The following is a summary of the June, 2004, issue of the St. Croix Review:

      In the editorial “The Dreary Presidential Election,” Angus MacDonald regrets that the truth must take a whipping. A sound, and soon to be booming, economy is said to be a disgrace to George Bush. Attention to economic facts is needed.

      Herbert London explains why Toyota plants in the U.S. thrive, while U.S. automakers don’t, in “Toyota: An American Company (?)”; he identifies a leftist stereotype in “Condolezza Rice and the Issue of Race”; he characterizes the press corps’ acidic attitude in “Lenin, News Accounts and Anti-Bush Sentiment”; he sees an abdication of trust in “Colleges That Don’t Require Core Subjects.” 

      Allan Brownfeld reports that to be in the news business presently is to practice a profession of disrepute in “How Well Are the Media Serving American Society?”

      Anthony Harrigan reviews the history of war between Muslims and Christians and draws conclusions that should guide us in “The Crusader Struggle and Islam Today.”

      John D’Aloia Jr. puts the War on Terrorism in perspective in “It’s About Survival.”

      In “A Doctor in Russia’s Dirty War,” Peter Brownfeld reveals the brutal nature of Russia’s intervention in Chechnya, and the unjust representation of the Chechen people.

      Robert C. Whitten looks at complaints from liberal academics in “Does the Military Follow Orders from Their Civilian Leaders?” The facts imparted in this article should be compared to the liberal comments today: that the Bush Administration didn’t do enough to defend the nation before 9/11.

      Murray Weidenbaum considers our situation in “The U.S. Economy in an Election Year” and finds much that is positive. The topics he addresses are the budget deficits, jobs, productivity, insourcing and outsourcing, tax cuts, Medicare and Social Security.

      While the Communist Party in China may be dispensing with parts of Marxism, they are strengthening Leninist-totalitarianism, writes Arnold Beichman in “Religion in China.”

      In Philip Vander Elst’s concluding article in his series, “Why Libertarian Theophobia Is Misguided,” he writes that the erosion of moral direction can be traced back to the increasingly secular nature of Western culture. Libertarians appear unable to believe that Evil must be restrained—if not by conscience, or the promptings of religious devotion, then in the form of government force.

      Thomas Martin defends marriage in “On Same-Sex Marriage” as the foundation of civilization.

      In “A Culture of Marriage, Two Tales: Tearing One Down in Sweden,” Allan Carlson show how marriage was weakened through socialist ideology, law, and tax policy in the 20th century. Of pivotal importance was the abolishment of the joint income tax return and the substitution of individual taxation of spouses—which benefited two-income households and penalized traditional families.

      In the Book Review section, Michael S. Swisher reviews Saki: The Complete Saki, by H. H. Munro, and Arnold Beichman reviews Vixi, Memoirs of a Non-Belonger, by Richard Pipes.