The following is a summary of the August 2008 issue of the St. Croix Review:
In the Editorial "The National Republican Convention," Angus MacDonald divides people into two categories: pushy bombers and ladies and gentlemen. He believes that progress can be measured by the assumption of individual responsibility, and he thinks that we have become better since the Roman Empire, though he sees cause for concern as the pushy bombers are enjoying a surge at the present.
In a "Letter to the Editor" W. Edward Chynoweth lays the blame for the recent California Supreme Court's normalization of homosexual marriage on California's Proposition 209, passed in 1996. The "non-discrimination principle" embodied in Proposition 209 is a repudiation of natural law and tradition, and it is the people of California, the people of the United States, and conservatives themselves, who are to blame for the acceptance of the "non-discrimination" idea.
Herbert London, in "Obama as President (?)," believes that President Obama would mean higher taxes, inescapable government health care, rapid withdrawal from Iraq, and feckless negotiations with Iran that will lead to a Persian empire with nuclear weapons; in "The Politics of Fear," he writes that radical Islamists have silenced critics in Europe and the U.S. through the threat of retaliation, and that what we need is courage; in "Spreading Islam in the Academy," he reports on the seduction of Western Universities by Prince AlWeleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia by millions donated for the furtherance of Islamic studies; in "The New and Old View of Paternalism," he debunks a new, gentler form of paternalism by showing that paternalism must preclude liberty.
Allan Brownfeld, in "Subsidizing Ethanol: The Unintended Consequences of Interfering with the Market," shows how government mandates for corn ethanol have caused higher carbon emissions, higher food prices for Americans, and an emerging humanitarian crisis in the third world; in "An Examination of the Long Tradition of Conservative Thought in the Black Community," he reveals instincts among black leaders 150 years ago that pointed to respectability, and a healthy, productive lifestyle.
Elizabeth Wright, in "A Black 'Old Right Conservative' On the Black Elite's Immigration Betrayal," asks what will happened to blacks, once whites become a minority, and our Anglo-Euro political traditions go by the wayside? If Chinese, Latinos, and East Indians gain political clout, will they tolerate affirmative action programs, and racial set-asides for Blacks?
Paul Kengor reveals how the Reagan and William Clark prevented Suriname from becoming a Soviet foothold in South America and a strategic base of operations in "Secrets of Suriname: Another Reagan Administration Cold War Success Story."
In "The Case for Terrestrial (Nuclear) Energy," William Tucker considers the drawbacks of our conventional sources of energy -- coal, oil, natural gas, hydroelectricity -- and that of newer "renewables" -- solar and wind. He writes that no source of energy can compare with clean and safe nuclear power, that the American public is unjustifiably frightened of it, and that economically advanced nations are advancing far ahead of us in its use.
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, in "How We Can Achieve $2-a-Gallon Gasoline," writes that we should access the rich energy reserves within U.S. territories, and that we should build new oil refineries and nuclear power plants. She castigates current Democratic leadership for imposing a ban on energy exploration, and Congress for inaction going back decades.
In "A Mid-year Economic Status Report," Mark Hendrickson believes that the burst housing bubble will continue to impact the economy for some time, that the fed can no longer raise or lower interest rates without causing harm, and that General Motors and Ford may be mortally wounded because of the energy fix Congress has caused; in "Oil vs. Big Congress: Another Witch Hunt," he shows how Congress hopes to shift the blame from itself, where it properly belongs, to the oil producers by holding hearings in which congressmen scold oil executives; in "The Cynical Politics of Global Warming and Its Hobgoblins," he shows the technique behind Al Gore's campaign to impose "wrenching transformation" on society; in "Signs of Poor Governance: Is America Becoming One of the Worst?" he lists the many ways Congress is mismanaging the economy; in "More or Less," he explains how Democrats succeed in establishing domineering government, and Republicans fail in advancing smaller government: Democrats work incrementally while many Republicans don't believe in smaller government.
Robert M. Thornton, in "Let's Not Worry about the World!" reminds us that we do ourselves no good worrying about weighty matters that we have no power to influence.
In "Party," Harry Neuwirth writes about ways to circumvent the party system under which such poor leadership has evolved.
Jigs Gardner, in "Writers for Conservatives: 16 -- The Great Battle Chronicler," relates how Samuel Marshall came by his method for accurately capturing battlefield events in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.
