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REASON Express
March 6, 2000
Vol. 3 No. 10


1) Another Title IX Victory
2) The Waco Saga: Of Truck and Tapes
3) Is Dubya Pro- or Anti-Microsoft?
4) The Hacker Cure That Is Worse Than the Disease
5) Quick Hits


- - Diving for Cover - -

Just as in shooting wars, those who command grand legal campaigns have to
learn to live with a little collateral damage. Last week it was the men's
swimming and diving teams at the University of Miami that took a direct hit.

University officials say they had to kill those sports to comply with Title
IX, the federal gender-participation statute which increasingly governs all
elements of collegiate athletics. Title IX requires schools which receive
federal funds, i.e. just about every single one, to give men and women an
"equal" chance to compete.

"It seems unfair that a school can say it's our right to give women this
opportunity and not necessarily men," says former UM swimer Jennifer Burzawa.

Yes, but Title IX is not about fairness. Instead, it perversely defines
equality in terms of athletic participation that reflects the overall
male/female ratio of the student body.

And in Miami's case, the student body has flipped in just a few years from
majority-male to majority-female. So even though the school added women's
soccer and crew teams and limited the number of non-scholarship players in
football and baseball--the "walk-ons," the players who have to be crazy in
love with a sport to go to practice everyday--it was doomed to come up short.

Only 44 percent of athletes are women, compared to 54 percent of the student
body. So the relatively expensive men's sports of swimming and diving and crew
had to go.

It didn't matter that the swimming and diving programs were among the best in
the land. After all, that didn't save UCLA's men's swimming, which had
produced 41 individual NCAA champions over the years, either. Numbered among
Miami's greats are 110 All-Americans, 26 Olympians, and a certain four-time
gold medallist in diving.

Olympic champion Greg Louganis dominated his sport for a decade, displaying a
rare combination of strength and grace. Later Louganis let the world know that
he was a gay man who was living with AIDS.

Talents like Louganis probably can excel no matter what specific program they
are in. Miami's diving program may well have needed him more than he needed
it, who knows?

But what about the lesser talents who do need their sport? Do the gender
police count them differenly if they happen to be gay, a minority within the
supposed majority? Should we survey incoming freshmen for sexual preference,
so as to get a better fix on this whole gender-equity ratio thing? If not, why
not?

One thing that is clear is that schools like Miami have gone about as far as
they can go to implement Title IX as it is currently construed. The Hurricanes
will now field just seven men's sports teams--one more than the minimum for
participation in Division I, the top rung of collegiat sports. Once
volleyball is added to the roster, Miami will field 10 women's sports.

http://www.msnbc.com/local/WTVJ/184737.asp



- - Waco: Tracks of Evidence - -

Last week's developments in the civil case against the federal government
actions at Waco punched even bigger holes in the government's credibility.

Why was there no firefighting equipment on the scene? That simple question now
points to a chilling disregard for the people the FBI was ostensibly trying to
help. Phone records show that the bureau's Waco commanders sent word to
Washington that they did not plan to even try to fight any fire at the
compound.

Recall that the reason the FBI knows that it didn't cause the fires that
killed over 80 men, women, and children is because the FBI knew the Davidians
did it because agents heard them talking about fires. So the FBI knew that
fire was a threat.

Further, a report by fire investigator Patrick Kennedy, found that
firefighting equipment could have been on the scene and would have saved many
lives.

"If the fire had been extinguished in its early stages, there probably would
have been little, if any, loss of life," his report found.

The FBI's two Waco commanders, Jeffrey Jamar and Richard Rogers, have
suggested that fear the Davidians would shoot at firefighters made them hold
back fire trucks, which rushed to the scene after the blaze was well under
way.

But Kennedy--who investigated the Las Vegas MGM Hotel fire, the DuPont Plaza
Hotel fire in Puerto Rico, and the Philadelphia MOVE standoff fire--said many
other options were available. Water cannons used for riot control, armored
firefighting vehicles, and other equipment used to fight forest fires could
have been brought in advance.

"This is a story of a government agency run amok, and two guys, Jamar and
Rogers, who are apparently
answerable to no one. They thought they were the law," said Mike Caddell, lead
lawyer for the sect. "The
American people should be angry because what we knownow is how badly we've
been misled, how badly we've been lied to for seven years."

And no lie would be bigger than if the tapes the government has always said
were originals turn out to be doctored up copies. Yet that is what a former
Secret Service forensic recording expert working for the Davidians told the
court.

Steve Cain said FBI audio and videotapes had been tampered with, including
some erasures of vital sound tracks.

Significantly, Cain found that the audio track from the aerial infrared tape
shot right before the fire started had been erased. That's the tape that the
Davidians claim shows flashes of gunfire coming from government positions at
the rear of the compound. Again, the government denies firing a shot on that
tragic day.

Presumably, the audio track would've contained some reference to what was
going on the ground, one way or the other.

Now there has been much, too much conspiracy mongering when it comes to Waco.
Fantastic stories do not bring anyone closer to the truth. Besides, humans do
make mistakes, especially when they are tired, stressed, and isolated.

But tapes do not erase themselves. A president was forced out of office in
part because he could not explain an 18-minute gap in a White House tape.

The question now has to be, If a civil suit is turning up this kind of
evidence, where are the criminal charges?

http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/42359_WACO02.html
http://dallasnews.com/waco/44054_WACO06.html

Check out the Reason Online Breaking Issue "What Happened at Waco?" at
http://reason.com/bi/biwaco.html




- - Microsoft Ping-Pong - -

This makes sense. On the eve of the GOP primary in Washington state, George W.
Bush made some comments suggesting he thinks the antitrust case against
Microsoft is a crock.

Voters vote, Bush wins, and we move on.

But now comes the key state of California, home to many companies and
presumably voters who do not think the antitrust case is a crock. Indeed,
their most fervent hope is for Microsoft to be ground up by the Justice
Department and spit out in some crippled form.

So now Bush is backtracking to say that he remains neutral on the case and
would always act as president to promote competition. This too makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is that the future of technology has become a
political kick-ball in the spin-rich, fact-poor world of presidential
primaries.

If politics chooses our technology, we all are in trouble.

http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/03/185l-030300-idx.html
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/news/viewpoint2000/view-000302-1.shtml





- - Hacking for Fun and Profit - -

On cue, Justice Department officials danced up to Congress to tell it that the
only way criminal computer hackers could be stopped is with a change in law.
Of course, this would also entail spending more money.

The Justice Department wants to increase its budget by a quarter by adding $37
million to its current $138 illion budget.

The money would hire more prosecutors and analysts, and improve capabilities
of polices investigators.
The change in law the DoJ wants involves the little matter of federalism. The
feds should be able, they argued, to track down hackers across many Internet
servers without bothering to get approval from judges in multiple states.

Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) think that this is such a
great idea that they have introduced a bill that would allow investigators to
track online communications to their source without seeking multiple court
orders.

Say hello to federal Net cops.

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/en/xml/00/02/29/000229enjustice.xml
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34659,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34720,00.html



QUICK HITS

- - Quote of the Week - -

"No one is suggesting the legalization of marijuana. It really obfuscates the
purpose of this argument,
which is to improve a seriously failing farm conomy," Rep. Judy Erwin
(D-Chicago), one of four
House members pushing a study of hemp, reacting to a letter by drug czar Barry
R. McCaffrey claiming that any move to cultivate hemp is a "stalking horse"
for the legalization of pot. The Illinois Senate has already approved a
measure which directs universities in the state to study the potential hemp
demand.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/hemp29.html


- - Porky - -

American hog farmers will at least get a vote on whether they will have to
continue to pay "mandatory assessmnts" to promote pork products. The pig tax
raises $48 million each year.

http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-02/29/067l-022900-idx.html


- - Midas Touch - -

Inside look at how the Gilder Technology Report makes tech stocks--and tech
stock investors--go haywire.

http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/05/095l-030500-idx.html


- - Mile-High Tax  - -

Congress wants to hike the airport passenger tax by $1.50 per head, so as to
use the $700 million raised to fund more airport construction in each and
every district in the nation.

http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/03/125l-030300-idx.html




REASON NEWS

Check out Reason Editor Nick Gillespie on Rotten Radio, an Internet-only radio
program hosted by former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten. It's available on the Web
as an archive at www.eyada; the link is:
http://www.eyada.com/show_main.cfm?show=25&show_submit=Go%21

You can also read Nick's column on kids and consumption in today's Salon at
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2000/03/06/buy/index.html

And don't miss Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey's commentary on the
scientific and theological controversies surrounding human life extension,
exclusively on Reason Online. http://reason.com/opeds/rb030600.html


For the latest on media appearances by Reason writers, visit
http://www.reason.com/press.html.




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