July 2009

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Editor's Notes

• Why Long Beach Isn't Detroit

  Matt Welch

  How Southern California survived the collapse of aircraft manufacturing without a bailout

Contributors

• Contributors

Letters

• Letters

Citings

• Brickbats

  Charles Oliver

• Bogus Bodega Busts

  Radley Balko

  Corrupt Philadelphia cops

• Twitter Teamwork

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Fargo flood friends

• Transparency Failure

  National security or secure lobbying?

• Frisco Freak-Out

  Brian Doherty

  Public art, public nuisance?

• DEA Tax Collectors

  Jacob Sullum

  Medical marijuana raids

• The Unrepentant D.A.

  Radley Balko

  Prosecutorial error in Santa Clara

• Follow-Up: Bush-Era Porn Prosecution Ends in Guilty Plea

  Jacob Sullum

• Roquefort Revolution

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Trade policy folly

• Militia Member Memo

  Paranoia in Missouri

• The Graduates

  Lisa Snell

  Charter school success

• Neighborhood Watch

  Private policing in Chicago

Soundbites

• Drug Decriminalization in Portugal

  Nick Gillespie

Years Ago

• 30 years ago in reason

Quotes

• Quotes

Lists

• Freeing Harvard

  Harvey Silvergate

Columns

• Drug Control Begets Gun Control

  Jacob Sullum

  The violence in Mexico is caused by prohibition, not firearms.

• Dickens Is Back. Watch Your Wallet.

  Tim Cavanaugh

  If you want to understand the economy, don't turn to the author of Oliver Twist for answers.

• Paying the Pirate's Price

  Veronique de Rugy

  Do the economics of piracy demand the privatization of the sea?

• The Joys of Brain Scrubbing

  Greg Beato

  The advantages of memory deletion in a collectively omniscient world

Features

• The Blurry Boundaries of Child Porn

  Jesse Walker

  Not every illicit image is equally offensive.

• 20,000 Nations Above the Sea

  Brian Doherty

  Is floating the last, best hope for liberty?

• Anatomy of a Child Pornographer

  Nancy Rommelmann

  What happens when adults catch teenagers "sexting" photos of each other? The death of common sense.

• Turning Japanese

  Anthony Randazzo, Michael Flynn & Adam B. Summers

  Japan's post-bubble policies produced a "lost decade." So why is President Obama emulating them?

Culture & Reviews

• Briefly Noted: Downsize Me

  Jacob Sullum

• Briefly Noted: A Foreign Policy They Can't Refuse

  Clark Stooksbury

• Briefly Noted: We Often Dream of Trains

  Tim Cavanaugh

• Briefly Noted: The Southern Lifestyle Will Rise Again

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Stripping Away Free Expression

  Shawn Macomber

  A Pennsylvania town tries—and fails—to ban a form of exercise.

• The Prehistory of Porn Prosecution

  Nick Gillespie

  How "licentious Gotham" gave rise to today's obscenity laws

Book Reviews

• Death of a Dystopian

  Joanne McNeil

  The life and legacy of J.G. Ballard

• Sympathy for the Investment Banker

  Tim Cavanaugh

  Who killed Bear Stearns? After all, it was you and me.

Artifacts

• A Scary Thing Indeed

  Katherine Mangu-Ward

  Your official 9/11 coloring book.