Rebecca Knapp

In the past months, Washington has used its pull over and over to force businessmen to buy into its programs. From cornering banks into accepting TARP money to firing GM’s CEO to insisting that AIG employees return their contractually guaranteed retention bonus—Washington has demanded and businessmen have acquiesced.

A scientist working for a pharmaceutical company learns that after decades of research and development, she has succeeded in creating a drug that fights cancer. She wants to buy as much stock in her company as she can afford, knowing that her efforts will cause the stock price to sky-rocket. She wants to take full advantage of her success—to invest in herself. Yet if she buys stock in the company before the news of the cancer drug is made public, she will be liable for insider trading.

Illegal immigrants are pouring into the United States. Pro-immigration rallies and anti-immigration rallies alternated with equal fervor this spring, while the number of illegals living in the country continued to grow towards 10 million. Pending legislation threatens to make illegal immigration a felony and to build a wall across the southern border. A group of armed civilians calling itself the Minutemen Project patrols areas where illegal immigrants frequently cross into America, while southwestern talk radio stations voice their shrill support for the Minutemen.

This January, the Islamic terrorist organization, Hamas, won the Palestinian elections by a landslide. It now effectively controls Parliament. President Bush responded to the election by complimenting the democratic process. "You see," he said, in a line quoted by Time Online, "When you give people the vote, give them the chance to express themselves at the polls and they're unhappy with the status quo, they'll let you know...I like the competition of ideas. I like people who have to go out and say, vote for me, and here's what I'm going to do.