Reason articles from June 2006

Reason archives from June 2006

Mission accomplished--or mission impossible?(Editor's Note)
June 1, 2006... ON MAY 1, 2003, a few weeks after the invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush made a dramatic landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier then floating off the coast of California. Decked out in the finest flyboy fashion, he...

Old Propaganda and New.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... Matt Welch's rambling discourse "Old Propaganda and New" (March) contains a great deal of misinformation from unreliable sources. Unfortunately, Welch did not contact the Broadcasting Board of Governors for the facts. Far from living in...

Absolution in Your Cup.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... Kerry Howley's article "Absolution in Your Cup" (March) is well-documented in certain aspects (especially the historical background of coffee) and brings up some real concerns about the fair trade certification model. But many other elements...

Bad education: the high cost of "free" preschool.(financing preschool education through taxes)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... WHEN ACTOR-director Rob Reiner turns his focus to public policy, things get expensive. His latest tax referendum, dubbed Preschool for All, would cost California $2.4 billion per year. The program would offer every 4-year-old in the state 180...

Collecting DNA: database mission creep.(Citings)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... SINCE DATABASES of DNA taken from convicted criminals have proven such a success in forensic investigations, why not create a universal one covering all citizens? So suggested James Hodge, director of the Center for Law and the Public Health at...

25 years ago in reason.(libertarianism)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... "There is no 'Reagan New Deal,' and nothing either historic or revolutionary is going on. The fact that a small handful of libertarians or quasi-libertarians have gotten middle-level jobs in the administration means nothing except that a...

Wall of confusion: immigration policy follies.(taxation on transfer of funds in Arizona)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... ARIZONA LAWMAKERS worried about illegal immigration have paired an old idea, an anti-immigrant wall, with a new one: a state tax on bank wire transfers to and from other countries. The state's House Appropriation Committee has approved an 8...

Tea for 130: religious rituals and the drug war.(Citings; ayahuasca)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... FOR 35 YEARS, the federal government has allowed Native Americans to use peyote in their religious rituals, despite the fact that the drug is otherwise banned. Yet it balked at letting American members of Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do...

Eternal vacation: an uptick in downtime.(Americans' free time research)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... EVERY TIME President George W. Bush leaves Washington for his annual month-long vacation in Texas, editorialists pine for the days when the average American could kick back for a marathon holiday. But according to a new study from the National...

Quotes.
June 1, 2006... "When people worry about curing too many things, I'm always glad that bioethics wasn't around when people were thinking about infectious diseases or polio or yellow fever." --Laurie Zoloth, director of the Center for Bioethics, Science, and...

Stripping cable: the war on "indecency".(Jay Rockefeller proposes a bill to be incorporated into a telecom bill)(Indecent, Gratuitous, and Excessively Violent Programming Protection Act)
June 1, 2006... FREED FROM the fetters that bind broadcasters using "the public airwaves," cable and satellite providers are able to pipe into our homes the indecent, gratuitous, excessively violent programming that all right-thinking Americans demand. Sen....

Uzbekistan has banned fur-lined underwear.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Uzbekistan has banned fur-lined underwear. Sales had been climbing during the cold winter months, but the government says the undies lead to "unbridled fantasies."

Six years ago, Courtney Blair Schwebel legally changed his name to FUN.(driving license revoked)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Six years ago, Courtney Blair Schwebel legally changed his name to FUN. Using that single name, he got driver's licenses, filed tax returns, attended college, held jobs, and rented apartments. Then the Social Security Administration changed his...

In January, Cuban police arrested visiting Czech model Helena Houdova, held her for 11 hours, did not allow her to call an embassy, and released her only after she signed a letter vowing not to commit "counterrevolutionary" acts.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... In January, Cuban police arrested visiting Czech model Helena Houdova, held her for 11 hours, did not allow her to call an embassy, and released her only after she signed a letter vowing not to commit "counterrevolutionary" acts. Her crime:...

New Jersey's Freehold Borough School District has installed new biometric eye scanners as part of its security system.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... New Jersey's Freehold Borough School District has installed new biometric eye scanners as part of its security system. Those wishing to enter school buildings without being buzzed in must have their eyes scanned into the system. That includes...

The Alabama Senate has passed a bill, pushed by the Alabama Wholesale Beer Association, that would effectively ban private keg parties.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The Alabama Senate has passed a bill, pushed by the Alabama Wholesale Beer Association, that would effectively ban private keg parties. The state House of Representatives probably won't pass it. But it may pass a competing bill that would...

The Canadian Union of Public Employees says Air Canada discriminates against flight attendants, who are mostly women, because they are paid less than pilots and mechanics, who are mostly men.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The Canadian Union of Public Employees says Air Canada discriminates against flight attendants, who are mostly women, because they are paid less than pilots and mechanics, who are mostly men. The Canadian Human Rights Commission agreed with Air...

A Melbourne airport official told Stephen McKenzie-McHarg he could park in the bus zone to help his family with their bags if he was quick.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... A Melbourne airport official told Stephen McKenzie-McHarg he could park in the bus zone to help his family with their bags if he was quick. But he apparently wasn't quick enough in loading six big suitcases, because another officer gave the...

Simon Thompson was surprised when two cops knocked on the door of his home in Great Britain, and he was stunned when he learned the reason for their visit.(traffic regulations, fines)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Simon Thompson was surprised when two cops knocked on the door of his home in Great Britain, and he was stunned when he learned the reason for their visit. They were giving him a ticket for flashing the finger at a traffic speed camera a...

Golden age.(longevity and elderly disability research)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... A National Institute on Aging report finds that people are not only living longer but staying healthy longer. One indicator, the percentage of seniors with a disability that limits their activities, fell from 26 percent in 1982 to 20 percent in...

Head trip.(Balance Sheet; LSD experiments)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The British Ministry of Defense still doesn't admit any wrongdoing, but three former U.K. servicemen receive settlements in connection with the LSD they were given without their consent in the 1950s. Government researchers had asked for...

Clinical issue.(Oglala Sioux Tribe's Cecelia Fire Thunder to open an abortion clinic)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecelia Fire Thunder says if South Dakota succeeds in banning abortions, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation could open an abortion clinic. State law would not apply to her "sovereign nation," she argues.

Vote early, often.(mayoral elections in Vermont)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Burlington, Vermont, elects a mayor using the instant run-off voting method. Voters listed their first through fifth choices on their ballots. The victor won by about 800 votes.

Tax tide.(property taxes statistics)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Rising property taxes drive anti-tax ballot proposals, initiatives, and lawsuits in about half the states. The Census Bureau pegs the state and local property tax take at $339 billion last year, or some $2,750 per American household.

Good business.(managers survey of management)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... A study published in the Journal of Small Business Management finds that management is getting more ethical, not less. The survey of 5,000 managers, dating back to 1985, shows respondents increasingly trying to do the right thing in 16...

Antitrusted.(Patriot Act provisions)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Add to the long list of PATRIOT Act provisions unrelated to terrorism: The law's renewal included long-sought wiretap provisions for federal antitrust cases.

Scottish rights.(smoking bans)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Smoking is banned in Scottish pubs and restaurants, and violations come with a stiff 50 [pounds sterling] fine. The rest of the U.K. is to follow Scotland next year.

Illegal cooking.(food handling regulations)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The New York Times Magazine reports that New York City health inspectors are cracking down on shrink-wrapped food in restaurants because it does not fit any existing food handling regulations. Fines of $300 result despite no indication that the...

Evil seed.(environmental organizations sues Department of Agriculture over Alfalfa seed approval)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... After the U.S. Department of Agriculture approves Monsanto's plans for a herbicide-resistant alfalfa seed, anti-biotech forces sue, saying the department should do "a full environmental review" of the seed's impact on everything from...

Tap room.(technician helped National Security Agency with a secret tap to monitor communications over AT&T Inc.'s network)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... A retired AT&T technician says that in 2002 he helped the National Security Agency set up a secret Net traffic tap at a San Francisco switching center. The tap allowed the feds to monitor both phone and Internet communications of AT&T's U.S....

Dark justice.(District Court criminal cases conducted in secrecy)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press finds that during the last five years more than 450 criminal cases in the U.S. District Court in D.C. were conducted in complete secrecy. These cases were not just sealed but off the docket...

Welfare as we know it.(Heritage Foundation reports reduced government spending on public welfare and anti-poverty programs)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... If you add together the money the federal government spends on health care, housing, food, and income support for the poor, the total constitutes more than 16 percent of the budget. When George W. Bush became president in 2001, the figure was...

Thin population: urban sprawl and obesity.(urban sprawls and obesity research)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... IT WAS BAD enough when urban sprawl was charged with destroying community and turning us into selfish bastards. Lately it's been blamed for bloating our waistlines, turning us into fat selfish bastards. Sprawl critics claim geographical spread...

Next beer in Jerusalem: Boozing with Hamas.(Taybeh Brewery launches non-alcoholic beer)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... FULFILLING HALF Of Frank Zappa's rule that you're not a country until you've got your own beer and airline, Palestine's ruling party now has its own (unofficial, nonalcoholic) brew. Taybeh Brewery owner Nadim Khoury is introducing a new 0.0...

Hustler on the hill: free speech and free porn.
June 1, 2006... IN A MEMO issued in late February, the sergeant at arms of the Senate, William H. Pickle, informed legislators that "the Senate Post Office has delivered, and will continue to be delivering, copies of Hustler magazine that the publisher is...

Defending ads from the advertisers.(advertising)(Interview)
June 1, 2006... We're used to the usual charges against advertising: that it manipulates defenseless children, promotes crass materialism, and compels consumers to buy ever more of what they don't need. But when John Hood, president of the John Locke...

How the FBI let 9/11 happen: the smoldering gun was right there all the time.
June 1, 2006... THE TRIAL OF September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui provided definitive proof that the U.S. government missed some clear opportunities to stop the 9/11 attacks. Those missed opportunities had nothing to do with the legal restrictions later...

The Jihad against muslims: when does criticism of Islam devolve into bigotry?(Column)
June 1, 2006... FEW SUPPORTERS OF the War on Terror voiced grief at the death of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader who instigated the brutal "ethnic cleansing" campaigns in Croatia and Bosnia. Some, such as the editorialists at The Wall Street Journal,...

Do they dare to say "impeach"? One person's airtight legal case is another's "stay out the Bushes.".(Rant)
June 1, 2006... YOU'LL NEVER FIND anyone as impartial, disinterested, judicious, and concerned only with the well-being of the American people as a party hack laying into a politician from a rival party. Thus the case for the impeachment of President George W....

Three views on Iraq, three years later: in May 2003 George W. Bush declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq. A trio of analysts debates the current state of the region.(Cover story)
June 1, 2006... Why I Supported the Iraq War Michael Young IN THE FALL OF 2002, I went to Syria to interview people there about the looming Iraq conflict. At the time, I was still skeptical about the success of an invasion, mainly because of the Bush...

What Detroit can learn from Bangalore: a booming city's lessons for a town in decline.
June 1, 2006... K.G. NANJAPPA, the mustachioed, 35ish driver I hired for my five-day stay in Bangalore, was not given to many opinions. But there was one thing this soft-spoken, diminutive man was certain of: "It is bery good thing I.T. companies here, madam."...

Where did India's skilled labor come from? The surprising role of private education.
June 1, 2006... One obvious prerequisite for the Bangalore boom was India's high-tech labor force. Most commentators credit India's technical prowess to socialist rulers who, in a bid to make the country an industrial power, "overinvested" in engineering and...

The rise and fall of Indian socialism: why India embraced economic reform.
June 1, 2006... When the Hindu radical Nathuram Godse murdered Mohandas Gandhi in 1948, he also killed the immediate prospects for a market-oriented Indian economy. Gandhi was sympathetic to village life and the entrepreneur, while his successor, Jawaharlal...

The President's rotten record on trade: why George W. Bush is the most protectionist president since Herbert Hoover.
June 1, 2006... HERBERT HOOVER IS rightly reviled for having the worst record on international trade of any president. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which Hoover signed into law in 1930 after a Republican Congress passed it, was a significant factor in deepening...

Sucking in the mid-to-late '70s: how the Carter-Reagan era set the course for contemporary America.(Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America, by Philip Jenkins, New York: Oxford University Press, 352 pages, $28 LOATHED BY THE people who lived through them, held in disapprobation for ages afterward,...

God, Guts, and Granola: A Manifesto for "Crunchy Conservatives" Forgets Why Self-Interest Is Important.(CRUNCHY CONS; Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (or at Least the Republican Party) )(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Historians may some day look back on 2006 as the year of the Great Conservative Freakout. Former Reagan administration official Bruce Bartlett wrote a book declaring that Dubya is no conservative. The Republican Congress mutinied against the...

Healthy city living: are suburbs making us sick?(Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities, by Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Richard Jackson, Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 338 pages, $30 DURING THE SUMMER, we often pack up our kids...

Marital mythology: why the new crisis in marriage isn't.(Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage)(Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage, by Stephanie Coontz, New York: Viking, 432 pages, $29.95 Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage, by Kathryn Edin and Maria...

The parables of Octavia Butler: a science-fiction writer's rich libertarian legacy.(Obituary)(Biography)
June 1, 2006... ON FEBRUARY 24, 2006, the novelist Octavia Buffer died at age 58 after falling and sustaining a head injury at her Seattle home. Her work, however, will long outlive its author. In 13 books, Buffer struggled with themes of coercion,...

Nature boy for property rights.(Artifact)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... WITh HIS SQUARE jaw, his colorless demeanor, and a grooming style straight out of a 1940s Boy Scout Handbook, the long-running comic strip hero Mark Trail (official spokes-character for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) isn't...