Ensuring terrorists succeed

 Neighborhood  Tagged with: , ,
May 082013
 

By Marcus Flores

I spent my honeymoon in Curacao, an island in the southern Caribbean quite near Venezuela. Flying by commercial airline in the post-9/11 era entails security procedures that, while mildly inconvenient to some (my wife, for example), constitute civil rights infringements to others. As a libertarian, I think I needn’t bother saying to which camp I belong.

Perhaps it comes with the ideology, but I am also not scared shitless of the .00000004% chance of dying in a terrorist attack. No, what unnerves me is the chance that some drunken airline mechanic fails to notice a leaky hose, or that a recently divorced pilot brings his distractful personal baggage with him into the cockpit. (I am not at all reassured by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report on the Comair Flight 5191 disaster, which listed small talk among the factors that led the pilot down the wrong runway at Bluegrass Airport in 2006.) In short, I hope that more attention is directed at preventable dangers rather than the guy with the beard. Continue reading »

Unfetter the food trucks

 Neighborhood  Tagged with: ,
Mar 062013
 

By Marcus Flores

In the beginning, Roy Allen made root beer. He initiated the first of many A&W franchises in 1919, which allowed Americans to reside inside their first love—automobiles—while being served curbside. And in 1927, a young Mormon missionary and his wife franchised an A&W stand in Washington, D.C., innovating once again by adding hot foods to the menu. That man was John Willard Marriott, and his is the name now perched atop some 3800 hotels.

Mobility is by now interwoven in American DNA; we crave our fast food and would be unable to do without the hotel chains and modern automobiles that enable access to virtually all of the United States.

Yet U.S. cities—concrete jungles, to use an apt metaphor—are far denser and hence competitive than those of yore. Some entrepreneurs have responded by channeling the innovative spirit that once prevailed among the fast food pioneers. By adding a set of wheels to their operation, they have displeased some brick and mortar restaurants who view the mobile invaders as an encroachment on their business.

Is this a legitimate claim? It’s certainly under discussion here in Lexington.  Continue reading »

Cashing in on a cash crop

 Features  Tagged with: , ,
Feb 062013
 

By Marcus Flores

Wrapped ‘round the quarter acre plantation were 12-foot fences topped with razor wire. It was monitored by—although armed guards were preferable—24-hour infrared surveillance cameras. Along with a library of documentation, this fortress was required by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for the University of Hawaii’s 1999 permit to grow industrial hemp, a plant which has no psychoactive value.

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classified hemp alongside marijuana (and heroin and cocaine) as a Class I substance. Yet hemp, a subtype of cannabis sativa, was bred specifically to minimize the THC content as well as to maximize the strength of its fibers. Probably due to the cost of federal compliance, Hawaii did not opt to renew its permit, and so far it has been the only state to submit to the regulations of a government in denial about the medical as well as industrial applications of certain flora.

Common sense was at one time more prevalent in United States agriculture. In fact, hemp once made Lexington the center of the textile universe before it became illegal. Now, the United States must import from Canada the crops its Founding Fathers grew.    Continue reading »

Stop pestering Iran

 Opinion  Tagged with: , ,
Nov 072012
 

By Marcus Flores

Because everything an incumbent president does is, to his challenger, wrong, Obama’s résumé in the Middle East has become a sort of fetish during the debate season. Yet the responsible voter—who can momentarily set aside their Obama or Romney pennant—notes that both candidates are virtually indistinguishable on Iran, and that is a pity. Continue reading »

Pudd’nhead Hank

 Opinion  Tagged with: , ,
Oct 032012
 

By Marcus Flores

Theoretically, extreme partisanship presupposes a thorough understanding of one’s own party. In reality, it is often an indicator of the opposite—particularly for celebrities who generally forget that fame does not beget wisdom.

Hank Williams Jr. is loose again, scattering falsehoods like a Texas tornado. He has mislabeled President Barack Obama a Muslim who does not celebrate the pastoral values of rural Americans—fishing, hunting, and cowboys. (How conveniently he forgets that Romney—an Ivy League businessman with a blemished NRA record—is not exactly the figure one would expect to see plowing a field.) But Williams did not stop there, and in fact went on to defame liberals and “queer guitar pickers.” His peroration was as grand as it was pathetic: “Obama loves gays and we hate him.” Continue reading »

Synthetic weed and manufactured prohibition

 Opinion  Tagged with: , ,
Sep 052012
 

The imperfect enjoyment

By Marcus Flores

Newly engineered chemical compounds offer a study of Isaac Newton’s Third Law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For example, the government’s misplaced mania for prohibiting a certain plant provokes an equal and opposite response from citizens looking to get legally high. Meant to mimic marijuana, herbal smoking products “K2” and “Spice” have caused deadly side effects among Kentucky teens—among them heart attacks and seizures.     Continue reading »

How morally right can be legally wrong

 Opinion  Tagged with: ,
Aug 022012
 

By Marcus Flores

 Tomas Lopez, a lifeguard of Hallandale Beach, is a rule breaker. The young Floridian was fired because, try as he might, he simply could not suffer the rule that would have condemned a man to drown who was swimming in the “At Your Own Risk” area a few hundred feet away. Lopez was “out of his protected area,” said Susan Ellis, his former supervisor, “we have liability issues.” Continue reading »

Dissecting the dishonorable

 Opinion  Tagged with: , ,
Jun 282012
 

Sodomy laws and marriage amendments

By Marcus Flores

North Carolina put to vote a heterosexual marriage referendum in early May of this year.  Given the state’s rural demographics, perhaps the result was an unsurprising one. Yet it was not the first (and probably will not be the last) state to do so; in 2004 Kentucky adopted a similar such amendment from a resolution that cited the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court case, which, the resolution said, “may undermine the foundation of marriage as the fundamental union between a man and a woman.” Strange. Continue reading »

Was this a hate crime?

 Opinion  Tagged with: , , ,
Jun 062012
 

Murder, hatred and George Zimmerman

By Marcus Flores

State prosecutors in Florida, evidently dissatisfied with convicting George Zimmerman of atonable recklessness, have recently announced that they may try Zimmerman for a hate crime because he “profiled and stalked” Trayvon Martin before killing him.  Is this account genuine?

Imagining the scene of any crime is a formidable task for even the most distinguished detective.  Re-creation relies on evidence and witness testimony.  Physical evidence gathered following the February 26 encounter consisted of two components: Trayvon’s scraped knuckles and Zimmerman’s head wounds—which, in tandem, are consistent with a fist fight.  Zimmerman cannot be vindicated on basis of this evidence alone; the wounds speak not to who started the fight but only who came up short during it. Continue reading »

Discrimination of a different kind

 Opinion  Tagged with: , ,
May 022012
 

By Marcus Flores

There’s an old saying that goes “I may not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.” This seminal apposition of liberty and tolerance was likely imported from France—Voltaire specifically—in the days when British misrule plagued the American colonies. Consequently, the ideas expressed in those eighteen words have become central to how Americans participate in their economy.   Continue reading »

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