Grin and Bear It

By the time President Obama sat down with House Republicans on June 1 to talk about the exploding public debt, the economic data had been grim for days: another decline in home values, a new dip in consumer confidence and, just that morning, the lowest manufacturing-sector growth rate in more than a year and a dismal payroll report showing job growth far below expectations. In another era, these sorts of numbers would have led to a predictable chain of events for either a Republican or a Democratic President: rush to the cameras, empathize with those suffering the pain and declare that help is on the way.

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TAXATION: Spelling Bee

“Actually, any one who gives the matter unbiased consideration will realize that it is for the benefit of the rich to plug loopholes in tax laws, since this raises more revenues without raising rates.” With this neat bit of logic, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. last week opened the great 1937 hunt for rich tax dodgers launched so suddenly by him and Franklin Roosevelt early this month .

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Bisexuality What Is It?

Happily married for 10 years, Richard Sharrard, a dance instructor, and Tina Tessina, a psychotherapist and writer, blend in nicely enough with their neighbors in the middle-class community of Long Beach, Calif. But the couple’s life-style is far from ordinary: Sharrard and Tessina are openly and unapologetically bisexual

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UNITED NATIONS: Something for a Name

A man from New Zealand last week stumbled over that beautiful and dangerous phrase, “United Nations.” Like many another man, stubbing his toe gave him an idea.”The United Nations” is President Roosevelt's label for the 28 nations which up to this week have signed the Roosevelt-Churchill Atlantic Charter . It may, according to the President, include any & all nations “which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.” But the label “United Nations” is dangerous because too many people think that it also signifies a fully effective body for the cooperative conduct of World War II.It does no such thing

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