Digging for Valid Answers On Niger-Uranium Trade
You seem to be the only one willing to do any digging on the Niger uranium story.
When the Niger uranium situation first surfaced, I did a little research and found that about two-thirds of their meager exports were from the sale of uranium.
They are the third-largest producer in the world. Uranium mining in Niger is done by a joint venture of the largest uranium mining company in the world that happens to be French and a French government-owned mining company.
The second fact I found interesting is that mining has been in a decade-long decline reaching half the production experienced in the 1980s.
Then in 2000-2002 there was a large spike up with production increasing about one-third. Who bought this increase in production? It is strange since the other large producers experienced a decline during this same period. Apparently no one has bothered to ask.
All of this is in a French language report on the Internet. Apparently journalists are too lazy to do real digging these days. I commend you on your willingness to do some digging.
Slobodan Milosevic Is No Idi Amin
John Gizzi’s review of Riccardo Orizio’s Talk of the Devil ["Chatting with Ex-Tyrants ?? la Oprah," HUMAN EVENTS, July 21, page 28] included Slobodan Milosevic, who does not belong on a list with Idi Amin and others.
The Serbians in Kosovo were the victims of illegal immigration by Albanians who, after reaching 30% of the population, formed the KLA and began a campaign of terror to displace the Serbians.
The KLA funded their terror by being a conduit for illegal drugs into Europe. Serbians responded to terror the only way possible when fighting to defend their historic homeland.
When Mexico attempts to annex our Southwest (already re-named Aztlan) should the U.S. bomb our citizens in Phoenix?
Advice for Clinton: Donate Tax Refund
In reference to Bill O’Reilly’s column ["The Bilking of America," HUMAN EVENTS, July 14, page 27], I have a suggestion for Bill Clinton to overcome the angst he is experiencing over the 500,000 children we are putting out on the street to give him an $80,000 tax cut: Bill should donate the $80,000 to a charity whose mission is to keep kids off the street.
While the former President is certainly free to pick the beneficiary of his largesse, he could start by considering a chapter of the Boys and Girls Club in one of the nation’s large cities.
Bill may be amazed to see how far each dollar goes when it skips the federal government’s administrative carving knife.
But it should not end there. Bill should avoid the temptation to deduct the donation from his next installment of taxes, as this would result in lowering his taxes. Granted, this may be difficult for someone who is used to deducting the value of used undergarments that he has donated to Goodwill and the like, but sometimes principle comes at a cost.
Another way for the former President to help is to waive his standard six-figure fee for appearances at fundraisers for groups dedicated to keeping kids off of the street.
This should tide him over until we elect the next tax-and-spend President.
Banning Quotas By Ballot Initiative?
Let’s see now, Ward Connerly wants to pass another statute (aka "people’s initiative") "dismantling" or "banning" affirmative action, "abolishing racial preferences," "discriminating as to race," and so on, and so forth ["Connerly Seeks Michigan Anti-Bias Ballot Initiative," HUMAN EVENTS, July 14, page 1].
Alas, I fear America will never be able to micromanage human nature by resorting to popular referendum.
Thus Big Brother contrivances of "disparity," "diversity," "quotas," "affirmative action," and a national ethos sedated by "political correctness."
As Richard Epstein has suggested, it is time to re-examine the "anti-discrimination principle." The common law and the Constitution would have provided far better guidelines than a cursory statute of emotivist pretension.
A wise few see that we shouldn’t look to the judiciary to resolve the resulting mess, but the legislature. The real solution is to repeal the 1964 law and return to age-old proven tenets and procedures of the common law. Instead of looking to more initiatives from Ward Connerly, Republican leaders and papers like HUMAN EVENTS should grasp such truths. Otherwise the mess will continue.
Correction
In last week’s article, "Bill Would Empower Police to Arrest Deportation Absconders," [HUMAN EVENTS, August 4] we reported that the estimated cost of the CLEAR Act would be $6 billion a year. The correct figure is $2.6 billion a year.
