Reason articles from April 2006

Reason archives from April 2006

Raising educational expectations.(Editorial)
April 1, 2006... NOT LONG AGO, my older son came to me complaining about school. He's 12 years old and in the sixth grade, the First year of a three-year stretch at a middle school, that universally derided penal institution that serves no clear pedagogical...

Unscientific methods.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Asked why he wrote only about the Republican war on science, Chris Mooney replied, "Democrats have no constituency that compels them to deny something as fundamental as evolution" ("Unscientific Methods," January). The evidence contradicts...

Who's afraid of human enhancement?(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... We're not going to transcend the core elements of human nature ("Who's Afraid of Radical Human Enhancement?," January), but we'll adapt as we perceive it to be in our self-interest, and we'll change for the better when the talented among us...

Giving away the store to get a store.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Economists have long argued against tax increment financing, and more research is showing the negative side effects to which Daniel McGraw alludes in "Giving Away the Store to Get a Store" (January). My family recently took our first trek...

Amtrak sucks.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Peter Bagge's anti-Amtrak screed ("Amtrak Sucks," December) has elements of truth to it, but in his zeal to kill the train system, he misses the point. All transportation systems are subsidized. The subsidies to Amtrak are simply up front and...

Recorded history: locked up by copyright laws.(Citings)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... MUSIC LOVERS, take heart: The overwhelming majority of commercial recordings ever released in the U.S.--probably more than 90 percent--still survive in some form, somewhere. And you'll only have to wait until 2067 to hear most of them. ...

Breaking the levy: an illegal phone tax.(excise tax on cell phone usage)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... IN DECEMBER A Washington, D.C., federal appeals court decided that a 3 percent federal excise tax on cell phone usage is illegal. It wasn't exactly a maverick ruling: The court joined eight other federal courts that have ruled the same way. The...

25 years ago in reason.(Citings)
April 1, 2006... "The Public Cryptography Study Group has given the National Security Agency what it wants: a recommendation that research on secret codes be screened by the NSA before publication." --Robert Poole, "Editor's Notes" "Richard Pryor has a...

Military intelligence: the Pentagon spies on activists.(Citings)
April 1, 2006... IT IS STILL technically illegal for the U.S. military to conduct police operations on domestic soil, with one notable exception: providing protection for military personnel and property. The Defense Department grabbed ahold of that loophole in...

Blow in the wind: cocaine interdiction fiction.(Government Accountability Office, report on cocain trade )
April 1, 2006... "THERE WERE those who did not think it was possible to change the availability of cocaine in the United States," drug czar John Waiters said during a November visit to Colombia. "There's no question that's happened." But according to a...

Quotes.
April 1, 2006... "I wish it hadn't happened because it's not going to help us keep our majority." --Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), expressing his feelings on the Jack Abramoff scandal, quoted by the Associated Press, January 5 "He was dividing God's land,...

Rules of the game: buying hunting rights.(Raincoast Conservation Foundation, buy hunting rights to shut off hunting)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... RATHER THAN lobby the provincial government to shut down hunting, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation in British Columbia purchased guide-outfitting rights to 20,000 square kilometers of wilderness for $1.35 million in November. The land, now...

Patent remedies: do we need drug patents?(Against Intellectual Monopoly, book)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... EVEN THOSE who doubt the need for intellectual property laws usually point to pharmaceuticals as an exception, arguing that the research and development costs for developing drugs are so high that innovation requires patent protections. But the...

When eighth-grader Mac Bedor found a camera in the ceiling of the bathroom at the Jasper County Comprehensive School in Georgia, he removed it and took it home to his mother.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... When eighth-grader Mac Bedor found a camera in the ceiling of the bathroom at the Jasper County Comprehensive School in Georgia, he removed it and took it home to his mother. She called the principal and learned that he had put it there to...

The city council in Waukegan, Illinois, has asked staff to draft a bill mandating that stores provide police with the names and addresses of anyone who buys air guns, BB guns, or any weapons powered by carbon dioxide.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The city council in Waukegan, Illinois, has asked staff to draft a bill mandating that stores provide police with the names and addresses of anyone who buys air guns, BB guns, or any weapons powered by carbon dioxide. "If we see windows shot...

Allysan Isaac spent three months in jail and a year on work release for possession of a controlled substance.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Allysan Isaac spent three months in jail and a year on work release for possession of a controlled substance. Only after she had completed her sentence did anyone notice that the drug found in her possession, an anti-anxiety medication called...

French rapper Monsieur R faces up to three years in prison and a 75,000-euro fine for referring to France as a "slut" and a "bitch" and saying "I piss on Napoleon and General de Gaulle" on his latest album.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... French rapper Monsieur R faces up to three years in prison and a 75,000-euro fine for referring to France as a "slut" and a "bitch" and saying "I piss on Napoleon and General de Gaulle" on his latest album. Member of parliament Daniel Mach...

Police in Lahore, Pakistan, used clubs to break up a protest outside the national Supreme Court.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Police in Lahore, Pakistan, used clubs to break up a protest outside the national Supreme Court. The crowds were protesting a ban on kite flying, which the court had earlier upheld. The court said it banned kites because several people have...

When another student accused Carter Barron of drinking at school, administrators at Georgia Peachtree Ridge High School had Barron take a Breathalyzer test.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... When another student accused Carter Barron of drinking at school, administrators at Georgia Peachtree Ridge High School had Barron take a Breathalyzer test. It showed no trace of alcohol. But when Barron's bag was searched for booze, officials...

D.C. police insist that Charles Atherton was conscious when they gave him a ticket for jaywalking.(Washington D.C.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... D.C. police insist that Charles Atherton was conscious when they gave him a ticket for jaywalking. But witnesses insist Atherton was unconscious and struggling to breathe--and no wonder, since he was lying in the street after being struck by a...

When Donald Pirone saw that a fellow transit rider was having trouble with a token vending machine, he figured he'd be helpful.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... When Donald Pirone saw that a fellow transit rider was having trouble with a token vending machine, he figured he'd be helpful. He gave the man a token, but the man insisted on paying him face value for it. Unfortunately, an Atlanta transit...

Digital nostalgia.(old recordings to be realeased in digital format)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Both Sony and Universal Music will reissue classic recordings in digital form. Long out-of-print work from the likes of Jacques Brel will turn up in online stores in coming months.

Asset management.(homeland security)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Spurred by articles in The Des Moines Register, Iowa homeland security officials decrease their list of 11,600 "critical assets" that need protection from a terrorist strike to 1,360. Even that number includes many targets of dubious value,...

Police action.(Balance Sheet)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... A federal appeals court rules that a D.C. police official who ordered the summary arrest of 400 people in Pershing Park in September 2002 can be held personally liable for the action. Police tried to contain an anti-globalization rally by...

Speech talk.(DePaul University )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... DePaul University reverses a ban on "propaganda." The original rule had been deployed to stop College Republicans from handing out flyers featuring quotes from an upcoming campus speaker, 9/11 apologist Ward Churchill.

Blog splitting.(Balance Sheet)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Microsoft clarifies its policy on blog content. It's still willing to remove a blog after an official legal request from a country with jurisdiction, but the content will be blocked only inside the offended country, not in the rest of the...

Scary politics.(Vampyres, Witches, and Pagans Party's Jonathon Sharkey for governor, Minnesota )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The spirit of Jesse Ventura lives on! Jonathon Sharkey is running for governor in Minnesota under the banner of the Vampyres, Witches, and Pagans Party.

Empty dragnet.(terror link clues )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The New York Times reports that the NSA's focus on supposed domestic terror links turned up schoolteachers, among thousands of other dead ends.

No-name offense.(Ohio Patriot Act, show id or go to jail)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Ohio Gov. Bob Taft signs the "Ohio Patriot Act," a measure that requires anyone in the state to produce ID on demand from a police officer. Failure to comply could mean jail.

All-seeing eye.(all British roads monitored 24/7)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Britain becomes the first nation to attempt to monitor all roadways, all the time. One official's defense of the program: "Criminals use cars; it's as simple as that."

Working hurdle.(employers to be penalized for hiring the undocumented)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would apply employer penalties to anyone who helps an undocumented worker get a job. Nonprofit job agencies would have to verify each person's immigration status or risk fines of up to $40,000...

Malibu-skank Barbie.(Barbie dolls influence girl children)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Concerned Women for America worries that Barbie dolls send the wrong message to American girls. Whereas womanhood should be about "getting married, having kids, building a home," the group argues, Barbie stands for "bisexuality" and "gender...

Snow job.(measuring snowfall)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Federal weather watchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration come up with the "snowfall impact scale" to describe snow storms. Storms will now be "notable," "significant," "major," "crippling," or "extreme." Because...

All the live long day.(work hours)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... For years we've been told that we're becoming (to borrow the title of one gloomy book) "overworked Americans," working longer and longer hours each week and reversing the trend toward shorter hours that dominated the early 20th century, in a...

Confining space: regulating space travel.(Citings)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... AS THE PROSPECT of space tourism looms on the distant horizon, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stands ready to regulate. The agency has handed down the first 120-odd pages of regulations for any private space tourism endeavor, setting...

Company lore: job security myths.(Citings)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... YOUNG WORKERS, we're told, have learned to trade stability for mobility and long-term benefits for short-term compensation. A 2003 New York Times trend piece summed up the media image when it declared that the modern, Gen X-driven workplace...

Evasive driving: smoking ban loophole.(Citings)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... AN EDMONTON ordinance that took effect last summer prohibits smoking in buildings and other structures open to the public. But the city council did not think to include vehicles, a loophole that Tony Burke, proprietor of T.B.'s Pub, decided was...

Inside the puzzle palace.(Russell Tice, National Security Agency )(Interview)
April 1, 2006... Last December The New York Times revealed that the super-secretive National Security Agency (NSA) had listened in on Americans' international communications without a warrant. That has already inspired a lot of controversy. But Russell Tice, a...

Farewell to warblogging: I used to think blogs would transform ideologues into nonpartisan truth-seekers. Man, was I wrong.
April 1, 2006... ON DECEMBER 13, 2001, I posted an essay on my personal weblog titled "Two Ships Passing in the New Media Night," in which I contrasted the energetic, proletariat-embracing exultations of rising blog superstar Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds with...

The return of the Mommy Wars: is a stay-at-home mom a traitor to feminism?(Column)
April 1, 2006... AFTER LYING DORMANT for a while, the Mommy Wars reignited late last year with "Homeward Bound," an article by the feminist legal scholar Linda Hirshman in the December American Prospect. Hirshman, who is not known for mincing words (she earned...

Government goons murder puppies! The drug war goes to the dogs.(drug raids)
April 1, 2006... IN THE COURSE of researching paramilitary drug raids, I've found some pretty disturbing stuff. There was a case where a SWAT officer stepped on a baby's head while looking for drugs in a drop ceiling. There was one where an II-year-old boy was...

The agony of American education: how per-student funding can revolutionize public schools.(Cover story)
April 1, 2006... IMAGINE A CITY with authentic public school choice--a place where the location of your home doesn't determine your child's school. The first place that comes to mind probably is not San Francisco. But that city boasts one of the most robust...

Meet Arlene Ackerman: the woman who shook up San Francisco's schools.(Interview)
April 1, 2006... NO PERSON DESERVES more credit for introducing a robust school choice system to San Francisco than Arlene Ackerman, 59, the district's superintendent since 2000. The city had experimented with open enrollment since the '70s, but it was Ackerman...

The mobility myth: pundits love to fret about our "increasingly mobile society," but Americans are actually more likely than ever to stay put.
April 1, 2006... IT'S ONE Or THE most durable perceptions about America: The United States is a nation on the move. From the days of "manifest destiny," when pioneers forged their way westward, to today, as technology loosens the geographic tether, the American...

Welcome to the new--and private--neighborhood: local government in a world of postmodern pluralism.
April 1, 2006... LOCAL GOVERNMENT has been increasingly privatized since the 1960s. I don't mean government services; I mean government itself. In 1965 less than I percent of all Americans lived in a private community association. By 2005, 18 percent--about 55...

Postmodern politics in action.
April 1, 2006... Ten signposts, past and present, to the coming decentralized political order New York City New York City originally was established and operated under the same private legal terms as a business corporation. As the historian Hendrik...

How did Iraq go wrong? Liberal hawks blame incompetence but sidestep American narcissism.(The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq, by George Packer, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 476 pages, $26 THERE IS A LINE in George Packer's The Assassins' Gate that sums up the American approach to the Middle East: "In this country,...

I'm OK--you're a hypocrite: a little contradiction is good for America.(Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy, by Peter Schweizer, New York: Doubleday, 258 pages, $22.95 THE LEFTIST LINGUIST Noam Chomsky has been a strident opponent of American foreign policy since his days protesting the...

What good are the arts? A brilliant case for literature.(What Good Are the Arts? )(Book review)
April 1, 2006... In 1971, according to the Association of Departments of English, about eight out of every 100 bachelor's degrees were awarded to English majors. Today that figure stands at a bit more than four out of 100. Foreign language and literature...

The myth of the passive Indian: was America before Columbus just a "continent of patsies"?(1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann, New York: Alfred A. Knopf 465 pages, $30 IN 1950 THE anthropologist Allan R. Holmberg published his classic text Nomads of the Longbow, a study of the Bolivian...

Thunder on the center-right: The Weekly Standard turns 10.(The Weekly Standard: A Reader, 1995-2005)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The Weekly Standard: A Reader, 1995-2005, edited by William Kristol, New York: Harper Collins, 534 pages, $27. 95 WHEN THE REPUBLICANS took control of Congress in 1995, a frenzied guessing game began as to which major government program...

Mostar's little dragon: how Bruce Lee became a symbol of peace in the Balkans.
April 1, 2006... THE KUNG FU movie star Bruce Lee would have turned 65 in November, and a two-ring media circus descended on Mostar, Bosnia, for his birthday. It was then, in this mortar-and bullet-pocked city once famous for its Ottoman bridge, that the...

Turn on, tune in, drive a computer revolution.(LSD: Problem Child and Wonder Drug, symposium)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... IN JANUARY the Swiss inventor of lysergic acid diethylamide, Albert Hofmann, turned 100 and was honored at a Basel symposium called "LSD: Problem Child and Wonder Drug" Hofmann first synthesized the hallucinogen in 1938, and the pharmaceutical...