Reason articles from March 2002

Reason archives from March 2002

Editor note.
March 1, 2002... WHEN I WAS in high school, Izod Lacoste tennis shirts were all the rage, among both boys and girls. At any party, game, or school gathering, you'd be swimming in a sea of glandularly challenged teens in yellow, red, blue, pink, and green...

Letters.
March 1, 2002... Incompatible Islam? Charles Paul Freund's "2001 Nights" (December) applies a tolerant attitude to a religion and culture that few Americans are well acquainted with. I would point out a few facts that might give Freund additional...

Triangle boy howdy: Bypassing the censors. (Citings).(software)(Evaluation)
March 1, 2002... IN A PAGE from the handbook on the liberating powers of globalization, thousands of Chinese and Middle Eastern Web surfers are leapfrogging past censors to view The New York Times, Hustler, and many other sites their governments have decided to...

25 Years ago.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... "Is it 'sick' to be 'Utopian'? The use of a term such as 'sick' in a post-Szaszian age is, to say the least, naive; so let us translate it in this fashion: Is it perverse, or wicked, or very silly to be 'utopian'?" Ralph Raico, "On Tory...

Dollar follies: Beltway econ IOI. (Citings).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... WHEN IS A dollar not a dollar? When it costs you $1.40, according to a new study released by the Joint Economic Committee (JEC). If you don't buy that number, try listening to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). He says a dollar is...

Courtroom coup: Bye-Bye, jury. (Citings).(jury trials almost a thing of the past in England)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... BRITAIN IS POISED to eliminate almost two-thirds of all jury trials, according to a report in the New Statesman. New rules would allow a wide range of offenses (including any crime with a maximum sentence of less than two years) to be tried...

Software for pranksters: The men who japed. (Citings).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... THE YES MEN are a band of pranksters who specialize in sending up the WorldTrade Organization, sometimes with wit and sometimes by rote. They're in a good position to do this, since they happen to own the domain name gatt.org. Many Web surfers,...

Sources.(news online)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Anyone who complains about a paucity of perspective in U.S. media need only look online. For those who'd like to know how immigrants from Afghanistan and its neighboring countries are sizing up the war, check out the Voices That Must Be Heard...

Globalization debates: No poor traders. (Citings).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... ACCORDING TO THE anti-globalization movement, the integration of the global economy is nothing more than a chance for the rich to fleece the poor. A recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that almost...

Temple terrace, Florida? (Brickbats).(no smoking or smokers in the city allowed)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Want to work for the government of Temple Terrace, Florida? Quit smoking. The city now bans the hiring of smokers, even if they light up only in their own homes. City Councilman Joe Affronti says the policy is actually in smokers' best...

California school board member. (Brickbats).(efforts by some politicians to bring praying back into school classrooms)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... When you're at war with theocrats, how do you stand up for your freedoms? Apparently, by forcing school kids to pray. Spurred by the September 11 attacks several states and towns across the nation have attempted to bring prayer back into public...

God's sake. (Brickbats).(no more independent journalism in Iran)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Meanwhile, Iran's fundamentalist judiciary has shutdown more than 50 newspapers "for God's sake." Nearly all of the papers support greater freedom and democracy.

Agriculture department. (Brickbats).(federal agency stopping school project in order to protect an endangered plant)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... A traditional school science project may soon be outlawed by the Agriculture Department. To protect the endangered milkweed, the USDA wants to ban the release of Monarch butterflies, which feed on the plant. Kids would still be able to feed...

Mayor Carolyn Risher. (Brickbats).(satan, asked to leave town; Inglis, Florida)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Mayor Carolyn Risher has banned Satan from Inglis, Florida. No word on whether Satan plans to appeal.

European commission. (Brickbats).(discrimination soon to be outlawed in Europe)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Racism and xenophobia could soon become crimes in Europe. Laws being drafted by the European Commission would punish with up to two years in prison aversion to individuals based on "race, colour, descent, religion or belief and national or...

Round Rock. (Brickbats).(Round Rock, Texas)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... When state troopers heard that Round Rock, Texas, was hosting one of the nation largest modified-car shows, they saw a lucrative opportunity to enforce "public safety." Four troopers parked near the show's entrance, citing anyone with illegal...

Buddhism and animism. (Brickbats).(no christians allowed; Laos)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Christians in Laos are being forced to renounce their faith. That's not new for the country, where communist hardliners have long tried to enforce atheism. But lately, the government has started to ease its stance on Buddhism and animism:...

The feds vs. medical pot: One toke over the line. (Citing).(pot illegal regardless of its use)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... LAST MAY, THE U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the feds could shut down six California co-ops that were distributing medical marijuana in accordance with state law. Back in 1996, Golden State voters had overwhelmingly passed...

Balance sheet.(short news)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Bit Barrier The Bush administration relaxes Cold War--era computer export rules. Now countries such as Russia, Israel, China, India, and Pakistan can get more-powerful boxes, but truly high-end computers still need approval. Code Fed...

The price of war. (Data).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... There's no way to account for the true costs of war. These include not only the direct expenditures on munitions, the lost production of useful things while soldiers are deployed killing, and the permanent lost output of those who never return,...

Metal-headed cartels: Cold steel. (Citings).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... "WE HAVE AN answer for the crisis in American steel," Robert S. Miller Jr., the recently installed CEO of the bankrupt Bethlehem Steel Corp., told The New York Times in December. "It is the consolidation and the rationalization of the...

Aqua-Terror: Don't drink the water.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... MANY LIBRARIANS were appalled when the call came from the federal government: Destroy all copies of a CD containing a U.S. Geological Survey document with information on public water supplies. Officials assured the librarians that the step was...

Drug war heretic. (Soundbite).(chatting with Peter Reuter, writer)(Brief Article)(Interview)
March 1, 2002... Few topics generate more bad trips than drug policy, with prohibitionists often acting like the wigged-out PCP users who still haunt drug-czar-approved TV scripts. For their part, legalizers sometimes substitute outrage for command of the...

Gun control's new language: How anti-terror rhetoric is being used against the second amendment.(attack on America, 2001; effects)
March 1, 2002... As THE NEW congressional session gets into gear, a freshly invigorated gun control movement is preparing to act. Armed with a few questionable studies, some acid-tongued rhetoric, and vague allusions to the War on Terrorism, the anti-gun lobby...

Windbags of war: Even after September 11, left-wing McCarthyism persists on American campuses.(Column)
March 1, 2002... SEVERAL MONTHS AFTER the September II tragedy, the response on America's college campuses to the terrorist attacks and the subsequent war has become the center of controversy. Some charge that the groves of academe have become a haven for...

French Miss. (Rant).(airport security in Europe and the U.S.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Going Continental won't make air travelers safe. THERE'S A CERTAIN type of American sophisticate who rhapsodizes about how wonderful and civilized Europe is in comparison with his own land of the free. Like high school French Club...

In praise of vulgarity: How commercial culture liberates Islam--and the West.
March 1, 2002... WHO WILL EVER forget the strangeness of the first images out of post-Taliban Afghanistan, when the streets ran with beards? As one city after another was abandoned by Taliban soldiers, crowds of happy men lined up to get their first legal shave...

Panic attacks: Drawing the thin line between caution and hysteria after September 11.
March 1, 2002... ON OCTOBER 7, some police officers in Maryland decided that two trucks on Interstate 270 might be carrying explosives. The alert cops blocked traffic for an hour, searching the vehicles for tools of terror. On examination, the cargo turned out...

Social insecurity: Why an increasing number of countries are turning to market-based pension plans.
March 1, 2002... OPPONENTS OF LIBERAL, market-oriented economic reform are fond of declaring that theirs is the cause of "social cohesion." First among globalization's many sins, they claim, is that it frays the bonds that hold communities together....

The politics of dead children: Have sanctions against Iraq murdered millions?
March 1, 2002... ARE "A MILLION innocent children...dying at this time...in Iraq" because of U.S. sanctions, as Osama bin Laden claimed in his October 7 videotaped message to the world? Has the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) discovered that...

He was right: Looking back at the Goldwater moment. (Culture and Reviews).(Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus)
March 1, 2002... Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, by Rick Perlstein, New York: Hill and Wang, 671 pages, $30 CURSED WITH TWO plundering, rapacious younger sisters, I grew up with a highly developed sense of...

Porous border: How Mexican migrants change themselves--and the U.S. (Culture & Reviews).(Crossroads: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail)
March 1, 2002... The annual week-long fiesta in the Mexican Indian village of Cheran dates back to pre-Conquest days. But for the past 330 years, its crowning event has been a traditional Spanish bullfight. Each year, on the morning after the popular event, the...

Spy watch: Behind closed doors at the national security agency. (Culture & Reviews).(Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency From the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century)
March 1, 2002... Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency From the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century, by James Bamford, New York: Doubleday, 721 pages, $29.95 OSAMA BIN LADEN is a dutiful stepson. This mundane bit of...

Tales from the dark side: Divining the causes of Japan's economic nightmare. (Culture & Reviews).(Dogs and Demons: Tales front the Dark Side of Japan)
March 1, 2002... Dogs and Demons: Tales front the Dark Side of Japan, by Alex Kerr, New York: Hill & Wang, 432 pages, $27 IN THE ANCIENT Chinese philosophical text Han Feizi, the emperor asks a painter which subjects are the hardest and easiest to depict....

Hollywood's second sex: Women and the movies. (Culture & Reviews).
March 1, 2002... Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, by Mick LaSalle, New York: St. Martin's Press, 293 pages, $25.9 Fast-Talking Dames, by Maria DiBattista, New Haven: Yale University Press, 365 pages, $27.95 Dark city Dames: The...

Burning sensations: How would-be censors promote free speech. (Culture & Reviews).
March 1, 2002... IN DECEMBER, just as author J.K. Rowling--the world's most famous living single mother--was about to be made an honest woman again, New Mexico pastor Jack Brock announced a most generous and unlikely wedding present. Brock, the leader of the...

Free hand. (Artifact).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... A week after the Taliban lost control of Kabul, Reuters photographer Yannis Behrakis took this picture of an Afghan widow begging. Anonymous behind her burqa, she flashes a once-forbidden sign of personality: chipped red polish on her carefully...