Heavier burdens are in store for single mothers who currently receive Temporary Aid to Needy Families—if the administration and the House of Representatives have their way in the re-authorization of the 1996 welfare reform law. The re-authorization was to have taken place before last Oct. 1, b

General Jay Garner has had to bring order out of chaos before. In 1991, after the first Persian Gulf war, he supervised Operation Provide Comfort, which supplied food and shelter for the Kurdish population in northern Iraq. He is a proponent of the view that the military should be “a merciful

At a rally in Cleveland last July, a few days after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding Cleveland’s school voucher program, President Bush remarked that when September 2002 came around, some 3.5 million children (most of them living in the shabbiest sections of big cities) would

‘Fog of war” is a notorious euphemism for the unanticipated consequences of armed conflict. As active-duty and retired officers have attested during the first weeks of the Iraqi war, the battle plan changes the moment armed forces go into combat. As Iraqi Fedayeen have disguised themselv

Medicare, the health insurance program for Americans over 65, is getting much attention these days, because of the president’s much-contested plan to provide prescription benefits for low-income seniors. Medicaid, on the other hand, which is supposed to provide medical care for poor people of

With the exception of some Southern Baptist leaders and mega-church pastors, nearly all U.S. churches are opposing war with Iraq. This has forced many Americans to wonder if loyalty to God and country are now in conflict. Must they choose between the military adventures of their president and the mo

The economy continues to slump, and business commentators point to fears of war as the cause of depressed stock prices and lower consumer confidence. This must be disconcerting to Marxist theorists, who claim that all wars are started by capitalists seeking profits. True, some parts of the economy w

“Sneering and snobbery,” the philosopher Mary Midgeley has written, won dominance for linguistic analysis and existentialism in 20th-century philosophy. Although an overstatement, her comment hits the mark about philosophical fashions. It points to a desperate ploy in the war of ideas. W

From being a country that once welcomed immigrants, the United States has become a nation that has raised higher and higher barriers against them. These higher walls of exclusion are having a destructive effect on would-be immigrants from around the world, but especially on the people of one of our