Sidelights.(Brief Article)

On September 10, the Amherst, Massachusetts Board of Selectmen voted four to one to restrict the flying of the American flag on Main Street utility poles to six days a year. The lone dissenter wanted the limit to be one day a year.... During a recent peace demonstration, the Berkeley, California fire department suspended the display of American flags on emergency vehicles. According to assistant fire chief Michael Migliori, "We feel that it is a possibility that some of the demonstrators might attack the flag and or the firefighters flying the flags."... The U.S. Tennis Association no longer allows "The Star-Spangled Banner" to be played before daily matches, fearing it sounded too pro-American. "We decided to do `America, the Beautiful' out of respect to all nations," said spokesperson Andrea Jayson. America is culturally "in the dark ages," according to left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore, because "we are the only country in the whole world without dominant state-controlled media." Under the assumption that its citizens prefer television to sex, India wants to make TV sets cheaper as part of an effort to fight population growth. "Entertainment is an important part of our population policy," said health minister C. P. Thakur. "We want people to watch television." The U.S. Marine Corps now allows female Marines to use lipstick while clad in camouflage, so long as the color is "non-eccentric." Nail polish, earrings, and purses are still prohibited. Female college students in Fort Collins, Colorado are beginning to carry handguns to protect themselves from a serial rapist who has struck six times since May. "I don't want to live in fear," said one 23-year-old student. "I don't want to be afraid of going out at night. I just want him to know not everyone is going to be submissive." According to the U.S. Department of Education, the number of home schooled American children has more than doubled since 1994. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals suggests that individuals who can't give up meat start eating whales. According to their new Web site, eatthewhales.com, "If people in the U.S. ate whales instead of chickens and other animals, we could spare more than 24 billion animals a miserable life and hideous death every single year!"

Internal Revenue Service employees spend half their online time at work on ...