United Nations attacks Heritage report
January 18, 2007 | By Nathaniel Ward
Most of the time, the United Nations tries to portray itself as a defender of freedom around the world. But when challenged, the organization’s true nature shines through. Far from defending freedom, it supports some of the most oppressive governments on the planet and maintains an institutional bias in favor of intrusive government.
The release on Tuesday of Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom posed just such a challenge to the U.N.’s erroneous notions about how the world works. The organization’s reaction was revealing.
Jonathan Pincus, an economist with the United Nations Development Program in Vietnam, told the Thanh Nien Daily that “Vietnam should not be concerned too much about the [I]ndex.” Why? Because the Index encourages countries to adopt policies that free their people from government regulation to allow individual freedom and permit economic growth. And the U.N. just won’t stand for that.
Scaremongering over security
Writing in USA Today, James Carafano sums up how liberals generate paranoia about programs that keep the nation safe:
- First, find a legitimate domestic surveillance program. Make sure it’s one most Americans ignore—the more obscure, the better. It doesn’t matter if the courts have ruled it constitutional. It doesn't matter if it helps fight crime or protect national security.
- Next, find an “expert” to denounce the program as an unnecessary expansion of executive authority. Rail about the potential for abuse (even when there's no evidence of actual abuse). Argue that the program could be a threat, even if it hasn’t, in fact, been misused.
- Finally, stimulate the “Luddite response”—a fear of technology. Rant about how the information age is destroying any hope of privacy. More information and technology equals power. And with more power comes more abuse.
“Combining these ingredients is guaranteed to shock sensibilities and spark congressional hearings,” Carafano argues. “It’s been done many times, starting with the tools authorized in the Patriot Act to fight terrorism, like delayed-notification warrants.” More recently, these tactics been used to drive fear about the Terrorist Surveillance Program and the military’s domestic investigations.
He concludes: “Keeping America safe, free and prosperous requires both liberty and order. Protecting the safety and freedom of Americans is not served well by simply demonizing security.”
The goals shared by liberals and terrorists
Both liberals and Muslim terrorists seek an American loss in the war on terror, author Dinesh D’Souza said today at The Heritage Foundation. The Left by no means conspires with the radical Islamists, D’Souza said, but there exists “cooperation—not deliberate, but nevertheless real.”
“From the point of view of the Left, the radical Muslims are scary, but not as scary as conservatives,” D’Souza told the audience in Heritage’s Allison Auditorium.
D’Souza explains why liberals want to make out Iraq as “another Vietnam.” Click here to read more.
Unmarried fathers
Heritage’s FamilyFacts.org draws our attention to its latest featured finding, from the American Sociological Review. The finding concludes that out-of-wedlock fatherhood is problematic for men just as out-of-wedlock motherhood is problematic for women:
The study found that unwed fatherhood is associated with delayed marriage and higher rates of cohabitation. Men who had a child outside of marriage were a third less likely to marry than peers who were not fathers. In addition, men who became fathers outside of marriage were twice as likely to cohabit as comparable men who were not fathers.
Other FamilyFacts.org findings point out that men who become fathers outside of marriage are more likely to be poor and less likely to be employed year-round. The lesson? Traditional marriage matters.
In other news
- In testimony today before the Senate Budget Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that soaring entitlement spending and the potential for higher taxes pose a tremendous threat to the nation’s economic future.
- The White House announced yesterday that the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be overseen by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The top-secret program, undertaken under the President’s wartime authority to protect the nation, was revealed last year by The New York Times.
- Iran’s government is “overplaying its hand” in the mistaken belief that America has grown weaker, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Middle Eastern leaders today.
- In an effort to ensure the budget is balanced by 2012, the Associated Press reports, that President Bush will no longer push to add personal accounts to Social Security. Unfortunately, the real economic threat comes from long-term overspending on entitlements like Social Security, not from short-term deficits.
- Under a proposed new rule, Muslim cabdrivers in Minneapolis will not be allowed to refuse transport to passengers carrying alcohol or accompanied by dogs.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.
- On Friday, January 19 at noon, author Thomas Evans discusses his new book, The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of His Conversion to Conservatism.
- On Monday, January 22 at 11:00 am, Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey speaks at Heritage about the importance of transformation and modernization to winning the war on terrorism.
- On Tuesday, January 23 at noon, author John Berlau points out how radical environmentalists are harming America.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
