Without eavesdropping too much (they were complaining out loud), I learned that at least one of these people had never undergone an MRI exam before, but had decided on her own (with the help of madical marketing people) that she "needed" the more expensive procedure.

Having just undergone critical surgery for a spinal cord injury, I wanted to smack every one of them. Do they want pain relief or not? If so, why not just man-up and have the exam. My recent MRI experience was my first, and I simply  went into it without any preconception that it would be one way or another. I know people who've undergone the examination, but I also know everyone's reaction is different.

A soft-voiced technician helped me on to the bed of the machine, and positioned a couple of pillows so that I was lying in a very comfortable position. I got a set of headphones, along with a squeeze bulb I could use to let the tech know if I was starting to panic.

The worst part of the procedure was the insipid "soft jazz" piped in through the headphones. The technician's reassuring voice informed me of everything that was about to happen, and how long it would take. When my bed was slid into the MRI tube, my arms were against my chest, but I didn't feel trapped. How could someone feel trapped, knowing there was a responsible person in control, who'd yank me out of the tube on request? Cool air blowing through the tube kept me comfortable; I barely broke a sweat. Before I knew it, I was done and being helped to my feet.

"Why the big fuss?" I wondered. Hell, I'd sat through five and a half hours of root canal treatment a few years ago, and only a week prior to this MRI had found myself trapped upside down in my overturned truck. This was a walk in the park, except that I had skipped breakfast and was hungry.

People seem to have become such babies about a little discomfort and inconvenience that I find myself tempted to ask whether they'd perhaps rather suffer with their original injury or illness, rather than work toward being cured.

However, I have checked on all the brands mentioned on the All American Pet Brands web site, and I don’t think they exist. Do a Google “shopping” search on any of these brands, and you will not find a single entry, with the exception of “Chompions.” That word leads you not to a pet snack, as AAPB’s site shows it, but a rubber dog toy shaped like a dumbbell.

I think a lot of people are being duped here, and for what reason, I do not know.

Being an adult consists of picking up everyone else's messes. Whether it's your child's, you spouse's or your neighbor's.

And if you think picking up trash off the lawn is unpleasant, wait until you find yourself having to clean up the intimate messes of an chronically ailing spouse or an elderly, incontinent relative. Particularly one of your parents.

Grown-ups just suck it up and do this stuff. To expect the government to take the responsibility is to invite them to take over your life in any number of other ways, often unforseeable and almost always undesirable.

If you were my neighbor and didn't want this responsibility, I would happily clean up the stuff thrown on your front lawn, rather than empower the county government to pass another law.

I hope you actually apologized to Sergeant Crowley, without weasling about it.

Let's turn things around for a moment: suppose the people forcing their way into Professor Gates' house actually were burglars, and suppose the police department decided not to respond to the call. What then would Gates have had to say?

As for the arguments that the neighbor who called the cops "should have known" Gates, why? I have lived in the same house for 35 years, and some of my neighbors--even people living within sight of me who have been here a year or more--do not "know" me. Some of these neighbors are black people who have no interest in socializing with me, and by my observations do not have any white friends who visit. Are they racists? Some of them have children who are foul-mouthed louts, who shout racial epithets at me for no good reason.

You mentioned today that race is "still a factor" in American life. Can you understand the frustration of white Americans who never seem able to do enough to accomodate the social disparities between themselves and that tiny minority of black soreheads who think they define their entire race?

As it happens I despise and pity white supremacists. But since I don't know of any within my family and circle of friends, I bear no responsibility for their actions.

You, sir, need to make up your mind whether your presidency is race-neutral (as you claimed in your campaign that it would be), or whether in fact things are as they have come to appear to be with you. The black voters of the USA could not alone have elected you. It happens that I voted neither for you nor Senator McCain, but I had hoped that you would act as President of every category of American citizens. Both your legal and your extra-Constitutional appointments have created the appearance of ethnic/racial favoritism. And you have certainly done yourself no good this week, meddling in a local police matter on behalf of a personal friend, regardless of the race of the people involved.

To paraphrase [the execrable] Keith Olbermann, Mr. President, shut the hell up.

If I happen to "disappear" in the next few months, this letter may be the reason. It was written in answer to an email from the man who has sworn to protect the Constitution and the interests of people living in my part of the country. His email was an open invitation to a come-to-Jesus meeting of lenders and government types to help people save their houses from foreclosure.

A proposed crackdown on single-slice pizza sales in Adams Morgan has many patrons of the nightlife hot spot perplexed, especially considering the area's other issues, including violent crime. 

But Ward 1 D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, who represents Adams Morgan, says the pizza parlors selling single slices along 18th Street, some of which are open until 4:30 a.m., are part of the problem when it comes a recent rash of street fights, stabbings, muggings and even a shootout involving two plainclothes police officers.

"Even though it's a legal business and everything, they have become a nuisance," Graham said. "Behaving the way they do in terms of music, in terms of letting people hang out and also in terms of tolerating a certain level of violence."

A hidden ABC 7 camera captured an example of what Graham is talking about a couple weeks ago. Two girls began arguing in front of one of the jumbo slice businesses, the altercation turned physical when punches were thrown and people wrestled to the ground. The melee went on for 10 minutes before police arrived.

But Graham's proposal has many opponents. For many, a slice after a night out has been a part of the tradition of visiting Adams Morgan for decades.

"It's big pizza, it's cheap and it's good after a night of bar hopping in Adams Morgan," said Nicole Harrison, a Silver Spring resident.

Adams Morgan resident John Sawyko agrees the late night congregating is at times overwhelming and down right scary, but he says blaming pizza is absurd.

"The crowd out here in general is the problem," Sawyko said. "The pizza places are a small part of the issue."

Abdul Souada is the manager of one of the three jumbo slice restaurants on 18th Street. He says he is unfairly being picked on just for being to "popular"

"We are taxpayers also," he said. "Our business is the same as bar business, as the club business, as the other restaurants next door..."

While most people who spoke with ABC 7 in Adams Morgan thought the proposal was a joke, Councilman Graham said he is very serious. He says he's already talked to the mayor about the issue and is drafting legislation.

This leaves me wondering whether Councilman Graham thinks the problems would disappear if all the pizza vendors switched to, say, burritos or falafel.

Perhaps now that he is an avowed, affiliated Democrat, Pennsylvania voters will stop talking about what they had for supper last night and defeat him in the last election. (This is a sore point with me, after having spent a lot of time in York, Lancaster and Adams Counties. In my experience, Pennsylvanians would rather talk about where to get the best wiener schnitzel than about how their Constitutional rights are being sold down the river.)

But the one unforgivable thing that Senator Sphincter Specter has done is to try making political capital out of the recent death of Jack Kemp.

Here's what The Washington Times reported:

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason that he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its health-care priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.

Mr. Specter, responding to a question from CBS' Bob Schieffer over whether he had let down Pennsylvanians who wanted a Republican to represent them, said he thought his priorities were more in line with those of the Democrats. "

Well, I was sorry to disappoint many people. Frankly, I was disappointed that the Republican Party didn't want me as their candidate," Mr. Specter said on "Face the Nation."

Specter continued: "If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine."

Notwithstanding the contradiction in Spectre Specter's last sentence, could he at least exercise the common decency to wait until Kemp's body is in the ground before uttering such gibberish?

Regarding the Sri Lankan government's ongoing war with the Tamil Tigers:

The Nation, a Sri Lankan newspaper, editorialized that "the caravan of military operations has to move on. The time has come to tell the salmon-eating international busybodies to mind their own business."

Regarding the continued push to punish/prosecute members of the Bush administration:

No president before has sought to punish his predecessor for policy decisions, no matter how wrong or wrong-headed. Lyndon B. Johnson's management of the Vietnam War was often ham-handed, as anyone who was there could tell you, and his policy makers sometimes verged on criminal incompetence. But Richard Nixon was never tempted to send LBJ or any of those presidential acolytes to prison. Abraham Lincoln, by his lights, would have had ample opportunity to hang Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, but even the rabid Republicans who survived the assassination stopped short of putting Davis in the dock, finally releasing him from imprisonment at Fort Monroe when judgment overcame lust for revenge. Lee was never touched.

Exacting revenge for unpopular policies is the norm in the third world, heretofore more likely in Barack Obama's ancestral Kenya than in America, more in the tradition of gangland Chicago than in Washington, where we count on cooler heads to prevail when raw emotion threatens to overwhelm sobriety and the undisciplined senses.

Refreshing reading, both pieces.

Cash-Strapped Bronx Zoo Lays Off Animals

by JOSH LANDIS, CBS 2 News
NEW YORK (CBS) ―

 For the two million people who visit the Bronx Zoo each year, the view is about to change.

A bunch of animals are getting fired!

If these animals could talk, they would have something to say, because their days at the zoo are numbered.

"We had decisions that needed to be made about old exhibits, and at the same time we needed to deal with the fiscal reality which is upon us," John Cavalli, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, says.

...etcetera. This nitwit story excludes the question that ought to be on the tip of everyone's tongue: What's going to happen to the animals?

Consider the choices: euthanasia; sending them to some other zoo; sending them back to the wild (where their chances of survival would be slim); turning them over to some private "rescue" farm.

These are not trivial choices, and why the hell would a major-league TV station run this story without answering such an obvious question?

By the way, I emailed WCBS to ask, and as you might expect, have been ignored.

As much as I love the Bard's writings, I must respectfully disagree.

Lately we've been hearing a bit about the heroism of Ed Freeman, a Vietnam veteran who finally received the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2001, for heroic deeds he performed in 1965. Predictably, we're reading this because CPT (ret.) Freeman has just died. It seems that we never have time to praise people when they are alive and thriving; only after someone has died, or had his business fail does even a genuine hero's story become interesting enough to be published.

Bob Weir wrote the following, in The News Connection. Ordinarily, Mr. Weir is a bit too self-absorbed for my taste, but I find myself in agreement with the following, which is his commentary on the death of Ed Freeman:

Something terrible has happened to our country. A malignancy has crept into our thinking and turned us into self-absorbed misfits, many of whom have a blasé attitude toward those who have bled and died so that we could live in freedom and prosperity. I suppose an aberrant type of complacency implants itself into one's subconscious when one's safety and security have always been arranged from afar. If you, or a family member, never had to fight in a war zone and never learned the meaning of near-death experiences, you might tend to ignore those who suffered and died to spare you that nightmare. It doesn't take much courage to speak loftily about the evils of war from the comfortable sanctuary of your living room, surrounded by family and friends. It's easy to be against war; only a maniac would feel otherwise. However, recognizing that sometimes war is the only option available to keep the peace, takes a greater level of maturity and life experience. Without the Revolutionary War there would not have been a United States of America. If we had not entered World War 2 to fight the Axis Powers, we'd probably be speaking German and waiting our turn while the Fuhrer (probably his successor) was deciding if we had enough Aryan blood to allow us to live.

Even the Civil War, which had Americans killing Americans, was necessary to preserve the Union and break the chains that held an entire race in bondage. Although we can wax philosophically about there being no winners in war, there would certainly have been losers if brave men and women didn't stand up against evil tyrants. ...I think people like Mr. Freeman represent honor, integrity and courage. We live in a free country today because of the sacrifices made by him and countless numbers of other patriots.

Since the first of the year I have witnessed, in an official capacity, the burials of more than one hundred honorably discharged US veterans. After one funeral yesterday, I made this note in my diary: "You bring the body; we [the military honor guard] will supply the dignity." This was in reaction to one more funeral at which attendees--you really can't call them mourners with accuracy--acted as though they haven't a clue how to show respect. Four of the six pallbearers were in shirtsleeves, one actually wearing an orange polo shirt. At least one person came dressed in jeans and an untucked white tee shirt. One guy apparently drove his "significant other" to the funeral, but did not bother to get out of the car; when she rushe out of the chapel in tears, he called out, "Are you OK?" Mighty comforting of him...

So Bob Weir is even more accurate than he thinks. We have not only lost the capacity to honor people as heroes, many of us have forgotten (or more likely, never been trained in) how to show respect to our own blood. Rather, we hire funeral directors and others to do that while we carry on in whatever fashion suits our taste. As I've heard someone observe (meaning to be humorous) it's too often not about the deceased or his life, but where we are going to eat afterward.

Connecticut School Bans Physical Contact

MILFORD, Conn. (CBS) ―

A Connecticut middle school principal has laid down the law: You put your hands on someone -- anyone -- in any way, you're going to pay.

A violent incident that put one student in the hospital has officials at the Milford school implementing a "no touching" policy, according to a letter written by the school's principal.

East Shore Middle School parents said the change came after a student was sent to the hospital after being struck in the groin.

Principal Catherine Williams sent out a letter earlier in the week telling parents recent behavior has seriously impacted the safety and learning at the school.

"Observed behaviors of concern recently exhibited include kicking others in the groin area, grabbing and touching of others in personal areas, hugging and horseplay. Physical contact is prohibited to keep all students safe in the learning environment," Williams wrote.

Students and parents are outraged. They said the new policy means no high-fives and hugs, as well as horseplay of any kind. The consequences could be dire, Williams warned in the letter.

"Potential consequences and disciplinary action may include parent conferences, detention, suspension and/or a request for expulsion from school," Williams wrote.

Many think the school's no tolerance policy goes way too far. Others said it's utterly ridiculous.

"Now it's almost as if it's a sanitized school. Where you have to keep your distance from everybody? And that's not what school is about," one father said.

"What if they are out on the playground at recess, or in gym class?" parent Kathy Casey wondered. "You know, gym class is physical."

This is just more of the ongoing foolishness from public school educrats. Obviously, this dumbass of a principal is either too stupid or too lazy to be able to distinguish between affection or play and potential violence. Such a person should not be in a position to exercise authority over anyone else, child or adult.

Ignoring the fact that this silly policy will make it nigh well impossible for students to play any kind of competitive sport, there are other ramifications. Presumably if two students are walking along together and one trips and falls, helping one's friend back to his feet will be considered a punishable offense.

In the dog-training business, we taught owners that you are always teaching an animal or child, by virtue of your actions and reactions towards them. Accordingly, we suggested that people be extra cautious, to be sure they were not teaching something unintended and undesirable.

The students of East Shore Middle School have just been taught an important lesson: that the school is run by a flock of jackasses who are not worth of their respect.

I see that the county has spent over a million dollars to install artificial turf and lighting at Woodlawn High.

I have heard this is happening at all county high schools.

What purpose does this serve, especially at Woodlawn, which is failing academically?

From what I have seen inside several schools, money would have been better spend on new classroom seating. We drug students for ADHD: how much the problem may be caused by chairs that don't sit evenly on the floor, and are uncomfortable?

Not to mention the atrocious rest room facilities at some middle and high schools. In one high school, the boys' restrooms have had missing toilets and urinals for some time, and the water in the toilets and sinks is a rusty brown. God help us if the students are consuming the same water from fountains and the cafeteria.

 Note: I'll publish Smith's answer, when and if I receive one.

Mayor who sent watermelon e-mail says he'll resign12 hours agoLOS ALAMITOS, Calif. (AP) ??? The mayor of a small Southern California city says he will resign after being criticized for sharing an e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons under the title "No Easter egg hunt this year."Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose issued a statement Thursday saying he is sorry and will step down as mayor at Monday's City Council meeting.Grose came under fire for sending the picture to what he called "a small group of friends." One of the recipients, a local businesswoman and city volunteer, publicly scolded the mayor for his actions.Grose says he accepts that the e-mail was in poor taste and has affected his ability to lead the city. Grose said he didn't mean to offend anyone and claimed he was unaware of the racial stereotype linking black people with eating watermelons.Located in Orange County, Los Alamitos is a 2 1/4-square-mile city of around 12,000 people.

He wasn't aware of the racial stereotype. If you believe that, please send me a message--I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

No apology at all is better than an insincere one.

This is a temper tantrum worthy of any two-year-old, and I would imagine that the woman's family must be embarrassed to find it posted on the Web, accompanied by more than a thousand comments, most of which are snotty and sarcastic.

But I think there's an important point to be observed here: If this had occurred at a US or Canadian airport, the woman would most likely be dead by now. A flock of "security" people would have descended on her, she'd probably have been restrained and/or tasered, and would have ended up dead from that mysterious ailment called "excited delirium." Now, if you've checked the DSM-IV, you won't find a condition called "excited delirium." The psychiatric trade, in its rush to find more billable illnesses, has recognized nearly every behavioral quirk imaginable. For all we know, they have a diagnostic/billing code for someone who picks his nose and eats the boogers. But excited delirium is a fatal condition that has been recorded only after the victim has had some physical encounter with, um, law-enforcement officers. Like the Polish fellow who died in the Vancouver airport. Damn if the video of that event didn't look like he was repeatedly tasered, and killed by positional asphyxia. (Not to mention that no attempt was made to revive him.) But no, the police investigation found excited delirium, just as they ruled that as the cause of death of a woman at another airport who was handcuffed and left alone in a room after becoming agitated.

Back to the Hong Kong incident: think about what did not happen here, at least not in the nearly four minutes of this video. The airport people in this clip had the good judgment to let her rant without over-reacting to it, even though at the beginning of the clip, she can be seen shoving a couple of uniformed people. They barely attempted to engage her. This is always the best policy with irrationally angry people, who will soon enough exhaust themselves. All that was necessary was to prevent her hurting someone else.

We will probably never learn the aftermath of this incident, because it won't be sufficiently interesting or lurid to be posted. My guess is that, at worst, the woman was eventually arrested and perhaps will be held accountable for battery on the uniformed folks, or any damage she did to equipment. (Post script: a wire service article said that she caught a later flight that same day.)

Police in the USA need to realize that sometimes it's best to walk away; that they need not always "win," and that not achieving total control is not a sign of weakness.

We have recently seen more genuine scientists coming out of the closet and admitting that they think the "global warming" bugbear that got Al Gore his Nobel Peace Prize is, to put it bluntly, a crock.

But that has not stopped AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein from writing yet another Chicken-Little story, as linked above. Borenstein's opus contains the following gems of egregious science writing:

When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid...Global warming is accelerating. Time is close to running out, and Obama knows it. [Wouldn't the slighest bit of information supporting this assertion help? Or are we all too dense to understand it, in the writer's view?]

Scientists are increasingly anxious, talking more often and more urgently about exceeding "tipping points."  [Science is generally based on measurements and observations that can be examined and repeated. The last time I checked, "anxiety" was a state of mind, marginally pathological, and certainly not quantifiable. Oh, and an example of what's meant by a "tipping point" would be ever so helpful.]

"We're out of time," Stanford University biologist Terry Root said. "Things are going extinct." [Would Mr/Dr Root be kind enough to give us an example of something that is "going extinct," aside from Republicans in Congress? Over the past few years, several species considered long extinct have been re-discovered. Most notable of these is the Ivory-billed woodpecker. And there have been numerous reports of the discoveries of new plant and animal species. So, is it possible that some thing are going extinct, while other new things are in the process of being created? No easy answer there...]

Methane, the next most potent greenhouse gas, suddenly is on the rise again and scientists fear that vast amounts of the trapped gas will escape from thawing Arctic permafrost. [Again, with the fearful scientists. What have they predicted, and how have those methods of prediction been tested for accuracy?]

The President-elect has said that one of the first things he will do when he gets to Washington is grant California and other states permission to control car tailpipe emissions, something the Bush administration denied. [Unless we are talking about a parallel universe, California has had the most stringent auto emissions rules on the planet, for two decades or more. So this statement is an outright lie.]

Mother Nature, of course, is oblivious to the federal government's machinations. Ironically, 2008 is on pace to be a slightly cooler year in a steadily rising temperature trend line. Experts say it's thanks to a La Nina weather variation. While skeptics are already using it as evidence of some kind of cooling trend, it actually illustrates how fast the world is warming. [Again, a sentence or two, even a dependent clause in support of this assertion would be appropriate. But no...]

For what it's worth, Mr. Borenstein has an impressive list of employers, awards, and articles published. But what's lacking in his résumé is the slightest bit of science education. His biography reveals that he has a high school diploma and a B.S. degree in Journalism. That's IT?

By the way, am I the only person wondering why almost all the literary fields of study culminate in Bachelor of Arts degrees, but you are granted a "B.S." in journalism? Are the universities sending us a subtle message?

The regional director of Homeland Security, Customs, and Border Protection was charged today with repeatedly hiring illegal immigrants to clean her Salem home after one cleaner wore a wire during an undercover investigation.

Lorraine Henderson is the director of the Port of Boston, overseeing 190 armed federal officers who patrol major airports and shipping terminals in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

"She’s supposed to be deporting aliens, not hiring them," said Assistant US Attorney Brian T. Kelly, chief of the public corruption unit.

Agents arrested Henderson at her Salem home at 8 a.m. Standing this afternoon in US District Court in Boston, she wore jeans and a gray sweatshirt and did not enter a plea to a charge of encouraging an illegal immigrant to remain in the country. If convicted, she faces as much as 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The initial appearance lasted 15 minutes and Henderson said little, responding to questions from Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings about whether she understood her legal rights with one-word answers. Collings released her on a $25,000 unsecured bond and ordered her to surrender her passport. Henderson has been placed on paid administrative leave, a US Attorney's spokeswoman said.

$25,000 unsecured bond means, if I am not mistaken, that Henderson didn't have to put up a goddamn dime to get out of jail. I have seen higher bail amounts applied to minor traffic violations.

And "paid administrative leave?" Why not put her salary in escrow during the interval between now and her trial/sentencing? If she's convicted and sent to prison, what's the probability that the state will get that pay back? If I were in Henderson's shoes, I'd be spending that money as soon as I got it, if not sooner.

  A recent rash of home invasion/burglaries on Melvin Avenue has brought to light a serious issue that needs to be corrected.

     Law abiding residents/citizens are being delivered by our politicians into the merciless hands of violent criminals.  As a result of three forced entries I sought to purchase a taser for my wife to have at her side when I am not at home.  I believe a taser is preferable to a fire arm in these circumstances because it permits escape in the event of a burglar discovering that a resident is at home when he/she may have assumed the residence to be temporarily unoccupied and prevents serious bodily harm - particularly in the event of emotionally driven mistaken identity.

     I was amazed to discover that tasers are illegal to possess in most of Maryland – more specifically in Baltimore County and Baltimore City. 

     Why in the name of heaven are we disarmed in the face of a threat that the police will tell you they are virtually unable to thwart and are restricted to taking action after the crime has been committed.

     If one of us dies at the hands of some startled and frightened thug, will the politicians who foisted this nonsense on us suffer or will it be just you and me.

     What lapse of logic convinces anyone that denying non-lethal self defense to taxpaying, law abiding citizens will deny such devices to persons already committed to violently breaking laws? And what lapse of logic convinces citizens to vote for those responsible for such disarmament?

      I urge repeal of Baltimore County Code § 17-2-104.  STUN GUNS.

---

Straight from the horse's orifice, here's the bill that Mr. Korrell has mentioned (my emphasis and notes added):

*1 - As I read "nonprojectible electric current," this law means that a Taser^TM would not be prohibited under this law.

*2 - Considering the variety of non-traditional medical treatment available, this seems wide open to interpretation. Whether or not a TENS unit could deliver an incapacitating shock might be an interesting experiment. The product literature that comes with these devices cautions users that there are several locations where TENS electrodes ought not be attached, as the current could result in seizure or cardiac arrhythmia. Whether this information is usable remains to be demonstrated.

*3 - Since our county police are largely involved in showing up after a crime is reported, and taking a report from witnesses, a person might well ask whether the average policeman or policewoman is a "law enforcement officer," under this definition.

*4 - This clause would lead a person to think that even someone falling under the more strict definition of "law enforcement personnel" in footnote 3 would be required to store his stun gun at the police station when going off duty, or otherwise keep it secured and rendered inoperable, as many local firearms laws require citizens to do.

-30-

Just days after the election, Maya Angelou breathlessly told a MSNBC talking head, "I don't have to apologize for my country when I'm abroad." 

Listen to this bit of pretension, if you can stomach it. 

For someone who has lived under such oppression, Angelou has done pretty well. She knocks down $43,000 apiece for her lecture performances to audiences of other breathless limousine liberals.

I'm especially fond of the part where she mentions her European fans saying, "aren't you glad to be here in France where we don't have the racism you live under?"

Honestly! Other than having played a role in the careers of Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson and Jimi Hendrix, what have the Frogs done for blacks living there? It was within the past year that the French government raised the ire of Muslims by forbidding religious headwear in the schools. This was justified by the contention that France is a "secular" country. (I suppose Joan of Arc must be whirling in her grave.)

Politically, blacks in France possess next to zero power or representation. The Christian Science Monitor notes that among the 911 members of the French Parliament, only three are of minority background. The Monitor article quotes one Pap Nidaye of the School for Advanced Study of the Social Sciences, who thinks that the election of a French counterpart of Obama is not possible. Nidaye observes, "There's no grass-roots politics for Africans. ...What's missing is a thick layer of minority politicians in small towns; local officials just don't encourage this."

Perhaps "Doctor" [honorary] Angelou might ask some pointed questions of her European pals the next time she visits there. Better still, perhaps she ought to move to Paris and live out her life there.