Whole Truth Coalition

The American Dream, An Obituary - The American Revolution was an extraordinary event. The idea that freedom was an inherent right, that tyranny could be successfully opposed, that government could serve the people, not the few, was truly revolutionary in 1776—as it is today.

The American Revolution, however, has run its course; and unless resuscitated and given new life, the American dream and the dreams of America ’s founding fathers will soon be only a memory. Dreams rarely come to pass and those that do rarely last. The American dream is no exception.

What happened in 1776 has been subverted by the passage of time and the inconstancy of later generations. Those who rule America today have subverted the principles enumerated in the US Constitution; principles the Founding Father hoped would guide those who followed them through the crises yet to come.

The principles were not many, e.g. fiscal prudence, sound money, separation of church and state and a limited military and limited government. But even those few and clearly stated principles succumbed over the years to the imposition of policies that had given rise to the need to revolt in 1776.

Now, in 2008, tyranny and government excesses are again upon America , but this time it is by America ’s own hand. The policies of King George III were no more egregious than the policies of President George Bush II.— taxation without real representation, e.g. TARP (80 % Americans opposed), the imposition of policies contrary to the will of the people, e.g. US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan (70 % opposed), and the loss of individual freedoms under the Patriot Act (60 % opposed).

The difference between 1776 and 2008 is that America is now tyrannized not by the King of England but by its own government. Today, the US government does not represent the will of the people. It represents instead the special interests that control the US government through the buying of votes— America is not for sale only because it has already been sold.

The difference between 1776 and 2008 is not only 232 years. It is the difference between the dream of the Founding Fathers and the shadow of that dream in whose increasing darkness Americans now exist.

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Norbert Rosing’s striking images of a wild polar bear coming upon tethered sled dogs in the wilds of Canada’s Hudson Bay

‘The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when the polar bear wandered in, but…’

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Thousands of drivers who would have escaped prosecution for collisions after simply swapping insurance details will now face likely prosecution as soon as the police become involved.

An array of trivial motoring offences in addition to minor crashes are also likely to lead to action under proposals to give police powers to issue fixed penalty notices for careless driving.

They could include eating, drinking or smoking at the wheel, reading a map, tuning a radio or arguing with a passenger.

All funds raised from the on-the-spot fines will go directly to the Treasury, which already makes more than £100 million a year from speed cameras.

The proposals triggered fears of a surge in the number of drivers being prosecuted, as happened following the introduction of speed cameras.

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Hundreds of children who suffered neglect or abuse at the hands of their parents have been given the green light to sue councils for damages that could total millions of pounds.

Between 200 and 300 cases where councils failed to take children promptly into care are being prepared after a landmark legal ruling, The Times has learnt. The delays in removing children stretch from weeks and months to years in some cases.

This month the Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that Doncaster council must pay compensation to a man who suffered 12 years of abuse by his parents.

The case established for the first time that local authorities are liable for abuse suffered by children if they fail to remove them from harm. The ruling could force hundreds of councils to settle similar claims.

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Researchers have created the world’s thinnest sheet - a single atom thick - and used it to create the world’s smallest transistor, marking a breakthrough that could spark the development of super-fast computer chips.

This innovation will allow ultra small electronics to take over when the current silicon-based technology runs out of steam, according to Prof Andre Geim and Dr Kostya Novoselov from the University of Manchester.

They reveal details of transistors that are only one atom thick and fewer than 50 atoms wide in the journal, Nature Materials.

In recent decades, manufacturers have crammed more components on to microchips, with the number of transistors doubling every two years. But the ability to cram in more components is now decreasing.

Two years ago, Professor Geim and colleagues used graphite to find the real-world equivalent of a super-simple material that for the past half-century has been known only to theoreticians: a two-dimensional crystal - a single sheet of atoms. So called graphene is a gauze of carbon atoms resembling a chicken wire.

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