'Liberal' racism?--James Hodges, governor of South Carolina, made that state the last of the 50 to declare Martin Luther King Day a holiday for state employees. At the same time he established a Confederate Memorial Day.

Where did we hear this before?--More than a year ago, Riverside, California, police shot to death Tyisha Miller, a 19-year-old woman who was Black. She was asleep in her car when the cops broke the door open and shot her. They claimed they broke the door because she seemed in need of help, but reached for a gun when they smashed the door window. Now a lawyer for the city says a toxicology report shows she was suffering an overdose of an illegal drug. He said this confirmed the judgment of the cops that she "had to be rescued."

They found the formula--Foundation Health Systems, California's biggest managed care operation, registered a 22 percent gain in profits for the first quarter of the year. How did they accomplish this? Simple. They jacked up premiums and pared the payroll.

Rational, no--A recent L.A. Daily News headline: "Stocks rally in spite of jobs surge."

Less hypocritical than most--We didn't care for the video The Last Days of Chez Nous, but we got a kick out of the jacket blurb: "A story of lust, betrayal, and other family values."

Social study (I)--A news feature on the frugal rich pointed to millionaires who balk at paying $40 for a new shirt. Our initial reaction was that you can hardly blame even a millionaire for objecting to such prices. Then we realized we've been buying our clothing in thrift stores for so many years we didn't know how much a new shirt cost. We set out to find out.

Social study (II)--We asked the clerk at the local video store how much he pays for new shirts. He confided his only new shirt was an Xmas gift from his mother. The rest came from thrift stores. He speculated on the price of a new shirt, but didn't really know. The same with two staffers at the branch library. They, too, were thrift store shoppers. One guy added, "Even the thrift stores are a ripoff--they want your last centavo!"  
 
 
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