Reason articles from December 2006

Reason archives from December 2006

The Grand Old Party's over.
December 1, 2006... THE ONE GOOD thing you can say about midterm elections is that they are easier to ignore than the ones held during presidential years. Which isn't to say they don't matter. Just a dozen years ago, the COP took full control of Congress for...

Immigration now, immigration tomorrow, immigration forever.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Reason's pieces on immigration ("Immigration Now, Immigration Tomorrow, Immigration Forever," August/September) delivered a cogent and complete set of arguments on the issue but were most important for their central question: What threat does...

Happy 40th birthday, Star Trek.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... I was surprised to see seven-and-a-half pages of kudos to Star Trek in reason ("Happy 40th Birthday, Star Trek, August/September). Star Trek is a massive cultural phenomenon. But at the risk of dragging out the favorite dead horse of the pimply...

Cory Maye, the subject of Radley Balko's investigative report "The Case of Cory Maye" (October), is no longer condemned to die.(reason news)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Cory Maye, the subject of Radley Balko's investigative report "The Case of Cory Maye" (October), is no longer condemned to die. On September 21, Judge Michael Eubanks ruled that Maye's original attorney was incompetent during the sentencing...

Big easy choice: schools in New Orleans.(unfettered public school choice)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... ONE UNEXPECTED by-product of Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans is now the only city in America offering unfettered public school choice. Schools have dropped residency requirements, so any student living anywhere in the city can register at...

March of the moles: surveilling Americans.(California's antiterrorism measures)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... CALIFORNIA NOW has a central anti-terrorism center, and police and sheriff's departments in the state have developed homeland security, anti-terrorism, and intelligence units, with many departments participating in an FBI joint terrorism task...

35 years ago in reason.(Citings)
December 1, 2006... "I think that in 20 years there will probably be... many bigamous marriages. The reason that I say 'bigamous' is that I'm thinking many of the older people, particularly those on Social Security, would tend to join together in some kind of...

Organic panic: border closing chokes farms.(immigration policy and shortage of farmers)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... ORGANIC FARMER Dick Peixoto has already ripped out 30 acres of vegetables this year, and another 100 acres are on the verge of being overrun by weeds. According to the Associated Press, his losses so far total about $200,000. The cause:...

Tom's last cigarette: toons go cold turkey.(British viewer complains of smoking in 'Tom and Jerry' cartoon program)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... IN THE 1950 Tom and Jerry short Texas Tom, the cartoon's feline star tries to impress a female cat by rolling, lighting, and smoking a cigarette with a single paw. More than half a century later, Tom's smoky come-on prompted a British viewer to...

Tracking wild pork: Stevens spending snafu.(senator Ted Stevens constructed out of federal funds)(Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... LAST APRIL two senators, Republican Revolution holdout Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Democratic wunderkind Barack Obama (D-Ill.), introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. The bill creates a publicly accessible database of...

Quotes.
December 1, 2006... "I'm a libertarian. I believe in minimizing the role of the state and maximizing individual rights. Trust me, I know what I'm doing." --Kyle MacLachlan, as boy-toy Orson on a leaked forthcoming episode of Desperate Housewives, as he...

In Melbourne, Florida, Jack Garrison received a notice of almost $1,400 in fines on charges ranging from a barking dog to a squirrel at large.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... In Melbourne, Florida, Jack Garrison received a notice of almost $1,400 in fines on charges ranging from a barking dog to a squirrel at large. Garrison, who owns neither a dog nor a squirrel, was mystified. It turns out that someone called the...

New York Judge William P. Polito has denied a request from transsexual Sarah Rockefeller to change his name to Evan, saying Rockefeller must provide medical evidence first that he is suffering from "gender identity disorder.".(Brickbats)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... New York Judge William P. Polito has denied a request from transsexual Sarah Rockefeller to change his name to Evan, saying Rockefeller must provide medical evidence first that he is suffering from "gender identity disorder." Polito says...

More than 20,000 Ann Arbor, Michigan, residents received a telephone call around midnight alerting them that a man with Alzheimer's disease had wandered off.(Brickbats)
December 1, 2006... More than 20,000 Ann Arbor, Michigan, residents received a telephone call around midnight alerting them that a man with Alzheimer's disease had wandered off. The calls came from an automated system the city has adopted to alert citizens to...

The city council of Escondido, California, has voted to begin drafting a law prohibiting landlords from renting property to anyone who can't prove U.S. citizenship.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The city council of Escondido, California, has voted to begin drafting a law prohibiting landlords from renting property to anyone who can't prove U.S. citizenship. Council members say the law would help reduce overcrowding in residential...

Britain's Royal Mail is refusing to deliver anything to a small community on the Ardmore peninsula in Scotland.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Britain's Royal Mail is refusing to deliver anything to a small community on the Ardmore peninsula in Scotland. Officials say the small footpath that leads to the community is too dangerous for postmen to walk. Postmen have delivered mail to...

When a jury in Hawaii announced it had acquitted Junior Stowers of abusing his son, he raised his hand and said "Thank you, Jesus!".(Brickbats)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... When a jury in Hawaii announced it had acquitted Junior Stowers of abusing his son, he raised his hand and said "Thank you, Jesus!" Judge Patrick Border then held him in contempt of court for the exclamation and had him thrown in jail. The...

Pamela Goodson returned home to find that a Buncombe County, North Carolina, police officer had shot her St. Bernard.(Brickbats)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Pamela Goodson returned home to find that a Buncombe County, North Carolina, police officer had shot her St. Bernard. The department says it was self-defense. Goodson wants to know how Deputy Rusty Bell shot her dog between the shoulders, if,...

Western Union officials say government guidelines have forced them to delay or block money transfers simply because the recipients have names common among Muslims, such as Muhammad.(Western Union Corp.)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Western Union officials say government guidelines have forced them to delay or block money transfers simply because the recipients have names common among Muslims, such as Muhammad. According to the Associated Press, Western Union blocks names...

Registration required: you too can be a sex offender.(Citings)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... CRITICS Or SEX offender registries often point out that such public databases unfairly target people convicted of a specific kind of crime. Ohio has a novel solution to this problem: As of January, Ohio residents don't have to be convicted of a...

Zero sense: Draconian school policies.(Citings)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... FOR 10 YEARS, social scientists have been studying the effects of "zero tolerance" school policies, which treat any technical infraction as harshly as possible, without regard to mitigating circumstances, the rule breaker's intentions, or...

Nanny nation.(Balance Sheet)(working native american women)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Two Harvard economists argue that cheap immigrant labor helps native-born women enter the workforce. Michael Kremer and Stanley Watt say this produces "a fiscal benefit for the population, even without considering the taxes paid by the migrants...

Blog mania.(Balance Sheet)
December 1, 2006... China flips for blogging. Some 34 million blogs have popped up in the last four years, even as government officials fret about unfettered access to commentary.

Bikini rights.(Balance Sheet)(law on touching the bar employees )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... So-called "bikini clubs" in the Tampa Bay area challenge a local law that bans customers from touching bar employees who are wearing bathing suits. Alcohol regulations treat the bars the same as strip clubs.

Medi-snail.(robot to perform nonsurgical medical exams of the intestinal tract)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... New Scientist reports that a new mucus-surfing robot could allow nonsurgical medical exams of the intestinal tract. The robot moves like a snail, sliding slowly over surfaces, which should minimize tissue damage.

Antitrust bust.(LimeWire L.L.C. sues Recording Industry Association of America )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... File-swap software maker LimeWire sues the Recording Industry Association of America for trying "to destroy any online music distribution service they did not own or control, or force such services to do business with them on exclusive and/or...

Wal-Drugs.(Balance Sheet)(price reduction of generic prescription drugs)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The fiends at Wal-Mart cut the prices of 300 generic prescription drugs. Some will go for as little as $4 for a 30-day supply. The horror.

RFID fear.(border security through RFID-based electronic passports)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Despite continued fears about identity theft, the State Department moves ahead with plans for RFID-based electronic passports. Critics warn that the chips could be hacked to reveal personal data. It is unclear exactly how the new passports will...

Visit Nokhchii.(Balance Sheet)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Officials in Chechnya consider a proposal to change the name of the war-torn republic to "Nokhchii." The point of the "rebranding effort": to erase the negative associations with the name Chechnya.

Cheer equity.(Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights conducts gender equity investigation of school sports )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights kicks off a gender equity investigation of high school sports in New York. Why? Because a parent complained that only football games and boys' basketball games included performances by...

Sperm shortage.(government authorities prohibit donor anonymity)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... British fertility clinics suffer a sperm shortage after government authorities prohibit donor anonymity. According to the BBC, 50 of 74 clinics surveyed had little or no sperm.

Google wall.(government blocks Google Inc.'s WiFi plans)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Google wants to bring a free WiFi cloud to San Francisco, but the city government keeps blocking it. "Every meeting is like the first," one Google executive complains. The city wants 5 percent of gross revenue from the network. Officials claim...

Truck bomb.(Balance Sheet)
December 1, 2006... G.M. rolls out its new Chevy pickup with an "Our Country, Our Truck" theme, complete with nuclear explosions and references to 9/11. Buy American--or else.

Fried messages: your brain on anti-drug ads.(Office of National Drug Control Policy launches National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... IN 1998 THE Office of National Drug Control Policy launched the $1.2 billion National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, using tax money to buy time and space for ads produced by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. An August report from the...

Depressed markets? Happiness and free trade.(free market system's impact on quality of life)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... DOES RESEARCH on happiness prove markets are a bummer? Political scientist Benjamin Radcliff of Notre Dame University, summing up his recent studies in Social Forces and the American Political Science Review, says survey research shows that...

Hidden wages.(wages and salaries, and productivity research)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... In September a front-page New York Times story reported that while productivity is up, workers aren't getting their fair share of the gains: The real median hourly wage is down 2 percent since 2003, and wages and salaries now make up the...

Casual sex, Sunni style: "visit" marriages.(Saudi Arabians using matrimonial loophole in marriages)
December 1, 2006... WITH GREAT trepidation and a roar of religious mumbo jumbo, many Saudis are opting for a matrimonial loophole known as the misyar (or "visit") marriage, a form of clandestine matrimony in which the woman gives up any spousal rights and stays in...

Narc of the matinee.(conversation with Kirby Dick of Motion Picture Association of America)(Interview)
December 1, 2006... For nearly four decades, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has sold its ratings system--that G through NC-17 shorthand for vice and violence--as a way to guide parents and keep government scolds a safe distance from Hollywood...

Insurgent Republicans: the Club for Growth wants to create a free market GOP, whether the party likes it or not.
December 1, 2006... THIS IS NOT where Pat Toomey wanted to be tonight. The 43-year-old Pennsylvanian took over the Club for Growth in September 2006, after he lost a nail-biting primary to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and vacated his own seat in Congress. Against...

Parent trap: are false abuse charges a common tactic in child custody battles?(Column)
December 1, 2006... CHILD CUSTODY disputes are some of the bloodiest battlefields in the gender wars--battlefields upon which allegations of spousal and child abuse are widely regarded as a nuclear weapon. But there are two opposite views of this problem. Fathers'...

How 'big nutrition' destroys your will to fatness: awash in healthy choices, starving brains seek sugary relief.
December 1, 2006... IN YET ANOTHER expose of the scrumptiousness epidemic, Robert Lustig, a professor of clinical pediatrics at UCSF Children's Hospital, explains in the August Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism that "Big Food" is creating a...

Who deserves the libertarian vote? reason asks Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians why supporters of "Free Minds and Free Markets" should vote for their candidates.
December 1, 2006... THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS, we're told, will be determined by gas prices, body bags, and the Democratic and Republican turnout machines. And that's it. Which party controls Congress will be decided by a handful of competitive districts, hundreds of...

Throwing the bums out: how a small-town businessman sparked an anti-incumbency movement in Pennsylvania--and what it means for national politics.(Russ Diamond)
December 1, 2006... RUSS DIAMOND, a businessman from Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, put up just $182.47 last year to launch PACleanSweep. com, a site dedicated to defeating every single incumbent in the Pennsylvania legislature. It's safe to say his money has been...

The budget-cutters who couldn't stop spending: the Republican Study Committee, one of the biggest groups in Congress, was created to rein in big spenders. So why can't it deliver?
December 1, 2006... ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2005, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina had devastated the Gulf Coast, President Bush delivered a live television address from Jackson Square in New Orleans. As the power generators' eerie light washed over his patch of an...

A healthy dose of anarchy: after Katrina, nontraditional, decentralized relief steps in where big government and big charity failed.(Hurricane Katrina 2005)
December 1, 2006... WHEN I WALKED into Rose and Gary Singletary's house in the black, middle-class Gentilly section of New Orleans in February, I saw the shell of a building. The floors, the walls, and all the fixtures--toilets, sinks, doors--had been removed....

South Park libertarians: Trey Parker and Matt Stone on liberals, conservatives, censorship, and religion.(Culture and Reviews)(Interview)
December 1, 2006... IN LATE AUGUST reason hosted a three-day conference in Amsterdam dedicated to exploring the future of free expression and free markets in Europe. The opening evening featured a conversation with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the co-creators of...

John Dean's weak conscience: an apostate Republican fails to explain today's GOP.(Culture and Reviews)
December 1, 2006... En route to getting shellacked by historic proportions in the 1964 presidential race, Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) suffered through a smear job as oversized and ugly as Lyndon B. Johnson's gallbladder scar. It wasn't the infamous "daisy...

Art Deco at Ground Zero: five years after 9/11, how about a design actual human beings might like?
December 1, 2006... WHEN MOHAMMED Atta flew a plane into the World Trade Center five years ago, he was not only a terrorist striking a blow against America. He was a former architecture student striking a blow against modernism, the mid-20th-century style often...

Apocalypse's eternal return: hipster guru predicts: capitalism will destroy the world!(2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, by Daniel Pinchbeck, New York: Jeremy Tarcher/Penguin, 416 pages, $26.95 DID YOU KNOW that the ancient Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl--the all-encompassing plumed serpent whose return has been prophesied for...

Wonder-working power: the roots and the reach of the religious right.(In Defense of the Religious Right: Why Conservative Christians Are the Lifeblood of the Republican Party and Why That Terrifies the Democrats)(The Theocons : Secular America Under Siege)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... In Defense of the Religious Right: Why Conservative Christians Are the Lifeblood of the Republican Party and Why That Terrifies the Democrats, by Patrick Hynes, Nashville: Nelson Current, 288 pages, $24.99 The Theocons : Secular America...

When piracy becomes promotion; how unauthorized copying made Japanese animation profitable in the United States.
December 1, 2006... THE GLOBAL SALES of Japan's animation industry reached an astonishing $80 billion in 2004, 10 times what they were a decade before. It has won this worldwide success in part because Japanese media companies paid little attention to the kinds of...

Hollow army.(Artifact)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... BEHOLD THE Holbrook family: Logan, age 3, Justin, age 14, and their father, Lt. Col. Randall Holbrook of the Maine National Guard. If Dad seems to lack a little depth, it's because the real Randall Holbrook is currently serving abroad. The...