sion. St. Thomas, sorting through this question with hisrntypical thoroughness and acuteness (Summa Th. II ii, 64),rnconcluded that it is both licit and necessary to kill sinners.rnMalefactors are to be put to death for the health of the community,rnand he compares the duties of rulers and physicians: itrnis the physician’s duty to preserve life and...

vation.” Christians understand that no one can love another ifrnhe has not first loved himself. This is the wisdom of Bernard dernClairvaux, who said that nature directs us to love our own fleshrnbut teaches us also to limit our self-love to minister to a brother’srnneed. This insight on moral development stretches back tornthe ancient Stoics...

VIEWSrnFighting WordsrnAbortion and Civilityrnby Harold O.J. BrownrnAustrian sociologist Hans Millendorfer claims to have discovered,rnat least in his native Austria, a perplexing correspondence:rnhis statistics show a rise in abortions paralleled by arnrise in civility. To those of us who consider abortion a violentrnand evil act, it seems strange that such violence should be accompaniedrnby an increase...

Reagan.rnAbortion rests on normative deception and hypocrisy, and arnfalse and pusillanimous civility repeatedly fails to identif}’ it forrnwhat it is, namely, early homicide. Even stalwart defenders ofrnthe unborn, such as Dr. Koop and Illinois Republican CongressmanrnHenry Hyde, who know the truth about abortion veryrnwell, defer to the principles of civility when dealing with abortionrnadvocates. Both...

which are in fact homicides—which Justice Harry Blackmunrnhas on his conscience now exceeds the number of peoplernexterminated by Adolf Hitler by a factor of five or more. YetrnBlackmun retired with honor and not long ago was even givenrnan honorary doctorate by Harvard University, the stock ofrnthe Puritans, it seems, now having been safely and legallyrnterminated.rnThere...

Even worse is indicated—the general embraee of euthanasia,rnas forecast in the 70’s and 80’s by such as Malcohn Muggeridgernand Walker Percy. No, no, no! object the proponentsrnof suicide. Never that! Personal autonomy is all they seek: thernright, not the duty, to die.rnWe have a saying in the South: that ol’ dog won’t hunt. Thisrndog won’t...

and pistol, calmly picking off his schoolmates.rn”Pluralism,” the modern deity, has made it impolite to tout arnreligious sanction for life. Yet what other sanctions exist? Well,rnlaws, to be sure; but laws can be changed, as were the abortionrnlaus by Supreme Court fiat. Laws depend on the convictionsrnof those who choose the lawmakers. At present, those...

tiires of the communities that reared us and have a duty to Hvernso that we may contribute to them. This is an uncommonlyrnweak argument. It would follow that, should we become a burdenrnon the communit}’, suicide would become legitimate, perhapsrneven required. (Aristotle does not draw this inference.)rnFurther, whatever the communitv did for us, we never...

There are clangers in legalizing assisted suicide or eudianasia,rnmainly concerning competent and informed consent. Butrnthese dangers can be surmounted by appropriate precautions.rnOnce we discard the presumption (actually a circular definition)rnthat all persons bent on suicide ipso facto are insane, wernhave to make sure that those requesting assistance are mentalK’rncompetent. Some objectors insist that this can...

“Redefining the American Right:rnFrom Aristotle to Pat Buchanan*’rnThe Rockford Institute’s First Annual Summer Schoolrn27 July’l Augustrnat The Rockford Institute, Rockford, IllinoisrnWhat is the American conservative tradition, and how does it fit into the broader Westernrntradition? Through a series of lectures and discussion sessions, instructors and studentsrnwill examine this question. Each day will feature two lectures...

not the stor’ of the country’s Clyde Griffithsesrnbut the trajectory of the Americanrnpatrician class. By 1901 the British andrnAmerican empires were the twin superpowersrnof their day, although the locus ofrnpower had already passed to the UnitedrnStates, where it continued to move stillrnfarther west.rnThe power of the Anglo-Americanrnworld in 1901 was inseparablernfrom the worldwide prestige of...

…^nam (j/if’amolm ljdi/t&r^&,..rnTHE POLITICS OFrnHUMAN NATURErnThomas Flemingrn”Learned, thoughtful, and superblyrnwritten”rn—Robert NisbetrnISBN: 1-56000-693-5 (paper)rn276 pp. $24.95 (Plus $5.50 S&H)rnTransaction PublishersrnCall: 1-888-999-6778rnThernpoktsrnOffrnHunia^rnNaturernThornasrnV^^^^’nTllV, Irn'”« Itf ^^^rni i t h i i ‘ ‘rn”4 :^^rnIV . 3 . * •.7rnPLAGIARISMrnAND THE CULTURE WAR:rnTHE WRITINGS OF MARTINrnLUTHER KING, JR.,rnAND OTHER PROMINENTrnAMERICANSrnTheodore Pappasrn”A work of great seriousness”rn—^John LukacsrnISBN: 0-87319-045-9 (paper)rn212 pp....

but thinks is imperative.rnIn Mr. Miller’s view, “The UnitedrnStates can welcome immigrants andrntransform them into Americans becausernit is a ‘proposition countrv’,'” a “universalrnnation” in Ben Wattenberg’s happyrnphrase, and the proposition by which thernAmerican nation defines itself, that allrnmen are created equal, means that thern”very sense of peoplehood derives notrnfrom a common language but from theirrnadherence...

cates itself to a proposition. The Englishrnlangnage is without question a vital partrnof American national culture.” Ofrncourse, as c[uoted above, Mr. Miller earlierrnsays that our national identity’ “derivesrnnot from a common language,” butrnif the language is a “vital part” of our culture,rnthat isn’t quite true. And if the languagernis vital, why are certain other features,rnalso...

cupations, to memories of a time whenrnhe found himself playing a part in arnstrange, ver- disturbing, private narrativernthat was turning out differently from thernone he had thought he was in. “Nor didrnI know,” he writes in “Visit,” about hisrnfirst encounters with Plath,rnI was being auditionedrnFor the male lead in your drama,rnMiming through the first easyrnmovementsrnAs...

peared in vaudeville as “Those TailoredrnItalian Girls.” Their repertoire includedrn”Kiss Me Again,” “Swanee River,” andrn”Are You from Dixie?” The transition tornthe Met was as outrageous as it sounds,rnincluding recognition not only by Carusornbut by Victor Maurel, the first lagornand the first Falstaff. The next thing shernknew Rosa, at the age of 21, had a contractrnwith...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter FromrnMontanarnby Uri DowbenkornThe Freemen TrialrnEcr heard of the Federal Protecti’ernSer’ice? Like the commercial says —rnyou will. I was taking a photo of thernfederal courthouse in Billings, Montana,rnwhen the police pulled up andrnstopped me. They asked me for my I.D.rnW’lien I looked more closely at the cop’srnbadge, I realized it wasn’t the Billings Police.rnIt wasn’t...

stand-off,” says Duke. “The U.S. Governmentrnpromised the Wards that hernwouldn’t be arrested and charged.” Sornmuch for promises.rnYou’ve probably heard of Catch 22.rnHow about Rule 35, the federal prosecutors’rnwin-at-all-cost tactics? “When a personrnagrees to plead guilty to the charges,rnyou can throw in what’s called Rule 35,”rnDuke explains later in a brief interview.rn”The judge can give the...

ing breakfast at the Yale Club in therncompany of a lively Anglo-Russian child,rnand looking around the room saw a scorernof identical broadsheets billowing likernthe sails of a flotilla of conformity over arnsea of watery coffee. “Look, they are allrnreading the same newspaper!” I exclaimed.rnThere must have been somethingrnmanic in my voice, because myrncompanion, like a...

VITAL SIGNSrnGOVERNMENTrnDesert StormrnTroopersrnby Marc MoranornSeptember 5,1996, was not your typicalrnworkday at Molycorp’s MountainrnPass Mine in California. Molycorprnemployee Steve Johnson recalls how thernintruders arrived: “They stopped at therngate, the guard, he wasn’t going to letrnthem in, and the guys threatened to pullrna gun on him, and he let them in.” SusanrnMessier, another employee, remembersrnthe “30 armed...

ployees were now forced to undergorn”desert tortoise worker education classes,”rnbetter known by the participants asrn”desert tortoise sensitivity training.” Accordingrnto Alan Stein of the BLM, thisrntraining was supposed to “heighten people’srnawareness of the tortoise” and outlinern”what they can and can’t do.” Forrninstance, employees could no longerrndrive faster than 15 miles per h o u r -rnwhile...

global taxes as “doable.”rnThe book, incidentally, includes inputrnfrom key officials from the WorldrnBank and from one of the investmentrnfunds associated with George Soros. Itrnalso reports that Stanley Fischer, chiefrneconomist of the IMF, has expressed hisrnwillingness to consider such a tax,rnadding “The IMF is in a good position torndevelop ways in which a transactions taxrncould work.”rnIndeed...

er Moonie setbacks, this may have struckrnthe neoconservative leadership as the opportunerntime to discipHne an embarrassingrnpatron.rnMy own reading of the about-face isrnmore compHcated. Contrary to a widespreadrnfiction, rank-and-file Unificationistsrnare neither stupid nor passive.rnThough their theology offends Christiansrnand their agenda should disturb anyrnEurocentric traditionalist, most UnificationistsrnI have met are civil, morally engaged,rnand intellectually more curiousrnthan professors...

tap into the vast gray economy, and tornguarantee investors’ rights as a means ofrnattracting productive investment in thernprovinces. He is for a Slavic Union ofrnUkraine, Russia, and Belarus, the protectionrnof Russian minorities in the “nearrnabroad” (meaning the former Soviet republics),rnself-government at the localrnand regional level, a prominent role forrnthe Russian Orthodox Church in publicrnlife, the...

there would be accounts of Jesusrneating lamb at Passover.rn—The multiplication miracle didrnnot include fish. The fish in thernstory are symbolic of Christians,rnthe multiplication a sign of thernburgeoning church.rn—Jesus calls for mercy and compassionrn—which are the opposite ofrntorturing, killing, and eating God’srncreatiires. In the U.S., more thanrneight billion animals are killed everyrnyear for food. The vast...

the act of eating and drinking.rnFood and drink are on the contraryrnGod’s gift, from which we are tornpartake with enjoyment and gratitude.rnWe fast, not because we despisernthe divine gift, but so as tornmake ourselves aware that it is indeedrna gift—so as to purify our eatingrnand drinking, and to makernthem, no longer a concession torngreed, but...

Look at the Jeffrey Sachs-style “HarvardrnCapitalism,” which many Russiansrnnowadays justifiably regard as “HarvardrnCommunism.” In a typical Russian enterprisernprivatized under the Harvardprescribedrn”voucher” system, 46 percentrnof the (grossly understated) value went tornworkers, five percent to management, 29rnpercent was sold at cash auctions, andrnthe remaining 20 percent was left in thernstate’s hands. As Anne Williamson wroternin How America...

Once again, follow the money. Whatrncountry leads the whole world in therngrowth of its gross domestic productrn(GDP)? Answer: Bosnia! Bosnia’s GDPrnincreased by 50 percent in 1996, the firstrnpost-Dayton year, according to thernEconomist. What nation came second?rnAlbania, another country which has justrnhad a close brush with civil war, andrnwhere international troops and monitorsrnare now deployed as...

which provided 75,000 Union soldiers,rnhas almost become synonymous with thernSouth, while Maryland, if anyone noticesrnher at all, has been moved north ofrnthe Mason-Dixon Line.rnAs evidenced by the election of 1860,rnMaryland’s politics prior to the occupationrnmirrored those of the South. Thernelection results belie the revisionist contentionrnthat only Maryland’s southernmostrncounties and her Eastern Shorernwere aligned with the...

“y’all”; and the billboard sign that greetsrnthe traffic crossing the Potomac into thernFree State from King George Count)-,rnVirginia, proclaims “Marvland Enjoy,” arngreeting that would be more at home inrnBrooklyn. Although our state song mightrnsoon be replaced with the “Battle Hymnrnof the Republic”—a few years ago therernwas even a move in Annapolis to replacernjousting with duckpin...

Modern Editions of Classicrnfor Readers TodayrnTHE NATURAL LAWrnA Study in Legal and Social History and PhilosophyrnBy Heinrich A. RommenrnIntroduction by Russell HittincjerrnOriginally published in German in 1936, The natural Laivis thernfirst work to clarify the differences between traditional natural lawrnas represented in the writings of Cicero, Aquinas, and Hooker and thernrevolutionary doctrines of natural rights...

A Conference on Tresikntial TjrannjrnOctober 16 & 17,1998rnPine Mountain andrnWarm Springs, GeorgiarnThe U.S. presidencyrnhosts the tax police, therngun grabbers, the landrnseizers, the race baiters, thernbusiness wreckers, and thernsecret police. It appoints thernFederal Reserve, picks thernfederal judges, and runs thernentire global welfarewarfarernstate.rnThe framers tried tornmake sure that presidentsrncould not tax, spend, orrnmake war on their own.rnBut...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnART DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnGONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O.J. Brown, KatherinernDalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rnJ.O. Tate, Michael Washburn,rnClyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, William Mills,rnJacob Neusner, Srdja TrifkovicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnThe Rockford InstituternPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnCindy LinkrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditoriai and Advertising Offices:rn928 Nortli Main Street, Rockford, IL...

Mr. McDonaldrnReplies:rnMr. Graham repeats the myth that Canadarnwas confederated in 1867 as two peoplesrnin a bilingual nation. Then PrimernMinister Sir John A. Macdonald called itrn”the Confederation of one people andrnone government instead of five peoplesrnand five governments.” Constitutionalrnauthority Senator Eugene Forsey saidrnthat “[Canada] was certainly not intendedrnto be two political nations. Over andrnover again the...

sources say “China was the single mostrnimportant supplier of equipment andrntechnology for weapons of mass destructionrnworldwide . . . and . . . a key supplierrnof nuclear technology to Iran.”rnCritics of sanctions do have a validrnpoint. Foreign policy should be basedrnon national interest, rather than on idealisticrntheories of human rights. But thernadministration is caught on...

kingmakers in many French regions afterrnlocal elections. Local Gaullist politiciansrnwere threatened with expulsionrnfrom their respective parties if they heldrnonto their places through FN assistance.rnMost of them obeyed orders, and as a result,rnthe Gaullist parties lost large chunksrnof territory they would otherwise havernheld comfortably—a brilliant politicalrnstrategy.rnThese contemptible challenges havernbeen accompanied and inspired by anrnunremitting, multilayered campaign...

counting the political and legal victoriesrnof the past year. Lambasting the localrnGannett paper (LGP) for its biased coveragernof those opposed to federal controlrnof Rockford’s schools, Dr. Fleming remarked,rn”If you can believe the paper,rnyou would think this crowd is a lynchrnmob.” Recalling the slogan of thernprevious rally—”Vote, Organize, andrnProtest” —Dr. Fleming urged Rockfordiansrnto continue their battle...

aration of Church and State is not arndogma.rnSantamaria’s role in the Labor Part)’rnsplit made him a household name,rnhailed or reviled, but rarely ignored.rnWlien Rome responded to his foes in thernCatholic hierarchy, he could no longerrnwork within official Church structures.rnThe Catholic Social Movement hernheaded was transformed into the independentrnNational Civic Council. Thisrnthink tank eventually included people...

PERSPECTIVErnSelling the Golden Cordrnby Thomas FlemingrnFree trade, according to the usual pundits, is an issue that dividesrnthe right. The usual pundits are, as usual, wrong.rnFree trade, which has never been more than an undocumentedrnalien on the right, is an ideal that does unite much of the left.rnIt is a point on which socialism converges with...

price —$2.00 for a gallon of milk, $30,000 for a Lexus, 15 cowsrnfor your daughter.rnWhether we cut the deal for a pound of pork chops in myrnback)’ard, go to market, to market, to buy a fat pig, or speculaternon pork belly futures at the Chicago Board of Trade, the transactionrnis, hypothetically, between two individuals. But...

The slide in real income since 1973 has been described byrnsome economists as the longest in American history. AveragernWeekly Earnings (a Department of Labor statistic that coversrn80 percent of employees, but excludes physicians and executives)rnhave been declining steadily since 1975, and the fall isrneven steeper if increased Social Security rates and higher salesrntaxes are taken...

leads them: to the destruction of every barrier between us, thernAmerican people, and a gangster world-state owned and operatedrnby George Soros, Boris Berezo’sky, and K. Rupert Murdoch.rnBut so long as Boris is free to trade with George and Rupert,rnthe free-traders are content. In the grim Looney-Toons worldrnof James Bovard, no government can restrict any intercoursernbetween...

VIEWSrnToward One Nation, IndivisiblernA Course of Actionrnby Patrick J. BuchananrnIt is time we looked at the world from a new perspective, onernof enlightened nationalism. Cliches about a “new” globalrneconomy aside, there has always been an international economyrn—ever since Columbus stumbled onto the Western Hemispherernwhile seeking new trade routes to the East, in the hire ofrna...

fact, could be used to cut taxes on income, savings, and investment.rnBismarck built the German nation by shifting taxation awayrnfrom incomes and onto foreign goods. In a December 15,rn1878, letter to the Reichstag, the chancellor spoke of a crisis inrnthe German middle class, similar to our own, and proposed tornemulate the Americans: “Reform of the...

spend six times as much on defense. We remit annually tornTokyo tens of billions of dollars in interest payments on thernhundreds of billions of dollars of Treasury debt that Tokyo nowrnholds as a result of having run up decades of trade surpluses atrnthe expense of American workers. Historians will marvel thatrnAmerica let this happen.rnEven the...

minimum wages, and health and pollution standards, as well asrnU.S. taxes; their products come back to undercut those made inrnfactories that stayed in America and obeyed the laws of thernUnited States.rnThe Japanese are also exploiting NAFTA. Matsushita, Hitachi,rnSony, and Sanyo have assembly plants in Tijuana. Toshiba’srnplant is in Ciudad Juarez. Japanese and Korean companiesrnare building...

private bank loans; foreign investments by corporations, pensionrnfunds, etc.; foreign aid (perhaps $1 trillion in the ColdrnWar) and IMF, World Bank, and international bank loans;rnU.S. overseas defense expenditures; illicit trade (drugs); illicitrnwealth transfers to evade taxes. Each of these problems can berndealt with by strong action.rnIMPORTS: A 15 percent tariff on all products that competernwith...

tinual increase in the capital invested in its plants, minesrnand farms, it is one of the foremost tasks of good governmentrnto remove all obstacles that hinder the accumulationrnand investment of new capital.rnStrategic IndependencernAt the end of World War II, the United States had a nearly autarkicrnindustrial base; we produced everything needed for ourrnnahonal defense. That...

and then declared it unconstitutional. In March of thisrnyear, she not only confirmed but extended her ruling;rnshe mandated the governor of California to send lettersrnto the managers of public services instructing them thatrnthe law was invalid. This scarcely seems necessary.rnProposition 187 has not yet been enforced anywhere, andrnthe likelihood is that it never will be.rn2)...

the process of Balkanization—one aspect of the deconstructionrnof the country, even perhaps an epiphenomenal response to arndissolution that was already occurring. The owl of Minervarntakes flight at dusk, and multiculturalism is, if anything, a laggingrnindicator of the country’s plight.rnThe theory of American nationhood responsible for this collapsernis the idea that America is an idea. On...