The latest brickbats from Reason...
Pennsylvanians Saved From Depraved Bingo Nights (11/1)
Pennsylvanians can play the lotto and bet on ponies. They may soon be able to play slots or gamble on river boats. But they can't play bingo at Wal-Mart.
For years, the discount chain has permitted weekly bingo games. There was no admission fee, no charge to play, and no betting. The district attorney in Lebanon County has nonetheless decided the games violate the state's "small games of chance" law, which allows only state-licensed, not-for-profit community organizations to run bingo games. Wal-Mart asked the state to change the law. But Republican lawmakers voted down the idea, concerned that it would promote gambling.
and
Cops Blow Down Granny's Door (11/5)
Sandy Cohen, 85, had just finished taking a shower when Philadelphia police started knocking on her door, clutching a search warrant for drugs. She reached the door just as an explosive device they had planted blew it off its hinges. A SWAT team burst in, pointing their guns at her. Raising her arms, she told them they had the wrong house. One cop simply snarled, "That's what they all say." But after checking the house out, the cops found they had indeed got the wrong one, something neighbors had tried to tell them as they planted the explosives.
Now, Cohen, her son, and her lawyer want to know how the cops came to think there were drugs in her house. Seems like a reasonable question.
And from Reason Express...
Zero Discipline:
To see what happens when entrenched interests run up against new technology -- not to mention a possible preview of what will happen to American telecom in the near future -- look at Panama.
Like many countries around the world, Panama uses long distance phone traffic as a cash cow. Not only that, but over the years many international cable and switching facilities have set up shop in that strategic locale. In sum, telecom is quite the big business in Panama.
So when the Internet starts sucking traffic off the old circuit-switched phone network, it gets noticed. Voice-over-Internet protocol services offered by Panamanian Internet providers dodged all the hefty fees and taxes of the old phone system, and as a result were much cheaper. The government responded exactly as you might expect: They effectively banned such services in and out of the country.
A decree issued last month ordered that all ISPs block the ports typically used for voice-over-Internet traffic. Local ISPs are upset, but it is unclear what they can do about it other than agree to pay off someone, either under or over the table. A heavily taxed, inefficient circuit-switched system cannot coexist with a tax-free, modern packet-switched system.
Sooner or later, the U.S. will face this reality, too.
