AM Archive: 12.99

12.31.99
Today's the day all hell is supposed to break loose. Which world city will become a smoking crater first: Jerusalem, Moscow, London, Washington, D.C., or New York City? We can only wait to find out.

The Clinton administration wants the feds to regulate online drugstores. Lew Rockwell and I both disagree with the idea. Rockwell questions why the government requires that we get a doctor's perscription and a pharmacist's assistance in getting medicine.

Think about the absurdity of the prescription business as it presently exists. There are thousands of books detailing the uses and effects of every drug on the market, and thousands of volumes making information on health accessible to everyone. Why do we need "licensed pharmacists" to dispense drugs only on the authority of "licensed physicians"? Why do we need a guy in a white coat standing behind a counter pouring pills from one bottle to another and charging us for the service, after we have paid another guy in a white coat a fee for cooling our heels in his appropriately named waiting room?

The traditional claim is that the iron triangle of regulators, doctors, and pharmacists is necessary to protect our health and safety. But who could possibly be more interested in health and safety than the well-informed consumer? We medicate ourselves with every manner of cough syrup, pain killer, and skin cream. Why can't people also purchase codeine or viagra or antibiotics on their own authority?

Rockwell also notes that if the feds prevent American websites from providing us with our medicine, websites overseas will fill the void.

"The War on Online Drugs":
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=356&FS=+The+War+on+Online+Drugs

Heritage Foundation president Edwin Feulner blasts a UN General Assembly vote that begged the U.S. not to deploy a missile defense for fear it will start a Cold War-era arms race. Feulner points out that not having a missile defense is like not having a home security system. He also mentions that since the Anti-Balistic Missile (ABM) Treaty was between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, it should have no bearing on whether the U.S. should deploy a missile defense.

"Defending Missile Defense":
http://www.heritage.org/views/99/ejf99-23.html

12.30.99
The Economist has their millennium issue online with plenty of essays covering the vast expanse of the past 1000 years.

http://www.economist.com/tfs/millennium_issue_tframeset.html

There's a reason former Republican Presidential candidate Pat Buchannan has allied himself with Marxist wacko Lenora Fulani:

She [Fulani] controlled one-third of the Reform Party's national delegates and, along with Newman [Fulani's partner-in-crime], understood better than anyone how to get on the ballot in all 50 states.

"What You Don't Know about Lenora Fulani Could Hurt You":
http://www.frontpagemag.com/archives/leftism/grann12-08-99.htm

12.29.99
Ben & Jerry's, the looney, publicly traded, left-wing ice cream maker (I especially love chocolate fudge brownie) is on the defensive over a Federal Trade Commission complaint lodged by the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Citizens for the Integrity of Science. Ben & Jerry's has been packaging its "World's Best Vanilla" (not true, Breyer's is better--and cheaper) in a container made from unbleached paper. B&J wants to protects us all from dioxin, which is a by-product of paper bleaching. The company feels "the only safe level of dioxin exposure is no exposure at all."

If that's the case, then B&J might want to pull all their vanilla ice cream off the shelves. According to a study published by Junkscience.com, B&J's vanilla contains a level of dioxin that, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, could cause about 200 extra cancers in the lifetimes of B&J consumers.

Co-author of the study, Steven Milloy offered two new flavors for B&J, "Tasty Toxics" and "World's Best Hypocrisy."

"Unsafe Levels of Dioxin Found in Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Study Says"
http://www.junkscience.com/nov99/bjpress.htm

"Ben & Jerry's Defends Dioxin Complaint"
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991216/blx.html

CDNow has a compilation of the best music of 1999 lists. My top three albums for 1999 are:

1. Fragile--Nine Inch Nails
A double album of soniclly dense songs showcasing Trent Reznor's ability to write dark, moody tunes with solid pop hooks.

2. Euphoria--Def Leppard
Def Leppard went back to their old 80's sound. The guitars sound great and the harmonies are better than ever.

3. Surrender--The Chemical Brothers
The Brothers moved away from the big beat of Dig Your Own Hole and moved out into more rave and trance-inspired sounds. I really love the song "Out of Control."

"Magazine Critics' Picks And Readers Polls For '99":
http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/redirect/leaf=allstararticle/fid=160858

12.28.99
Some Apocalypse prophets are backing down on their predicition that the Y2K bug will bring about the end of the world.

Even those who fully embraced the date as late as last month are now backing down. Some prophets are hedging their bets, reminding everyone they only said "maybe," or they never specified the Western world, or Jan. 1 exactly. Others such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell say they have read the Y2K compliance reports and found them soothing. All are expecting a humdrum New Year's Eve.

I guess many Christians who thought Y2K was the beginning of the end feel a little silly with some of their preparations.

For the last two years, they have held conferences teaching the flock how to filter water, bag sand, dry peas. Popular Christian magazines advertised gold bullion and Rapture insurance policies (in case you were snatched up to Heaven but your loved ones were left behind).

"As Jan. 1 Draws Near, Doomsayers Reconsider":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-12/27/069r-122799-idx.html

12.27.99
Yesterday, the Associated Press announced their picks for the top U.S. news stories of 1999. The top three were 1. President Clinton's impeachment trial; 2. the shootings at Colombine High School; and 3. the military operation in Kosovo.

Based on these top stories, I'm now announcing my 1999 Man of the Year. While Time decided to pump up magazine sales to dot-com investors by naming Amazon.com top-dog Jeff Bezos its Man (excuse me, Person) of the Year, I decided to really look at the most important events of 1999 to determine my Man of the Year.

Two of the top three U.S. news stories of 1999 revolved around one person. That person was integral in how both stories originated and took shape. The two stories I'm talking about are the impeachment trial and the war in Kosovo. The man who was at the center of both stories is my 1999 Man of the Year: Bill Clinton.

How quickly Time forgets, but one year ago this country was facing the possible removal of its chief executive. Because of Bill Clinton's lying, stonewalling, and obstruction of justice in covering up an affair with Monica Lewinski, he was impeached by the House of Representatives. Most will agree that the impeachment trial was anti-climatic because a vast majority of the public didn't want Clinton removed. Even still, Bill Clinton will go down in American history as only the second President impeached and the only elected President impeached.

Since the trial, much has been made of Clinton's legacy. Clinton doesn't want to be remember only as an impeached President. This brings me to the second top story with Clinton squarely at the center: the war in Kosovo. In response to Serbian attacks on Kosovar Albanians, Bill Clinton decided American interests were at stake and launched bombing runs on Serbia. After a few weeks, Serbia relented and moved its forces out of Kosovo. Now, we are finding out reality is a little more complicated than Clinton's talk of Kosovars good, Serbians bad. While some Kosovar graves have been found, it's no where near the thousands upon thousands Clinton said were dead because of Serbian ethnic cleansing. Also, ethnic cleansing hasn't stopped in Kosovo. Now, instead of Serbians driving out Kosovars, Kosovars are attacking Serbians. This while NATO peacekeepers try to rebuild some form of civil society.

Because of his historic impeachment trial and his senseless use of military power in an unimportant region of the world, I declare William Jefferson Clinton the American Mind's 1999 Man of the Year.

A.P.'s list of the top U.S. news stories of 1999:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991226/aponline122459_001.htm

12.26.99
Not much of a merry Christmas in Grozny, Chechnya. The Russian army is making its final assault on the capital. Russian victory is almost assured. The Russians have 100,000 troops compared to about 2,000 Chechen fighters. After Grozny, Russian troops will be rooting out Chechen rebels in the southern mountains.

Remember, it's Christmas. Peace on earth, goodwill to men.

"Russians Hit Grozny":
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/chechnya_991225.html

12.25.99

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Holliday cams from around the world:
http://www.earthcam.com/holiday99/

12.24.99
I have to offer equal time. Last week (12.17) I linked to CounterPunch's 100 best non-fiction books. I can't in good conscience have a link to a left-wing list and not have a link to National Review's list of the best non-fiction books of the century.

National Review put together a distinguished panel including David Gelernter, George Gilder, John Keegan, Richard John Neuhaus, and James Q. Wilson.

I'm impressed with this list. At #4 is F. A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom. At #9 is Hayek's Constitution of Liberty. At #10 is Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom. And at #91 is Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. However, there are some strange choices: Joy of Cooking at #41, John Maynard Keynes' General Theory at #43, and one of environmentalism's most sacred texts, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring at #78. Then there are the books that didn't make it: Ludwig von Mises' Human Action and Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed. Overall, it's a solid list from which to make my future reading choices.

National Review's list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century:
http://www.nationalreview.com/100best/100_books.html

12.23.99
Monday (12.20), the Vermont State Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples must have the same legal protections as heterosexual married couples (filing joint tax returns and making medical decisions for a spouse). The court allowed the Vermont legislature to codify the ruling by either making homosexual marriage legal or to pass a domestic partner law (marriage in all but name). In an editorial yesterday, the New York Times praises the ruling as a "breakthrough for fairness." The conservative Family Research Center hates that the State Supreme Court made the ruling instead of letting the homosexual marriage issue be decided in the state legislature. (One reason they're for that is most Vermont citizens oppose legalizing homosexual marriage. I could easily see the FRC cry to the court if the public favored homosexual marriage and the court opposed it.)

When the topic of homosexual marriage comes up, I cringe. I'm pretty sure it isn't some deep-seated, family-inspired homophobia, because I wasn't raised to hate others just because they wanted to be intimate with the same sex. Homosexual intimacy just doesn't feel natural to me. It also doesn't correspond to my Christian beliefs (Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod to be exact). Just because I don't believe homosexuality is right, it doesn't mean that homosexuals should not receive the same protections as heterosexuals. I'm glad that the killers of Matthew Shephard will spend the rest of their lives in jail. People do not have the right to apply force to others (unless in self-defense)--even to homosexuals. That's because homosexuals have human rights like any other people.

I don't want to condone homosexual behavior. As I said above, I think it's a sin. It also isn't a healthy lifestyle. Homosexuals make up most AIDS cases, and they are more susceptible to other sexually transmitted diseases. This doesn't mean homosexuals shouldn't be given the same legal protections as heterosexuals.

Does that mean I favor allowing homosexual marriage the equal standing as heterosexual marriage? I'm leaning toward the direction of David Boaz who adovcated in an 1997 Slate article that government should get out of the marriage business. Marriage would still retain its spiritual meaning: churches would still perform the wedding ceremony. The government would just enforce the marital contract between the two partners. When children or lots of cash are involved Boaz writes, "an enforceable contract spelling out the parties' respective rights and obligations is probably advisable."

For Boaz, this solves the public dispute over homosexual marriage. "It would put gay relationships on the same footing as straight ones, without implying official government sanction. No one's private life would have official government sanction--which is how it should be." Boaz then goes on to write how marriage as a legal institution is relatively new.

One thing I'm sure of is this debate will end within ten years. Either states like Vermont will legally sanctify homosexual marriage, or society will just accept the fact of homosexual partnership realizing it's not going away.

"Vermont's Momentous Ruling": [Site requires free registration]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/22wed1.html

"Vermont Supreme Court Stops Short of 'Gay Marriage'":
http://www.frc.org/press/122099.html

Vermont State Supreme Court Decision:
http://www.state.vt.us/courts/98-032.txt

"Privatize Marriage":
http://www.slate.com/Features/PvtMarriage/PvtMarriage.asp

Oliver Stone's new movie Any Given Sunday is now out in theaters. Salon.com's Mary Elizabeth Williams reviews this testosterone-drenched flick.

"Any Given Sunday":
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/1999/12/23/sunday/print.html

12.22.99
Sen. John McCain is proposing giving good teachers a 25% tax cut. Los Angeles Times reporter Anne-Marie O'Connor quotes McCain's communications director Dan Schnur, "Rather than providing tax breaks and loopholes for special interests, we want to offer relief for the men and women who teach our children every day." Although the teachers union bosses are against the idea because they hate admitting there are good and bad teachers, what McCain's plan does is provide tax breaks for a special interest--teachers! Now, I have nothing against teachers (well, maybe against bad, lazy public school teachers), but why should good teachers get a 25% tax cut? Why not a 25% tax cut for good policemen or good firemen or good members of the military (some who have to survive on food stamps)? Why not a 25% tax cut for Time's Man of the Year, Jeff Bezos? While teachers are very important, Bezos has transformed shopping. The time-strapped are especially thankful for Bezos' Amazon.com this Christmas.

My point is teachers aren't the only people deserving of a 25% tax cut. Everybody's overtaxed, not just teachers. But having Washington decide one profession is more deserving than another for a tax cut will not stop the "special interests" from coming to Washington for a benefit. Instead, it will encourage interest groups to play the Washington game even more. If McCain's idea was implemented, soon after you would see the policemen, the firemen, the garbage collectors and a host of other professionals come begging for a tax break. Why not just cut everybody's taxes by 25%? Now, that's an idea I'd love to see.

"McCain Pumps up Teaching Benefit":
http://www.latimes.com/news/learning/19991219/t000115568.html

12.21.99
Residents of the tiny 30 person town of Jarbridge, Nevada are in open revolt over a dirt road. The road was closed by the U.S. Forest Service because erosion was threatening the endangered bull trout in a near-by stream. Locals want to rebuild the road (by themselves, if needed) and are furious that faceless people in Washington, D.C. are deciding how land in Nevada is used. The rhetoric is getting really hot. "I was here before those Forest Service boys were even born. If I could, I'd spank them all over trying to close our road. It just makes me so mad!" said Helen Wilson. The forest rangers in the area have been threatened, refused service in resturants, and even kicked out of a motel. Many rangers don't even wear their official green uniforms because of the harassement.

Gloria Flora (perfect name for a forest ranger) is resigning as top Forest Service official of Humboldt-Toiyabe Forest because the tensions became too much. Flora has few nice things to say about the protesting locals. "I am just so tired of going up against a bunch of yahoos purposely trying to vilify you at every turn," said Flora.

The threats of violence are defintely uncalled for, but it's great knowing that some people are not accepting the far-reaching federal role of the federal government. I wish the residents of Jarbridge the best of luck in rebuilding their road.

"A Western Standoff Over a Dirt Road":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/17/042l-121799-idx.html

Former right-wing star reporter, David Brock wrote a bio piece on the new editor of The Atlantic Monthly, Michael Kelly. I first heard about Kelly from his hard-hitting op-eds during last year's Clinton scandal. Brock looks at Kelly's career and what Atlantic reader's (like me) might expect from his new leadership.

"Storm over The Atlantic":
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/highlights/atlantic.shtml

"An Absence of Leadership: Clinton and the WTO":
http://www.heritage.org/library/execmemo/em639.html

Here's something to think about while sitting down to your Christmas dinner. According to the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) most holiday dinners are a "chemical feast of toxins and carcinogens." Before you decide to push your vegan New Year's resolution up a few weeks ACSH also wants you to know that all those carcinogens are "all courtesy of Mother Nature." ACSH just wants the public to know that just because a food contains some carcinogens, it doesn't mean it's dangerous.

Traditional Holiday Dinner Replete with Carcinogens, Health Group Finds:
http://www.acsh.org/press/releases/hdmenu111199.html

12.18.99
One of New York Mayor Rudolph "Rudy" Giuliani's biggest fans, Rosie O'Donnell will have a very special guest on her Christmas show to air next week--First Lady (in name only) and US Senate Candidate Hillary "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" Clinton. This will be Hillary's fifth appearance on Rosie's show. In the past few days, Rosie has turned her show into a one-woman Giuliani-bashing fest with quotes like, "He's out of control, this guy ... He thinks he runs the world." (No Rosie, just New York.) She also likens Rudy to a "human Pez dispenser." (That would make Rosie a human bottle of Scope.)

NY Post's "Hillary Joining Rosie to Kick Some Rudy Patootie":
http://www.nypostonline.com/news/19749.htm

Thomas Sowell's latest column is one of his many collections of brief observations of the world around him. My two favorites are:

Members of the Reform Party like to say that the Democrats and Republicans don't stand for anything. The problem with the Reform Party is that it stands for everything. Pat Buchanan and Lenora Fulani are surely the oddest couple since King Kong and Fay Wray.

and

Members of the education establishment always protest when I point out that public school teachers are drawn primarily from the bottom half of college students. However, a new book "The Conspiracy of Ignorance" by Martin Gross says that they are drawn primarily from the bottom third.

Thomas Sowell's "Some Thoughts About our Time":
http://www.frontpagemag.com/archives/guest_column/sowell/sowell12-17-99.htm

12.17.99
I've found another best book list. This one is the top 100 non-fiction books of the century as decided by CounterPunch. CounterPunch is left-wing online newsletter edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. So it's no wonder that such lefty faves as John Maynard Keynes' General Theory, Alfred Kinsey's studies on human sexuality (actually an academic excuse for a researcher to satisfy his pedophilic urges), Bertrand Russell's Why I am not a Christian, and Ira Tarbell's The History of Standard Oil made the list while Hayek's Road to Serfdom and Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test didn't.

CounterPunch's Top 100 Non-fiction books of the century:
http://www.counterpunch.org/top100nf.html

Anarchists can be pro-life too! Maybe not the ones "non-violently" smashing windows and looting in Seattle in protest of global trade. However, the website Anarchists for Life makes its case. I'm frightened by the black-on-red text, but I'm glad that way-out-there radicals can still appreciate the need to protect the unborn. Joan Kemp's (any relation to Jack?) article "Abortion: The Second Rape" makes a powerful case:

In the case of adult rape victims, abortion is equally destructive. Women report that they are suffering from the trauma of abortion long after the rape trauma has faded. In fact, abortion because of rape tends to be more traumatic than the average abortion. One reason is that the woman feels that there is no option but to abort, and this compounds the trauma of having had no choice about sex. A woman who might never otherwise have submitted to abortion may feel forced into it after a rape.

This powerlessness in having been raped is only compounded when the woman feels abortion is her only choice.

"Abortion: The Second Rape":
http://www.mindspring.com/~koat/secondrape.htm

Anarchists for Life:
http://www.mindspring.com/~koat/afl.htm

12.16.99
Conservative icon William F. Buckley taped his last "Firing Line" show. After 33 years, Buckley can lay claim to the longest-running TV talk show in history. Amy Reiter of the Clinton-loving Salon.com was there, but not to worry, her piece is in good taste.

Amy Reiter's "Retiring Line":
http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/1999/12/16/np1216/index.html

Salon.com also announced the winners of their 1999 book awards:

Fiction
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Original Bliss by A.L. Kennedy
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan

Nonfiction
Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden
Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick
Lost on Earth: Nomads of the New World by Mark Fritz
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Show Me a Hero: A Tale of Murder, Suicide, Race and Redemption by Lisa Belkin

I will admit, I have not read any of these books. I'm not a big fiction reader to begin with, but Cryptonomicon seems the most interesting. It deals with cryptography (a huge subject for serious Net heads like me), and I have read Stephenson's Snow Crash, which was a really fun read. The biggest problem is it's close to 900(!) pages. The only fiction I've read close to that length was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and I read that to see what all the libertarians were talking about.

On the non-fiction side, I'm most interested in Black Hawk Down. It's the story of a military mission in Somalia gone horribly wrong. A great case study of what can go wrong when the US tries to nation-build.

My own list of the best books of 1999 is in the works. Watch for it soon.

Salon.com's 1999 Book Award winners:
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/12/16/awards/index.html

12.15.99
It looks like Ralph Nader is running for President in 2000. The Nation is going ga-ga over Ralph championing the Green Party's cause. Unlike 1996, Nader might actually run a real campaign. He plans on fund raising and taking advantage of lots of "progressive" volunteers (marching lock-step in their sandals with a latte in one hand and a Howard Zinn book in the other).

So, next year's election may feature George "we miss your dad" W. Bush, Al "I'm not the Unibomber, I just sound like him" Gore, Pat "Peasant Army" Buchanan, and Ralph "Watermelon (Green on the outside, Red on the inside)" Nader. Just imagine the debates: Buchanan and Nader tag-teaming against Bush and Gore on free trade; or Bush and Buchanan partnering against Gore and Nader on the environment. It could get really weird.

The Nation's article on Nader's Presidential run:
http://www.thenation.com/issue/991220/1220sifry.shtml

Yesterday (12.14), was the 200 aniversary of the death of George Washington. No words of mine can convey the amount of appreciation and respect I have for the Father of our country. Washington led a rag-tag group of men against the superpower of the 18th century and won. After the Revolutionary War, he went home only to come back into public light to help forge the US Constitution. He then served honorably as the first President of the United States only to retire to private life after two terms. His honor, integrity, and love of liberty should never be forgotten.

Selected quotes on Washington:
http://www.claremont.org/publications/gw991213.cfm

12.14.99
It seems the traffic-congested highways of America are a myth. At least according to a survey done for ABCNEWS.com. Daniel Merkle writes:

For all the griping about gridlock, most working Americans don’t have to travel all that far to bring home the bacon: They report an average one-way commute of 22 minutes, just a minute more than it was 10 years ago.

I'd love Al Gore and the urban sprawl nuts to chew on that.

ABCNEWS.com commute poll:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/drivingpoll991208.html

The Seattle Times is the first big newspaper to endorse a Presidential candidate. They endorsed Bill Bradley now for two reason: 1) because the primaries are so front-loaded; and 2) the editorial board has found "[a] candidate worthy of such attention." The Times liked Bradley's obsession on race and his courage to talk about health care. What's strange is that they're sure to disagree with Bradley because he wants a "more-expansive role for government," but the page endorses him because he can "develop new ideas and lead the way toward carrying them out." I guess the Times board just wants new ideas, whether they agree with them or not is another story. A bit schizophrenic, but this paper is in a city where almost two weeks ago, anti-free trade rioters attacked a local Starbucks and McDonald's to protest globalism.

The Seattle Times' endorsement of Bill Bradley:
http://www.seattletimes.com/news/editorial/html98/billed_19991212.html

Hands Off the Internet (HOTI) blasted America Online (AOL) for blocking instant messages from AT&T, Yahoo, the Microsoft Network (MSN), and Prodigy while at the same time begging local governments to force open cable broadband networks to AOL. HOTI president, Christopher Wolf called AOL's actions the "worst case of corporate hypocrisy on the Web" and asked AOL to open its network to competitor's instant messages.

Hands Off the Internet blasts AOL's "hypocrisy":
http://www.handsofftheinternet.org/NewsAction.asp?FormMode=Releases&ID=0593903868

12.13.99
William Safire gives bi-partisan support for aggressive antitrust regulation in today's New York Times. He begins his op-ed with these two sentences:

Competition is the driving force of free enterprise. Concentrated power is the greatest danger to capitalism.

The usually correct Safire got it half right. Competition is "the driving force of free enterprise." However, concentrated power is not capitalism's "greatest danger," unlimited government power is. Safire fears the possible MCI-Worldcom/Sprint combo and AT&T controlling "70 percent of their market" and calls that a "monopoly in anybody's league." Not to be technical, but that's not a monopoly, that's a duopoly. And that 70 percent share of the long distance telephone market is only a snapshot. Safire fails to mention the slew of new companies out there going after that market ( Qwest, Global Crossing, Williams Communications, the Baby Bells when they finally allow local competition, Teledesic, etc.). The long distance powers are under intense competition right now (hence the MCI-Worldcom/Sprint merger), with more intense competition on the way.

Safire writes that if these monopolies are allowed to exist, then the government will have to place its heavy regulatory hand on them and we'll all be worse off. For Safire, it's better to go after them via antitrust law than to have regulators nit-pick a companies daily activities.

I'm disappointed that Safire doesn't seem to realize that antitrust law is regulation. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department run around and decide which companies are "too big"--whatever that means. While government antitrust lawyers don't hound companies and order them to operate as they see fit, they are a burden on any owner of a successful business. That's because antitrust laws are notoriously vague. The Sherman Antitrust Act declares illegal "Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations." Anything in "restrain of trade" is considered illegal. Many times, a business won't even know they've restrained trade until the antitrust posse comes knocking on their door.

One final point, Safire considers vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws to be defending competition. I would argue that vigorous enforcement to be defending competitors. For instance in the Microsoft case, those who are hooting and hollering for Microsoft's head are MS's biggest compeitiors (Sun, Oracle, and AOL). Other than a few Linuxheads who wanted a rebate because they took pre-installed Windows off their computers, I haven't seen a lot of consumer anger at Microsoft.

Safire's op-ed: [Site requires free registration.] http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/safire/121399safi.html

I saw Princess Mononoke last night. It was a good flick with great animation. The landscapes were lush with an impressionistic feel. The story was a little clunky, but there was plenty of action. It made for a great time.

12.12.99
Yesterday, running back Ron Dayne became the second Heisman Trophy winner from Wisconsin. In a landslide vote, Dayne beat Georgia Tech QB Joe Hamilton with Virginia Tech QB Michael Vick coming in third, Purdue's Drew Brees coming in fourth, and Marshall's Chad Pennington coming in fifth.

ESPN's coverage:
http://espn.go.com/ncf/s/1999/1211/228114.html

Ian Browne's piece for CBS Sportsline:
http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/ce/multi/0,1329,1725351_56,00.html

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the best newspaper coverage:
http://www.jsonline.com/badger/fb/dec99/dayne121199.asp

UW Athletics' web site:
http://www.wisc.edu/ath/front.html

12.11.99
Jill Stewart of the New Times Los Angeles has a interesting story of how the LA school district is ignoring Prop. 227 which was supposed end bilingual education.

http://www.newtimesla.com/issues/1999-11-04/feature.html

Sean Hackbarth
Writer/Bookseller
Allenton, WI
https://www.angelfire.com/wi/shackbar
shackbar@free-market.net