THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Thanks to Bad Attitudes for pointing us to this column from Paul C Roberts on Human Events Online. Mr. Roberts was associate editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page from 1978 to 1980, and from 1981 to 1982, he was assistant secretary of the treasury for economic policy. He is very put out by the current state of affairs in our country.

Conservatives and Republicans used to be people who thought it was America's business to avoid wars and to govern well at home. It was Democrats who involved us in wars -- World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam all started under Democratic presidents.

Governing well at home meant being suspicious of government power, not giving government carte blanche with Orwellian legislation called "the Patriot Act." I can remember when conservatives and Republicans would have gone berserk if Democrats had identified patriotism with the police state legislation called "the Patriot Act."

Now pay close attention to what really bothers him.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced that the commission will approve Westinghouse's sale of two nuclear reactors to China.

Conservatives and Republicans think this is a good idea. Vice President Cheney has lobbied in behalf of the sale. It is good for private business. It means $2.4 billion in revenues for Westinghouse Electric Company.

Iran will never again be a world power, even if it has a few nukes. Persia was a power in ancient times, not today. If we don't bother Iran, Iran won't bother us.

China is a different matter. China already is a world power. China holds enough U.S. government debt to have the dollar and U.S. interest rates in its hand. Last month in an official briefing, a top Chinese general, Zhu Chenghu, said that if the United States messes around with China or tries to interfere with China's reunification with Taiwan, China will nuke the United States: "If the Americans are determined to interfere, then we will be determined to respond. We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all the cities east of Xian. Of course, the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese."

VP Cheney and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission want to make sure China has what it takes to do the job.

Anything for profit. Want me to eat my kids? No Problem!