When have handouts ever worked? In the United States, we learned that welfare for our own citizens not only turned into a debilitating crutch, it created a more or less permanent underclass.

We have created not a Brave New World, but a vulgar marketplace, where human attributes come with a price tag.

Their prejudice allowed white Southerners to look the other way when blacks were denied their most basic human rights, and it encouraged the worst of them to engage in unspeakable acts of cruelty and violence.

Choosing one's leaders is an affirmation that the person making the choice has inherent worth.

The unions claim the deck is stacked against them when it comes to labor laws, but the truth is many private and public sector workers are forced to pay union dues as a condition of their employment, yet they have little say in how the unions spend their money.

Some 43 percent of voters in union households voted for President Bush in 2004, according to exit poll data.

The U.S. has already suffered a devastating attack on September 11, 2001, and may again become a target.