Quick George, the inspectors —“After decline, U.S. again capable of making nuclear arms—Energy Dept. is restarting production of plutonium parts for its stockpile of bombs.”—News headline.

They want chimes?—The American Civil Liberties Union is representing two people in Wilmington, Delaware, who were ticketed for blowing too hard on their horns March 20 in support of an antiwar demonstration at the downtown federal building. Protesters carried placards and a banner urging, “Honk for peace,” and got a rousing response, reports Roy Inglee, a participant.

A woman horn-blower singled out for a ticket said the cop who stopped her was a member of her church. The other ticket went to a Black truck driver who leaned on his air horn after dropping a load of rebar at a construction site. Two construction workers left their jobs to join the demonstration.

He’s running around loose? —Dr. Harry Metropol, a former chief of surgery at Palmetto Health Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina, testified before a Congressional subcommittee in favor of putting caps on malpractice awards. The doc discussed the case of Linda McDougal who had her breasts removed as the result of a wrong diagnosis of breast cancer.

Dr. Metropol testified: “She did not lose her life, and with the plastic surgery, she’ll have breast reconstruction better than she had before. It won’t be National Geographic, hanging to her knees. It’ll be nice firm breasts.”

On the home front—While Washington was pressing the war in Iraq, the Los Angeles police department was waging a well-organized drive against the men, women, and children sleeping on the street on the edge of the downtown area. Responding to mounting protests, top cop William Bratten declared: “My overriding responsibility is to focus on the behavior of people, not their living conditions.”

Not to Guantánamo?—Various colleges require that students from abroad take English-language proficiency tests. Last year 62 applicants were convicted of hiring others to take the tests for them. The cases are filed under “international terrorism.”

Another food stamp applicant —Christos Cotasakos, top fella at E-Trade Group, made nearly $80 million two years ago. Last year it was sliced down to $12.2 million.

How would Malcolm have responded?—Provoked by growing racism, sexism, gay bashing and anti-Semitism, students and faculty members walked out at San Diego University, a private Catholic enterprise. Crimes included the burglary of a campus apartment of two Black women students. Racist graffiti was scrawled on walls. Fliers about the Black Panthers were trashed and a poster of Malcolm X smeared with a swastika. Observed the dean of students: “I think we’ve made significant progress.… When people deface posters it’s hard to know what the motivation was. Some could just consider it a joke.”  
 
 
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