[CTRL] THE LIGHTHOUSE
THE LIGHTHOUSE Enlightening Ideas for Public Policy... VOL. 3, ISSUE 21 May 29, 2001 Welcome to The Lighthouse, the e-mail newsletter of The Independent Institute, the non-politicized, public policy research organization http://www.independent.org. We provide you with updates of the Institute's current research publications, events and media programs. Do you know someone who would enjoy THE LIGHTHOUSE? Please forward this message to a friend. If they like it, they can add themselves to the list at http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/Lighthouse.html. - IN THIS WEEK'S ISSUE: 1. The Federal Bureau of Incompetence 2. Integrating Immigrants 3. Happy Birthday, Patrick Henry - THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INCOMPETENCE The American people justifiably feel sickened by the FBI's mishandling of evidence in the Timothy McVeigh case, but they shouldn't be surprised, according to economist Bruce Benson, senior fellow at The Independent Institute. The FBI's failure to divulge reams of evidence to McVeigh's lawyers is just the latest bungle in a history stretching back to when President Theodore Roosevelt created its predecessor, the Bureau of Investigation, writes Benson in a new op-ed. Regrettably, blunders and cover-ups are not confined to the FBI. Despite cover-up attempts, similar scandals involving both state and local prosecutors and police show that misrepresentation and even falsification of forensic evidence occurs regularly. At the root of the systemic problems that plague public law-enforcement, Benson argues, is poor accountability. Yet strong accountability (and its offshoot, innovation) is the norm in the private sector. This, according to Benson, explains why governments are increasingly contracting with the private sector for police dispatch, investigative services, fingerprinting, crime labs, traffic control, data processing, prisoner transport and other traditional police functions. Between 1964 and 1997, in fact, the number of specialized security firms grew by more than 800 percent, while employment by these firms grew by almost 925 percent. This trend is explained by the simple fact that in police services, as in other services, customers tend to get what they pay for. For example: * In 1992, the 2,565 private railroad police employed by major railroads had a clearance rate (reported crimes cleared by arrest) 2.86 times greater than the clearance rate for public police. * In the 1970s, a private investigation firm was contracted to look into police corruption in small towns in Ohio and West Virginia. Within months, the firm's efforts led to more than 150 arrests. * After a drug scandal in 1993, the town of Sussex, New Jersey, replaced its tiny four-officer police force with private policing firm. Contracting out for policing is a common practice in Switzerland and the Bahamas. Calls on Congress to once again investigate the FBI miss the mark, concludes Benson. Changing the political and bureaucratic delivery of policing services requires fundamental reform, and the growth of the private security industry strongly suggests how those reforms ought to take shape. See Bruce Benson's op-ed, The Countervailing Trend to FBI Failures: A Return to Privatized Police Services, at http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-21-1.html. Also see: Poll: 4 out of 10 Americans don't trust FBI (USA Today, 5/24/01) http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-21-2.html. TO SERVE AND PROTECT: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice, by Bruce Benson (The Independent Institute/New York University Press, 1998) http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-21-3.html. The Independent Institute's archive on crime policy: http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-21-4.html. - INTEGRATING IMMIGRANTS The best way for state governments to help integrate immigrants into American life is to promote private schooling, according to Alex Tabarrok, research director at The Independent Institute. In his testimony before the State of California's Little Hoover Commission, Tabarrok argued that private schooling is the most effective way to foster proficiency in the English language -- the single most important skill for immigrants to learn. California's public high schools, Tabarrok noted, have appalling student dropout rates: 32 percent overall and about 45 percent for immigrants. Dropout rates for similar students are much lower in private schools. California's public schools also have little room for educational diversity, experimentation or competition. In the heated debate over bilingual education, no one questioned why politicians, bureaucrats and voters should decide a question best left to parents and educators. Private education is much better
[CTRL] Fwd:The Lighthouse
; Tue, 21 Nov 2000 12:48:58 -0600 Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 12:48:58 -0600 Message-Id: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: David Theroux [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailer: Perl Powered Socket Mailer Subject: THE LIGHTHOUSE: November 20, 2000 THE LIGHTHOUSE "Enlightening Ideas for Public Policy..." VOL. 2, ISSUE 45 November 20, 2000 Welcome to The Lighthouse, the e-mail newsletter of The Independent Institute, the non-partisan, public policy research organization http://www.independent.org. We provide you with updates of the Institute's current research publications, events and media programs. - IN THIS WEEK'S ISSUE: 1. Are Soldiers Phantom Voters? 2. Bush, Gore, and the Courts 3. Lessons of the New Economy - ARE SOLDIERS PHANTOM VOTERS? To test your knowledge of the Election 2000 trivia, can you identify who uttered the following? "[O]verseas ballots have not been counted. It's likely that there are more than enough oversea ballots to make up the scant difference between these two candidates The Presidency of the United States should not be determined by technicalities. It needs to be determined by the will of the people." If you guessed George W. Bush or James Baker, guess again. The statement was made on Nov. 10 by Al Gore's campaign chairman, William Daley (see http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink2-45-1.html). Now the Gore campaign is seeking to disqualify more than 1,500 absentee ballots submitted by military personnel who are Florida residents, but stationed overseas. This latest attempt to exclude absentee ballots cast by military personnel is not without precedent. Immediately following the 1996 general election, Texas Rural Legal Aid, a grant recipient of the taxpayer-funded Legal Services Corporation, sued to block the counting of some 800 ballots cast by military personnel -- a total greater than the margin of victory between candidates in two local races -- claiming these "phantom voters" diluted the votes of bona fide local residents. After freezing the election of the two candidates until June 1997, the federal district court judge dissolved the preliminary injunction and declared the challenged candidates favored by the majority of voters, including those casting absentee ballots, the winners. Also relevant here is the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which provides, among other things, that "[b]alloting materials . . . shall be carried expeditiously and free of postage," which may explain the lack of a postmark on so many military ballots. See 39 U.S.C. 3406. Furthermore, Congress has enacted statutory penalties, including fines and/or imprisonment for "[w]hoever knowingly deprives or attempts to deprive any person of a right" under the Act. (See 18 U.S.C. 608 http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink2-45-2.html.) The latest word from the Florida Attorney General's Office: "Canvassing boards should count overseas ballots which are from qualified military electors and which bear no postmark if the ballot is signed and dated no later than the date of the election and are otherwise proper." (See http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink2-45-3.html.) For a skeptical look at elections, see the Independent Institute book, BEYOND POLITICS: Markets, Welfare and the Failure of Bureaucracy, by William C. Mitchell and Randy T. Simmons, at http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink2-45-4.html. Also see Sigmund Knag's article, "The Almighty, Impotent State; or, the Crisis of Authority" (THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW, Winter 1997), at http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink2-45-5.html. BUSH, GORE, AND THE COURTS Will the legal wrangling in Florida determine the presidential election? The pundits have had a field day anticipating the next moves in the election imbroglio. However, they have failed to recognize that the courts cannot act as final arbiter of the election without the consent of the legislative branch. It is the legislature, not the courts, which has this power, according to Rob Latham, public affairs director of The Independent Institute. Courts are generally reluctant to interfere with political questions, claiming lack of "justiciability" under the "political questions doctrine." (The term was coined in an 1849 decision, Luther v. Borden, stemming from a rebellion in Rhode Island.) The courts have narrowed the doctrine's applicability over the years, but the current election dispute is precisely the type of case to which it applies, argues Latham. Hence, if Gore strategists hope to keep Florida's electoral votes from being counted by Congress, they may find their hopes dashed. Under federal law (Title III, Section 2 of the U.S. Code) and the Twelfth Amendment, Florida's Republican-controlled legislature
[CTRL] The LightHouse Press; Monosodium Glutamate, MSG, Glutamic Acid, Excitotoxins and other food additives
http://www.msgfree.com/ Title: The LightHouse Press; Monosodium Glutamate, MSG, Glutamic Acid, Excitotoxins and other food additives The LightHouse Press A publisher dedicated toinformation on alternatives in lifestyle, health and nutrition. [Frames] [NO-Frames] Contact Info EMAIL . Click Here to Check Out Our New Book On Finding and Eliminating Hidden Sources of Monosodium Glutamate, MSG, Glutamic Acid, Excitotoxins and other food additives from your diet! ALERT! Toxin to be funded for mass distribution and use on our crops! Please see this email from a MSG sufferer just like you! Protect yourself by contacting NSF Today! Links follow text. Dear Annie: We really need your help! The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant to Auxein Corporation to help them promote spraying MSG on crops. A friend found the following while searching the Web for Auxein Corporation. Please, please, please call Program Contact Kesh Narayanan and protest! The Internet address where the announcement can be found is http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/pr9842.htm Here's the content of the press release and some other information (following) on Auxein Corp and their dangerous product, AuxiGro which is made up of over 30% free glutamic acid or MSG! Check out the label that states the ingredients - it says its highly toxic and to keep away from animals and children! It's appalling! How can they get away with this!? NSF PR 98-42 (National Science Foundation: Press Release 9842 Media contact: Gregory Lester (703) 306-1070 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Program contact: Kesh Narayanan (703) 306-1390 [EMAIL PROTECTED] National Science Foundation is Taking Small Business Into a New Phase of Innovation The National Science Foundation (NSF) will award four grants in a new pilot program intended to bridge the gap between technology research and commercialization by providing incentives for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grantees to seek partnerships with investors. The new SBIR Phase IIB Pilot Program supplements the already successful SBIR effort at NSF. SBIR has always been a catalyst for the growth of small high-tech businesses, said Kesh Narayanan, NSF director of industrial innovation. We found that the top 50 successful small business grantees (representing about 10 percent of all Phase II grantees) have accounted for $2.2 billion in direct sales and created 10,000 jobs. The pilot program will help give other small high-tech companies the opportunity to make this sort of impact. [and give at least one of these pilot programs the right to poison our food supply and, though, creating jobs and abundance, cause a huge increase in disease and the occurance of chronic illness; putting millions of American AT RISK!] NSF selected four small businesses to participate in the pilot program based on the intellectual merit and potential impact of their research: Polatomic Corporation, for a miniaturized device to measure the properties of planetary magnetic fields; Pericle Communications Company, for their work to develop a method to double the signal capacity of cellular radio networks; New Light Industries, for the design and application of a holographic printer; and Auxein Corporation, for the development of a metabolic primer to enhance plant growth. SBIR is a congressionally mandated program initiated at the NSF in 1977 to promote the development of innovative technologies by small science and technology-based businesses. SBIR grants are awarded in two phases. Projects under Phase I are funded for a six-month feasibility study. If the projects are determined eligible, they may receive funding for the principal research effort under Phase II. After Phase II, grant recipients are expected to pursue commercial applications of their research without the support of government funding. The Phase IIB Pilot Program allows small businesses to continue their research while securing the support of third-party investors. This
