An ‘innate’ male chauvinist?—Firmly convinced of the fraud of capitalist education, we confess a bit of surprise that Lawrence Summers, president of prestigious Harvard University, would offer his “reasoning” on why women are underrepresented in teaching math and engineering. Women, he recently advised, have an “innate” inability to deal with math. Plus, he added, engineering profs work 80 hours a week, and married mothers are not willing to make that sacrifice. His remarks were offered to a national gathering of mainly female science professors.

A step toward justice—A federal court ordered the state of Ohio to retry Kenny Richey, a Death Row inmate, within 90 days or release him. Richey was convicted of the arson murder of a child. The appeals court found that the state failed to prove the case against Richey and his court-appointed lawyer failed to adequately challenge the prosecution’s failure. Originally from Scotland, Richey won support from there as well as from the European Parliament and others.

Cozy deal—Robert Maddox resigned as board chairman of the Yampa Valley Medical Center in Colorado. He and the hospital were joint owners of an air ambulance that crashed, killing the pilot and two medical workers. As co-partner with Maddox, the hospital had provided the medical crew and paid for the plane and pilot.

One for the 21st century—“The Virginia supreme court on Friday struck down an archaic and rarely enforced state law prohibiting sex between unmarried people. The unanimous ruling strongly suggests that a separate antisodomy law in Virginia also is unconstitutional.”—January 15 news item.

Attenshun please—The United Kingdom’s mail service is notorious. Right now the problem is hitting Ascension Island, which hasn’t received any mail since October. The tiny UK colony is in the Atlantic Ocean, but its mail has been going to South America. It’s been dropped off at Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. The capital of Ascencion Island is Georgetown. That’s the same as the capital of Guyana, South America. Ascencion Island mail is going there too.

Gang busters—“Nine men, including four veteran Chicago police officers, were arrested and charged with stealing cocaine, money and guns from drug dealers. The arrests stem from a joint FBI and Chicago police department operation launched in July after investigators noticed a Fraternal Order of Police sticker on a car near a drug site.”—USA Today,

Murder Inc.—Jeffery Wigand, former Brown & Williamson tobacco scientist, testified that the company manipulated nicotine in cigarettes to keep smokers hooked. Wigand was on the stand in a damage suit brought by the feds against several tobacco companies. Wigand said he and other scientists knew that cigarettes also cause cancer and other diseases.  
 
 
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