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There is something classically American about waking up to the smell of sizzling bacon, coming together with family around a holiday ham, and enjoying a hot dog at the ballgame. But these traditions could become much harder to celebrate because of federal ethanol mandates that are jeopardizing our nation's food supply.

Congressional mandates are diverting millions of bushels of corn out of the nation's food supply and into ethanol refineries. The original idea was to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and our dependence on foreign oil -- in theory, a great idea.

But in practice, ethanol mandates have squeezed the supply of corn, helping drive prices through the roof -- in fact, corn prices have tripled in recent years, leading to significant jumps in prices for consumers across Kansas and around the country.

This trend is nothing less than a disaster for thousands of farm families across Kansas who depend on corn to feed and raise livestock.

And customers are suffering, too. Families are paying the prices for increases in the price of milk, bread and eggs at the grocery store -- all largely due to the rise in corn prices driven in part by ethanol mandates.

This year's college graduates owe their success to many factors, from hectoring parents to cherished remedies for hangovers. But one of the most remarkable of the new graduates, Beatrice Biira, credits something utterly improbable: a goat.

"I am one of the luckiest girls in the world," Beatrice declared at her graduation party after earning her bachelor's degree from Connecticut College. Indeed, and it's appropriate that the goat that changed her life was named Luck.

Beatrice's story helps address two of the most commonly asked questions about foreign assistance: "Does aid work?" and "What can I do?"

The tale begins in the rolling hills of western Uganda, where Beatrice was born and raised. As a girl, she desperately yearned for an education, but it seemed hopeless: Her parents were peasants who couldn't afford to send her to school.

The years passed and Beatrice stayed home to help with the chores. She was on track to become one more illiterate African woman, another of the continent's squandered human resources.

It is a privilege to spend 90 minutes with the president of the United States. It is frustrating, though, when 90 percent of those minutes are declared off the record.

President Bush likes it that way, because he gets to speak "frankly" without worrying about how his remarks will be interpreted.

In the on-the-record part of Monday's interview with a small group of newspaper and magazine columnists, the president spoke of progress in Iraq: "I am pleased that the initial skepticism... is beginning to fade, to the point where (the) king of Jordan is going to Iraq; Prime Minister Maliki is going to Abu Dhabi; ambassadors are soon to be exchanged, hopefully."

The president thinks his commitment to stabilizing Iraq has boosted confidence in other countries: "The region is beginning to recognize, after a period of uncertainty, that a free Iraq is going to be important to their futures -- economic future and political future, because a free and successful Iraq will end up serving as a push-back to Iranian movements in the Middle East."

He is clearly pleased that funding for the war, which congressional Democrats repeatedly tried to halt, has been approved and will last six months into the new administration, which will allow the next president time to assess progress and make his own decisions. He is equally pleased the House has passed legislation protecting private phone companies who aid the government in eavesdropping on calls to or from suspected terrorists overseas.

Just in time for the July Fourth weekend, a conservative think tank delivered a controversial report questioning whether America's national identity is eroding under the pressure of population diversity and educational slackness.

The threat outlined by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in its report, "E Pluribus Unum," strikes me as a bit exaggerated. But at a time when Barack Obama and John McCain find themselves debating the "patriotism issue," having a coherent discussion of this matter -- and this short pamphlet is admirably written and well-researched -- is a useful contribution.

The takeoff point for the argument is an observation about the uniqueness of America that was made by Thomas Jefferson -- and by myriad other worthies in the centuries since then. They all have drawn attention to the fact that, unlike other countries, America's national identity rests "not on a common ethnicity, but on a set of ideas."

And so, the Bradley scholars say, "knowing what America stands for is not a genetic inheritance. It must be learned, both by the next generation and by those who come to this country. In this way, a nation founded on an idea is inherently fragile."

What disturbs the Bradley scholars is the evidence that our generation is failing to educate the next one on the essentials of the American experiment. "On the 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Civics Test," the report notes, "the majority of eighth-graders could not explain the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. Only 5 percent of seniors could accurately describe the way presidential power can be checked by Congress and the Supreme Court." The authors also decry the fact that most colleges and universities allow students to graduate without ever taking a comprehensive course in American history and government.