June 27, 2001 - Watch out for politicians promising us new 'rights' - Even liberal Michael Kinsley, formerly of the New Republic and now editor of "Slate," expresses astonishment at the way the Republican Party -- onetime purported champion of limited government -- is going along with the heavy-handed notion of a "Patients' Bill of Rights"...

  June 27, 2001 - Tax dollars attacking boy scouts - We need your help to get equal time on public television for the defenders of Scouting to tell the Scouts’ side of the controversy over prohibiting openly homosexual men from serving as scoutmasters...

  June 14, 2001 - Does inequality matter? - From The Economist print edition, The new rich may worry about envy, but everyone should worry about poverty. "IT'S the same the whole world over It's the poor who gets the blame. It's the rich who gets the pleasure..." What would the have-nots who penned this lament long ago make of today's world?  There are more rich people than ever before, including some 7m millionaires, and over 400 billionaires. From sipping champagne to taking trips into space, they are getting plenty of pleasure-though as our survey of the new rich in this issue shows, these sad souls have worries, too, not least about the damaging effect their wealth may have on their children. As for the poor, the gap between them and the rich is rising, even in the industrialized countries where for much of the 20th century the gap had narrowed. In America, between 1979 and 1997 the average income of the richest fifth of the population jumped from nine times the income of the poorest fifth to around 15 times. In 1999, British income inequality reached its widest level in 40 years...

  June 7, 2001 - Free Jenna! - From The Economist print edition, A Joan of Arc, burning on the pyre of American puritanism. F about the Senate or Californian black-outs. This summer, there is only one story in America: the attempt by two 19-year-old girls, the president's daughters as it happens, to buy drinks in a Mexican restaurant in Austin, Texas. This was Jenna Bush's second alcohol-related offence in just over a month in a state that imposes mandatory prison sentences for a third offence. She compounded her crime by using a fake ID to try to buy her margarita-and by encouraging her goody-two-shoes twin sister, Barbara, to join her in flouting the law...