To: E who wrote (17467 ) 7/14/2002 11:04:26 PM From: Dayuhan Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 21057 And of course you have no problem whatever with the women who aren't allowed to play there and their allies sticking their tongues out back, right? Oh, certainly. Perhaps we can even get them to mud-wrestle with the club executives, for some additional entertainment. That's constitutional, isn't it? To lobby for a different venue for the tournament? Of course. It does, though, make one wonder if there is no more serious issue of discrimination facing American women simmering somewhere. It would be lovely if there weren't, but one suspects that there just might be. I've thought for a long time that the American women's movement needs to focus on some issues that would improve its drawing power with working class women. I don't quite think this one is going to make it. On another subject entirely, I had a conversation this morning that put a different twist on the old profiling debate. Many of the most popular white water rivers in the east are in West Virginia and Tennessee. These rivers run on scheduled dam releases, meaning that on certain weekends the Tennessee Valley Authority turns them on for the recreational benefit of the masses. Many of the masses that flock to the rivers on these occasion are young white fellows with multiple body piercings and the habit of calling each other "dude". The local constables have also discovered that many of these invaders enjoy a puff of the aromatic smoke before and after their day on the river. As a result, on some release days the cops turn out in mass, stopping every car with boats on top for "random" searches. Naturally, some resentment ensues. There was also an amusing story about a town in West Virginia where the only activity of the police force appears to be issuing speeding tickets. The numbers were staggering; some of these guys were averaging 250+ tickets a day, 7 days a week. Revenues to the town are in the tens of millions. The advice generally given is simply to go slow.... Issues to be redressed? Not really, just a look at the travails of an odd American subculture.