on the cover of its February 16 issue: "We Are All Socialists Now: The Perils and Promise of the New Era of Big Government." Of course, it's hard to imagine that we have only now entered the...

The Fed's hockey stick chart.(Inside Track)(analysis of the money supply)
March 2, 2009... On his January 29 TV show, Glenn Beck drew national attention to a relatively obscure graph of our nation's "monetary base" (a narrow definition of money supply, also known as M0), maintained online by the Research Department of the St. Louis...

Iraq elections.(Inside Track)
March 2, 2009... Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa Party strengthened its hold in nationwide balloting on January 31 that also brought some major power shifts among political-religious blocs in provincial elections. Conducted under tight security, the...

Biden supports U.S. global-cop role within an international framework.(Inside Track)(Joseph Biden)
March 2, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Vice President Joseph Biden told attendees of the 45th annual Munich Security Conference that President Obama plans to have the United States continue its role as global cop under "strong partnerships." Speaking for...

Ponzi Schemer apologizes, but only for turmoil at his residence.(QuickQuotes)(Bernard Madoff)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Dear Neighbors: Please accept my profound apologies for the terrible inconvenience that I have caused over the past weeks. Ruth and I appreciate the support we have received." Accused of bilking customers of $50...

Home schooling continues to grow.(QuickQuotes)(National Center for Education Statistics' Gall Mulligan)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... "There's no reason to believe it would not keep going up." Statistician Gall Mulligan at the National Center for Education Statistics noted that the number of youngsters schooled at home has risen 74 percent since 1999 when the center started...

Fan of peanuts outraged at salmonella scandal.(QuickQuotes)(Tom Harkin)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... "If that's not safe, we have to ask, what is?" Displaying a peanut butter sandwich and a jar of peanut butter, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) questioned Food and Drug Administration official Dr. Stephen Sundorf at a hearing where gaps in the...

A larger stimulus package is Obama's kind of "change".(QuickQuotes)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "If this is the change we can believe in, America's best days are behind her." Criticizing the huge $800 billion stimulus package offered by President Obama, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) used the president's...

Professors dispute Obama's claim of unanimity about his recovery plan.(QuickQuotes)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... "Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance.... To...

New interior secretary stops plan to tap Utah's oil and gas deposits.(QuickQuotes)(Ken Salazar)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... "We will take time and a fresh look at those 77 parcels to see if they are appropriate for oil and gas development." Reversing the Bush administration's sale of leases allowing development of known oil and gas resources in Southern Utah,...

Blunt advice for conservatives.(QuickQuotes)(Reid Buckley)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... "The very first thing is to dissociate from the Republican Party, which has become an albatross around the neck of integrity." The brother of the late William F. Buckley, Reid Buckley, is the founder of the Buckley School of Public Speaking...

LOST: Law of the sea treaty: although LOST would threaten American sovereignty by giving the UN control of the oceans, ratification of the treaty is still a top priority of the Obama administration.(INDEPENDENCE)(preisdnet Barack Obama on United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty)(Cover story)
March 2, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The United States Senate may vote very soon on one of the most far-reaching and dangerous treaties our government has ever considered for ratification: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (also known...

Economic "bankruptcy bill": behind the unprincipled politicking going on with the stimulus bill is the sobering reality that the nearly $800 billion price tag will do nothing to stimulate the economy.(ECONOMY)
March 2, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As the massive new stimulus bill accreted new costs in the Senate, Americans wondered how much the final price will be. At one point during Senate deliberations, House Majority leader Steny Hoyer, responding to...

SCHIP of State: President Obama and most of the press cheered the passage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but can SCHIP (pronounced "ship") stay afloat long-term?(HEALTHCARE)(Barack Obama)
March 2, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] President Barack Obama said when he signed into law a new expanded version of the State Children's Health Insurance Program on February 4: "No child should be receiving his care in the emergency room in the middle of...

Dangers of "judicial supremacy": the Supreme Court has perverted its role of applying the Constitution's meaning to particular cases into deciding what the Constitution means.(CONSTITUTION CORNER)
March 2, 2009... Imagine that certain investors have set up a business under a charter and by-laws that specifically provide for a number of managers assigned to oversee various separate and independent branches of the company, all of whom must answer...

Could Bush be prosecuted? Two recently published books address the possibility of prosecuting George W. Bush and top Bush administration officials for crimes committed while in office.('The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush' and 'The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder')(Book review)
March 2, 2009... The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush, by Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Los Angeles: Feral House, 2008, 124 pages, paperback. The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, by Vincent Bugliosi, New York:...

A season for heroes.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(citizens who rescued victims of fire)
March 2, 2009... Each day, thousands of firefighters, police officers, and other emergency personnel put their lives on the line, performing heroic deeds as part of their daily routine. To those unsung heroes, we always wish to express our gratitude, and never...

Valkyrie: The real von Stauffenberg: a German colonel led a coup to assassinate Hitler and rescue Germany from an evil regime.(HISTORY--STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM)(Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and Adolf Hitler)(Biography)
March 2, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On a sultry July day in 1944, a man walks into the "Wolf's Lair" carrying a briefcase. He is initiating a bold plot, one that aims to assassinate one of the world's most ruthless and powerful men, Adolf Hitler, and...

"I have a gun!".(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(home owner who prevented burglary)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... A would-be thief found more than he expected in a closet in Wellsville, Kansas. After breaking in to the dwelling, the burglar began searching for items to steal, unaware that the resident was at home at the time. The Miami County...

A less fortunate thief.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Gabriel Flores)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... Another burglar in Dallas, Texas, was even less fortunate in his choice of which house to rob. Seventeen-year-old Gabriel Flores had just kicked in the door of a home belonging to an elderly homeowner when the 53-year-old son of the owner,...

Nice people need guns too.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... The Arizona Star on January 27 reported that an employee of the Grand Market, a convenience store in South Tucson, was working when two armed robbers entered the store and launched a violent attack and attempted robbery. Tucson Police...

Juliette Man defends home from invasion.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... Sixty-seven-year-old Marvin Bowdoin said he and his wife arrived at their residence just in time to watch the last 30 minutes of American Idol. The two had been working late, closing the family's general merchandise store, Bowdoin's Grocery....

Social Security sham.(Correction, Please!)(influence of politics in social security)
March 2, 2009... ITEM: The Buffalo News for January 25 called for entitlement reform, noting that, for example, the trustees for Social Security "have long foreseen the problems. In 2011--just two years from now--Social Security will begin taking in less money...

Undermining our culture.(THE LAST WORD)(deterioration of American culture influenced by communist theoretician Antonio Gramsci)
March 2, 2009... A recent directive from the New York State Department of Health is one of the latest examples of the deterioration of America's culture. Sent to the offices of the 900-plus cities and towns in the Empire State, it contained a newly created...

Federal fertilizer.(Letter to the editor)
March 16, 2009... Why are governments perpetually experiencing "budget crises" and raising our taxes? Our tax money is used as fertilizer to grow bureaucracies. These, in turn, produce nothing but regulations that diminish our freedom and smother our economy. We...

Sounding like a bomb lobber.(Letter to the editor)
March 16, 2009... In the "Correction, Please!" of November 24, 2008, William P. Hoar writes like a saber-rattling neo-con who is upset that USAF hasn't bombed North Korea yet. Hoar even cites some neo-cons and the subversive organizations they work for:...

Don't bum rush rush.(Letter to the editor)
March 16, 2009... In the article "Is Conservatism Dead?" by Patrick Krey (January 19 issue), I feel that I need to defend Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh is a war lover, as are most American men, be they liberal or conservative--so I cut him slack on that issue, as...

National service defender.(Letter to the editor)
March 16, 2009... I agree that programs such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps are unconstitutional and a waste of taxpayer money. Nevertheless, I believe that individual citizens and the nation would benefit from a period of national service if such service...

Restoring the balance between the states and the federal government.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... In less than two months, an exciting new movement has captured the imagination of freedom-minded Americans all across our nation. This movement, often referred to as the "State Sovereignty Movement," is more properly referred to as the "Tenth...

Oklahoma leads the way in the Tenth Amendment movement.(Inside Track)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... On February 18 the Oklahoma House of Representatives became the first state legislative body this year to pass a resolution affirming its "sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not...

Atheist bus campaign gets "curious" divine jolt.(Inside Track)(atheists buses that broke down)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... Atheist and humanist organizations in Europe and the United States have launched an advertising campaign using buses to take their anti-God message to the public. City buses in London, Barcelona, and Washington are being used to deliver this...

Blaming CEOs alone not credible.(QuickQuotes)(Patt Morrison on chief executive officers compensation)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... "I want groveling. I want show-trial sweating and stammering. I want their nine-figure bonus checks endorsed over to the rest of us. I want my 401K money back. I want blood. I'm a vegetarian, but I make an exception for a smoking plate of CEO...

Come up with the money and then figure out how to spend it.(QuickQuotes)(Lisa Murkowski)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... "The Democrats decided on a random dollar amount in the neighborhood of $1 trillion and then set out to fill the bucket [with how to spend it]." Alaska GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski sharply criticized the stimulus bill created by the...

He resigned but the company will still use his name.(QuickQuotes)(Donald Trump and Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.)
March 16, 2009... "If I'm not going to run it, I don't want to be involved in it. I don't like that my name is still going to be on it." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Trump Entertainment Resorts went into bankruptcy and he was forced out of leadership,...

She claims that criticizing lobbyists is a ruse.(QuickQuotes)(Kimberley Strassel)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... "If he really wanted to curb lobbyists, he'd shrink government." Pointing her remark at the president, Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel says that more rules won't impact the influence enjoyed by lobbyists.

Swiss banking won't be secret anymore.(QuickQuotes)(Jack Blum)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... "The Swiss are saying that this is the end of Swiss banking, as they knew it. Nobody will trust the security of the Swiss bank account." UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, consented to divulge the names of some wealthy Americans thought...

Ethanol boom becoming a bust.(QuickQuotes)(Aaron Brady)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... "Cellulosic ethanol is something that is always five years away and five years later you get to the point where it is still five years away." Numerous ethanol-producing plants, especially those seeking to convert corn cobs and wood chips...

Now we get economic advice from Russia!(QuickQuotes)(Vladimir Putin)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state's omnipotence is another possible mistake." At the recent meeting of heads of state at Davos, Switzerland, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir...

Shock & awe economics: the Obama stimulus bill has been called "shock and awe for a shaken nation," a military metaphor that may unintentionally hint at the economic devastation it could cause.(ECONOMY)(Barack Obama)(Cover story)
March 16, 2009... With the passage of the $787 billion Obama-Democratic Congress stimulus bill, the die has been cast for America's economic future. This, the largest appropriations bill ever passed by Congress, is being variously criticized and applauded from...

Counting the cost of the census: the U.S. census is a source of growing conflict: its results can be manipulated for political gain, and its questions invade privacy and classify Americans according to race.(GOVERNMENT)
March 16, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is "the biggest White House power grab ever," Scan Hannity declared on his Fox News talk show, reacting to the announcement from the president's office that the census director "would work closely with White House...

Violence in Mexico: the U.S. military has warned that criminal gangs and drug cartels could bring about the "rapid and sudden collapse" of the Mexican government, with effects spilling over into the United States.(MEXICO)
March 16, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A report released in January by the U.S. Joint Forces Command is warning of the potential for "rapid and sudden collapse" of the Mexican government. The "Joint Operating Environment 2008" document also lists Pakistan...

A "just" war or just a war? From Korea to Iraq, America has waged undeclared war. Laurence Vance's Christianity and War sheds light on whether or not this war making has been "just.".(Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State)(Book review)
March 16, 2009... Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State, by Laurence M. Vance, Pensacola, Florida: Vance Publications, 2008 edition, 418 pages, paperback, $19.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Modern history, particularly with the...

The International banks on a bit of truth: a new film, with globalist bankers as bad guys, weaves threads of the truth into its tale of intrigue and adventure.(Movie review)
March 16, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The tag line for the new movie The International runs: "They control your money. They control your government. They control your life. And everybody pays." This resonates with many Americans who, regardless of where...

Employees "Donate a Day" for their respected boss.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)
March 16, 2009... Though it seems so common these days for there to be animosity between employers and their employees, the workers at a Michigan restaurant display a refreshing example of admiration and respect for their boss. As a matter of fact, the employees...

A veterans' veteran goes the extra mile.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Chuck Katlic)
March 16, 2009... Few would deny that, as a group, our military veterans are deserving of our respect and thanks. And when in need, they deserve all the assistance we can provide. One American who truly understands this and goes the extra mile to help veterans...

The Militia: in history and today: the Founders envisioned the militia as a guardian of states" rights and the people's liberties. Today this vital role is fulfilled by State Guard units, also known as State Defense Force units.(HISTORY--PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)
March 16, 2009... The army--defender or destroyer of freedom? Throughout history power-hungry rulers have used armies to conquer and oppress other lands, and to impose tyranny on their own people. But armies have also been used to defend country and...

A shotgun and a lecture.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)
March 16, 2009... Ever been awakened by pounding on your front door at about 1:30 a.m.? When Judie Martel woke up on January 25, her first thought was, "Is that thunder?" A January 29 Seacoast Online article indicated that she barely had time to arise when...

Bandleader kills gunman.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Heath Miller)
March 16, 2009... Heath Miller was selected as his school's most popular teacher in 2007, and band parents praise his leadership of the school's award-winning drum line called the Percussion Academy, but popularity doesn't mean that one will not become the...

Trick but no treat.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(a carjacker arrested)(Brief article)
March 16, 2009... Halloween is long over, but the Daily Advertiser of Lafayette, Louisiana, reported that on January 27, Joseph Noel, 25, of Lafayette donned a Halloween mask in an attempt to gain a treat--in the form of a new car. Noel approached a vehicle, and...

Stimulating government.(Correction, Please!)(Barack Obama's stimulus package)
March 16, 2009... ITEM: The New York Times reported on January 28, 2009: The stimulus bill... is not just a package of spending increases and tax cuts intended to jolt the nation out of recession. For Democrats, it is also a tool for...

The inflation tax.(THE LAST WORD)(federal taxation and inflation)
March 16, 2009... If the American taxpayers knew how much the federal government was actually costing them, there is no doubt that it would be much smaller than it is today. But the true burden of the federal government on the taxpayer is obscured in many ways....

Lauds reporting on law of the sea treaty.(Letter to the editor)
March 30, 2009... If we lived in a sane and sensible world--and I realize that there never has been such (though, despite Brokaw's malapropisms, I think The Greatest Generation forged an admirable replica)--then THE NEW AMERICAN would lead all other U.S....

More Monetary Mayhem.(Letter to the editor)
March 30, 2009... Your latest issue with "Bailout Mania" on the cover (January 5) is an outstanding call to reason which will go unheeded. The American public has been so conditioned to think of paper as real money that they invest in the so-called safety of...

Citing a casualty of the comparison.(Letter to the editor)
March 30, 2009... Reading the regular department section of TNA called "Exercising the Right" in the January 5 issue, I was disappointed and disturbed that both the editor and the author allowed this to be published. First, you compare Plaxico Burris and Francis...

AIG's fourth federal bailout.(Inside Track)(American Insurance Group Inc.)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... For the fourth time in six months, the federal government is giving billions of taxpayer dollars to AIG, following the latter's announcement on March 2 of a $61.7 billion fourth-quarter loss--this despite the massive bailout shoveled AIG's way...

Gordon Brown calls for a "global New Deal".(Inside Track)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has been working tirelessly for months to promote world financial and economic governance under the pretext of fighting the ongoing global recession, called for a "global New...

The G20 push to "supersize" the IMF.(Inside Track)(International Monetary Fund)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... The big push to "supersize" and transform the International Monetary Fund (IMF) into a global Federal Reserve System has been developing in elite political and economic circles for months. The campaign is now intensifying in the final weeks...

Second annual gathering of "climate realists".(Inside Track)(the second International Conference on Climate Change)(Conference notes)
March 30, 2009... The second annual International Conference on Climate Change, held in New York City on March 8-12, opened with addresses by the Honorable Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, and Dr. Richard Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of...

Obama's "transitional force" for Iraq.(Inside Track)(President Barack Obama)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... "Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end," President Barack Obama announced on February 27 at Camp Lejeune. "As a candidate for President, I made clear my support for a timeline of 16 months...

Obama order lifts ban on embryonic stem-cell research.(Inside Track)(Preaident Barack Obama)
March 30, 2009... President Barack Obama signed an executive order on March 9 that reverses the current ban on federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research. The move overturns an August 9, 2001 executive order issued by President George W. Bush that...

If required to allow abortions at a Catholic Hospital, bishop Will resist.(QuickQuotes)(Bishop Paul Loverde)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... "I would say, 'I'm not going to close the hospital; you're going to arrest me; go right ahead. You'll have to drag me out. Go right ahead. I'm not closing this hospital; we will not perform abortions; and you can go take a flying leap.'" ...

Czech President aims blame at politicians, not at the free market.(QuickQuotes)(Czech Republic President Vaclay Klaus)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Their attempts to blame the market, instead of blaming themselves, are unacceptable and should be resolutely rejected. A big increase in financial regulation, as is being proposed so often these days, will only...

Amnesty for illegal immigrants favored by the president.(QuickQuotes)(President Barack Obama)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... "We've got to have comprehensive immigration reform. It's going to take some time to move that forward, but I'm very committed to making it happen." Without calling his proposal amnesty, President Barack Obama stated during an appearance...

Ex-education official sees stimulus package as a bonanza.(QuickQuotes)(Chester Finn)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... "It'll be wonderful fun for a time for his team; it'll be like Christmas." Noting that the recently passed stimulus bill contains $100 billion in "emergency" aid for the Department of Education, Chester Finn believes that new Education...

Federal bailouts mean nationalization.(QuickQuotes)(bank analyst Nancy Bush)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... "Anyone who has been to the TARP [Troubled Asset Relief Program] trough twice has been de facto nationalized." Referring specifically to their acceptance of billions of dollars, bank analyst Nancy Bush of NAB Research pointed directly to...

Obama administration pondering a new global-warming pact.(QuickQuotes)(president Barack Obama)
March 30, 2009... "The lesson of Kyoto is that if the United States isn't taking it seriously, there's no reason for anyone else to." Environmentalist Bill McKibben referred to the U.S. refusal to accept the Kyoto Protocol as he looked forward to the United...

Budget Director discounts enormous spending plans.(QuickQuotes)(White House Budget Director Peter Orszag)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... "This budget is not a big-spending budget." During congressional hearings about the president's $3.6 trillion proposed budget, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag dismissed the concerns of some legislators and actually claimed that the...

From riches to rags: equal opportunity poverty comes to Zimbabwe.(INFLATION)(Cover story)
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Economists have long used 1920s Germany as the classic example of what can happen to a nation when monetary inflation gets out of control. So rapid was the inflation of the money sup ply that the exchange rate went...

A presidency fit for a king: President Barack Obama is the latest in a long line of presidents who is all too happy to wield expansive presidential power that would have horrified the Founding Fathers.(POLITICS)
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is said that on the final day of deliberation at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, a female passerby asked an exiting Ben Franklin, "Well Doctor, what have we got--a republic or a monarchy?" He replied, "A...

Out of the frying pan into the fire: just when it seemed things couldn't get any hotter for Senator Roland Burris (D-Ill.), the appointee to Barack Obama's vacant seat, another senator called for his resignation.(POLITICS)
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Just when it looked like things couldn't get any worse for Illinois Sen. Roland Burris, it got worse. The state's governor and its senior U.S. senator, Majority Whip Richard Durbin, had already called for his...

Taking on the feds: with Oklahoma leading the way, the juggernaut known as the Tenth Amendment Movement is gaining steam across the nation.(STATE SOVEREIGNTY)
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We Americans are expected to play by the rules--to obey traffic regulations, pay taxes, observe zoning ordinances--in short, to abide by the law. If we don't, we may find ourselves fined or even jailed. Our...

A new Era of irresponsibility: with President Obama proposing in his fiscal 2010 budget to double taxes while doubling the national debt, one wonders when "a new era of responsibility" will really begin.(FEDERAL BUDGET)
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] President Barack Obama has just released his $3.55 trillion fiscal 2010 budget, and already there-s full employment among all the people who matter to officials in Washington, D.C. A front-page story for the March 2...

A kidney for Christmas.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(kidney donor Zachary Sutton)
March 30, 2009... What did you get for Christmas last year? A bike from your dad? A blender from your husband? A new, macho power tool from your wife? Or, how about a desperately needed kidney from a total stranger? Not many people could answer "yes" to that...

Woman returns $97,000.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Billie Watts)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... On December 4, 2008, Billie Watts was visiting a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In the restroom she found a tapestry bag hanging from a hook on one of the stall doors. Trying to discover some identification of the bag's...

Heart for the homeless.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(Dr. Randy Christensen)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... For the past eight years, Dr. Randy Christensen of Phoenix, Arizona, has spent over 60 hours a week serving a population that is normally unwanted or forgotten--runaway teens living on the streets. One of the Arizona Republic's 10 Most...

Revolutionary virtue: the Founding Fathers believed what today might be deemed a revolutionary idea: that only a virtuous people, grounded in morality and religion, can ever hope to remain free.(HISTORY: PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)
March 30, 2009... "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people," John Adams famously announced in 1798. "It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." He was paraphrasing a line he'd written in 1776--"The only foundation of a...

Correction, please!(global warming legislation)
March 30, 2009... Trying to Turn C[O.sub.2] Into Au ITEM: U.S. News & World Report for February 20, 2009 interviewed Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Waxman said that "broader legislation" is needed...

Four to one.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(a homeowner prevents armed robbery with the help of his gun)
March 30, 2009... A video security system, a prepared resident, and a firearm almost certainly saved a Tucson, Arizona-area man's life February 5. The homeowner took a look outside after cameras showed suspicious activity. He saw four men wearing masks and...

Woman repels attacker.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... A feisty 49-year-old woman in Southern California finally turned a persistent home invader away on February 17. After Eric Anderson made an attempt to break in to the woman's home through a window, the woman armed herself and yelled a warning,...

Man kills assailant.(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Even though he had been robbed and brutally attacked, Yakima, Washington, resident Michael Valadez did not immediately pull his concealed weapon. It wasn't until career criminal Franklin McWain, 33, began beating him again with a piece of wood,...

Danger at the car wash?(EXERCISING THE RIGHT)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... On January 9, according to a report on WESH TV of Orlando, Florida, a man washing his car at Mr. Big's Super Car Wash became the victim of an attempted robbery. Two men wielding sawed-off shotguns approached the unidentified victim....