Tracking Your Digital Trail - The New American Magazine - 6-8-09.pdf
1. Notre Dame: Tragedy and Hope • “Merchant of Death” Trial Still Looms • The Flag of Our Nation
June 8, 2009
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4.
5. 10
vol. 25, no. 12 June 8, 2009
Cover Story
Surveillance Society
10 tracking your Digital trail
Design by Joseph W. Kelly
by Beverly K. Eakman — Innocent-seeming questionnaires, tests,
and surveys are increasingly being disseminated by government
officials so that they have complete histories on every citizen.
FeatureS
23
culture
19 controlling thoughts, Words, and Deeds
by Selwyn Duke — The problem with hate-crime bills.
AP Images
23 notre Dame: tragedy and Hope
by Jack Kenny — The storied Catholic university may have
honored pro-abortion-“rights” President Barack Obama, but this
“honor” gave Catholic and non-Catholic pro-lifers an opportunity to
champion principle over expediency.
28
terroriSm
28 “merchant of Death” trial Still looms
by William F. Jasper — Notorious global weapons trafficker Viktor
Bout may now be in jail in Thailand, but extraditing him and fully
exposing his Russian sponsors is another matter.
Book revieW
31 nurturing the Great Depression
AP Images
by Charles Scaliger — Dr. Robert Higgs makes the case that FDR’s
New Deal altered America’s political and economic landscape.
HiStory - PaSt anD PerSPective 19 31
36 the Flag of our nation
by John White — Americans have a deep-seated love and respect
for Old Glory.
AP Images
tHe laSt WorD
44 obama’s imF Sneak attack
by William F. Jasper
36
DepartmentS
5 letters to the editor 35 the Goodness of america
6 inside track 41 exercising the right
9 QuickQuotes 42 correction, Please! cover Design by Joseph W. Kelly
6. PEOPLE
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8. Inside Track
unemployment Smoke and mirrors
You know the economy is in the tank when officials hail the loss
of 539,000 non-farm jobs in the U.S. economy during the month
of April as good news. President Barack Obama termed the lat-
est unemployment figures “somewhat encouraging,” despite the
fact that unemployment rose from 8.5 to 8.9 percent nationally.
Obama was somewhat encouraged in part because most econo- 72,000 jobs? Farm unemployment is not the reason for the dis-
mists had expected April job losses to be higher than 600,000, as crepancy: 72,000 jobs would amount to about 10 percent of all
had happened in each of the first three months of 2009. hired farm labor nationwide according to the National Agricul-
Viewing such statistics superficially, it appears that the reces- tural Statistics Service; and as of February of this year, farm labor
sion is softening. But is that really the case? “In April, job losses was up two percent over the same month in 2008.
were large and widespread across nearly all major private-sector The big factor explaining the discrepancy is the simple fact
industries,” the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, that federal government employment is in a bull market. “Over
which released the data, noted in a dismally honest press release, the month [of April], federal government employment rose by
adding, “Overall, private-sector employment fell by 611,000.” 66,000,” reports the Denver Business Journal, “mainly due to
But how can the Bureau of Labor Statistics report a net loss hiring of temporary workers in preparation for Census 2010.”
of only 539,000 non-farm jobs while also reporting that another Put simply, the growth in federal government employment has
611,000 jobs were lost in the private sector — a difference of masked the full extent of unemployment in the private sector.
Social Security, medicare running out of money Faster than expected
Social Security and Medicare, Big Government’s two most cher- The estimated 5.7 million jobs lost since late 2007 have meant
ished social-welfare programs, are running out of money far lower revenues from the payroll taxes used to fund these two
faster than expected, thanks to the persistent economic down- misnamed “entitlement” programs, and the looming retirement of
turn. Medicare, which is already running a deficit, will run out tens of millions of baby boomers will quite possibly strain them
of money by 2017, while Social Security will be broke 20 years to the breaking point. Meanwhile, Medicare and Social Security
after that, according to new estimates released on May 12 by the cost more than a combined $1 trillion last year, or more than one-
Social Security Board of Trustees. third of the entire federal budget.
another record-breaking Deficit looms
The latest budget figures, released in May by the Obama admin- mightily to correct for decades of fiscal abuse, mostly in the form
istration contemplate a $1.8 trillion deficit for fiscal 2009 as the of massive public and private indebtedness, huge misallocations
United States economy continues to significantly underperform of investment, and the inflationary policies of central banks like
relative to earlier forecasts. This year’s record-setting deficit is the Federal Reserve. So far, the only solution that the Obama ad-
now reckoned to be four times last year’s — the previous record- ministration (and the Bush administration before it) has been able
setter. Next year, the deficit is expected to decline to contemplate is more inflation, more government spending, and
but still to exceed $1.3 trillion — and that’s only more debt. As a consequence, our government is now borrowing
if everything goes according to plan. 50 cents for every dollar it spends and creating new money out of
But of course, economies never go as thin air to cover a large portion of its obligations.
planned, as the Brezhnevs and Mus- Farther into the future, the Obama administration is forecasting
solinis of history attest. The budget deficits over the next decade to total more than $7 trillion
American (and world) dollars, with annual shortfalls never being less than $500 billion.
economy is struggling The latter figure was regarded as a calamitous amount only a few
years ago; now is treated like chump change.
To make matters still worse, the administration’s figures are
based on a scenario in which the U.S. economy declines by 1.2
percent this year and grows by 3.2 percent next year — an ex-
ceedingly unlikely outcome, given the huge declines already
logged this year. (A survey of economists conducted by Blue
Chip Economic Indicators came up with a likely 2.8 percent de-
cline this year and growth of 1.9 percent next year.)
6 THE NEW AMERICAN • JuNE 8, 2009
9. montana Defies Feds on Guns
The state of Montana last month approved what commen- spokesperson cited in
tators are dubbing a “revolutionary” new law earlier this the article had no com-
month. The “Montana Firearms Freedom Act” is set to ment about the legisla-
trigger a legal showdown between the federal government tion.
and the state, which is exactly what some lawmakers are The text of the bill
hoping for. cites the Ninth and 10th
“It’s a gun bill, but it’s another way of demonstrating the Amendments to the U.S.
sovereignty of the state of Montana,” said Democratic Gover- Constitution, which (quot-
nor Brian Schweitzer, who signed the legislation. The law would ing from the bill) guarantee
exempt from federal regulation all guns, ammunition, and acces- “to the states and their people all
sories that are made, sold, and kept within the state — provided powers not granted to the federal gov-
they are stamped with the words “Made in Montana.” The idea ernment elsewhere in the Constitution and reserves to the state
is that since the federal government justifies its regulations using and people of Montana certain powers as they were understood
the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, it has no at the time that Montana was admitted to statehood in 1889.” It
authority to regulate intrastate trade in firearms. also cites the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and
According to an AP article entitled “Montana gun law tar- Montana’s own constitution, which “clearly secures to Montana
gets states’ rights clash,” the drafters of the bill aim to test the citizens, and prohibits government interference with, the right of
law with a single-shot .22-caliber rifle. The plan is to have a individual Montana citizens to keep and bear arms.”
“squeaky-clean” Montanan send a note to the federal Bureau of The bill passed easily in both houses and is now spreading
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) threatening to other states including Utah, Tennessee, Texas, and Alaska. “I
to manufacture and sell 20 of the youth-model rifles without a think states have got to stand up or else most of their rights are
federal permit. If the ATF tries to claim it is illegal, they hope going to be buffaloed by the administration and by Congress,”
to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. An ATF said Texas state Rep. Leo Berman.
oklahoma rescinds all Previous constitutional convention calls
Oklahoma continues to lead the nation in Constitution-oriented on May 12, following passage by lopsided margins in both the
legislation at the state level. The 10th-Amendment resolution in- state House and Senate.
troduced in the Oklahoma legislature last year by Rep. Charles Back in the mid 1970s a con-con movement sprang up to call
Key has led to at least 30 states introducing similar 10th-Amend- a modern-day constitutional convention for the stated purpose of
ment resolutions so far this year. These amendments call for the drafting a balanced-budget amendment (BBA) to the Constitution,
restoration of the balance of power between state and federal and by 1983 it had led to 32 state legislatures asking Congress
governments in accordance with the 10th-Amendment to the to call a convention as provided by Article V of the Constitution.
Constitution of the United States. At least 12 states, including However, as awareness spread that a constitutional convention
Oklahoma, have already passed a 10th-Amendment resolution in cannot be limited to drafting a specific amendment — and in fact
one or both houses. could draft any number of amendments including an entirely new
Now Oklahoma has become the first state this year to rescind constitution — the con-con movement sputtered and stalled, and
all of its previous applications to Congress to call a constitutional 11 states have withdrawn their prior BBA calls.
convention (con con). Governor Brad Henry signed the measure
a new con-con threat arises
A new constitutional convention threat has arisen this year. Many newly awakened
Americans are being mobilized by the Tea Party Movement and the Glenn Beck 9-12
Project to form movements in favor of some very good causes, such as lower taxes, less
spending, and a return to a more limited federal government. In recent weeks the na-
tional leaders of both movements have been heavily promoting Georgetown University
Law Center Professor Randy Barnett and his project of proposing 10 amendments to
the Constitution by applying pressure on all 50 state legislatures to call for a consti-
tutional convention. Both Tea Party leader Michael Patrick Leahy and 9-12 Project
leader Glenn Beck have featured Barnett and his project on their TV shows.
www.TheNewAmerican.com
10. Inside Track
credit card meltdown Hits Banks
Next up for ailing mega-banks: a credit card meltdown. No sur-
prise here, really; Americans have overused credit cards for years,
trusting always in unending economic expansion and plentiful
employment to guarantee their ability to service consumer debt.
All that, of course, has changed dramatically over the last year
and a half, with millions of Americans suddenly out of work
and trying to service huge, high-interest credit card debts with
no income and no savings. Credit card defaults are soaring, and students, and the requirement of a 45 days’ notice before increas-
much worse is to come, according to the government’s recently ing a card’s interest rate. To anyone who has fallen behind on
disclosed bank stress tests. By the end of 2010, says the govern- credit card payments, such provisions may seem like a welcome
ment, America’s 19 largest banks can expect to lose as much as balm, but they will likely have little effect besides forcing credit
$82.4 billion in credit card defaults. card issuers to raise fees and curtail credit lines.
2009 is widely expected to be the worst year in the history of Credit cards, representing risky, unsecured debt, charge higher
the credit card industry. But that hasn’t deterred Congress from interest rates to cover the very great potential for losses from
seeking to impose tough new regulations on the sector, respond- fraud and defaults. With the advent of debit cards, credit cards are
ing to pleas from hard-pressed credit card users who failed to read much less indispensable than may have been the case formerly;
the fine print in their credit card agreements. With a hectoring online purchases, for example, can now be made by debiting
President Obama demanding prompt legislation on credit card money directly from checking accounts.
reform, Congress has now passed a bill with overwhelming bi- Old habits die hard. A generation of Americans used to running
partisan support in both houses and sent it to the president for his up credit card debt far in excess of personal savings to finance
signature. Despite a measure legalizing firearms in national parks purchases of wants is unlikely to change its ways overnight. For
inserted at the last minute, President Obama is likely to approve now, some of these naïve souls are expecting government to step
the measure, which includes a welter of new restrictions on credit in and keep the credit card party going by legislative fiat. But the
card issuers. These include bans on fees for making payments by only thing credit card legislation will accomplish is more losses
phone or Internet, restrictions on the issuance of credit cards to in an already reeling sector. n
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11. QuickQuotes
economist expects china to Dominate the 21st century
“The 19th century was dominated by the British Empire, the
20th century by the United States. We may now be enter-
ing the Asian century dominated by a rising China and its
currency.”
New York University professor Nouriel Roubini warns that
the United States must “rein in spending and borrowing” or
Photo by Kjetil Ree
face the end of our influence in global affairs.
Nouriel christianity Dying in arab World
Roubini “Unless there is a turn toward secularism in the Arab world,
I don’t think there is a future for Christians here.”
Sarkis Naoum, a Christian columnist for the Lebanese newspaper Al Nahar, expects a sharply dimin-
ishing presence for his co-religionists in the region once heavily populated by believers in Christ.
columnist urges no on Hate-crimes legislation
“The best hate-crimes bill Congress can pass is none at all.”
Pointing out that crimes labeled “hate crimes” are already felonies, Jeff Jacoby disagrees that these
transgressions should be considered more grievous because of the motives of their perpetrators.
comedian Points to Biden-style Hypocrisy
“Just a day after saying he wouldn’t go anywhere in confined
places like an aircraft or a subway because of the swine flu,
Vice President Joe Biden rode a train from Washington to
Delaware. You know what that means? Not even Joe Biden
listens to Joe Biden.”
The message given in this comment by comedian Jay Leno
amounts to, “Watch what politicians do rather than what
they say.”
taliban influence Gaining in Pakistan
AP Images
“They smell blood and they are intoxicated by the idea of a Jay
Leno
jihadist takeover in Pakistan.”
A former analyst for the CIA, Bruce Riedel has been watch-
ing the growth of Taliban and al-Qaeda influence in the shaky nation.
idahoan chides Fellow lawmakers for accepting Federal aid
“They lay the bait out and we take it. Then we whine that we’ve taken it.”
A state senator who backs state-sovereignty resolutions, Monty Pearce nevertheless knows that some
fellow legislators who agree with him still like accepting federal funds.
Future looking Bleak for radio
“AM/FM radio has about five good years left, if that. What we consider radio today will be on the Inter-
net. The Internet is not only going to change radio; it’s going to change humanity. That’s how profound
this revolution in communication will be.”
Michael Harrison, the founder and publisher of Talkers magazine, the trade journal of talk radio, has
40 years of experience in various levels of the radio industry.
He Doesn’t like What He calls State capitalism
“Then not a drop of oil was imported; now over half is. Then we were trying to figure out how to put
our idle factories back to work; now we are trying to figure out where our factories went. Then we were
the world’s largest creditors; now we are the world’s largest debtors. Then a family might have one car
but they could repair it; now families have three automobiles and can’t fix any of them.”
Contrasting the Depression years of the 1930s with the current economic downturn era, columnist/
author Nicholas von Hoffman urges swift adoption of “a new business plan” and complete rejection
of the economic ideas currently ruining the nation. n
— coMPilEd by John F. McManus
Call 1-800-727-TRUE to subscribe today! 9
12. Surveillance Society
Innocent-seeming questionnaires, tests, and surveys are increasingly being disseminated
by government officials so that they have complete histories on every citizen.
By Beverly K. Eakman famous Matthew Shepard case as a “hoax” surveys, cross-matched with her family’s
inasmuch as Shepard’s killers appeared to religious affiliations, magazine and news-
A
t this writing, Republican Con- have been interested in drugs, not sexual- paper subscriptions, and other “private” in-
gresswoman Virginia Foxx of identity issues. formation that she might inadvertently let
North Carolina is busy apolo- Were Foxx a teenager today, she would slip throughout her K-12 years. She would
gizing for her politically incorrect gaffe be spared the necessity of balancing her also be “guided” by social-studies and
in arguing against legislation that would conservative views on sexuality against the “health” teachers who are aggressive in
expand federal hate-crime laws to include left’s Orwellian obsession with semantics. “helping” students overcome “inflexible”
sexual orientation. She pointed to the in- School counselors would steer her away and “intolerant” attitudes — a strategy now
from career paths in politics, journalism, made infinitely simple via computer.
Beverly K. Eakman is a former speechwriter for the or teaching (all careers that influence pub- Since the mid-1970s, market research
heads of two federal agencies, a sought-after lecturer, lic perceptions) based on her answers on firms and pollsters have worked to collect
and the author of four books. school-based, opinion-oriented tests and value and lifestyle (“VALS”) data on chil-
10 THE NEW AMERICAN • JuNE 8, 2009
13. ly familiar following September 11, 2001.
In reality, both were in the works prior to
9/11, but understated as in expressions like
“market/consumer research,” “background
check,” and “psychographics.”
Certainly, it was not evident to aver-
age Americans that their behaviors and
beliefs were undergoing long-term moni-
toring, although phrases like “molding
public opinion” rang an alarm bell among
more sophisticated audiences. What most
people, including the well-read, did not
realize was how much money was being
poured into behavioral and psychological
research during World War II and the post-
war years, via facilities like the Tavistock
Institute in Britain, the Office of War In-
formation in the United States, and vari-
ous colleges’ and universities’ psychology
departments, such as Esalen Institute and
Columbia University.
Both the funders and the recipients of re-
AP Images
search grants subscribed to a vastly differ-
ent ethical code from mainstream America,
assessing kids to manipulate beliefs: The data gleaned from states’ student assessments about unfettered by constitutional considerations.
kids’ social behaviors, religious beliefs, and family interactions is often collected by both state Canadian psychiatrists such as Drs. Brock
and federal governments in order to decide what beliefs need changing. Chisholm and Cameron Ewen were among
the first to publicly blame religious moral-
dren and adults from any source capable of tistics, considered staples of marketing, ity, especially Christianity, for “mental ill-
generating an analysis — popular maga- polling, and advertising industries. What ness” and war. Chisholm told the World
zines, surveys, telephone polls, school it means to the average citizen is that be- Federation of Mental Health in 1946 that
questionnaires, psychological screen- havioral scientists (i.e., psychologists and parents holding such backward doctrines
ing instruments, census forms, and even statisticians) can predict how people might were “creating a thousand neurotics for
academic tests (eventually renamed “as- react to hot-button issues as many as five every one psychiatrists can hope to cure.”
sessments” to avoid allegations of testing years down the road and work to change British psychologist John Rawlings
fraud). The idea was to cross-match infor- perceptions or reactions. In an environ- Rees, head of the Tavistock Institute in the
mation so that behavioral analysts could ment where one political worldview domi- 1930s and ’40s, once bragged that he could
find out what makes certain groups (and nates (i.e., controls the bureaucracy), this create a psychological environment that
individuals) tick — and then see if people equates to psychopolitics — a term first forced people to let go of even firmly en-
could be made to “tick” differently via an popularized by science-fiction writer Isaac trenched beliefs using “controlled stress”
advertising or public relations campaign. Asimov just 30 years ago. experiments that had been done on U.S.
The purpose was to sell a product, be it Governments, of course, have long rec- and British soldiers. German immigrant
coffee, a candidate for public office, or a ognized the advantages of knowing every- psychologist Max Kallmann and his U.S.
political agenda. thing about their citizens, espe-
A few parents were aware that such tac- cially their attitudes. Hitler and
tics were encroaching upon educational Stalin would have drooled over Were Rep. Foxx a teenager today, school
settings, but viewed them as more an inva- today’s global positioning sat- counselors would steer her away from
sion of privacy than an outright violation ellites and information systems.
of their childrearing prerogatives. Even in the 1990s, politicians career paths in politics, journalism,
Until the other shoe dropped had to confine their informa- or teaching based on her answers on
Along came the computer and the In- tion quests to groups, factions,
ternet. Both vastly facilitated identifica- and socio-demographic blocs. school-based, opinion-oriented tests and
tion, data-capture, and cross-matching Now data-collection and analy- surveys, cross-matched with her family’s
capabilities. The technology morphed like sis have been taken to a whole
greased lightning on steroids in the 1980s new level of individualization. religious affiliations, and magazine and
and ’90s. Today, the “dream degree” is Terms like “data mining” and newspaper subscriptions.
a dual doctorate in psychology and sta- “profiling” became increasing-
www.TheNewAmerican.com 11
14. Surveillance Society
system was constructed in 1985 under the
Office of Educational Research and Infor-
mation (OERI), an office of the U.S. De-
partment of Education; it became known
as the Elementary and Secondary Inte-
grated Data System (ESIDS).
All of these sounded innocuous and le-
gitimate: a set of tidy statistics for compar-
ing one state’s schools with another. What
it really amounted to, however, was the first
electronic transfer system — something ev-
eryone takes for granted today. For behav-
ioral psychologists, however, it was a “Eu-
reka!” moment. Suddenly older pros like
Dustin Heustin of the World Institute for
Computer-Assisted Technology realized
what they could really accomplish. “We’ve
been absolutely staggered by realizing that
the computer has the capability to act as if
AP Images
it were 10 of the top psychologists working
with one student.... Won’t it be wonderful
everyone contributes data: These high-school students take an “assessment” created by the … when no one can get between that child
Educational Testing Service (ETS). Assessments differ from tests in that assessments collect and that computer?” he gushed.
“economic, social, and personal characteristics.” ETS sells its products to governments and
organizations “in more than 180 countries.” Subjects unaware
Being sneaky was the key. Ralph Tyler,
protégée, Linda Erlenmeyer-Kimling, pro- international relations (Carnegie Endow- the famous behavioral testing pioneer (de-
moted eugenics among many Americans ment for International Peace), and served ceased 1994), like his colleague, Benjamin
despite the prevailing Judeo-Christian as a trustee of the Rand Corporation, Bloom (Taxonomy of Educational Objec-
ethical climate of their day. which developed the Delphi Technique of tives, 1956), insisted that the purpose
underhanded consensus-building. of education was to induce students to
molding the masses The thrust of their collective learning change their beliefs and behaviors. Citing
Most people never realized that after experiences was mass psychology, partic- five aspects of the privacy issue in Crucial
World War II, the higher-ups among these ularly manipulation strategies that feature Issues in Testing (1969), Tyler’s co-editor,
various radical entities ventured forth to “psychological control of environment,” in Richard Wolf, allowed for the “permissi-
head educational institutions and media which high- and low-stress techniques are bility of deception.” Wolf alleged that ex-
outlets. For example, Edward Barrett, applied alternately to a setting, producing tracting information from students some-
who served as head of our government’s a group that ultimately cannot follow its times outweighed privacy considerations
overt psychological warfare program from own train of thought and winds up behav- because there “are occasions in which
1950-52, became dean of Columbia Uni- ing and thinking erratically. Eventually, the test constructor [finds it necessary] to
versity’s Graduate School of Journalism. experts realized that their efforts would be outwit the subject so that he cannot guess
He once boasted that “among OWI [Office simplified if they knew where individuals what information he is revealing.” Tyler
of War Information] alumni are the pub- “were coming from” in the first place. But and Wolf lobbied hard for a new mission
lishers of Time, Look, Fortune, and sev- mass data collection was only marginally in America’s schools — what we know as
eral dailies; editors of such magazines as feasible at that time, and the sheer volume “psychological profiling” today. Another
Holiday, Coronet, Parade, … the Saturday of information was too overwhelming to be colleague, Walcott Beatty, admonished
Review ... the Denver Post [and] the New useful — until a mathematical algorithm his peers around the same time to make
Orleans Times-Picayune … ; the heads of could be applied to computerized data in sure that their efforts to capture “noncog-
Viking Press [and] Harper & Brothers.” order to categorize and compare data and nitive” details on students’ lives “avoid
William Paley, an alumnus of the U.S. serve as fodder for trend analysis. the appearance of [being] a national ini-
Army’s Psychological Warfare Division Among the first forays into mass data tiative.” Tyler, Wolf, Bloom, and Beatty
went on to head CBS, and C.D. Jackson collection was the program-planning- comprised an emerging behaviorist fac-
led Time/Life. Another, Charles Dollard, budget-system (PPBS) in the early 1970s, tion (called behavioral psychology) that
became president of the Carnegie Corpo- followed by the School and Staffing Sur- ignored legal experts like Charles W. Sher-
ration, which wound up setting policy in vey (SASS) system. Soon the software rer and Ronald A. Roston who warned that
banking, education (Carnegie Foundation and hardware were outstripping even the anything resembling personality testing
for the Advancement of Teaching), and experts’ expectations. An integrated data could be construed as an invasion of pri-
12 THE NEW AMERICAN • JuNE 8, 2009
15. vacy. They concurred with, yet decided to “over time” are key. These
disregard, the legal admonitions of Reed point to the longitudinal
Martin, who wrote a book warning that study, a mainstay of today’s
The U.S. Department of Education’s NCES
educators promoting mental health and long-term data-collection Statistical Standards define “assessment”
behavior modification questionnaires in process, allowing opinions
thusly: “An assessment is any systematic
schools were in danger of being charged and worldviews to be tallied
with “entrapment.” The behaviorist educa- and followed over the child’s procedure for obtaining information from
tors sided instead with Bernard Berelson school years, then on into tests and other sources that can be used
(Journal of Educational Measurement, college and the workplace.
Spring 1967) who claimed that “‘great Noncognitive question- to draw inferences about characteristics of
society’ programs … have heightened the naires entail nailing down people, objects, or programs.”
demand on behavioral scientists to work controversial opinions on is-
on social problems.” sues ranging from the worth
The problem was that the computer of the United Nations to homosexuality to feel: [a] Very comfortable, [b] Comfort-
made it all just so darned easy and tempt- climate change. Upon examining the ques- able, [c] Slightly uncomfortable, [d] Very
ing; consequently, such questionnaires be- tions (which are difficult to obtain), any- uncomfortable.”
came a federal scheme — one that is now one schooled in marketing or public rela- • “There is a secret club at school called
pervasive as “mental illness prevention” in tions would recognize a certain familiarity: the Midnight Artists. They go out late at
the nation’s schools. what-would-you-do-if queries; confession- night and paint funny sayings and pic-
The U.S. Department of Education began style probes; and psychological “fishing tures on buildings. I WOULD JOIN THE
demanding that states create assessments expeditions.” One of the first, Pennsylva- CLUB when I knew … [a] my best friend
that combined both cognitive and noncog- nia’s 1984 Educational Quality Assessment had asked me to join; [b] most of the popu-
nitive questions as a prerequisite of receiv- (EQA), contained the following: lar students in school were in the club; [c]
ing any sort of federal funding. The term • “I get upset easily at home. The stu- my parents would ground me if they found
“cognitive” was redefined at the federal dent checks: [a] Very true of me, [b] Most- out I joined.” [Italics added.]
level, using the rationale that every piece of ly true of me, [c] Mostly untrue of me, [d]
“knowledge” necessarily contains an emo- Very untrue of me.” tackling intransigence
tional component. Thus, any use of noncog- • “You are asked to dinner at the home Parents paid scant attention to this sort
nitive items did not violate the demand for of a classmate having a religion much dif- of thing in the 1980s, until their kids
substantive curriculum or testing. Not only ferent from yours. In this situation I would started saying schools were asking ques-
that, but “getting along” and “teamwork” in
the workplace demanded a new emphasis
on “social compliance.” Thus did noncogni-
tive, worldview-based education get “sold”
in a career-oriented package, and the word
“test” was changed to “assessment” in case
of a legal backlash over fraud.
The term “assessment” is there for a
reason. The U.S. Department of Educa-
tion’s National Center for Education Sta-
tistics (NCES) Statistical Standards define
it thusly: “An assessment is any systematic
procedure for obtaining information from
tests and other sources that can be used
to draw inferences about characteristics
of people, objects, or programs.” Another
major source, Constructing Curriculum for
the Primary Grades by D.T. Dodge, et al.,
states: “Assessment is the process of gath-
ering information about children in order
to make decisions about their education.
AP Images
Teachers obtain useful information about
children’s knowledge, skills, and progress
by observing, documenting, and reviewing Schools recognize few boundaries: Savana Redding was strip-searched by school staff when
children’s work over time. Ongoing assess- she was 13 because she was falsely accused of bringing prescription-strength ibuprofen to
ment [also] occurs in the context of class- school, and the staff wanted to penalize any bad behavior. If a parent had strip-searched a
room activities.” The words “ongoing” and 13-year-old child, it could have been considered child abuse by Child Protective Services.
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16. Surveillance Society
tives, and to withhold fund- two tactless comments in a New York sub-
ing from local education dis- way about sitting next to kids with purple
Involuntary commitment, initially tricts that flinched. and green hair, and women with 10 ille-
confined to fines and jail sentences, is In the end, doctors’ of- gitimate children. Both remarks were taken
fices and businesses, and for racial slurs even though it was mainly
gathering popularity as punishment for
even criminal justice, were white teens who were applying weird hair
“inflexible” adults who still cling to their sacrificed on the altar of dyes and unmarried females of many races
privacy and who view parental decisions “mental health.” If a child who were bearing children. Referrals for
came in with a broken leg or prescriptions of dangerous drugs like Rit-
on issues such as discipline and health as a bump on his head, doctors alin and Concerta, aimed at inattentive
superseding government edicts. were charged with looking and naughty schoolchildren, have become
for signs of parental abuse, routine. Involuntary commitment, initially
emotional and physical. If a confined to fines and short jail sentences, is
tions about Mom and Dad, about their female or a member of an ethnic minority gathering popularity as punishment for “in-
finances, methods of discipline, attitudes was having problems at work, it might be flexible” adults who still cling tenaciously
toward race and medications. When par- a hostile work environment, which was, of to their privacy (e.g., refusing to provide
ents balked, they got the runaround. This course, emotionally unhealthy. Defendants DNA and urine samples without probable
writer’s 1991 whistle-blower, Educating in criminal cases were assigned psycholo- cause), or who view parental decisions on
for the New World Order, showcases the gists to determine “fitness” for trial, often issues such as discipline and health as su-
efforts of parents in three different states. as not resulting in the miscreant being back perseding government edicts (e.g., spank-
The mother in Pennsylvania who proved out on the street to repeat his or her crime. ing toddlers being categorized as child
her case to the satisfaction of U.S. Sena- Individuals and groups are even cat- abuse, and refusing radical treatments such
tor Arlen Specter was nevertheless unable egorized and marginalized for politically as chemotherapy or radiation for minor
to “prove harm,” which is the standard for incorrect thoughts or “crimes of opinion” children with cancer being equated with
a successful lawsuit involving compensa- that would then need to be fought (or so medical neglect, along with refusing to
tion. That allowed the state to continue the public would be led to believe) with dispense a psychotropic drug to a child).
what it was doing and actually embold- a new weapon, “preventive psychology.”
ened the federal government plus state Increasingly, crimes of opinion come with Details on Data mining
education agencies to steamroll over the mandatory counseling. Such was the case Mental “health” screening (a.k.a. “profil-
10th Amendment and parental preroga- of baseball star John Rocker, who uttered ing” or “data mining”) now is locked ideo-
logically with behavioral prediction
— even though the computerized
algorithms used by behavioral
analysts to analyze compilations
of data often utilize only selected
snippets of information and arrive
at often-incorrect “findings.” In a
surveillance society, it is easy to dis-
patch positive information about an
individual to the cutting-room floor,
while highlighting anything that
smacks of political incorrectness,
as occurred when Congresswoman
Virginia Foxx uttered the words
“hoax” and “Matthew Shepard” in
the same sentence.
Now new evidence has come
to light that proves that so-called
data mining, which the government
Government-mandated mental- uses in conjunction with “terror-
health screening of U.S. ism,” actually originated in Amer-
children led to huge profits for ica’s classrooms. Most of these
pharmaceutical companies such documents emanate from the Na-
as Eli Lilly, even as companies’ tional Center for Education Statis-
psychological drugs were being tics. For example, a piece entitled
AP Images
attacked for negative side “Data-Mining Journals and Books:
effects and failures. Using the Science of Networks to
14 THE NEW AMERICAN • JuNE 8, 2009
17. Uncover the Structure of the Educational
Research Community,” published by the
American Education Research Asso-
ciation’s Research News and Comments
(April 2005), details how identification
numbers are assigned each child, ostensi-
bly by the state, but under the auspices of
a federal mandate, meaning that the states
are the “fall guys.” Documents from the
Nebraska Department of Education show
that each state is supposed to craft its own
ID procedures using federal guidelines,
then transmit all the gathered data to the
federal government, where private infor-
mation is cross-matched with other infor-
mation already in hand from non-school
sources. For instance, Nebraska’s “Uniq-
ID System” for schoolchildren’s assess-
AP Images
ments automatically is shown linked to
the child’s federal Social Security number
in a table. Politically incorrect thoughts often result in mandatory counseling (brainwashing?), such as in
Another Nebraska document explains the case of former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker, who uttered comments in a subway that
how state officials and school counselors were deemed political no-nos.
can apply a step-by-step, “drill down”
method to locate sensitive information For example, the Transportation Se- medication treatment plan, whereupon
about a student or his family. For example, curity Authority (TSA) is set to station President Bush instructed more than 25
the same educrats who are not even sup- some 500 Behavioral Detection Officers federal agencies to develop a nationwide
posed to mention religion or put up red- (BDOs) at airports by the end of 2009. “implementation plan.”
and-green paper at Christmastime can se- Again, these are psychologists, who will It was funded in large part through the
lect from 30 numerical codes that include monitor not only body language, but also Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s phil-
religious particulars such as “Nazarene,” “micro-expressions” — of anyone in an anthropic (a.k.a. “public relations”) arm of
“Calvinist,” and “Pentecostal” to categor- airport security line who raises an eye- the Johnson & Johnson medical-supply/
ize students. brow in a manner that specialists interpret household-products empire. RWJ has been
To prepare schools for their new march- as “disgust, anger, fear or antipathy to the a longtime player in promoting contro-
ing orders, conflicts of interest were inevi- screening process.” Any perceived nega- versial “prevention” curricula in schools,
table. Ralph Tyler, for example, not only tivity on the part of a passenger (called an especially in sex education. But the real
headed the Carnegie Foundation for the “allegation of nonphysical interference”) kicker about TMAP was that it promoted
Advancement of Teaching, but was presi- could result in a fine as high as $1,500 and something much worse: the use of newer,
dent of its wealthy for-profit spinoff, the loss of one’s flight reservation. more expensive antidepressants and anti-
Educational Testing Service. He was also In 2004, Congress funded the New Free- psychotic “cocktails.” Several drug compa-
tapped to head the U.S. Office of Educa- dom Initiative (NFI) — a Marxist-sound- nies stood to gain billions of dollars from
tion, then under the U.S. Department of ing moniker detailing a plan to screen what were at that time deemed “unproved,
Health, Education and Welfare. He not every man, woman, and child in America radical drug therapies” to combat mental
only went all over the country, formulating for “mental illness.” How this occurred is a illness. TMAP was one of those “trial bal-
copycat quasi-cognitive tests in state after textbook case of the method by which out- loons” that seem to come out of nowhere:
state under contract, but he also headed the rageous pieces of legislation morph from vast, bureaucratic overreaches that, when
effort to formulate the first real national tiny “pilot projects” to federal mandates. confined to one town or state, have as their
test, the National Assessment of Educa- In 1995, under then-Texas Governor real goal to assess the level of public resis-
tional Progress (NAEP). George W. Bush, a scheme was hatched at tance to an idea.
Moreover, the staples of soft-psycho- the state level, the Texas Medication Algo- By the 1990s, of course, child misbe-
logical surveying techniques, inserted sur- rithm Project (TMAP), to screen school- havior was becoming downright scary, so a
reptitiously into bona fide academic tests, children in Texas. TMAP was an alliance strange thing happened. Parents were more
moved into other realms — the job appli- of individuals from the pharmaceutical relieved than annoyed when they were told
cation process, the medical establishment, industry, the University of Texas, and the something was “really wrong” with their
airport security, etc. — making govern- mental health and corrections systems of child, and not that they had merely bought
ment intrusion just that much easier with Texas. Subsequently, the New Freedom in to poor disciplinary practices from
every new incursion. Commission designated TMAP a “model” people calling themselves “child experts.”
www.TheNewAmerican.com 15
18. Surveillance Society
York Times about any dis- every perpetrator was already on a psycho-
crepancies he found in the tropic drug — usually a cocktail of such
Canadian journalists Christine Hahn and NFI project. drugs, in an attempt to offset side effects.
Toni Eatts blew the whistle in 1998 on In other words, if Ritalin makes an inatten-
a “Texas-to-Canada Corridor” project consequences of tive kid “hyper,” then let’s give him a tran-
inculcation quilizer to calm him down. If that makes
aimed at literally kidnapping homeless Ironically, NFI was forg- him sleepy, maybe he needs an anti-seizure
persons in Texas to conduct psychotropic ing ahead at a time when medication to keep him awake, and so on,
Congress, the FDA, and until his brains are scrambled eggs.
drug experiments, targeting individuals some consumer groups were President Barack Obama is a proponent
who, they thought, would not be missed. questioning the culpability of mental health screening and “treatments.”
of antidepressants and anti- He voiced his supports numerous times
psychotics in suicide and while still a senator and on the campaign
Consequently, a majority of Texas parents violent aggression. Pharmaceutical giant trail. Former Vice President Al Gore, at the
more-or-less acquiesced in the TMAP ex- Eli Lilly, maker of psychological drugs urging of his wife, “Tipper,” sponsored the
periment. Which, of course, emboldened like Prozac and Zyprexa, was on the hot first White House conference touting psy-
a whole cottage industry of mental health seat. Dr. David Healy, renowned former chological screening on June 7, 1999.
advocates, from psychopharmacologists to secretary of the British Association for Mandatory drugging of nonconformists,
social workers to behaviorist educators. Psychopharmacology, had just finished slow learners, and naughty kids is now part
The TMAP data-mining project went penning his watershed book, Let Them Eat and parcel of a nasty and little-publicized
national in 2002 under the “New Freedom Prozac, detailing the unrecorded failures agenda to engineer uniformity of opinion
Initiative.” during drug trials in the rush to launch the without appearing blatant about it. Chil-
Only in the Pennsylvania Office of the antidepressant Prozac, along with similar dren, always happy to talk about them-
Inspector General did the red flags go failures in that whole class of antidepres- selves, are busy filling out opinion polls and
up. OIG inspector Allen Jones blew the sants known as SSRIs (selective serotonin surveys — especially in social studies and
whistle when he found that key officials reuptake inhibitors). His facts bested every “health” (sex education) classes. They have
had received money and perks from drug attempt to counter him. no idea how this will play out. Even tod-
companies with a stake in the old TMAP, Since the NFI program went national, dlers are being assessed in “early childhood
then gone on to advise the NFI project. the nation has seen violent incidents at programs.” The 2004 New Freedom Com-
Some members of the New Freedom Com- West Paducah, Kentucky; Springfield, mission Report stated, “Early detection and
mission had served on advisory boards Oregon; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; Red treatment of mental disorders can result in
of the same pharmaceutical companies Lake, Minnesota; Virginia Tech, Virginia; a substantially shorter and less disabling
whose products were being recommended Binghamton, New York; and more. Nearly course of illness.” But where’s the track
in 2002. George Bush, Sr. was himself a
member of psychopharmaceutical giant Eli
Lilly’s board of directors. So, the younger
President Bush rewarded Lilly’s chief ex-
ecutive officer, Sidney Taurel, with a seat
on the Homeland Security Council — the
worst possible place for someone pushing
psychological screening and drugging of
the populace!
Like the two Border Patrol agents (Jose
Compean and Ignacio Ramos) who were
jailed for guarding the border, the good
inspector Jones was sacked for, um, in-
specting, and especially for speaking to
the British Medical Journal and the New
out-of-bounds behavior: Many Americans are
afraid of the government collecting personal
data on Americans because the government is
beginning to penalize people for bad thoughts.
In airports psychologists look for “micro-
AP Images
expressions” of “disgust, anger, fear, and
antipathy to the screening process.” Fines can
be up to $1,500.
16 THE NEW AMERICAN • JuNE 8, 2009
19. record to back up such a claim? Simple: it
doesn’t exist. Even so, prospective teach-
ers (including this author) have been taught
in their teacher-preparation classes for the
past 35 years that “high religiosity” is akin
to “intolerance” and “inflexibility,” both al-
leged “markers” for mental illness.
While data is being collected for schools
from mothers’ records, beginning in their
pregnancies (weight gained, number of
prenatal visits and so forth), along with
the baby’s statistics (weight at birth, gesta-
tional age and health), followed by a page-
long list of possible dental anomalies (oc-
clusion, decay, gum condition, soft-tissue
quality, etc.), teachers cannot seem to find
time to teach any facts.
Surveys of parents also find their way
into a child’s permanent record. The Early
Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) is
AP Images
a detailed questionnaire that must be filled
out by the “Resident Father and Other Im-
portant People.” The 15-page questionnaire
tag team: Former President George W. Bush (left) created something called the New Freedom
appears to be optional, but parents say there Commission to do mental-health testing on all children. For children with mental “ailments,”
are penalties for refusing. The questions are medication was recommended — all while his father (right) was on the board of directors for
audacious, invasive, and personal. “When pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.
did you first hold your child?” asks one,
followed by multiple choices. Fifteen pages ists Christine Hahn and Toni Eatts blew ministered” survey, powerful determinants
of intimate questions could easily provide the whistle in 1998 on a “Texas-to-Canada for predicting future political behavior can
child protection agencies (i.e., govern- Corridor” project aimed at literally kidnap- be collated and analyzed. If government
ment) with an excuse to label a child with ping homeless persons in Texas and taking ever gets to the point where it can profile
a psychiatric problem or a “developmental them to psychiatric facilities in Canada and predict personal and public opinion
delay” — thus holding the threat of child (and vice versa) to conduct psychotropic with even a perceived degree of accuracy,
removal over a parent’s head, should any drug experiments. They particularly tar- then it can take kids away from parents for
member become troublesome to govern- geted individuals who, they thought, would no reason, forcibly drug citizens who balk
ment agencies down the road. One Michi- not be missed. In Cloning of the American against government policies, commit re-
gan homeschooler, for example, explained Mind, this author cited reports in Florida fuseniks to institutions involuntarily, create
how her call to Poison Control regarding newspapers of two incidents, one involv- eugenics programs that prevent procreation
a thermometer that she dropped on her ing a grandmother who wanted to lose or adoption of children, and reward young-
bathroom floor led to her being ordered to weight and the other about a couple going sters for “reporting” on their parents. It can
remove all the tiles, plus her carpets in the through a divorce who needed a change of groom some for positions of leadership or
bedroom and hall — under the threat of re- scene. Both were referred to pricey estab- influence (via the colleges and universities)
moving her three children from the home if lishments. Once there, they were stripped and deny such positions to others.
she did not follow directions. of their clothes and belongings. They were This is what we are facing if we con-
Meanwhile, schools find every excuse to screened for “depression,” and despite a tinue to allow the mental health industry to
refer pupils for psychiatric counseling — flat zero on the depression scale, injected run amok, particularly in our schools, since
an activity that usually results in prescrip- with experimental drugs for depression. As educators are the foot soldiers in this un-
tions for psychiatric drugs having ques- soon as their health insurance ran out, they holy alliance to “mold public opinion.” n
tionable track records. Nor is the drugging were discharged.
of Americans limited to children. Last June Between personal
we learned that the Veterans Administration
lured exhausted returning veterans into le-
data such as online
book purchases (in- eXtra coPieS availaBle
thal psychotropic drug tests. The hook was cluding political ➧ Additional copies of this issue of thE
a stop-smoking regimen. Congress feigned books and maga- nEw aMErican are available at quantity-
shock, but involuntary commitment in order zines), children’s discount prices. To place your order, visit
to conduct human experiments with drugs opinion surveys, and www.shopjbs.org or see the card between
is becoming pervasive. Canadian journal- the parent “self-ad- pages 38-39.
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20. Diamond
M Ranch
“This is a
republic, not
a democracy
– Let’s keep it
that way!”
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21. culture
Controlling
Does the reason matter? Judy and Dennis
Shepard’s son Matthew was violently killed in
1998. Now new hate-crime legislation, which
would give extra penalties to someone who
kills people with abnormal sexual orientations,
has been named after him. But many say
Thoughts, Words,
this is an affront to justice because it implies
that it’s worse to kill a homosexual than a
heterosexual.
and Deeds orientation” as a protected class in federal
hate-crime statutes. In fact, according to
the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC),
it would include a staggering 30 differ-
ent sexual orientations. Moreover, Iowa
Congressman Steve King stated on the
House floor that the bill would also cover
547 types of paraphilia, which is obsession
with unusual sexual practices. This would
even include pedophilia.
Critics say this is nonsense, that the
TVC is basing its assessment on the fourth
edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)
and misrepresenting the facts. They say
the manual doesn’t actually contain a list
of sexual orientations — only sexual and
gender identity disorders — which in-
clude paraphilias. In other words, the new
hate-crime legislation wouldn’t have to
protect these perversions because, tech-
nically, they’re not designated as “sexual
orientations.”
But while these critics do seem to be cor-
rect about the terminology, the interpreta-
tion is a different matter. The hate-crimes
bill fails to define “sexual orientation,”
thus leaving much room for mischief. And
the legislation’s proponents certainly give
us ample cause for alarm. For example,
Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) said
on the House floor, “This bill addresses
AP Images
our resolve to end violence based on preju-
dice and to guarantee that all Americans
regardless of race, color, religion, national
The Matthew Shepard Act, “hate-crime” legislation, is supposedly origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender
needed to stop violence against people with abnormal sexual identity, or disability or all of these ‘Phil-
ias’ and fetishes and ‘isms’ that were put
orientations, but it’s clear that’s not its intended goal. forward need not live in fear because of
who they are.” Of course, Hastings’ com-
ments could be explained away as the
By Selwyn Duke islating on it. As for the last matter, their rambling of an impeached ex-judge, but
latest effort is H.R. 1913, the Local Law what Janet Porter at WorldNetDaily.com
I
t’s ironic that secularists will accuse Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention reports is not so easy to rationalize away.
traditionalists of being hung up on Act, which the House of Representatives She writes, “Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, of-
sex, when they are the ones who can- passed on April 29 by a vote of 249-175. fered this very simple amendment to H.R.
not stop talking about it and reducing it Known as the “Matthew Shepard Act” 1913 in the House Judiciary Committee:
to the stuff of entertainment — and leg- in the Senate, the bill would add “sexual ‘The term sexual orientation as used in this
www.TheNewAmerican.com 19
