Excerpts from
Reason
‘s vaults
5 years ago
Aug/Sept 2021
“Across twenty years since the September 11 attacks, the lack of strict REAL ID enforcement has not heightened the vulnerability of domestic flights to terrorism. At the same time, both federal authorities and state governments have struggled to roll out REAL ID on a large scale, and the public appears unconvinced of its necessity. When Congress next weighs the future of REAL ID, it would be prudent to do away with the requirement altogether.”
Scott Shackford
“Even COVID-19 Couldn’t Kill
REAL ID”
15 years ago
Aug/Sept 2011
“Following the terrorist strikes of September 11, 2001, it became fashionable on the right, and among some hawkish liberals, to defend and even champion the notion of an American Empire as a safeguard against terrorists, a constraint on rogue nations, and a means to protect global commerce…..In the mid-to-late 2000s, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan worsened, this jingoism lost favor, leaving behind only a shrinking core of devoted neoconservatives to push the benefits of empire. Yet, the questions surrounding American global military dominance remained far from settled in public opinion.”
John Payne
“Temptations of Empire”
“If we are finding ways to move beyond 9/11 in big and small forms, it is not because we have truly processed the pain, fear, and anger but largely because we are forgetting it ever happened. In at most another decade, we will stroll past 9/11 memorials the same way we pass World War I cenotaphs placed in town squares nationwide. Catharsis be damned; this is likely how we always heal from trauma. Repression and collective amnesia rank among the most potent tools granted by fate or evolution.”
Nick Gillespie
“Why Art Failed Us After 9/11”
“When I look back at the few bright moments from those early days and weeks after the attacks, I can scarcely recall any that came from a politician or a figure of influence….The strength America showed a decade ago did not stem from the creation of new federal bureaucracies in Washington, from unionizing more government workers, or from devising easier ways for the state to snoop on—and even kill—its own citizens. It came from ordinary people, who value freedom, acting in a decentralized fashion to make a horrific event marginally less painful. There’s a crucial lesson there, waiting to be learned.”
Matt Welch
“The Day Everything Continued To Change”
55 years ago
September 1971
“The [Federal Communications] Commission faces an almost impossible mandate; it cannot oversee the thousands of licensees nationwide to ensure compliance with their charters. Lacking a unifying framework, it cannot respond rationally to the rapid advances in technology that continually outpace and surpass the political and jurisdictional rules and regulations it lays down.”
Michael Bloom
“The Data Communications Battle”
“The Democratic Party Platform of 1888 labeled tariffs and quotas the ‘mother of monopoly.’ The era’s well-known trusts (such as those in sugar and tobacco) enjoyed protection from foreign competition. It was argued wisely that free trade would shield the American consumer by inviting global competition for his business. Attempting to monopolize world production of a commodity is enormously more difficult than monopolizing a domestic market. When Brazil tried to limit its coffee exports to push up prices, the result was coffee being grown elsewhere, which led to greater production and lower prices than before.”
Rod Manis
“Free Enterprise and the Monopoly Myth”
