No Comment.

Flushing Out Vandals

From the on-line version of the Chicago Sun-Times on video cameras that were installed in public restrooms in Ludington, Michigan: "To scare vandals away, [Ludington] has put video cameras in some park restrooms, some of them real, some of them dummies. Signs inside the bathroom read: `Restrooms may be under surveillance.' City Manager Jim Miller said the cameras were a necessary last resort.... `No cameras will be aimed into stalls or at urinals.'"

Capitalist Punishment I

From an article in The New York Times on Death Row Marv, a character from the graphic comic Sin City that was turned into a plaything by McFarlane Toys: "The battery-operated toy, which is sold in specialty shops and music stores for about $20 and marketed for ages thirteen and up, is not for the faint of heart. The words on the box say, "Watch Marv convulse as the switch is thrown, then hear him say, `That the best you can do?'"

Segregationist Forever

From an article in The New York Times datelined West Columbia, South Carolina, on Maurice Bessinger and his All Natural Gourmet Blend BBQ Sauce, which has been pulled from store shelves in the Southeast: "With a white sport coat to match his hair and mustache, Maurice Bessinger even looks like the South of the 1950s.... `People say my restaurant never served blacks, but that's just not true,' he said. ... `We served them on a segregated basis, like every other restaurant did. What blacks didn't realize was that they got the best food, because their dining room was actually in the kitchen.'"

Police Dog Brutality

From an article in The Washington Post on two Prince George's County police officers who were recently indicted by a federal grand jury: "The indictment alleges that Corporal Anthony Delozier asked a Takoma Park officer if a county police dog could `take a bite' out of the homeless man, one of two men officers had found on the roof of a Takoma Park printing company during a stakeout for burglars."

Capitalist Punishment, II

From the on-line edition of the Toledo Blade about an article from the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on an amusement hall in Italy that features the virtual "Electric Chair Game": "Just like a condemned criminal, [the player] sits on a wooden chair, identical to the one used in capital punishment in [some parts of] the United States and, after inserting a few coins, undergoes the chilling experience of the electric chair. Whole families wait in line. Hundreds of children, adolescents, and adults fill the hall to see `who can last the longest.'... The contraption has all the required elements to elicit strong emotions--electrodes placed on the wrists, belts, rungs, background music that grows in volume, lights that come on when the `convict' dies."

Morals, Schmorals

From an Associated Press story datelined Warsaw on a discotheque that recently opened in a former tannery about a mile from the Auschwitz concentration camp: "`Once an investor fulfills formal requirements, he will get permission,' said Adam Bilski, the administrator for the city of Auschwitz. `One can consider whether it is moral or not, but that's another matter.'" The article noted, "From 1942 to 1945, about 1,000 prisoners worked in the tannery, and many of them died.... The building was also used to store property and hair of Jewish victims of the gas chamber."

Shining Starr

From a flier by the Museum of Printing History of Houston, Texas, on its choice of former special prosecutor Ken Starr as the honoree of the organization's November banquet: "Judge Starr's service--as first a distinguished federal judge, then as the independent counsel during that which has been called the Monica Lewinsky affair and the subsequent impeachment of the President--graphically illustrated the importance of the relationship between a responsible free press, literate people, a knowledgeable society, and freedom. Some would say the relationship suffered numerous breakdowns during this period. However, one person's integrity remained at the forefront of this dark period in American history, that of Ken Starr."

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