The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.59/No.45           December 4, 1995 
 
 
The Great Society, By Harry Ring  

He does create jobs - It caused a flap in Canada's Ontario province when Social Services Minister David Tsubouchi assured that the impoverished could eat well on $90 a month. The flap got louder when it was disclosed that he had hired an image consultant at $1,200 a day.

It ain't the messenger - Corporate studies are finding a steady rise in workplace alienation, discontent, and frustration. One consulting group that did a survey said they were "so amazed at the vehemence of workers that we wondered if we had in some way contaminated the study." A second consulting outfit came in. It found the study and findings "sound and reliable."

Being a lawyer isn't good enough? - A student about to graduate from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco was busted as a suspect in as many as a dozen area bank robberies.

`A few bad apples' - Jersey City cops failed to return to their owners more than 100 cars that were towed or recovered after being stolen. Notification letters to owners were deliberately misaddressed so they would come back undeliverable. A car not claimed in 30 days becomes city property. Sixty of the cars were auctioned to cops at rigged prices.

Pushers Intl. - R.J. Reynolds Tobacco agreed to supply Bucharest, Romania's cash-strapped capital, with traffic light bulbs for a year. The yellow lights bore the Camel logo.

Enthused the operator who set up the 1993 deal, "It was really fantastic at night when only the yellow lights were on and you'd just see the camel everywhere, blinking on and off."

`If you can't beat them...' - "For microchips, for oven chips, computer chips, we thank you Lord/For ocean waves, for microwaves, for radio waves, we thank you Lord/For floppy discs, for compact discs, computer discs, we thank you Lord" - From the Big Blue Planet songbook issued by the United Kingdom's Methodist church to make worship more relevant for the under-eight audience.

Don't leave home without it - As cited in the New York Times Sunday travel section: The Pedipocket, a battery- powered manicure and pedicure device that can polish and trim nails. $44.95, plus $5 shipping.

Carefully managed care - A California jury awarded damages to the husband and son of cancer victim Joyce Ching. For three months she had complained to her doctors of stomach pain but they didn't send her to a specialist until her husband refused to leave their office without a referral. A specialist found she had cancer. Why did the doctors balk? Because the HMO they work with requires them to pay the first $5,000 of the cost of such referrals.

Thought for the week - "This sends a clear message that when you mix incentives and money with medicine it equals death." - Mark Helper, attorney for the Ching family.

 
 
 
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