Reason articles from July 2005

Reason archives from July 2005

High Court anxiety.(Editor's Note)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... As I write this in mid-May, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is threatening to use the "nuclear option" to push for up-or-down votes on President George W. Bush's judicial nominees. That means he might jigger Senate rules to end the...

The death of Social Security.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I am a longtime fan of James Glassman and also a longtime fan of replacing the Social Security system, over time, with private investment options. But my thinking has changed dramatically as I have followed the current debate, and Glassman said...

Homeschooling Alone.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... I was interested to learn in Greg Beato's article "Homeschooling Alone" (April) that on national achievement tests, homeschooled children perform as well as, or slightly better than, their public school counterparts. In other words, public...

Are We Just Really Smart Robots?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2005... Kenneth Silber ("Are We Just Really Smart Robots?," April) is worried about the encroaching scientific understanding of our brains and behavior. If science shows us to be simply smart biological machines, he believes this undermines liberal...

Welfare Queen: farm subsidies for the filthy rich.
July 1, 2005... On March 23 The Guardian published what had until then been a government secret: which Brits rake in the biggest subsidies from the profligate European Union. Near the top of the list was the queen herself, whose farm in Norfolk received...

Assault ambiguity: marriage bans and domestic abuse.(Ohio marriage law)
July 1, 2005... Ohio law clerK Jeff Lazarus was just trying to defend a client when he stumbled on a glaring loophole in Ohio's domestic violence laws--and provoked an attack on the state's new same-sex marriage ban. Frederick Burk, 42, was accused of slapping...

30 years ago in reason.
July 1, 2005... "I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.... The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom." "I cannot go along with the...

Heresy on the right: conservatives and the drug war.(shortcomings of war on drugs, report)
July 1, 2005... AT THE AMERICAN Enterprise Institute's annual dinner in March, a black-tie affair attended by Vice President Cheney and other Republican luminaries, Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa gave a keynote address in which he regretted that...

Censored science: speaking out on stem cells.(Citings)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... IN APRIL SEVERAL directors of the National Institutes of Health broke their silence about the Bush administration's nearly four-year-old limits on federally funded human embryonic stem cell research. The director of the National Heart, Lung,...

Quotes.
July 1, 2005... "Al Qaeda is not the most intense threat to your freedom--it's the American Civil Liberties Union." --Bill O'Reilly, The Radio Factor, March 30 "Getting rid of [Microsoft] Office wasn't an option. You can't run a war without...

Source.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Wondering how your state compares when it comes to cracking down on toking up? The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has created the Marijuana Arrests Investigator, an attractive map of the ugly state of America's marijuana...

The sheriff's department and zoning officials in Bartholomew County, Indiana, have ordered the owner of a local business to move about 10 statues.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The sheriff's department and zoning officials in Bartholomew County, Indiana, have ordered the owner of a local business to move about 10 statues--copies of such classic works as the Venus de Milo and Michelangelo's David--out of public view....

Rhode Island law prohibits anyone from smoking within 25 feet of a school.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Rhode Island law prohibits anyone from smoking within 25 feet of a school. So when sophomore Eliazar Velasquez snapped a photo of principal Elaine Almagno puffing away just outside a school building door and posted the image on the Internet,...

In Maryland, four counties allow students to use sunscreen only if they bring a doctor's note.(Brickbats)
July 1, 2005... In Maryland, four counties allow students to use sunscreen only if they bring a doctor's note. Eleven require a parent's signature, and eight insist students store their sunscreen with the school's health officer.

After Mauritanian officials were accused of stealing money last year, the government promised to reduce corruption.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... After Mauritanian officials were accused of stealing money last year, the government promised to reduce corruption. Their solution: Cabinet ministers voted themselves 600 percent raises. They reportedly now take home $3,333 a month, in a...

State University of New York Chancellor Robert King has not one but three full-time drivers, paid a total of $174,700 a year to drive him and other top university officials.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... State University of New York Chancellor Robert King has not one but three full-time drivers, paid a total of $174,700 a year to drive him and other top university officials. King is also paid a $250,000 annual salary and receives a $90,000...

Larry Casteel was in Iraq serving in the U.S. Army when a court ordered that he attend a class for divorcing parents.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Larry Casteel was in Iraq serving in the U.S. Army when a court ordered that he attend a class for divorcing parents. He was arrested for missing it on his first night back in the United States, after being pulled over for a broken taillight.

Jean-Paul Sartre smoked two packs of cigarettes and several pipefuls of tobacco a day.(Brickbats)
July 1, 2005... Jean-Paul Sartre smoked two packs of cigarettes and several pipefuls of tobacco a day. But for a poster marking the tooth anniversary of Sartre's birth, the French National Library airbrushed a cigarette out of his photograph to avoid violating...

When Antonio Wheeler was arrested on drug charges, he refused to give a urine sample.(Brickbats)
July 1, 2005... When Antonio Wheeler was arrested on drug charges, he refused to give a urine sample. So he was hand-cuffed and strapped to a Florida Hospital bed, where staff members tried to catheterize him forcibly. When he struggled, Officer Peter...

Bangladeshi judge Ali Noor said he was a "bit surprised" when he saw four accused criminals in his courtroom.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Bangladeshi judge Ali Noor said he was a "bit surprised" when he saw four accused criminals in his courtroom. The four, charged with looting and causing criminal damage, are a little younger than most other criminals he's seen: The oldest is 2...

Ten percent solution: TSA reforms stall at the gate.(Citings)(Transportation Security Administration)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to launch its Secure Flight passenger profiling system this summer. The agency's latest attempt to identify potentially dangerous travelers before they board planes, Secure Flight is a...

Save the Frankenfish! Is the snakehead endangered?(Northern snakehead fish )
July 1, 2005... The Northern snakehead fish is a little different from the 388 animal species currently listed as endangered: Federal guidelines say the invasive Asian species is a major threat to native wildlife, and the Virginia state government asks anglers...

Ephedra case.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... [up arrow] The FDA's ban on ephedra lasts barely a year, as a federal judge in Utah directs the agency to rewrite its April 2004 rule. A dietary supplement maker challenged the FDA finding that ephedra was dangerous, citing years of safe...

Opening hey!(Balance Sheet)
July 1, 2005... [up arrow] Members of the D.C. Public Schools Full Funding Campaign protest at the Washington Nationals' home opener, citing the city's misplaced priorities. The Nationals are slated to get a new $535 million ballpark underwritten by the...

Freedom drive.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... [up arrow] Women in the Afghan city of Herat test the local tolerance for female drivers. A new governor for the region means driver's education classes are now open to all

Connected costs.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... [up arrow] Researchers at the University of London Institute of Psychiatry dampen fears about the effect of pot on productivity. A study of 1,100 volunteers finds that cell phones and e-mail have a similar, perhaps more debilitating,...

Neander porn.(Balance Sheet)
July 1, 2005... [up arrow] Archaeologists in Germany find 7,200-year-old figurines fashioned to resemble a copulating couple. This is hard to square with the view that human sexuality is an instinctually taboo topic.

Screen gems.(Balance Sheet)
July 1, 2005... [up arrow] The Government Accountability Office finds that private security did a better job than the Transportation Security Administration's in-house screeners. The exact findings are classified, of course, but the private screeners...

Beer wimps.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... [down arrow] Anheuser-Busch frets that if genetically modified rice is grown in Missouri, consumers the world over will refuse to drink "contaminated" Bud. A-B's solution? Boycott Show-Me State rice.

Poppy cocked.(Balance Sheet)
July 1, 2005... [down arrow] Don't look now, but an elite strike team of Special Forces--trained DEA agents is roaming Afghanistan in search of opium fields. The chances of this ending well are slim to none.

Clothing optional.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... [down arrow] The Bush administration does not bother to wait for U.S. clothing and textile makers to petition for help; it just goes ahead and starts drawing up plans for quotas on imports from China. This comes despite evidence that...

Frequent crier.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... [down arrow] Airlines try to police consumer swaps of frequent flier miles, suggesting that the miles are given with the expectation that many will be rendered unusable due to cut-off dates and other restrictions. Fliers fight back by...

Board teens.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... [down arrow] Classic generational conflict hits Arizona as cities try to find ways to regulate motorized skateboards, scooters, and other kiddie transport. Maybe if kids hook golf carts to skate decks and wear white loafers, no one will...

Crime records.(Balance Sheet)
July 1, 2005... [down arrow] Investigators in New Jersey crack an ID theft ring that stole some 500,000 bank and personal records to sell to bill collectors and law firms. Bank employees and branch managers are alleged to be part of the...

That's classified, ma'am.(Data)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... Anecdotally, the Bush administration has earned a reputation for secrecy, whether it be from tight-lipped Cabinet officials or then-Attorney General John Ashcroft's 2001 recommendation to the Executive Branch that it err on the side of...

Skate Park superegos: lawsuits and parental power.
July 1, 2005... Parents make all kinds of important decisions for their children, including whether to allow them to participate in risky sports. But according to a New Jersey appeals court, while Mom can let Junior chance a broken bone in a skateboard...

Building a new world: mini-nations for the super-rich.(Dubai)
July 1, 2005... Al Nakheel Properties is building a private archipelago of 300 islands off the coast of Dubai, a semi-independent city in the United Arab Emirates. When construction is completed, the artificial islands, collectively dubbed The World, will form...

Energy forever.(Soundbite)(Interview)
July 1, 2005... Lawyer and journalist Peter Huber, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has made a career of challenging the way we think about everything from environmentalism to liability law. In his new book, The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the...

Cashing in on weblogs: major media companies are investing in blogs. Is this a new boom or just a bubble?
July 1, 2005... Back before he started single-handedly defending the U.S.-Mexican border, CNN personality Lou Dobbs was obsessed with an altogether different frontier: space. Perhaps more accurately, Dobbs got momentarily wobbly at the sight of workaday...

Bizarre bedfellows: Andrea Dworkin's ideological intercourse with the right.
July 1, 2005... The passing of Andrea Dworkin--feminist polemicist, anti-porn crusader, and loony extraordinaire--drew strangely admiring obituaries from several feminists who vehemently disagreed with her in life, including the self-identified "feminist...

"Values" and the Democrats: will the moral grandstanding never end?
July 1, 2005... Six months after Election Day, campaign '04 feels a bit like that bourbon-fueled night you made out with the clerk in the next cubicle, or the summer you joined that self-improvement group that turned out to be a cult, or the year in junior...

Who should reign Supreme? reason asks libertarian legal experts: Who are your favorites--past, present, and future--on the nation's highest court?(Cover Story)
July 1, 2005... During the next three years, George W. Bush will certainly nominate one and perhaps as many as three new Supreme Court justices. Any one of those nominations could set off a battle comparable to the political donnybrooks over Clarence Thomas...

Unleash the judges: the libertarian case for judicial activism.
July 1, 2005... Speaking to the Heritage Foundation in 1996 on the topic of "judicial activism," the conservative commentator Pat Buchanan denounced the Supreme Court as a "judicial dictatorship"; the Court's beneficiaries, he said, were "criminals, atheists,...

Not so Supreme: A Court Divided author Mark Tushnet explains William Rehnquist's legal legacy--and why the nation's top court matters less than you think.(A Court Divided: The Rehnquist Court and the Future of Constitutional Law)(Interview)
July 1, 2005... During last year's presidential election, Republicans and Democrats alike stoked party stalwarts by declaring that the race between George W. Bush and John F. Kerry was not simply about winning the White House for the next four years. With as...

Supreme Court senility: historian David J. Garrow discusses decrepit judges.(Interview)
July 1, 2005... William Rehnquist, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, announced in October that he had thyroid cancer. John Paul Stevens, the long-serving associate justice, just turned 85. From the outside, it's hard to tell whether they're still...

The fighting Scots-Irish: they shaped America, but did they make it more free?(Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, by James Webb, New York: Broadway Books, 369 pages, $14.95 Long dismissed as rednecks, crackers, and hillbillies, the Scots-Irish--also known as Scotch-Irish, Ulster Scots, or Borderers,...

The perpetual health care crisis; there may be no public policy solution to health care.(Lives at Risk: Single-Payer National Health Insurance Around the World)(Miracle Cure: How to Solve America's Health Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn't the Answer)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Lives at Risk: Single-Payer National Health Insurance Around the World, by John C. Goodman, Gerald L. Musgrave, and Devon M. Herrick, Lanham, Md. : Rowan & Littlefield, 263 pages, $22.95 Miracle Cure: How to Solve America's Health Care...

Why I'm Fonda Hanoi Jane: actress, activist, American. What's not to like?(My Life So Far, Jane Fonda)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... To many, maybe even most, Americans, Jane Fonda is the Wal-Mart of activist celebrities--a category killer when it comes to personifying the loathsome limousine liberal, that subspecies of Hollywood Democrat which, in some tellings, is more...

The first eugenicist: was Francis Galton wrong to want to improve the human race?(Extreme Measures: The Dark Visions and Bright Ideas of Francis Galton)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Extreme Measures: The Dark Visions and Bright Ideas of Francis Galton, by Martin Brookes, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 298 pages, $24.95 FRANCIS GALTON (1822-1911) was a distinguished polymath who made major contributions to a variety...

Cry the beloved continent: Africans are poor because they're poorly governed.(The Shackled Continent: Power, Corruption, and African Lives)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Shackled Continent: Power, Corruption, and African Lives, by Robert Guest, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 288 pages, $27.50 At independence in 1964, Zambia's people earned an average annual income, in 2001 dollars, of just $540....

Critique of pure riesling: wine snobbery in an age of globalization.(Mondovino)(Movie Review)
July 1, 2005... Almost 30 years ago, nine French critics gathered in Paris to preside over a face-off of French and American wines. Chardonnays battled with white Burgundies; Cabernets sought to displace Bordeaux. The French had always said line wine was...

Natural-Born Cyborgs.(humanoid robots)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2005... The cyborg of tomorrow wears a red polo shirt, drinks bottled water, and has a bit of a middle-aged spread. The contraption strapped to this man is a robotic arm designed to assist stroke survivors; it was developed by Jiping He's team at...