Reason articles from February 2006

Reason archives from February 2006

If you enjoyed your Christmas tree, thank an immigrant.(Editor's Note)
February 1, 2006... I HOPE THIS month's cover story retroactively ruins--or at least greatly complicates--your holiday joy. Especially if you bought a Christmas tree as part of your celebration. "America's Criminal Immigration Policy: How U.S. Law Punishes...

Run Away, Jury!(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2006... Tim Cavanaugh was spot on in calling his diatribe against juries a rant ("Run Away, Jury!," November). Literally thousands of jury trials are successfully conducted in this country every day of the work week. On the basis of a few aberrations,...

Freedom riders.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2006... Jacob Sullum's story of motorcyclists successfully fighting helmet laws ("Freedom Riders," November) brought a smile to my face. Arizona had a helmet law. The motorcyclists gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot, and it was...

Correction.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2006... CORRECTION: The Crescent City and the Fiscal Black Hole" (December) misidentified Alaska Congressman Don Young as a senator. In fact, he is a member of the House of Representatives.

Zoned out: taking the Amish to court.(Amish of Huntsburg Township, Ohio)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... AS FAMILY FARMING loses its allure both socially and economically, the Amish of Huntsburg Township, Ohio, have turned to their woodworking skills to generate income. It's work that allows entire families to share in the enterprise and still...

Good migrations: foreign labor, native wages.(National Bureau of Economic Research)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... ACCORDING TO LOU Dobbs and other self-proclaimed defenders of the nation's borders, hordes of immigrants are depressing American wages. But a recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research questions the conventional wisdom that...

30 years ago in reason.(Citings)
February 1, 2006... "The striking thing about the vast efforts and expenditures of the prosecution was the miserable tidbit of material it used to send Mrs. D'Aquino to jail for 10 years and fine her $10,000. Its vainglorious brandishing of 340 recordings,...

Mini media moguls: teens on the Web.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... IN A SPEECH at the Kaiser Family Foundation last March, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) warned that "media in kids' lives is a moving target." A new survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project suggests that it's the kids themselves who...

Couch potato subsidies: TV goes digital.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... THE FIRST DUTY of government is to secure our fundamental rights. No doubt that is why the Senate agreed in November to spend up to $3 billion retrofitting old television sets to guarantee that every man, woman, and child in these United States...

Fruit use: eminent domain in New Orleans.
February 1, 2006... THE UNUSUAL term usufruct comes from the Latin words usus and fructus, meaning "use" and "fruit." Napoleon converted the use of other people's figurative fruit into a legal concept, by which an owner of a property could sell or lease his right...

Quotes.
February 1, 2006... "So, Scott, you said that, or the president said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean that Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?" --CBS News Correspondent John Roberts to White House Press...

Blowing off steam: detainee deaths.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... THE MAN WITH graying hair had "blunt force injuries complicated by compromised respiration," the result of a synthetic hood placed over his head during interrogation by Navy Seals and an unidentified "Other Government Agency," which typically...

Outsource locally: manufacturing networks.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... THE MANUFACTURING Alliance of the Red River Valley is a flexible manufacturing network: a collection of small firms that both cooperate and compete, working together on projects that no single member could complete alone. The alliance seeks out...

Since it was created less than three years ago, the Alaskan Fisheries Marketing Board has received about $30 million from the federal government, thanks to Republican Sen. Ted Stevens--father of the board's chairman.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Since it was created less than three years ago, the Alaskan Fisheries Marketing Board has received about $30 million from the federal government, thanks to Republican Sen. Ted Stevens--father of the board's chairman. $500,000 of it went to...

Alon Orpaz and Tehila Salev got married in a traditional Hindu ceremony in Pushkar, India.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Alon Orpaz and Tehila Salev got married in a traditional Hindu ceremony in Pushkar, India. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Israeli couple kissed. This outraged the priests at the temple, who called police. The couple was charged with...

The town council in San Nicolas, Mexico, has voted to expel 40 families, all of them evangelical Protestants, from their homes.(religious intolerance)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... The town council in San Nicolas, Mexico, has voted to expel 40 families, all of them evangelical Protestants, from their homes. Meanwhile, officials in the town of San Antonio Las Rosas have declared that only Catholics may live there and have...

Officials in the San Francisco Unified School District say the showers in its middle and high schools are almost never used.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Officials in the San Francisco Unified School District say the showers in its middle and high schools are almost never used. Still, the district will have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring them into compliance with the...

A book by a former Labour Party adviser claims British Prime Minister Tony Blair shouted "fucking Welsh" at the TV while watching his party's poor showing in the 1999 elections for the Welsh Assembly.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... A book by a former Labour Party adviser claims British Prime Minister Tony Blair shouted "fucking Welsh" at the TV while watching his party's poor showing in the 1999 elections for the Welsh Assembly. Welsh police are now investigating whether...

North Dakota's Public Service Commission is considering forcing people who sell things on eBay for others to obtain auctioneer's licenses.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... North Dakota's Public Service Commission is considering forcing people who sell things on eBay for others to obtain auctioneer's licenses. They'd have to pay a $35 fee, get a $5,000 surety bond, and obtain training in voice control, rapid...

Jersey City, New Jersey, says it will use its power of eminent domain to seize the Golden Cicada Bar.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Jersey City, New Jersey, says it will use its power of eminent domain to seize the Golden Cicada Bar. The city wants the land so a private Catholic school can build an athletic field. Just 185 of the 934 students enrolled in St. Peter's...

Police in Malanda, Australia, attempted to ticket Pat Galfen for crossing the street too slowly.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Police in Malanda, Australia, attempted to ticket Pat Galfen for crossing the street too slowly. Gallen is 83 years old and uses a cane.

A provision inserted into the Children's Safety Act of 2005 would define many mainstream Hollywood films as "pornographic.".(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... A provision inserted into the Children's Safety Act of 2005 would define many mainstream Hollywood films as "pornographic." Currently, any film that has explicit sex must maintain records of the real names and ages of performers. A clause...

Gas emission.(greenhouse gases)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Between 2000 and 2003, greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. fell for the first time in more than a decade, even as the U.S. population grew by almost 9 million.

Big threat.(Persian, popular blog lingo)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Persian now vies with French as the second most common blog language after English. "Weblogs are one weapon that even the Islamic Republic cannot beat," an Iranian blogger declares.

Fish flop.(no new baseball stadium, Miami)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Negotiations may yet go into extra innings, but Miami has rejected Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria's demands for a new $385 million baseball stadium.

Top cop.(Greater Manchester Police chief)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... The chief constable of the Greater Manchester Police refuses to use speed cameras as a revenue engine, declaring that it alienates the public, and instructs officers to focus on serious crime. In three years burglaries are down 41 percent,...

Water works.(water system)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Voters in Monterey, California, vote 2 to against a public-sector takeover of a privately run water system.

Time machine.(telecommunting saves time, money)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... The Telework Exchange studies a sample of 3,500 federal workers and finds that three days a week spent telecommuting would save an average of $4,372 per worker a year and free up about 98 hours per worker in physical commuting time.

Business land.(Ireland)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... A report from InterTradeIreland finds that entrepreneurship in Ireland rivals that of the United States. Some 9 percent of Irish adults are involved in managing their own businesses, close to the U.S. rate of 10 percent and among the highest in...

Swiss miss.(genetically modified animals, crops ban)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Swiss voters approve a five-year ban on all genetically modified animals and crops.

Wi-Nanny.(wi-fi networks)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Officials in Westchester County, New York, look to prohibit the operation of unsecured wi-fi networks. Otherwise, County Executive Andy Spano explains, "somebody parked in the street or sitting in a neighboring building could hack into the...

Trailer trash.(Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety overspends)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... The West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety spends $1.4 million it does not have for "four emergency trailers." The state assumed it had more homeland security money to burn than it actually did. An investigation ensues.

History-free history.(high school history curricula)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... A key component in Norway's draft national high school curriculum emphasizes PowerPoint presentations of the Viking age but leaves out World War I, World War II, Nazism, communism, and the Cold War.

Trojan wars.(Sony use trojan horse software to track piracy)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Sony tries to protect its music from unauthorized duplication by secretly infecting buyers' PCs with Trojan horse software. The company issues a recall but is slow to react to the security breach its software caused.

Ban plan.(workplace smoking)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... The American Medical Association backs a nationwide ban on all workplace smoking.

Criminal behavior.(public building to attract tourists)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Officials in Camden, New Jersey--consistent top finisher in the "Most Dangerous U.S. Cities" ranking--opt to fight crime with $175 million in glitzy redevelopment. A new aquarium, an amphitheater, and a minor league baseball park are all...

Better not shop around: online cigarette sales.
February 1, 2006... INTERNET RETAILING threatens to cut into the profits of the shady characters who make a nice living trucking cigarettes from low-tax to high-tax states. But cigarette smugglers, who in recent years have included terrorists as well as ordinary...

Quantify world peace.(Human Security Report 2005)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... The Human Security Report 2005, produced by the Human Security Centre at the University of British Columbia, offers some welcome news: Since the end of the Cold War, the frequency of wars, genocides, and other forms of mass slaughter has...

DUI judgment: presumed sober.(driving under intoxication)
February 1, 2006... IN THE STATE of Virginia, as in the rest of the country, drivers who register above .08 percent on a breathalyzer test are presumed to be impaired. Drivers who get hauled before Ian M. O'Flaherty, a general district judge in Fairfax Country,...

My brothel's keeper.(Tracy Quan)(Interview)
February 1, 2006... As a kid in small-town Canada, Tracy Quan wanted to be three things when she grew up: a librarian, a writer, and a hooker. The librarian gig never panned out, but Quan has managed to combine a talent for high-class hooking with a gift for...

The war on sedition: "Anglosphere" allies crack down on speech in the name of fighting terror.
February 1, 2006... IF AUSTRALIAN PRIME Minister John Howard gets his way, citizens down under will soon face seven years in prison if they are convicted of "sedition." That's not entirely new--sedition laws have been on the country's books for at least 40...

Smears in cyberspace: blogs and media ethics.
February 1, 2006... SOMETIMES IN JOURNALISM, the medium is the story. So it is with the ongoing saga of The Blogs vs. The Mainstream Media, endlessly flogged and blogged in the old and new media alike. The story is always the same: Periodically, a mainstream...

Hold the good news: Iraq's pathetic payoff.
February 1, 2006... "THE AMERICAN PEOPLE are being fed a steady stream of negative stories about Iraq that in no way represent reality," writes Bill Crawford in National Review. Reporting on the "overwhelmingly pessimistic" and "increasingly negative" coverage of...

America's criminal immigration policy: how U.S. law punishes hard work and fractures families.(Cover Story)
February 1, 2006... IN THE WEE HOURS of a Tuesday morning in December 2004, Buca's daughters, 10-year-old Darby and 4-year-old Daisy, reached up from their bed, hugged their daddy, and went back to sleep. Outside their back window, the sun was still waiting to...

The Age of Corporate Environmentalism: surprise--big business has learned that it's pretty easy being green.
February 1, 2006... ASK BOB LANGERT about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and he starts to chuckle. "When we meet the regulators, it's kind of nice," says the senior director for social responsibility at the McDonald's Corporation. "We just got an award...

6 reasons to kill farm subsidies and trade barriers: a no-nonsense reform strategy.
February 1, 2006... AMERICA'S AGRICULTURAL policies have remained fundamentally unchanged for nearly three-quarters of a century. The U.S. government continues to subsidize the production of rice, milk, sugar, cotton, peanuts, tobacco, and other commodities, while...

Persian letters: three personal accounts of modern Iran.(Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran)(Even After All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran)(Book Review)
February 1, 2006... Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran, by Azadeh Moaveni, New York: Public Affairs, 249 pages, $25 Even After All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran, by Afschineh Latifi, New...

Mark Twain vs. Tom Sawyer: the bold deconstruction of a national icon.(Mark Twain: A Life )(Book Review)
February 1, 2006... It's hard to read Ron Powers' engaging new Mark Twain: A Life (Free Press) and not conclude that there's a congenital defect in the very heart of American literature. Powers, a Pulitzer Prize winner for Flags of Our Fathers, argues that the man...

Blood, guts, and entertainment: a sanguine take on sanguinary diversions.(Savage Pastimes: A Cultural History of Violent Entertainment)(Book Review)
February 1, 2006... Savage Pastimes: A Cultural History of Violent Entertainment, by Harold Schechter, New York: St. Martin's Press, 208 pages, $24. 95 IN JULY, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law a bill that prohibited the sale or rental of violent...

Happiness is ... higher taxes: is one man's productivity another man's pollution?(Happiness: Lessons From a New Science)(Book Review)
February 1, 2006... Happiness: Lessons From a New Science, by Richard Layard, New York: Penguin Press, 310 pages, $55.95 IF YOU'D LIKE TO pay your respects to Jeremy Bentham, the ur-utilitarian and social reformer, head to the campus of University College...

The eccentric revolutionaries: banned for decades in the Soviet Union, a subversive comedy finally comes to DVD.(My Grandmother)(Video Recording Review)
February 1, 2006... AT SOME POINT in our lives, we've all waited in a line for so long that time seemed to stand still. In My Grandmother, a strange and wonderful silent comedy made in Soviet Georgia in i929, this happens literally: As a "notorious idler and...

The case of the invisible Moose.(television sex)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... "THE TELEVISION landscape is blanketed with stories of sex," warns Vicky Rideout, vice president of the Kaiser Family foundation, which recently released Sex on TV 4, the latest installment in an ongoing content analysis of steamy small-screen...