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9-11: Declaration of War

by Franklin Roosevelt

On December 8, the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war. He made the following remarks.Yesterday, December 7, 1941-- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that na- tion and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emper

9-11: Comments on the Oklahoma City Bombing

by Bill Clinton

Four days after the bombing of the Murrah building, President Clinton visited the city and attended a prayer service at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. These are some of his remarks. You have lost too much, but you have not lost everything. And you certainly have not lost America, for we will stand with you for as many tomorrows as it takes.... Our words seem small beside the loss you have endured. To all my fellow Americans beyond this hall, I say one thing we owe those

Column: A Conservative in Favor of Reparations

by William Thompson

The notion of paying reparations to selected groups of citizens as compensation for past social injustices is a very divisive issue. Advocates of reparations point to massive past wrongs that have lingering negative consequences for peoples. On the other hand, opponents of reparations suggest that the effects of the past misdeeds of generations ago are too diffuse to really

Civil Liberties: The Wrong Person, Emma Goldman's Story

by Edward Olshaker

11"Extra! Extra! President McKinley shot!" The shouts of the newsboy on a St. Louis street corner on September 6, 1901, one hundred years ago this week, grabbed the attention of anarchist leader Emma Goldman, who bought a paper to learn more about the shooting of our twenty-fifth president at the Exposition grounds in Buffalo. McKinley would die eight days later, the third president in 36 years to be murdered by a gunman. "It is fortunate that you are here and not in Buffalo

Column: Good-Bye Jesse—And Good Riddance!

by P.M. Carpenter

This is a sad time for bigots and other emotionally stunted yokels who loathe efforts at subsidizing school lunches for impoverished children, providing prescription coverage for the elderly, or guaranteeing civil rights. It's a sad time indeed, for as you know, one of the leading members of Congress' Joint Chiefs of Troglodytes, Jesse Helms, will be

Column: Powerball Fever

by William Thompson

Wow! Powerball fever. Mass traffic jams on freeways into Connecticut and Arizona. Nothing like it ever before. Get real. Mass hysteria is nothing new. Cases of collective panic behavior have been well documented and analyzed by social psyc

The Vanishing Surplus

by Bernard Weisberger

A BILLION HERE, A BILLION THERE White House Predictions for the Budget Surplus for 2001 (Not Counting Social Security) April.......$122 billion July........$ 72 billion August.....$ 1 billion Note: The tax cut lowered the surplus this year by $41 billion.Surprised? We're not. As Bernard"Cassandra" Weisberger e

Robert Kennedy’s Example

by Joseph Palermo

Thirty-three years ago, after winning the California presidential primary, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy was struck down and violently removed from the center of Democratic politics at the worst possible moment for the party.

Social Security: If It Ain't Broke …

by Norman Markowitz

Is Social Security on its way to bankruptcy, crashing down in 2029? Most likely not. There are good reasons to believe that the much discussed" crisis" has been politically manufactured. 11Conservative politicians and think tanks call for"reform" through privatization, shifting part of contributors' accounts into unprotected stock-market funds, playing to the hopes of brokerage houses, which stand to make hundreds of millions in fees and commissions, and anti-welfare state conservative ideo

Homeschooling and the Double Standard

by Kimboo York

After the Columbine massacre, no one questioned the fact that a public school can turn into a hostile, deadly environment. But no one, or at least very few, asked the important question that should follow: Are public schools inherently deadly? Such a question demands tomes of academic analysis, years of carefully planned research, and probably millions of dollars worth of study. Yet, no one has asked the question at all; instead, the debate has centered on how to make public schools safer

Polittics: The Environment ... How Virtuous Are Republicans?

by D. Keith Naylor

When Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking to reporters last spring, dismissed conservation as"a sign of personal virtue, but not a sufficient basis for a sound comprehensive energy policy," he turned his back on a major American tradition initiated by Republicans. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the conservation of natural resources has figured significantly in federal policy and has been embraced by the public. Although the Bush administration has sinc

Column: Playing International Games ... Maybe There’s Another Way

by William Thompson

Dateline: Israel, late July.1. Some Background1968 Mexico City. East Bloc judges witness American basketball victory but turn back clock. In extra time awarded Soviets score and the victory is reversed. African American athletes win Gold then use victory platform as personal platform to pro

Column: 1964 ... The Contest Begins for the Soul of America

by P.M. Carpenter

Historians of modern American conservatism have offered two interpretations of the New Right’s underlying ideological origins -- interpretations that put aside, for the moment, the timing of the New Right’s actual spark of creation. More on that later. Some underline its pedigree in the Old Right’s brand of conservatism originally founded in the postwar era, that of rabid anticommun

The Anniversary Everybody Forgets

by Joseph A. McCartin

Twenty years ago, the skies were eerily silent over American airports. On August 3, 1981, 12,500 air traffic controllers, members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), walked off their jobs with the Federal Aviation Administration. With the nation's air traffic crippled by the walkout, President Ronald Reagan issued one of the most important statements of his presidency. He vowed to fire the controllers if they did not return to work within 48 hours.

Column: The President Chose the Coward’s Way Out

by Voltaire

President Bush's hair-splitting decision on stem cell research requires amplification of my previous remarks. In "Why God Favors Stem Cell Research," I noted the Grand Designer's haphazard treatment of blastocysts (i.e., a huge percentage of them are washed away in cosmic oblivion befo

Column: The Wizards of Ooze

by P.M. Carpenter

When Frank Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz during the presidential-rematch season of 1900, the Wizard -- so speculate political historians -- represented President William McKinley, and the Cowardly Lion, William Jennings Bryan. In addition to Lion, assisting Dorothy (i.e., women) on her way to the Emerald City (Washington, D.C.) was the Democratic-Pop

International Bad Guys Now Have to Worry They’ll Get What’s Coming to Them

by Ruth Rosen

When Henry Kissinger travels abroad, can another government arrest him as a war criminal? Twenty years ago, the answer would have been an emphatic"no." What about today? Not likely, but it's no longer unimaginable. That's because both governments and corporations, during the past two decades, have tried to create an embryonic system of international justice. As the flow of capital washes across the globe, for example, multinational corporations have sought assurances that international

Column: Have Christian Dogmatists Ever Gotten Anything Right?

by P.M. Carpenter

11Conservative humorist P.J. O’Rourke once quipped that poking fun at fundamentalist Christians is as easy as hunting dairy cows with a high-powered rifle and scope. His animadversion on this breed of the righteously infallible is built on the thoughtful tradition of skepticism: that is, doubt about mankind’s pretentious posture of knowing what the Unknowable One knows -- not necessarily about the Unknowable’s existence. Even that presidential paradigm of self-righteousness, Woodrow Wilson, marv

Poll: Who’s Your Favorite Founding Father?

by HNN Staff

Yes, yet another poll. But ours is different. It's scientific invalidity has been attested to by several Nobel scientists. We are confident in their judgment. (Advisory: Our poll may be off plus/minus by 1,000%; results that turn out to accurately reflect the opinions of the readers of this magazine are purely coincidental.) Here's all you have to do to participate. Just click on the Founding Father of your choice and the

Remarks of Bill Clinton at the New-York Historical Society, July 17, 2001

by Bill Clinton

Editor's Note: On July 17 former President Clinton delivered a speech--given for free--to the New-York Historical Society to commemorate the 225th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Following is an excerpt from the speech. (Click here for a transcript of his complete remarks.) I have always believed that people who have responsibilities like the ones that I had for several years can’t possibly