Reason articles from June 2005

Reason archives from June 2005

Learning from those libertarian weirdoes.(Editor's Note)(Editorial)
June 1, 2005... BACK IN MARCH, the New York Post--the newspaper started by Alexander Hamilton some 200 years ago and infamous for headlines such as "Headless Body in Topless Bar"--gave an upbeat, though slightly bemused, review of Choice: The Best of Reason,...

Ayn Rand at 100.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2005... The most laudatory adjective that reason is willing to apply to Ayn Rand is "relevant." Relevant?! No more than 10 percent of Cathy Young's condescending article ("Ayn Rand at 100," March) describes what Rand successfully accomplished in...

Transportation Security Aggravation.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2005... Even (or especially?) among experts, such as Robert W. Poole Jr. and Jim Harper ("Transportation Security Aggravation," March), there seems to be confusion about the 9/11 airline security problems. The worst was the non-confrontation policy...

My Very Own Monorail.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2005... Peter Bagge's comic description of Seattle's transit conundrum ("My Very Own Monorail," March) was at once sad, funny, and painfully accurate. Describing Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) systems as "taxis on monorail tracks" gets to the heart...

John Locke, Original Hipster.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2005... Thank you for publishing Nick Gillespie's piece on my book Counterculture Through the Ages ("John Locke, Original Hipster," March). I always felt the book's narration of sometimes admittedly flimsy connections between various cultural epochs...

The Fever Swamps of Kansas.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2005... Thomas Frank's book What's the Matter With Kansas? and Jesse Walker's review of it ("The Fever Swamps of Kansas," March) both miss the essence of this heartland state located in the middle of flyover country. Frank misses how Democrats...

Correction.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
June 1, 2005... "Thomas Szasz Takes on His Critics" (May) implied that Rodney Yoder was still being held in an Illinois mental hospital. In fact, he is now a free man: In 2003 he was transferred to the Randolph County Jail, where he was held on charges...

Choose life: grow young with HGH.(Human Growth Hormone)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... From the landmark book Grow Young with HGH comes the most powerful, over-the-counter health supplement in the history of man. Human growth hormone was first discovered in 1920 and has long been thought by the medical community to be necessary...

Suing sodium: assault on salt.(Citings)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... "DESPITE PLEAS from government and other health experts over the last quarter-century to reduce salt consumption," the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) complains, "Americans are consuming more--not less--salt." Current...

Rummy in the dock: climbing the chain of command.(Citings)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... A NEW LAWSUIT against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld isn't likely to bring justice for prisoners abused at Abu Ghraib and other military prisons, but it may help resolve the controversy over who's accountable for the torture. As of...

25 years ago in reason.(Citings)
June 1, 2005... "During the 1976 campaign Carter assured us that 'Ah feel yo' pain,' and such is his enthusiasm for this empathy that he has gone out of his way to inflict pain ever since." --Murray N. Rothbard, "Carter, Pain, and Inflation" ...

Ohio clampdown: the PATRIOT Act and the states.(Citings)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... SINCE 2002 four states and 370 local governments have passed resolutions condemning the PATRIOT Act. Some of the measures don't stop with a strongly worded statement. Toledo, Ohio, for example, asked its librarians to post a warning that...

Sea of litigation: sailing away from the ADA?(Citings)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... MOST OF THE oceangoing vacation boat industry is legally based in other countries, with mini-nations such as the Bahamas, Honduras, and Panama flying their flags proudly over Love Boats across the ocean blue. But around two-thirds of their...

High on helium: selling off stockpiles.(Citings)(Helium Privatization Act of 1996)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... A YEAR AFTER the helium plant near Amarillo, Texas, started selling the stuff to private buyers, local officials say that levies on the sales have generated enough revenue to justify a cut in tax rates. Residents can thank the Helium...

Quotes.(Citings)
June 1, 2005... "Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on 'em, and I'll make one pass. We won't have to worry about Syria anymore." --Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas),...

Sources.(Citings)
June 1, 2005... Two recent analyses suggest that foreign aid involves self-help as much as good will. A March report from Oxfam and ActionAid, available at oxfam.org. uk/what_we_do/issues/ debt_aid/aid_millstone. htm, charges that 70 percent of U.S. aid is...

Donovan Lightbourn is eight years younger, five inches taller, and 60 pounds heavier than accused murderer Kareem Lightbourne; he also has a different hairstyle.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Donovan Lightbourn is eight years younger, five inches taller, and 60 pounds heavier than accused murderer Kareem Lightbourne; he also has a different hairstyle. But detectives at Florida's Broward County Sheriff's Office still thought the two...

Twelve-year-old Raven Furbert says her red, white, and blue beaded necklace is a display of patriotism and support for American troops, including a family member stationed in Iraq.(Brickbats)
June 1, 2005... Twelve-year-old Raven Furbert says her red, white, and blue beaded necklace is a display of patriotism and support for American troops, including a family member stationed in Iraq. But officials at her Schenectady, New York, middle school think...

After three Michigan sheriff's deputies ran into a burning building and pulled people to safety, Ypsilanti Township and Washtenaw County gave them awards for bravery.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... After three Michigan sheriff's deputies ran into a burning building and pulled people to safety, Ypsilanti Township and Washtenaw County gave them awards for bravery. Now their department may face fines and other sanctions because of the...

Andrew Brock, a Republican state senator in North Carolina, has introduced a bill that would forbid an adult driving an automobile with a child under 17 in it from having any amount of alcohol in his or her body.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Andrew Brock, a Republican state senator in North Carolina, has introduced a bill that would forbid an adult driving an automobile with a child under 17 in it from having any amount of alcohol in his or her body. Someone who had consumed a...

A homeschooling group in Simpsonville, South Carolina, chose a local park for its meetings because it was next to a police station.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... A homeschooling group in Simpsonville, South Carolina, chose a local park for its meetings because it was next to a police station. They've since reconsidered their reasoning. During a February meeting, a stranger began shouting at two of the...

When two men in ski masks allegedly pushed their way into Sean Roisten's Brighton, Massachusetts, home and held his wife at gunpoint, Roisten got his gun and shot one of the men.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... When two men in ski masks allegedly pushed their way into Sean Roisten's Brighton, Massachusetts, home and held his wife at gunpoint, Roisten got his gun and shot one of the men. Police proceeded to arrest Roisten for assault and battery with a...

A Greek court has sentenced the Austrian cartoonist Gerhard Haderer to six months for blasphemy.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... A Greek court has sentenced the Austrian cartoonist Gerhard Haderer to six months for blasphemy. Haderer's comic book The Life of Jesus, which depicts Jesus as a hippie who surfs and is friends with Jimi Hendrix, is banned in Greece but has...

Under a new law in Costa Rica.(Brickbats)
June 1, 2005... Under a new law in Costa Rica, men found guilty of unwanted flirting face up to 50 days in jail.

Pension tension: our other retirement time bomb.(Citings)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... THE DEBATE over Social Security reform has put the retirement program's fiscal woes in the headlines. But public attention hasn't yet fixed on the foundering Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the government program that insures...

Free to B&B: Seattle's zoning tyrants.(Citings)(bed-and-breakfasts)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... TWO YEARS ago, concerned about a local shortage of bed-and-breakfasts, the Seattle City, Council unanimously approved an ordinance that loosened restrictions on such inns, allowing them in neighborhoods of single-family homes. Taking the city...

Cuban revolution.(Balance Sheet)
June 1, 2005... Citing the need to protect innovation, billionaire techie and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban comes to the aid of the files-haring network Grokster. Cuban promises to pay the legal bills Grokster has racked up fighting the movie industry over...

Tolerating tolerance.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Texas, Indiana, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania are among the states whose schools are stepping back from brain-dead "zero tolerance" regulations. Adopted in the '90s in a frenzied attempt to combat drugs and violence, the rules have spawned...

High cotton.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Upholding a complaint by Brazil, the World Trade Organization increases pressure on the U.S. to lower subsidies for cotton farmers. Should other countries follow Brazil's lead, more subsidized crops may be found to violate WTO rules.

Pre-calc precondition.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... A Texas judge tosses out a high school student's lawsuit against mandatory summer homework. Peer Larson argued that Whitnall High School's honors pre-calculus class had to stick to the 180-day school calendar. The judge said Larson should have...

Leaning legal.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... The New Mexico state Senate backs several bills to allow cancer patients and others limited use of marijuana. Gov. Bill Richardson appears to support the idea.

Blocking tackled.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... The Federal Communications Commission fines a small ISP that tried to block Voice Over Internet Protocol traffic, even though that use was not forbidden by its terms of service. The Net phone traffic competed directly with the phone service the...

Powder corrupts.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Pennsylvania state Rep. Jeffrey E. Habay is charged in an anthrax hoax case. Habay, a five-term Allegheny County Republican, claimed he found white powder in a letter from a constituent who was critical of him.

Bank dicked.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Qusair Mohamedbhai says a Colorado bank denied him a checking account because it assumed he was a terrorist. The signs? His Florida Social Security number, and his presence at the bank with a white woman, his "cover."

Empire state.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... The New York Court of Appeals rules that a programmer has to pay income tax to the state of New York because he works for a New York--based labor union--even though he telecommutes from Nashville.

Nicotine fixed.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... A handful of state attorneys general and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives make buying a carton of cigarettes online just about impossible. Officials convince American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Discover, Diners...

Veiled threat.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... The new Iraqi parliament includes women, but most of them belong to the conservative United Iraqi Alliance, which has the implementation of Islamic law as a primary goal. Adopting Shariah would ensure that men have a dominant position in Iraqi...

Stryker out.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... An Army study of its Stryker combat vehicle finds big problems. The extra armor put on the vehicle to fend off attacks in Iraq slows it down and wrecks the suspension while the onboard computer is too slow to be of much use. Speed and...

Don't ask, just spend.(Data)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... "Don't ask, don't tell" isn't just a controversial military policy; it's an expensive one too. The Government Accountability Office estimates that the Defense Department has spent $95 million recruiting men and women to replace the 9,488 gays...

Scientists for sale: innovation vs. ethics.(medical ethics rules)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... IN DECEMBER 2003, the Los Angeles Times outed several scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) who were being paid to research certain drugs' effects while collecting hefty consulting fees from the same drugs' makers. Embarrassed,...

Psychedelic revival: research on forbidden drugs.(Citings)
June 1, 2005... BEFORE HE became notorious as an apostle of chemically catalyzed enlightenment and lost his job at Harvard, Timothy Leary investigated the use of psilocybin and LSD in rehabilitating alcoholics and convicts. Such psychotherapeutic applications,...

Darwinian markets.(economist, Paul Seabright )(Interview)
June 1, 2005... For millennia, homo sapiens was just another species of hunter-gatherer primates. Then we developed a fantastically complex system of cooperation and specialization unknown elsewhere in nature. In The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of...

Who gets to play journalist? An academic question becomes a pressing legal issue.(bloggers)
June 1, 2005... APPLE IS ONE of the few companies large and intriguing enough to have attracted its own large subcategory of professional journalism. MacWorld competes with MacAddict and at least a half-dozen other glossies; Amazon.com lists 712 books under...

Behind the Jeffersonian Veneer: the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History is no libertarian.(Thomas Woods)(Critical Essay)
June 1, 2005... THOMAS WOODS' BEST-SELLING Politically Incorrect Guide to American History is primarily pitched to conservative readers, but it's also crafted for libertarian appeal. Its rhetoric is strongly anti-statist, pro-market, and opposed to...

Vagina dialogue: do conservatives really know what all women want?(Rant)(preferences of the opposite sex)
June 1, 2005... A CENTURY AGO, the original vagina monologuist, Sigmund Freud, threw up his hands and famously asked: What do women want? We now have the definitive answer, thanks to a recent Harris Interactive poll and a telling April 7 analysis provided...

How schools cheat: from underreporting violence to inflating graduation rates to fudging test scores, educators are lying to the American public.(Cover Story)
June 1, 2005... ON MARCH 17, 2005, 15-year-old Delusa Allen was shot in the head while leaving Locke High School in Los Angeles, sending her into intensive care and eventually killing her. Four months before that several kids were injured in a riot at the same...

Legalization now! War-weary Colombia--and its Conservative Party--consider ending the drug war.(narcotics legalization)
June 1, 2005... EVERYONE REMEMBERS the small plane that buzzed around the clear sky over this beautiful section of western Colombia toward the end of 2003, tossing out hundreds of pamphlets. Promising a "black Christmas," the pamphlets said "the good children...

Self-defense vs. municipal gun bans: when Hale DeMar shot an intruder in his house, he may well have saved his children's lives. So why was he charged with a crime?
June 1, 2005... ON THE NIGHT OF December 29, 2003, Morio L. Billings was AWOL from the Army, in violation of his probation, and driving a BMWX5 sport utility vehicle he'd stolen less than a day earlier. The 31-year-old was staying with his mother in Chicago,...

Consumer vertigo: a new wave of social critics claim that freedom's just another word for way too much to choose. Here's why they're wrong.(Culture and Reviews)
June 1, 2005... WHEN CUSTOMERS ENTER the Ralphs supermarket near UCLA, they see a sign announcing how many different fruits and vegetables the produce department has on hand: "724 produce varieties available today," it says, including 93 organic selections....

Beyond Arabism: music videos and Lebanese revolution.
June 1, 2005... Throughout Lebanon's recent assertion of political independence, a striking video hovered near the top of the region's music and video charts: Issa Ghandour's "Min Safer" ("We Depart"). Ghandour's song is a moody evocation of the meaning of...

In defense of steroids: Jose Canseco's surprisingly sensible case for juice.(Book Review)
June 1, 2005... Juiced: wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big, by Jose Canseco, New York: Regan Books, 304 pages, $25.95 ON MARCH 17, former baseball star Jose Canseco told the House Committee on Government Reform exactly what...

The fog of war: how can we tell if we're winning the War on Terror?(Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror)(Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security--An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State)(Book Review)
June 1, 2005... Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror, by Richard Miniter, Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 256 pages, $27.95 Fortress America: On the Frontlines of Homeland Security--An Inside Look at the Coming...

The long, gory life of EC Comics: why the Crypt-Keeper never dies.(E.C. Publications Inc.)
June 1, 2005... WHEN WILLIAM M. Gaines became publisher of EC Comics, he inherited a company deep in debt and struggling to survive. Within a few years, he transformed it into the most innovative publisher of comic books in the 190s. Although EC's brief reign...

The changing face of old St. Nick.(Artifact)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... THIS STATUE OF SANTA--in the style made familiar by Coca-Cola ads, and postured like a Salvation Army bell ringer--stands year-round in the main square of Demre, a town in Turkey. According to The Washington Post, it recently replaced a bronze...

Environmental false alarms.(Montana)
June 1, 2005... In his new book, Collapse, Jared Diamond begins with a chapter on my home state of Montana. Although painting a romantic picture of "Big Sky Country," he decries environmental tragedies including toxic mining waste, forest fires, soil...