■ Thelma & Louise II. Is that what we have in California’s two Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate seats? Both Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer have been gung-ho through the years for policies that amount to gender-baiting—quotas, comparable worth, and other forms of walloping men with handbags. Despite the ballyhoo over these two Bay Area liberals, a feminist agenda, however camouflaged, won’t be an easy sell to voters, blue-collar Democrats in particular. Don’t forget, Thelma and Louise ended their movie by driving off a cliff.
■ Shut up. That was the message of a “free speech” rally at Redwood High School in the Bay Area town of Larkspur. The affair was put on by sponsors including the ACLU and Marin Advocates for Justice to condemn the suspension of a student who broke the school code by leaving class to lead a march against the Rodney King verdicts. The organizer, Meg Brizzolara, a nurse at San Francisco General Hospital, tried to deny the microphone to a student who wanted to defend the school’s administration. “This is not a debate,” the nurse scolded. “If people have divergent views, they can hold their own rally.” This drew boos from assembled students, who went on to jeer the speakers. Lamented a bewildered Brizzolara: “This school has obviously been successful in quelling any sort of consciousness.” For Nurse Brizzolara’s overheated consciousness, we prescribe two valiums a day. Indefinitely.
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