-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 15:42:59 -0500 From: "Jeff Taylor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Reason Express List Member <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Reason-Express: REx34, v2 Welcome to Reason Express, the weekly e-newsletter from Reason magazine. Reason Express is written by Washington-based journalist Jeff A. Taylor and draws on the ideas and resources of the Reason editorial staff. For more information on Reason, visit our Web site at www.reason.com. Send your comments about Reason Express to Jeff A. Taylor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and Virginia Postrel ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). REASON Express August 23, 1999 Vol. 2 No. 34 1) Special Agent or Special Burglar? 2) Making Schools Idea-Free 3) Turning Hitler into Forbidden Fruit 4) Human Rights and the North Pole 5) Quick Hits - - Snoopy and the Fed Barons - - The Justice Department wants Congress to give it the authority to secretly break into the homes and offices of those it thinks might be guilty of something, with the avowed purpose of disabling any encryption system which might be in place. Going by the positively Orwellian name of the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act, the bill would enhance only one type of security--that of the state against several hundred years of checks on wanton searches by police. Nor does it have anything to do with cyberspace. This concerns who has access to living room-space and bedroom-space, and all the other spaces that citizens might think would be beyond the reach of government snoops. The practice of law enforcement breaking into a suspect's property to place a microphone or other recording device--so-called "black bag ops"--is now exceedingly rare and used only with a judge's consent. The CESA envisions a world where such undertakings will be far more common. Absent a huge ramp up in crime, which would reverse all current trends, more break-ins can only mean targets who are closer to public nuisance than criminal kingpin. Further, the very purpose of CESA seems to undermine law enforcement's continued war against encryption. For several years the claim has been that "unbreakable" encryption will result in crooks going free. But CESA comes along to say if given access to a machine, no data is safe from police purview. Which is it? No matter the answer, one thing is clear: the federal government is bent on marching into the next century with powerful new tools to surveil the populace. So sit up straight and quit picking your toes--that wouldn't look very good in court would it? http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/20/144l-082099-idx. html For more details on the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act, go to http://www.cdt.org/crypto/CESA/ For an overview of the Clinton administration's war on privacy try http://www.insightmag.com/articles/story1.html ************************************************************** - - Star Crossed - - School officials in Gulfport, Mississippi banned a Jewish student from displaying a Star of David necklace out of fear it could be mistaken for a gang symbol. What awful thing would flow from it being mistaken for a gang symbol has yet to be explained. Nonetheless, Ryan Green can wear the necklace only if he keeps it hidden, the school board decreed. Green's family immediately moved to challenge the policy in federal court with the help of the ACLU. TV preacher Pat Robertson also decried the district's decision and wondered aloud if banning crucifixes might be next. Neat trick that, getting Robertson and the ACLU on the same team. Meanwhile, a 15-year-old-student has sued the Jefferson County (Missouri) Northwest School District, after she was barred from distributing religious literature before school hours. Crystal Patterson says she was prevented from handing out a "The Truth for Youth" comic book at a middle school. The book contains the 22 books of the New Testament along with comic strips with religious messages. Among the comic's targets: school violence, the Internet, evolution, homosexuality, and abortion. But the specifics seem less important to school officials than the fact that the material drew sharp distinctions, as this too is a Lesson of Columbine. "We were all a little bit more sensitive about anything that would cause one student to be opposed to another student, or to spotlight one group against another," said Randy Dewar, the district superintendent. The common theme seems to be a desire on the part of public school administrators to create an idea-free zone where students are not bothered by anything which might vex or challenge them. In other words, officials are striving mightily to keep their charges as docile as possible. Is it any wonder that this approach turns schools, at best, into adolescent warehouses and, at worst, into zoos? http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990820/V000991-082099-idx.h tml http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/ByDocID/9D679A9F17B071DE862567D1 0002 736B?OpenDocument ************************************************************* - - Spanning the Globe - - Applying content restrictions across international borders is tricky business. German media giant Bertelsmann pulled Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" from its English and French BOL online bookstores after complaints from the U.S. accused it of violating German law. Got that? The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles had filed a complaint with the German Justice Ministry accusing Barnesandnoble.com, Bertelsmann's U.S. online bookselling partner, of violating German law by selling such books to German consumers online. BOL said it would simply stop selling the work altogether because it couldn't guarantee it wouldn't fall into the hands of a German citizen. Bertelsmann has also pushed Barnesandnoble.com--of which it owns 40 percent--to stop selling books banned as illegal hate literature in Germany. Amazon.com still sells an English version of "Mein Kampf" in all the countries to which it delivers, but does not sell the book in German. http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/21360.html Virginia Postrel looked at Euro fears that the Internet is too American at http://www.forbes.com/asap/99/0823/147.htm ************************************************************* - - Making a List, Vetting it Twice - - The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights will decide if it is a civil rights violation for retailers to use men to play Santa Claus. Marta Brown claims that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unfairly booted her from the job after customer complaints. She seeks $67,000 in damages. Brown worked at a Wal-Mart in Morganfield in 1995. She didn't make it through her first day as the Jolly Elf, however, after a child pinched her breast and complained to his mom that Santa was a woman. Brown's lawyer, Alteata McWilliams, says that despite the complaint her client could do the job and she was let go solely because of her "female status," whatever that might be. McWilliams ventured further that, "Little kids just like Santa Claus. They don't care if Santa is a man, woman, or donkey." If that is the case, look for the sharpies at Wal-Mart to replace all its human status Santas with cheaper donkey status ones. http://www.nando.net/nation/story/body/0,1037,84235-133105-929358-0,00.htm l ************************************************************* QUICK HITS - - Quote of the Week - - "This is not a religious issue. This is a safety issue," Frank Baskin, spokesman for the Harrison (Mississippi) County Sheriff's Office, explaining why it is OK to ban religious symbols as long as you do it for the right reason. - - Quote of the Week, Those Pesky Artists Division - - "When you're dealing with performance art, it's very difficult to prosecute under the obscenity laws," Sgt. Jim Chandler of the Dallas Police Department explaining that while vice officers will likely monitor a show on the history of pornography by Annie Sprinkle, no arrests are expected. http://www.dallasnews.com/metro/0818met8pornart.htm - - Quote of the Week, Friend of the Earth Division - - "I didn't want to do something sloppy," Richard Gene Minnier who, while awaiting trial on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine and facing an outstanding arrest warrant for meth manufacturing, drove to California court with a meth lab in the back of his SUV. Police arrested him. Minnier claims the material belonged to someone else and he only held onto it so he could dispose of the toxic chemicals in an environmentally sound manner. http://www.hotcoco.com/stories_baybreak/kdr36211.htm - - What is Old is New - - Wellesley prof makes a case for teaching the classics because they are ever-changing. http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/21lefk.html ############################################################## SAVE THE DATE Reason's 2nd Annual Dynamic Visions Conference will be held February 19-21 (Presidents Day Weekend) in Silicon Valley. For information on speakers and registration, see http://reason.com/dynamic/dynamic2000.html ############################################################## Reason Express is made possible by a grant from The DBT Group (http://www.dbtgroup.com), manufacturers of affordable, high-performance mainframe systems and productivity software. Current Circulation: 3742 We encourage you to forward Reason Express. 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