2004 
The Illinois Negro Code(111)
Most people believe the history of race relations in the United States is neatly divided by geography. Those states north of the Mason-Dixon Line were paragons of equality and liberty, where race was not an issue and diversity flourished in all its glory. In the benighted states to their south, however, the entire social structure was based on slavery and racist oppression. Consequently, the War Between the States was fought purely over the issue of slavery, and, as is usual in trial by combat, the arms of the virtuous side were strengthened by the Hand of the Almighty, which led to their victory over those rebellious slaveholding cretins. For some unknown reason, the books written by court historians do not start with the words “once upon a time.”
In reality, things were much different, as the history of Illinois demonstrates.
Full Story»
But, thou Bethlehem . . . —December 2004
Thomas Fleming on displacement, Fr. Hugh Barbour on the only blessing left, John Francis Nieto on Dante, and Fr. Alister Anderson on Southern theology. Plus, David Hartman on taxation, and a short story by Anthony Bukoski.
Taxation for Economic Survival: The Business Transfer Tax
The severity of the ongoing decline of U.S. manufacturing has placed our prosperity and national security in jeopardy. A principal cause of this crisis is the federal tax code, which currently imposes multiple layers of progressive taxation on U.S. goods.
The Plight of the Homeless
In one of Douglas Adams’ very silly books, Zaphod Beeblebrox, the egocentric two-headed president of the universe, is condemned to undergo the ordeal of the Total Perspective Vortex. It is an excruciating form of torture that exposes the criminal to a sense of the infinite size of the universe and his own small place in it.