BY HARRY RING
Maybe Iraqis forgot to dumb it down - Chiming in on the
White House propaganda that the Iraqis are misapplying "oil-
for-food" funds, a former World Bank economist recalled that
when Iraq was developing a "supergun" they were so clever that
manufacturers thought the barrel parts they were supplying
were for an oil pipeline.
Bill of Rights as toilet paper - California parole officials said they put rap singer C-BO back behind bars because he made a new album that violated a parole condition that he not record lyrics that "promote the gang life style [or are] anti-law enforcement." C-BO had accepted the parole condition because he felt it would be overturned on appeal.
Capitalism and `holy matrimony' - Liz Heron, a single mother and student, wrote the Arizona state legislature suggesting more child-care assistance for single parents trying to complete their education. A state rep responded, "perhaps you could. solve your financial troubles by remarrying." Declared Heron, "To say that marriage should be reduced to a financial situation was insulting."
P.S. - Check out what Marx and Engels had to say about marriage and capitalism in The Communist Manifesto. (Pages 39 - 40, Pathfinder edition.)
Don't pause, to think - A Miami-area school board member wants school children not to pause before saying "under God," as most apparently do, while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Originally, the pledge declared, euphemistically, "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." In 1954, during the witch-hunt, Congress added "under God."
And cut back food stamps? -The West Virginia legislature is weighing a measure to legalize collecting and eating animals killed running in front of vehicles. Proponents said if folks are encouraged to eat their roadkill it will save on paying state workers to remove carcasses.
Vilest of the week - Since 1995, the government of Peru has waged a campaign of forced sterilization, with rural indigenous women the principal target. In the cynically named "family planning" drive, Health Ministry teams are assigned quotas and put brutal pressure on women to submit to sterilization, reported the February 27 Wall Street Journal.
Complicity plus - Where do the pious folk in Washington stand on Peru's sterilization program? Dr. Yong Motta, health adviser to president Alberto Fujimori, declares that the U.S. Agency for International Development has "been helping the family planning program from the first."