Reason articles from March 2005

Reason archives from March 2005

Rand redux.(Editor's Note)(Ayn Rand)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... LET ME ADMIT up front that I'm no great fan of this month's cover girl, Ayn Rand, whose 100th birthday falls on February 2 and whose legacy we analyze on page 22. It's a doubly embarrassing admission: Not only is Rand one of the most important...

Mouse wars.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... As an author and artist I was appalled by Dan O'Neill's disingenuous rationalizations for plagiarizing Disney ("Disney's War Against the Counterculture," December). His arguments seem to be: If someone creates something that is immensely...

Biased about bias.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Nix to Matt Welch's attempt to cloud the issue of media bias ("Biased About Bias" December). Bias in news reporting is still out of control, and we should keep hammering at it. Consider media treatment of the term "assault weapon" vs....

Indefensible internment.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Regarding "Indefensible Internment" (December), a reviewer should check the facts. Eric Muller writes, "While Lou Shimizu and Joe Takahashi sat in desert camps, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio played baseball." Gehrig had already died on June...

Correction.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2005... A review of the book The End of Faith ("Among the Nonbelievers," January) stated that the suicide bombing tactic originated with "the Malaysian communist guerrillas known as the Tamil Tigers." In fact, it began with the Liberation Tigers of...

Reason news.
March 1, 2005... We're happy to welcome Kerry Howley as reason's newest assistant editor. A Georgetown University graduate, Kerry was reason's C. Burton Gray Memorial Intern in 2003. She joins us from The Myanmar Times and Business Review, where she spent the...

Psychedelic tea: drugs and religious freedom.(Citings)
March 1, 2005... NEVER MIND the nausea and vomiting. For members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, drinking ayahuasca, a psychedelic tea brewed from two Amazonian plants, involves four hours of recitation, chanting, questions and answers, and...

Baby geniuses: vouchers for prodigies?(Citings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... WHAT DO YOU do when you're a single mother trying to get by on a schoolteacher's salary while scrambling to feed the ravenous educational needs of your brainiac son, who read novels in a second language by age 6, attended community college...

25 years ago in reason.(Citings)
March 1, 2005... "A knee-jerk return to being the policeman of the world,... to manipulating the internal policies of other countries to prop up or install 'pro-American' leaders without popular support, is not an appropriate policy for a country professing a...

Somali success story: does anarchy mean chaos?(Citings)
March 1, 2005... THE WEST AFRICAN country of Somalia has lacked a nationally recognized central government since Siad Barre's dictatorship collapsed in 1991, and it has been without large-scale American intervention since 1994.A supposed national government run...

Gimme shelters: benefits of tax havens.(Citings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... LOW-TAX ZONES such as Hong Kong, Ireland, and various Caribbean nations are routinely blasted as "tax havens" by such groups as the Tax Justice Network, to say nothing of politicians, who resent them for siphoning away economic activity and...

Source.(Citings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Xenophobes sometimes seem hard pressed to decide which they dislike more: immigrants who don't work, acting as a drain on social services, or immigrants who do work, thereby "stealing" jobs from domestic workers and driving down wages. But the...

Australian police e-mailed child porn to some 1,800 schools across the state of New South Wales.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Australian police e-mailed child porn to some 1,800 schools across the state of New South Wales. The images of three young girls, which were found during an investigation, were sent to the schools for help in identifying the victims. But the...

Guadalupe Madrigal fumbled a few words while performing Mexico's national anthem before a soccer game.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Guadalupe Madrigal fumbled a few words while performing Mexico's national anthem before a soccer game. The government fined her $40 for her mistake.

San Francisco officials are considering charging grocery stores a 17-cent tax on each bag they give customers.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... San Francisco officials are considering charging grocery stores a 17-cent tax on each bag they give customers. The stated objective is to reduce the use of plastic bags, but the tax would apply to all sacks, including paper.

The Spanish government has apologized to the owners of a Madrid bar where several soldiers panicked customers with an unannounced mock shootout.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Spanish government has apologized to the owners of a Madrid bar where several soldiers panicked customers with an unannounced mock shootout. A sergeant who was teaching other soldiers how to protect people under threat pulled a fake gun and...

Mike Hayes got angry when traffic wardens kept ticketing customers outside his chips stand in an outdoor market in Oldham, England.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Mike Hayes got angry when traffic wardens kept ticketing customers outside his chips stand in an outdoor market in Oldham, England, while ignoring flagrant parking violations by official vehicles. So he put up a sign saying he wouldn't serve...

The government of New South Wales, Australia, has fined rancher Nicholas Ennis $72,000 for unsafe working conditions following the death of cowboy Daniel Croker, who was trampled after he fell from a horse.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The government of New South Wales, Australia, has fined rancher Nicholas Ennis $72,000 for unsafe working conditions following the death of cowboy Daniel Croker, who was trampled after he fell from a horse. Authorities say Ennis should have...

After the city of Chicago towed Adrienne Leonard's 2001 Kia Sephia, it demanded $1,000 for three parking tickets, towing, and storage charges.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... After the city of Chicago towed Adrienne Leonard's 2001 Kia Sephia, it demanded $1,000 for three parking tickets, towing, and storage charges. Leonard could come up with only $700, so the city sold the car--for $125.54. Leonard is still liable...

As a judge, Antonio Marreiro gets to be called "Your Honor" or "Your Excellency" in court.(Brickbats)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... As a judge, Antonio Marreiro gets to be called "Your Honor" or "Your Excellency" in court. The Brazilian jurist liked it so much, he went to court and won an order granting him the right to be called by those terms even outside of court. Anyone...

Railroading the poor: transit for the rich.(Citings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... THE CHIEF argument for public transit is that it's necessary for those who can't afford cars. But many cities tailor their transit services to those who need them the least. The desire to entice rich people--commonly called "choice" riders--is...

Copyrighting the air: WIPO roundup.(Citings)(World Intellectual Property Organization)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... IN NOVEMBER the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) met in Geneva to negotiate a new broadcasting treaty. The old agreement, known as the Rome Convention, had been around since 1961; there had been a lot of technological changes in...

Cuba libre.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... At least FBI agents know torture when they see it. Several agents are disturbed enough about the way the Pentagon runs Camp X-Ray to write memos on it, which the ACLU has dragged into the light of day.

Fish police.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The E.U. decides that fishing can continue in Scottish cod-fishing grounds after Brussels settles for restrictions on the age of fish that can be caught.

Oh, K.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Army tests the animal tranquilizer ketamine, street name Special K, as a possible substitute for morphine. Don't tell the DEA, but the military likes the way K can kill pain and still leave soldiers able to function. Or dance.

Miami vice.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Hot dog vendors outside a Miami courtroom seize an entrepreneurial opportunity and charge those with court business $2 to $10 to hold cell phones and other court-banned gizmos. Lawyers had resorted to hiding them in potted plants.

Salt solution.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... University of Florida researchers use waste heat from electrical power plants to power the desalination process, which could make fresh water cheaper and more available.

Oil charge.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The head of Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company, asks lawmakers for rules that would allow it to seek private investment. Luis Ramirez says even with high oil prices, Pemex needs help with its $37 billion debt to avoid selling its crude...

Charter mandate.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Harvard research reveals that the longer charter schools operate, the greater the improvement among students. A nationwide study finds if a charter school has been operating for more than nine years, test scores are 10 percent higher compared...

Capsule summary.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Health worries surrounding Celebrex, Vioxx, and other heavily marketed drugs prompt calls for advertising restrictions, as if ads had anything to do with drug safety or effectiveness. Less information seldom solves problems.

Scanning pan.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Your friends at the Transportation Security Administration want brain-mapping scanners to uncover "suspicious behavior" in airline passengers.

Supply-snort economics.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Washington Office on Latin America finds that the drug war has failed to raise the U.S. street price of either cocaine or heroin. Instead, U.S. efforts like the $3 billion Plan Colombia have helped to sow woe across South America.

Hot loads.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Porcelain commodes and cat litter are among the substances setting off radiation alarms designed to sniff out nuclear terror at ports and border crossings. So are the 20 million Americans who get some sort of radiation treatment each year.

Alabama getaway.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Covington County Circuit Judge Ashley McKathan hears cases while wearing a robe with the Ten Commandments stitched on the front. McKathan says the Decalogue can help a judge "know the difference between right and wrong." If so, it's unclear why...

Hobby lobby.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Mediaweek finds that 99.8 percent of all indecency complaints received by the FCC in 2003 came from one group, the Parents Television Council.

Suspicious silence.(Balance Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Treasury Secretary John Snow and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card hint that busting the income cap for Social Security taxes, now at $90,000, may be a part of Bush's Social Security reform plans.

Ride 'em Cowboy.(Data)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Americans, they say, know little about the rest the planet. But in Cowboy Capitalism (Cato Institute), the German business journalist Olaf Gersemann observes that many Europeans have some funny ideas about economic conditions in America. Among...

Letting brokers speak: real estate and free speech.(Citings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... USUALLY WHEN A court refuses to recognize a privilege for professional journalists, it's seen as a defeat for the First Amendment. In one recent case, it was an unambiguous victory. In November a federal judge overturned a California law...

No passport to privacy: travelers get chipped.(Citings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A CLOSE LOOK at your passport will reveal your age, your place of birth, where you've been lately, and, usually, an awful picture. But travel documents could soon reveal far more--and from a distance. In October the Government Printing Office...

Mild, mild west.(Soundbite)(Interview)
March 1, 2005... The 19th-century American West is usually remembered as a region of rootin'-tootin' desperados brawling in a lawless land. In The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier (Stanford University Press), Terry Anderson, president of...

Taking the fifth: when journalists threaten our right to remain silent.(Columns)(Column)
March 1, 2005... DECEMBER 2004 MAY go down in history as the month it suddenly became fashionable to threaten and even punish American reporters with jail. You could make a plausible case that over just three days, December 8-10, there was more serious...

God or mammon: when religious groups get caught between their principles and their subsidies.(Columns)(Column)
March 1, 2005... THE SALVATION ARMY, with its bells and kettles, is ubiquitous in the Christmas season. In our contentious times, it is also the center of a controversy over religion, public funding for charities, and discrimination. In May the New Fork...

Boomer or bust: reflections of a generational refugee.(Rant)(Column)
March 1, 2005... IT HAS TAKEN 40 years for me to come to the conclusion that if you are born a baby boomer you are pretty much destined to die one too. You can't escape them. I know; I've tried. Acting half your age doesn't work--the boomers patented the...

Ayn Rand at 100: loved, hated, and always controversial, the best-selling author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged is more relevant than ever.
March 1, 2005... A HUNDRED YEARS after her birth and nearly 25 years after her death, Ayn Rand remains a fascinating and enigmatic presence. She has been "mainstreamed" enough to have been honored by a U.S. Postal Service stamp in 1999 and to have been featured...

Rand-O-Rama: Ayn Rand's long shelf life in American culture.
March 1, 2005... "This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall....Nothing she has to say is said in a second-rate fashion. You have to think of The Magic Mountain... when you think of The Fountainhead."--Lorine Pruette, The...

The born-again individualist: Fox News Channel's Judge Andrew Napolitano on lying cops, out-of-control government, and his bestselling new book, Constitutional Chaos.(Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws )(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... As THE HIGHLY rated home to the likes of Abu Ghraib apologist Sean Hannity and the document-shredding constitutional scholar Oliver North, the Fox News Channel is about the last place you think of when it comes to quaint values such as due...

Transportation security aggravation: debating the balance between privacy and safety in a post-9/11 aviation industry.
March 1, 2005... IN THE WAKE of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, air travel has gone through a disruption whose effects are still being felt: continuing fear and anxiety on the part of passengers and airlines alike, the creation of a massive new federal bureaucracy...

My very own monorail: one city's internal battle over the best way to get its cartoonists to and from a baseball game! (Culture and Reviews).(Comic)(Cartoon)
March 1, 2005... THE VOTERS OF SEATTLE JUST APPROVED--FOR THE FOURTH TIME--A MONORAIL LINE, IN SPITE OF IT'S OPPONENTS' LAST DITCH EFFORT TO KILL THE $1.5 BILLION BOONDOGGLE ONCE AND FOR ALL... YOU'D THINK THE PRICE TAG ALONE WOULD BE REASON ENOUGH TO...

Who killed captain video? How the FCC strangled a TV pioneer.(The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television, by David Weinstein, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 228 pages, $24.50 You could hardly hear anything above the storm of outrage that day. The Federal Communications...

John Locke, Original Hipster: the enlightenment roots of counterculture.(Counterculture Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... In a country where one of the most popular genres of music is called "alternative," the great refusenik Henry David Thoreau is a national icon, and acknowledged pot smokers have served as president (Bill Clinton) and speaker of the House (Newt...

The fever swamps of Kansas: a leftist tries to make sense of grassroots conservatism.(What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, by Thomas Frank, New York: Metropolitan Books, 306 pages, $24 A specter once haunted the Great Plains of America: the specter of populism. The agrarian radicals of...

Labyrinths of identity: does it change Borges' fiction to know about Borges' life?(Jorge Luis Borges)
March 1, 2005... JORGE LUIS BORGES, the great Argentine writer, first encountered Cervantes' Don Quixote in his father's library, in an English-language translation. Borges was just a boy at the time, and he was soon enraptured by both the work and the edition....

Idol hour.(Artifact)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... HERE IS A PAIR of idols apparently acting out a forgotten pagan tale of Central Asia. Part of a collection housed in the Kabul Museum, the wooden statues were badly damaged in 2001 on the orders of the Taliban regime. At the same time that the...

A bow to fiscal conservatism.
March 1, 2005... As the curtain rises on his second term, President Bush doesn't lack for opportunities to secure an enduring legacy. In addition to prosecuting the war on terrorism, the president has indicated that he wants to reform Social Security, simplify...