Reason articles from July 2004

Reason archives from July 2004

Protectionism in politics and prose.(Editor's Note)(Editorial)
July 1, 2004... AS LOU DOBBS could tell you, these are pretty good times to be a protectionist. The CNN host and U.S. News & World Report columnist is enjoying a burst of attention for his outspoken and repeated attacks on, as he put it in a typical U.S. News...

Regulation for dummies.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2004... We were very disappointed by Todd Seavey's review of Protecting America's Health ("Regulation for Dummies" April). Since it's impossible to detail all of our disagreements in a short letter, we would like to focus on one particular point:...

Fools for communism.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2004... I hope the rest of reason is more accurate than Glenn Garvin's review "Fools for Communism" (April), which references me. Garvin says "Foner... denounces 'the obsessive need to fill in the blank pages of the Soviet era.'" He is referring...

Search 'n' sniff: doggie-style fourth amendment.(Citings)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... IN AN UPCOMING case, Illinois v. Caballes, the Supreme Court will decide whether the use of a drug dog to conduct a suspicionless search passes the smell test. On November 12, 1998, Illinois State Police Trooper Dan Gillete stopped Roy...

Corporate soldiers: privatizing warfare.(Citings)
July 1, 2004... ACCORDING TO AN April 8 report in The Washington Post, private security companies in Iraq--among them Control Risks Group Ltd., Hart Group Ltd., and Triple Canopy--are pooling their resources, organizing "what may effectively be the largest...

25 years ago in reason.(Citings)
July 1, 2004... "So valuable were Reverend [Jim] Jones's political connections... that one can only speculate why he was never asked to join the Carter administration on the cabinet level." --Thomas Hazlett, "Pleading Jim Jones's Case" "Napoleon was...

Pumping up: fuming over oil prices.(Citings)
July 1, 2004... HARRIED MOTORISTS across the nation, especially California, have been wondering all spring: Why are gasoline prices so high? Pump prices, Business Week alerts us, are "near all-time highs even though the peak summer driving season is months...

Outlaw editors: change a lede, go to jail.(Citings)
July 1, 2004... THE DAY AFTER April Fool's Day, the Treasury Department asserted with a straight face the government's right to criminalize the heretofore First Amendment-protected act of editing an article or book. It is a sign of either how debased our...

Quote.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... "I absolutely hate taxes, but as a colleague said, I love Virginia more." --Thomas K. Norment Jr., Republican floor leader in the Virginia Senate, on sponsoring a $4 billion tax increase, higher than the Democratic governor's request

Source.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2004... Electronic books have been around a long time now, but the Internet has been making them increasingly collaborative. Project Gutenberg (Gutenberg.net), famous for putting books in the public domain online, uses a "distributed" method of...

When Hyundai wanted to build a test track in California City, California, the local government seized 700 acres of land under a state law allowing it to condemn land that is "urbanized and blighted," even though the land is mostly pristine desert.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... When Hyundai wanted to build a test track in California City, California, the local government seized 700 acres of land under a state law allowing it to condemn land that is "urbanized and blighted," even though the land is mostly pristine...

Corrections Canada won't allow prison guards to wear vests that prevent them from being stabbed by inmates.(Brickbats)(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2004... Corrections Canada won't allow prison guards to wear vests that prevent them from being stabbed by inmates. They say it sends a message to prisoners that the guards consider them dangerous.

School officials in Merrillville, Indiana, have banned students from wearing the color pink.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... School officials in Merrillville, Indiana, have banned students from wearing the color pink. They say they've noticed many students are wearing the color, and they fear it may be gang-related. "There is no evidence of gang activity," says...

In other education news, six teachers in Gwinnett County, Georgia, may have to pay back a total of $30,000 in pay raises.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... In other education news, six teachers in Gwinnett County, Georgia, may have to pay back a total of $30,000 in pay raises. The teachers got the raises after obtaining advanced degrees from a school in Liberia. St. Regis University allegedly...

Audits of New Jersey preschool programs found that money was spent on items including prime beef, fish, cat litter, denture cleaner, and gift certificates.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Audits of New Jersey preschool programs found that money was spent on items including prime beef, fish, cat litter, denture cleaner, and gift certificates. Some of the funds couldn't be accounted for. Of 30 audits, 12 have been referred for...

The Florentine Boar, the centerpiece of Great Britain's oldest public park, stood for more than 100 years before it was damaged during World War II.(Brickbats)
July 1, 2004... The Florentine Boar, the centerpiece of Great Britain's oldest public park, stood for more than 100 years before it was damaged during World War II. A planned refurbishing of the park includes a replica of the statue. But in Derby, where the...

If the patrons at MacDinton's Irish Pub in Tampa, Florida, don't stop drinking so much, the establishment could go out of business.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... If the patrons at MacDinton's Irish Pub in Tampa, Florida, don't stop drinking so much, the establishment could go out of business. No, really. The city says it's a restaurant, so it has to get at least 51 percent of its revenue from food or it...

The Turkish Army has started collecting intelligence on those it suspects might try to undermine the government.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The Turkish Army has started collecting intelligence on those it suspects might try to undermine the government. These apparently include people who support the European Union, people who support the United States, ethnic minorities, "the...

Miracle in Helena: smoking bans and heart attacks.(Citings)(American Heart Association)
July 1, 2004... LAST YEAR RICHARD Sargent and Robert Shepard, two physicians who had campaigned for a smoking ban in Helena, Montana, announced that their efforts had paid off more dramatically than anyone could have imagined: The ordinance had led to an...

Balance sheet.(brief items )
July 1, 2004... Golden Shot The Salk polio vaccine turns 50 years old. For most Americans, the horror that was polio is just something in history books. Spam Slammer A North Wales court sentences a man to 20 months in jail for his part in a...

Flat-tax perspective.(Data)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... It's easy to conclude the U.S. tax system is pretty progressive if you look only at figures like the share of individual federal income tax paid by the top 20 percent of taxpayers--almost 84 percent! That's pretty hefty, even when you consider...

Regulating radios: broadcast flag at half-mast.(Citings)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... CONSUMER GROUPS and consumer electronics companies are already up in arms over federal "broadcast flag" regulations, which will require that, as of mid-2005, new digital video recorders must recognize a copyright watermark in digital television...

Defending divorce: anger, bargaining, acceptance.(Citings)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... WHILE THE DEBATE over gay matrimony has once again placed the "sanctity of marriage" at the center of public policy discussions, a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that easy divorce provides some real social...

Lies and Medicare: not necessarily the new.(Citings)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... IF YOU WATCHED the news in Baton Rouge on January 23, 2004,you might have seen a report on WBRZ-TV about the new Medicare law. It was a sunny story, featuring reassuring comments from Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and...

Discussing disgust.(Soundbite)(Interview)
July 1, 2004... Many conservative scholars argue that shame and disgust should play central roles in public life. But in her new book Hiding From Humanity (Princeton University Press), Martha C. Nussbaum, a professor of law and ethics at the University of...

Only money: campaign finance reform bites supporters in the rear.(Columns)
July 1, 2004... SIERRA, A GLOSSY magazine published by the Sierra Club, has a Web site called "The Bush Archives" at sierraclub.org/sierra/bush_archive.asp. There you can find links to 62 original articles criticizing George W. Bush's impact on Mother Nature....

Carrying the torch of freedom.(Reason)
July 1, 2004... Reason magazine is published with the help of readers who invest more than the price of a subscription by making contributions to Reason Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. We are grateful to all of them for their support of our...

Under the radar: political correctness never died.(Columns)
July 1, 2004... THESE DAYS, TALKING about political correctness in academia makes you sound like a quaint throwback to the 1990s. It seems utterly irrelevant to the post-9/11 era, a threat dwarfed by (depending on whom you listen to) either terrorism or losing...

Do the Lynndie hop: how to explain abuses at Abu Ghraib.(Rant)(Editorial)
July 1, 2004... THERE SHE IS, Miss America for the 21st century: Pfc. Lynndie England, alleged dominatrix of Abu Ghraib prison and evil twin of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the original poster girl of the Iraq war. However demythologized Lynch's story became, at least...

Fascists have feelings, too: or: "an anti-defamation league of their own.".(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... WE VICTORIANS AREN'T OPPOSED TO SEX PER SE... WE JUST FIND REPRESSION AND DENIAL TO BE A BIGGER TURN-ON. WHO SAYS WE PURITANS HAVE NO FUN? HAVEN'T YOU EVER BEEN TO A WITCH DUNKING? I'D LIKE TO STATE FOR THE RECORD THAT I HAVE...

10 truths about trade: hard facts about offshoring, imports, and jobs.
July 1, 2004... IS GLOBALIZATION SENDING the best American jobs overseas? If you get your news from CNN's Lou Dobbs, the answer is "of course" and the only real issue is how many trade restrictions should be applied to stem the bleeding. But the recent...

Confessions of a "woman-owned business" owner: how I learned to love quotas.
July 1, 2004... WELL, I FINALLY did it. I bit the bullet and got certified as a WOB: a woman-owned business. It took a roots-up, religious-type conversion--I'd walked in darkness, then I saw the light. And now that I am a proud--or do I mean...

Grave injustice: federal laws about burial remains put politics before science.
July 1, 2004... IMAGINE AN AMERICA where the federal government takes an active role in promoting the spiritual values of a certain cultural group. This group rarely documents its largely unknown religious practices and in fact considers many rituals too...

Bloody shame: unnecessary regulations are making blood banks run dry.
July 1, 2004... IF YOU WALKED into a blood donation center before the HIV crisis, you would have been asked 15 quick questions, then either accepted as a donor or not. Today those questions have burgeoned to almost 50, and the list continues to grow. The...

Ulysses unbound: why does a book so bad it "defecates on your bed" still have so many admirers?(Culture and Reviews)(Critical Essay)
July 1, 2004... THIS JUNE 16, fans, hecklers, curiosity seekers, and others with an interest, pro or con, in James Joyce's Ulysses have a new treat to chew on. A lush period adaptation of the problematic novel, with Stephen Rea playing the title role of...

Big Mac attack: Super Size Me asks the question: is McDonald's unappealing--or irresistible?(Critical Essay)
July 1, 2004... During the first lunch of his month-long McDonald's binge, Morgan Spurlock is visibly uncomfortable. Eating in his car after stopping at a drive-through, he has trouble finishing his supersize fries. He complains of "a McBelly ache," "McGas,"...

Cheating heart: does capitalism teach people to break the rules?(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead, by David Callahan, New York: Harcourt, 304 pages, $26 GLEN WHITMAN, AN economics professor at California State University, Northridge, is the kind of teacher cheaters...

The fun-loving founding father: Gouverneur Morris, the first modern American.(Book Review)
July 1, 2004... Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution, by Richard Brookhiser New York: Free Press, 221 pages, $26 Gouverneur Morris: An Independent Life, by William Howard Adams, New Haven: Yale University, Press,...

Flag-draped memories: the strange history of war death imagery.
July 1, 2004... THREE MONTHS AFTER the war began, a New York newspaper bitterly attacked the administration's handling of unpleasant military news. "Their 'information' is treacle for children," thundered the angry editorialist, who compared the military's...

When ads campaign.(Artifact)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, the mayor of New York City and the most prominent Puritan since Cotton Mather, is the unseen villain in a remarkable TV ad campaign for Rheingold Beer. These images are from "Cabaret," one of three 30-second spots that make...

Cooling the global-warming debate.
July 1, 2004... In the March 2004 issue of Scientific American, National Aeronautics and Space Administration global-warming expert James Hansen notes that greenhouse gas emissions and global-warming projections are "consistently pessimistic." Hansen suggests...