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Domain: reason.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to reason.com.

Comments · 1,309

  1. [4] Property Rights & "Civil Forfeiture" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on EPIC Sues NSA Over Information Gathering
    (Don't have the time/inclination to find cites on all these issues, but here's info on this one...)

    The trick here, as I understand it, is:
    They arrest you and charge you with some crime. They seize your property, on the grounds that it was used to commit the crime. Then they discover that, oops, they don't have enough evidence to prosecute you, so they drop charges. But they keep the property anyway, since even if you didn't commit the crime, somebody did. And if you want your stuff back, you have to sue the government, and, in the process, prove that you didn't do anything wrong. This guilty-until-innocent approach is justified by the excuse "well we didn't prosecute you (a criminal law action), we just confiscated your stuff (civil law)."
    This monkey business has become so pervasive that Congress has actually become concerned enough to consider some legislation to restrict it. It's also interesting to note that much opposition is coming from the various police agencies, on the grounds that they have become dependent on the cash generated from their ill-gotten goods. Reason Magazine has a much better rant than mine, along with a slew of links at http://www.Reason.com/bi/bi-forf.html.

    -------------------

    BTW, if you're really interested in all of this, the search engine at Progressive Review can deliver a wide spectrum of opinions and information. Here are a couple of starters: "no-knock searches" "medical marijuana"
  2. [4] Property Rights & "Civil Forfeiture" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on EPIC Sues NSA Over Information Gathering
    (Don't have the time/inclination to find cites on all these issues, but here's info on this one...)

    The trick here, as I understand it, is:
    They arrest you and charge you with some crime. They seize your property, on the grounds that it was used to commit the crime. Then they discover that, oops, they don't have enough evidence to prosecute you, so they drop charges. But they keep the property anyway, since even if you didn't commit the crime, somebody did. And if you want your stuff back, you have to sue the government, and, in the process, prove that you didn't do anything wrong. This guilty-until-innocent approach is justified by the excuse "well we didn't prosecute you (a criminal law action), we just confiscated your stuff (civil law)."
    This monkey business has become so pervasive that Congress has actually become concerned enough to consider some legislation to restrict it. It's also interesting to note that much opposition is coming from the various police agencies, on the grounds that they have become dependent on the cash generated from their ill-gotten goods. Reason Magazine has a much better rant than mine, along with a slew of links at http://www.Reason.com/bi/bi-forf.html.

    -------------------

    BTW, if you're really interested in all of this, the search engine at Progressive Review can deliver a wide spectrum of opinions and information. Here are a couple of starters: "no-knock searches" "medical marijuana"
  3. Re:Sounds Like YOU Don't Know Anything About the W by Eric+the+.5b · · Score: 1 · on The Message from Seattle

    So you valiantly chose to force those who drive cars to subsidize your cheap public transit (since huge chunks of federal highway taxes are diverted to support nowhere-near-solvent programs and similar idiocy happens at local and state levels).
    Gee, thanks.

    People: "Oh, no, Portland is being paved over and becoming another Los Angeles!"
    Transit authorities: "We'll stop that!"
    People: "How?"
    TA: "By emulating the city with the least miles of roads per capita in the US, of course."
    People: "Where's that?"
    TA: "*checks* Los Angeles. Step 1..."

    Story Here

  4. Re:First Post :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Keyboards - Dvorak or Qwerty?

    You do not have to rely on hearsay to determine if Dvorak is better than QWERTY. Scientific studies have been done on this subject. You can read about them at Reason Magazine Timothy Roloff

  5. they're all taken. All of 'em by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 1 · on Random Domain Name Surfing

    Dilbert_ writes "Since most dot com domains of the form www.[common english word].com are taken today, you could theoretically surf around using just a dictionary. Now you can search the web from a page that will will automatically generate a fresh load of links, based on a dictionnary. " For some reason this amuses me greatly.

  6. Good articles on microradio by lordsutch · · Score: 1 · on FCC considers low power FM licenses

    People who are interested in low-power radio, the positive effects these stations have on communities, and the current corporate welfare system that leads to their being shut down, should check out this article from Reason; another article appears in the current (August/September) issue.

  7. UN supports censorship! by DragoonAK · · Score: 1 · on Al Gore Buzzword Bingo
    Black helicopters? Please. There's other reasons to dislike the UN, such as their support of censorship.

    I found this on civilliberty.miningco.com. Basically, the UN is strongly against the idea of legalized drugs. So much that their INBC (International Narcotics Control Board) feels that any inducement to take drugs, even calls for legalization, are illegal and should be punished by prosecution. The relevant article is right here.

    And yeah, as soon as I'm 18, I'm registering with the Libertarian Party. Not one of my friends, even the Democratic ones, are going to vote for that putz Gore. Blame his wife, censorious puritan that she is, blame his wacko environmental ideas, but he's dead meat.

  8. Another source. by binarybits · · Score: 1 · on The Myth of QWERTY


    This one is from Reason magazine. It has some political commentary as well, but I found it interesting. It is kind of old.

  9. More Guns, Less Crime by GlenRaphael · · Score: 1 · on ESR On O'Reilly Summit

    The consensus of the literature in criminology is that guns in private hands save lives and prevent crimes.

    The CDC-funded studies by Dr. Arthur Kellerman that claim to show otherwise have been pretty well discredited; you can find some relevant discussion in this Reason article. Kellerman's main sin seems to be selective use of data; he chooses to study a population that he thinks will support his thesis and finds excuses to throw out contrary examples until the data fits the thesis.

    The Lott/Mustard study used the entire United States rather than a single city or county, and found a significant deterrence effect.

    Folks interested in either side of the issue should consider reading these two books:
    More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws by John R. Lott
    Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America by Gary Kleck.