Acid rain and environmental degradation

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Irwin Garfinkel

In Assuring Child Support, Irwin Garfinkel, former director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, proposes a comprehensive new program of child support enforcement and insurance called the Child Support Assurance System. In the United States, rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth are climbing so dramatically that over half of the next generation is likely to spend part of its childhood in single-mother families. As many as half of these families will live in poverty, caused in large measure by the failure of the current system to secure adequate child support from absent parents and to assure minimum support when parents cannot provide it. Assuring Child Support shows how these problems could be remedied by a new national system of child support enforcement that is both feasible and affordable - a practical reform that is within the nation's grasp.^ Garfinkel critiques the current system of the court-mandated support and federal assistance programs as both inefficient and unfair, arguing that it fosters irresponsibility among absent parents - usually fathers - and encourages welfare dependence over employment for single mothers. He then details the three essential components of the Child Support Assurance System: a monetary support standard set by law; routine income withholding to facilitate collection from the nonresident parent; and government insurance against non-payment of the full benefit. Supplementing policy and economic analysis with accounts of pilot tests in Europe and the United States, Garfinkel's emphasis throughout is on a system that fosters full financial responsibility in both parents while at the same time providing a social safety net.^ In concluding chapters, Garfinkel anticipates and answers critics of CSAS, carefully demonstrating how this program can pay for itself by reducing welfare use and increasing the parental support for children. An important book on one of America's most pressing problems, Assuring Child Support compels us to recognize the precarious future facing many of the nation's children and recommends sound reforms for providing them with more secure and promising lives.

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Jerome R. Corsi

Posits that John F. Kennedy was not killed by a lone assassin. At the height of his popularity, John F. Kennedy was gunned down in a Dallas motorcade--a tragedy widely regarded as the end of America's post-war "age of innocence." At the time, a concerted effort was made by the Warren Commission, appointed by the Lyndon Johnson White House, to officially lay the entire blame on "lone gunman" Lee Harvey Oswald. Fifty years later, recently declassified documents shed new light on what really happened. In decades of meticulous research, investigative journalist Jerome Corsi has sorted through mountains of evidence--hundreds of books, tens of thousands of documents, several films, and countless photographs. Dissecting the Warren Commission's conclusion, he carefully separates the unlikely from the real, and speculation from facts. Having personally known or met many of the key players in the assassination drama, including a former top Soviet bloc intelligence official, Corsi reveals shocking information for the first time. He sets a new standard for JFK assassination research, demanding that future researchers understand the political forces leading up to an unthinkable event that marked a profound change in America and the world.--From publisher description.

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Barry Jones and Michael Keating

Is Europe witnessing the death of the nation-state? In this book, leading scholars examine how European integration and regional assertion threaten this once-mighty institution and are profoundly altering the politics of Europe as it moves towards the 21st century.

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Marcin Zaborowski

During the eight years of George W. Bush{u2019}s presidency America{u2019}s grand strategy changed. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 profoundly altered America{u2019}s view of the world. But the manner of Bush{u2019}s response to the attacks is the subject of controversy and his major foreign policy decisions, especially the invasion of Iraq, are now considered to have been misjudged by the majority of Americans. Whether Bush will be ultimately judged a failure or not, it is likely that some of the main policies associated with his name will be pursued by his successor {u2013} be he Democrat or Republican. The European Union is the closest ally of the United States. The Europeans and the Americans are linked to each other by historical, economic and political ties like no other powers in the world. America{u2019}s foreign policy reflects on the Europeans too, in the sense that Europeans are often associated with America{u2019}s foreign policy in the eyes of the wider world. Indeed, the outside world often makes no distinction between the US and the EU, simply branding the two as {u2018}the West{u2019}. However, the vast majority of Europeans disapproved of Bush{u2019}s foreign policy, especially his decision to invade Iraq, and transatlantic relations consequently suffered during his presidency. The end of the Bush era creates an opportunity for a new departure and a renewed dialogue between the EU and the US. But European expectations of the change that the new president will bring about are often unrealistic. This paper gives an account of Bush{u2019}s legacy and its impact on the next US administration{u2019}s conduct of foreign policy. It examines the ideology and policies that have characterised Bush{u2019}s administration and maps out the likely future orientation of America{u2019}s foreign policy. The paper focuses on US relations with Iraq, Iran and China, as well as touching on Europe and Russia.