Indice dei contenuti per October 2017 in Reason

THE FATAL SHOOTING of Philando Castile last year by a Minnesota police officer reinvigorated an old debate about how people who are licensed to carry a concealed weapon (CCW) should handle interactions with the cops. The officer, who was acquitted of manslaughter in June, panicked during a traffic stop after Castile, a CCW licensee, told him he was armed. Some gun owners argue that disclosure is considerate and prudent, while others worry it will escalate a routine traffic stop into a tense, unpleasant, and possibly life-threatening encounter. But virtually everyone agrees it’s important to know the relevant legal requirements, which vary from state to state.…

AS LABOR DAY approaches, you can count on seeing a spate of news stories saying that “real wages” in the United States haven’t grown since the 1970s. That’s true, more or less, but the reason for the stagnation might surprise you. It’s a complex story, but it boils down to this: Blame health care costs. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, inflation-adjusted wages have grown by just 2.7 percent in the last 40 years. But inflation-adjusted total compensation—wages plus fringe benefits, such as health insurance, disability insurance, and paid vacation, along with employer-paid Social Security and Medicare taxes—increased by more than 60 percent in the same period. Wages still make up a significant share of your total compensation: 68.3 percent, according to 2017 data from the Bureau…

WHEN LAWMAKERS IN the lower chamber of New York’s General Assembly voted for a single-payer health care proposal in mid-May, they waved off concerns about how to pay for it. Lawmakers in the California Senate did the same, voting in early June for a single-payer plan without first conducting a full-fledged analysis of how much it would cost. As lawmakers in D.C struggle to make headway on federal health care policy, states are looking for their own solutions. In Democrat-controlled state capitols, that means taking a look at single-payer plans that would sweep aside private health insurance in favor of taxpayerfunded options. But try as they might, these lawmakers can’t ignore the price tag. Most states operate under rules that require balanced budgets, so a massive new expense such as…

ONE HUNDRED YEARS ago, the U.S. government declared war on the First Amendment. It all started with President Woodrow Wilson. On April 2, 1917, Wilson urged the nation into battle against Germany in order to “make the world safe for democracy.” But the president also set his sights on certain enemies located much closer to home. “Millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy...live among us,” Wilson observed. “If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of repression.” That firm hand came in the form of the Espionage Act, which Congress passed in June 1917 and Wilson eagerly signed into law. Among other things, the act made it illegal to “convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success…

IN A FORMER tobacco warehouse in Kentucky’s horse country, a silver-haired seventh-generation hemp farmer sits with his business partners. As Andrew Graves, the chairman of Atalo Holdings, leads a discussion of seed varietals and soil consistencies, the group snacks on hemp nuts, grabbed in handfuls from a sack. In the warren of rooms just behind them, oils drip from stills as lab techs figure out formulas for supplements and vapors. No one in the room is younger than 50. No one talks about marijuana, and honestly, they’d rather you not bring it up either. Kentucky’s new face of hemp looks remarkably like the old one. A really old one. For much of its history, the Bluegrass State grew hemp, otherwise known as Cannabis sativa—the same root that produces marijuana, though…

The classic “old fashioned” is the simplest of cocktails—sugar, bitters, and whiskey, stirred over ice, then served on the rocks with a citrus rind—and also, possibly, the best. Thanks to the federal government, we almost lost it forever. Different bartenders may take slightly varying approaches to the drink, but when executed well, the effect is the same: The recipe turns merely tolerable whiskey into something nuanced and delicious, adding complexity and character while smoothing over harsh edges. With good whiskey, it’s a showcase for subtleties and strengths, taking a quality foundation and transforming it into something truly sublime. It is a perfectly proportioned balance of bitter, sweet, and strong—a spotlight and a stage on which liquor is the star. Among its virtues is that it can easily be made at…

1 ounce gin 1 ounce sweet vermouth 1 ounce Campari Add all ingredients to a mixing glass, then add ice. Stir for 15–20 seconds, then strain into a rocks glass with a single large ice cube. Cut an orange peel about 1 ½ inches in length. Squeeze it over the drink to express the oils, then drop it into the glass. Note: The classic Negroni is a satisfying, bitter drink all on its own, but its true beauty is in its simplicity and endless variability. You can substitute most any quality spirit for gin—bourbon, aged dark rum, Mezcal, and even aquavit are all good options—and end up with a tasty, balanced cocktail. For advanced variations, try replacing the Campari with different Italian bitter liqueurs, such as Cynar, Gran Classico, and…

THE BATTLE OF Little Big Horn may loom larger in popular consciousness, but it is the fray now known as St. Clair’s Defeat that marks Native Americans’ single largest victory over U.S. forces. In 1791, in what today is Ohio, a pan-tribal force under the direction of Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware leaders served notice to the fledgling American republic that continued incursion into Native lands would come at a dear price. In this case, that price was at least half the soldiers on the U.S. side killed—some sources suggest the number dead was far larger—and nearly 20 percent more badly wounded. News of the rout caused President George Washington temporarily to lose his legendary cool. (More than one source reportedly heard from Washington’s personal secretary, Tobias Lear, how the president…

Netflix has gotten so consistently good at original programming that cable-cutters can get jaded. But GLOW— starring Alison Brie of Community, Betty Gilpin of Law & Order: SVU, and curmudgeonly comedian Marc Maron—has brought crowds of streamers to their feet. The 10-episode series dramatizes the birth of the real-life Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, the first all-female professional wrestling company with staying power. Started in 1986, GLOW put women in the ring at a time when they mostly served as arm candy for male stars in the World Wrestling Federation. This dramatization focuses on fleshing out the ambitions of characters who can’t otherwise find gratifying work in 1980s Hollywood. Brie’s Ruth Wilder kicks off the first episode by bombing an audition in which she intentionally reads the man’s part, because it’s…

For the last decade or two, books claiming that a certain improbable foodstuff, idea, or country “made the modern world” have been much in vogue. I’m a sucker for the genre, and judging by the steady drip of such books from both mainstream and academic publishing houses, I must not be alone. Lizzie Collingham’s The Taste of Empire: How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World (Basic Books) is an above-average entrant in this crowded field. The book leans into its own whimsy, with such chapter titles as “In which diamond miners cook up an iguana curry at a rum shop in Guyana during the rainy season.” The book begins with salt cod on a doomed ship in 1545 and ends with the awkward turkey curry buffet from Bridget…

Filmmaker Ken Burns is best known as the disembodied voice accompanying black-andwhite photographs of everything from baseball players to whiskey bootleggers to Confederate soldiers. This fall, he’s back with a new 10-part documentary for PBS, The Vietnam War, created with longtime collaborator Lynn Novick. In June, Reason’s Nick Gillespie sat down with Burns to discuss the project. Q: Why should we be talking about Vietnam now? A: We think it’s the most important event in American history in the second half of the 20th century. If we want to understand the political divisions and the lack of civil discourse that bedevils us today, the seeds of that were planted in Vietnam. If you could unpack the fraudulence of the conventional wisdom, and repack it benefiting from the testimony of people…

ERIC HOLDER, WHO as Barack Obama’s attorney general declared that “too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long,” encouraged federal prosecutors to be more judicious in bringing drug charges that carry mandatory minimum sentences. Jeff Sessions, who faults the previous administration for not locking up enough Americans, was quick to rescind Holder’s policy after Donald Trump appointed him to run the Department of Justice (DOJ). If prosecutors follow his lead, more drug offenders will be facing long stretches in federal prison. In a 2010 memo, Holder emphasized the importance of “individualized assessment” in deciding how to charge defendants. Three years later, he went further, telling prosecutors they should omit drug weight, which is what triggers mandatory minimums, from charges against nonviolent drug offenders without leadership roles,…

BETTY JEAN TUCKER, a 62-year-old resident of Canton, Mississippi, says she was hosting a barbecue for family and friends in 2014 when several unmarked cars appeared. Plainclothes deputies from the Madison County Sheriff’s Department (MCSD) jumped out. Without a warrant, they detained and searched all her guests, going so far as to rummage through everyone’s pockets, she says. After finding nothing, the deputies got back in their cars and drove off without explanation. It wasn’t the first time Tucker had a run-in with the MCSD. About five years ago, she says, her teenage grandson was in her front yard, fixing his brother’s bicycle, when an unmarked truck sped toward him and stopped. Two plainclothes officers jumped out, tackled him to the ground, and searched him. Again finding nothing, the deputies…

(from Harry Johnson’s New and Improved Illustrated Bartender’s Manual, as adapted by David Wondrich in Imbibe!) ¾ tablespoon sugar ½ ounce fresh lemon juice ½ ounce fresh lime juice ½ teaspoon absinthe 1 egg white 2 ounces scotch Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Fill shaker halfway with ice. Shake for 10–20 seconds until chilled. Strain into a glass, then top with soda water. Note: Although the original would likely have been made with a young malt, a more refined modern blend like Monkey Shoulder or Pig’s Nose probably works best.…

THE BOARD OF education in Brown v. Board of Education—the 1954 Supreme Court decision that desegregated American public schools—was located in Topeka, Kansas, a city that was overwhelmingly white. Brown overturned a policy set by a majority, and it was right to do so: School segregation is just as wrong when it is imposed democratically as it is when it is imposed by suppressing the black vote. So the strangest thing about Democracy in Chains—a book that contains many, many strange claims—may be how its author, the Duke historian Nancy MacLean, treats Brown. On one hand, she believes that those who want to bind majorities with preset constitutional rules are up to something sinister. Her chief villain on this score is James Buchanan, an economist and political philosopher who argued…

“We have been receiving patients that have been gassed and burned in a most mysterious way,” Julia Stimson, a military nurse, wrote from Rouen, France, on July 25, 1917. “Their clothing is not burned at all, but they have bad burns on their bodies.” It was the world’s first encounter with chemical warfare. A century later, we’re still struggling with the horrors Stimson describes. “My Fellow Soldiers: Letters from WWI,” a new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., reveals the personal side of war, through the correspondence of soldiers participating in that conflict’s final chapter, and of medics fighting a losing battle against industrial-scale warfare. “You have never seen or imagined such pathetic figures,” wrote nurse Anna Mitchell, who treated German prisoners of war, to her sister…

In The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock, David Weigel, a Reason contributing editor and a political reporter for The Washington Post, surveys the history of “progressive rock,” a genre not beholden to American blues but relying instead on warped call-backs to European folk and the futuristic sounds of moog synthesizers. For a while, this beautiful and ambitious musical form enjoyed massive worldly success. But huge bands such as Yes, Jethro Tull, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer were too quickly scorned by rock’s vox populi and intelligentsia alike, accused of untoward grandiosity and boring pretension. Weigel tells engaging tales from the rise and the fall of some of the genre’s biggest players. Culture mavens of the 1970s will be reminded of disco’s similar swift tumble…

It wasn’t then-trendy communist politics, a desire for glory, or prescience about Adolf Hitler’s “final solution” that triggered Johann Georg Elser’s 1939 assassination attempt on the Führer and other top Nazi officials. Not according to screenwriters Fred and Léonie- Claire Breinersdorfer’s depiction of the tale in 13 Minutes. Elser, a small-town musician, carpenter, playboy, and romantic, was radicalized by watching the Nazis chip away at his and neighbors’ freedom of movement, association, and self-determination. The film shows how life under fascist states can be oppressive even for those who aren’t special targets of the regime’s ire. The theme is grim, but the story also serves as a testimony to the power of the human inclination toward freedom. Elser failed in his aim, of course. Moreover, his bomb actually killed eight…

Federal prosecutor Erin Tomasic has resigned after admitting she listened to surreptitious recordings of conversations between inmates at Leavenworth Detention Center and their attorneys. Many of the inmates are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of any crime. Indian officials have charged 15 men with sedition and criminal conspiracy for celebrating Pakistan’s win over India in a game of cricket. Iran has banned Zumba. Officials say the classes, which mix exercise with Latin music, are against “Islamic ideology.” The Austin, Texas, police department has suspended Chris Limmer for 20 days for Tasering a suspect who was not resisting arrest. The man was lying on the ground being handcuffed by other officers when Limmer ran up and Tasered him in the back. The Hungarian government is threatening to ban Heineken’s…

ETHNICALLY DIVERSE LOS Angeles boasts a population that’s nearly half Latino, 10 percent Asian, and 10 percent African American. The metropolitan area is also home to the largest charter school program in the country. In May, Los Angeles voters put school choice supporters in charge of the Los Angeles Unified School District board, a show of support for parents’ right to decide where to send their kids for an education. In fact, demographic data across the United States show that charter schools are remarkably ethnically diverse. As of 2014, some 27 percent of the more than 3 million charter students nationwide were African American and 31 percent were Latino, according to Department of Education numbers. So it would be more than a little disingenuous to attack school choice as a…

2 dashes Angostura bitters 1 teaspoon Demerara syrup* 2 ounces bourbon Add all ingredients to a mixing glass, then add ice. Stir for 15–20 seconds, then strain into a rocks glass with a single large ice cube. Cut an orange peel about 1 ½ inches in length, then squeeze it over the drink to express the oils. Drop it in the glass. Note: Feel free to adjust the sweetness to taste by adding more syrup. My favorite variation on the drink, served by New York cocktail bar Death & Company, bumps up the bourbon to 2 ½ ounces and adds a dash of Bitter Truth Aromatic Bitters, plus a lemon peel. *To make Demerara syrup, heat two parts Demerara sugar with one part water, stirring frequently for about 20 minutes…

THOUGH NEARLY FORGOTTEN today, Synanon—the first organization to claim to have a drug-free cure for heroin addiction—had an enormous impact on American culture. At the peak of the drug war of the 1980s and early ’90s, at least half of all publicly funded addiction treatment was based on its model of communal and intensely confrontational living. Synanon was founded in 1958 by Chuck Dederich, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous who felt that A.A. wasn’t tough enough. (Dederich claims to have coined the popular self-help phrase, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”) By the mid-1960s, it had evolved into a California-based commune widely celebrated as the counterculture’s antidote to drugs, and populated by hipsters, Hollywood stars, and jazz musicians. In those days it was lionized by…

The Simpsons returns for its 29th year on the air in October. Before the season is over, it will have broadcast more episodes than any other scripted TV series in history. Still, it has slipped off many Americans’ radar: Do a Google search on the show’s title, and “When did The Simpsons stop airing?” will come up as a question “people also asked.” When The Simpsons premiered in 1989, Fox was a new network doing something novel. (The last notable animated prime-time network show had been The Flintstones.) Since then, the show’s storylines—originally driven by verbal wit, clever stories, and flawed but sympathetic characters— came to rely on increasingly zany antics, eventually making it indistinguishable from other, crummier cartoons. Some signs of life are still visible in the Simpsons’ old…

No one is safe in War Machine, a new Netflix original feature film about America’s conflict in Afghanistan that mercilessly skewers all the parties involved. President Barack Obama and his top political advisers are shown in full cover-your-ass mode. The military leadership are a bevy of arrogant buffoons. Congress won’t allow Afghanistan to grow cotton because it would compete on the world market with domestic production, “so we’re growing heroin instead.” Even the narrator, an embedded reporter, lacks self-awareness: In the old days, he explains, we fought armies in uniforms— “like, Nazis and stuff.” Then there’s Gen. Glen McMahon, a barely fictionalized but brutal caricature of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the real-life former commander in Afghanistan who lost his job after his men were quoted trashing the president in a Rolling…