Contributors

Joli Jensen's interest in mood-altering pharmaceuticals, the focus of "Emotional Choices" (page 28), is not merely academic. As someone who has wrestled with depression, Jensen says she has been "amazed by the number of different health care professionals who have offered to write me prescriptions, and by how baffled they are by my refusal to give these drugs a try." Jensen says she was reticent about offering such a personal take on the issue, but it is "only fair to illustrate -- using my personal experience -- the kinds of quandaries all of us face." Jensen teaches communications at the University of Tulsa.

Frostburg State University economist William L. Anderson couldn't believe it when he learned that a new member of his church was due to begin serving a 25-year prison sentence on federal racketeering charges. The underlying crime turned out to be a dodgy tax maneuver that his friend had erroneously believed to be legal. Anderson soon discovered this case was only too typical in the booming industry of federal prosecutions. Anderson shares some of his findings about this issue in "Washington's Biggest Crime Problem" (page 36).

Anderson's co-author, Candice E. Jackson, gave up running Republican political campaigns to study law. She now wields her expertise in that field on behalf of the California-based Judicial Watch, where she combats government corruption. Owing to another sort of state iniquity, Candice is planning to travel to Canada soon to obtain a license to marry her partner of two years.

As a kid, Terry Colon relished trips to his grandparents' house, where he'd spend hours poring over their compilation of New Yorker cartoons. As his taste became more refined, he got hooked on illustrated humor magazines like MAD, Cracked, and Sick. Colon was soon drawing for local alternative papers, and his style will be familiar to many readers because of his work for the late, great webzine Suck. A self-described "political mutt," Colon illustrates reason's look at the ideal presidential contender in "Building the Perfect Candidate" (page 45).