FROM THE ARCHIVES.

15

YEARS AGO

March 2008

Today, workplace drug testing is a billion-dollar industry. It has also spawned a thriving antitesting industry and entirely new crimes. In Indiana, simply owning a Whizzinator--a comically complex but allegedly effective device that consists of a fake latex penis, a harness, synthetic urine, and heating pads--can lead to a 180-day jail term and a $1,000 fine. (This law hasn't stopped people from buying the $150 unit. The company that produces the Whizzinator says it has sold more than 300,000 of them since 1999.) In 2004, a South Carolina man got six months in a state prison simply for selling his clean urine over the Internet.

GREG BEATO

The Golden Age

20

YEARS AGO

March 2003

Indeed, a wholesale crackdown on illegal immigration could, by consuming scarce resources, hinder rather than help the effort to keep potential terrorists out of this country. 'By some estimates,' says [immigration analyst Daniel] Griswold, 'we spend $3 billion a year trying to keep Mexican workers out of the United States. I'd much rather spend that money trying to keep out Middle Eastern terrorists.'

Given the realities of the global economy and the U.S. labor market, the flow of migrants into this country will be a fact for the foreseeable future. Making legal entry easier for people who want to better their lot in life is a much more feasible solution than making entry 'a fiercely guarded privilege,' as [Michelle] Malkin suggests in Invasion. It is also, of course, far more feasible than the fantasy of deporting the 9 million to 11 million illegal immigrants who are already here.

CATHY YOUNG

Guilty by Association

30

YEARS AGO

March 1993

The first lesson that every private-school choice advocate needs to learn is that government monies rarely come without strings attached. What's interesting is that most already understand this to some degree--they know that public schools have become top-heavy with the politicized burdens of bureaucracy, social work, curriculum standards, and complicated teacher-certification requirements. Yet proponents often fail to see how a voucher program, which at least indirectly subsidizes private education, could eventually turn private schools into semi-public entities. Experiences from both the United States and abroad suggest that a private-school choice plan would not necessarily resemble the free market panacea envisioned by many of its supporters.

JOHN MILLER

Good Choice, Bad Choice

35

YEARS AGO

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