Government regulators are having an awful time defining, for legal and tax purposes, people who shack up. California officials came up with URAW (for Unrelated Adult Women), having presumably rejected CALIFs (Consenting Adults Living in fin) and Californicators, and never mind Unrelated Adult Men. The Feds, as usual, screwed it up by creating POSSLQ, or Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters, which could refer to married couples as well as unmarried, or newborn twins, or just about anybody. ■
Nothing seems to help. Californians, low on gas, couldn’t be bothered to drive out to see their visiting President. Jerry Brown was way ahead of him in exploiting the gas shortage. Democratic regulars were dreaming Kennedy dreams. ADA types were grumbling. Ah, but there were the Mexican-Americans, who warmly supported Mr. Carter in 1976: surely he could count on them. So he spent the night with a Hispanic family and promised to protect the “basic human rights” of everyone in the country, “no matter how they may have gotten here.” Alas, he woke up the next morning to find a fullpage ad in the Los Angeles Times, signed by Hispanic and labor leaders, denouncing his failure to keep his campaign promises. Mr. Carter returned to Washington with the illegal-alien vote in his pocket. ■
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