A group of black high school athletes were told that the odds against them making a pro team were nearly impossible. Fifty-one percent still believed that they could beat them.

All of this adds up to a terrain incredibly inhospitable to class-based politics. Every few years a group of millionaire Democratic presidential aspirants pretends to be the people's warriors against the overclass. They look inauthentic, combative rather than unifying. Worst of all, their basic message is not optimistic.

you can run against rich people, but only those who have betrayed the ideal of fair competition. You have to be more hopeful and growth-oriented than your opponent, and you cannot imply that we are a nation tragically and permanently divided by income.

New York's top-tier nurseries can be feeder schools to the ''right'' kindergarten, and then Trinity and Dalton and upward to Harvard, and they offer the ''right'' social element.

. . .the National Institute for Early Education Research reports that children in high-quality programs make roughly $143,000 more over their lifetime than the control group -- and they're less likely to smoke, too.

Manhattan's top schools for 2- to 5-year-olds offer some of the finest education a preschooler can get, with on-staff child psychologists, movement and music specialists, artists in residence, custom-tailored programs and computers. Children enjoy individual attention from directors with 20 years' experience and multiple degrees in education and early childhood development. Classes have three teachers for 11 to 20 children. To insure matriculation at a good private kindergarten, most have on-site testing for the ERB, the preschool equivalent of the SAT.

I'd [this is Jeanne D’Arc speaking] take the argument a little farther. In fact, I don't have to, because someone already did. John Balzar had a great piece in Sunday's LA Times arguing that the biggest problem with the tax-cutting fever is not who gets what, but that it destroys the whole idea of "neighborhood values," and the "understanding that individuals do not prosper apart from the fortune of the nation." Most Americans are genuinely patriotic. They want what's best for their neighborhoods, their cities, their states, and their country. And taxes are our contribution toward making it work. At one time we believed that the more you received from the country (and rich people obviously get enormous benefits from living in this country; if they didn't they wouldn't be here), the more you owed it -- and as a result we had a genuinely progressive income tax. Balzar remembers that time, when tax rates at the highest earning levels were above 90%:
Let's pause and remember that Americans were far less greedy and stressed as a consequence. Our overall standard of living progressed by the years. Along the way we built an interstate highway system. Our public schools were first-rate. Our industries led the world. There was no shortage of innovation or ambition. And we surrounded ourselves with personal comforts. We congratulated ourselves that we were the richest and freest nation on Earth.
Gated communities were not the rage. You never saw lawn signs warning of immediate response by private armed security. And we didn't have to face the unsettling news that two decades of growth in personal income had come to an end.
So what happens to the dwindling middle class in 10 more years? You can guess the answer.
We are fundamentally a middle class society that works together to solve problems. We're not an I-got-mine-and-the-hell-with-the-rest-of-you society.

The system provided 20 points to minority candidates in a 150-point formula that assessed their qualifications. Also, minority students often had their applications marked so they could receive a second look not given to nonminority candidates.

"Taken together," the administration said, "the University's substantial race-based `bonus' and its practice of providing preferred minorities special, individualized review denied to nonpreferred applicants leaves little doubt that the University's current admissions policies operates as a disguised racial quota."

low birth weight and smaller skulls had been found to correspond with poor health and mental problems later in life. "A number of studies have reported that reduction in head circumference at birth or during the first year of life correlates with lower I.Q. as well as poorer cognitive function," Dr. Perera said.

Three emergency visits a year for an adult may sound like a small number, but it's really not . . . I'm 60 years old, and I've been to an emergency room once in my life. The E.R. is very expensive, and people in this state use it inappropriately. They go in for a stubbed toe.

So what was going on? Had I been redlined by the lending companies because I live in the Oakland flats, an African-American neighborhood, instead of the Oakland hills, a predominately white section of the city? It was impossible to know for sure. Banks have never been models of efficiency and many people have trouble with their mortgages. Still, it's hard not to rule out something more insidious.

In just one of many studies, a housing advocacy group in Washington, the Center for Community Change, last year examined federal data on mortgages and found that regardless of income, black people were more likely than whites to end up with high-interest loans when they refinanced their mortgages. A 2001 study by another advocacy group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, found that lenders rejected prospective black home buyers more than twice as often as white applicants nationwide.

"I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education," Mr. Bush said in a nationally televised address. "But the method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this important goal is fundamentally flawed. At their core, the Michigan policies amount to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes prospective students based solely on their race. [emphasis added]

Counselors evaluate applications aided by a "selection index" worksheet listing factors the University believes important in composing a class, and select a numerical value for each factor, up to a possible total of 150 points. Academic factors account for up to 110 points. Eighty points are available for academic GPA from tenth and eleventh grades, and 12 points are available for standardized test scores. Every applicant from the same school receives the same number of points -- up to ten -- for the academic strength of that school. In addition, counselors subtract up to four points for an applicant who chose a weaker curriculum when a stronger one was available, and add up to eight points for an applicant who selected more challenging courses.

Applicants receive up to 40 points for other factors that indicate an applicant's potential contribution to LSA. They may receive 20 points for one of the following: membership in an underrepresented minority group, socioeconomic disadvantage, attendance at a predominantly minority high school, athletics, or at the Provost's discretion. Reflecting the University's commitment both to state residents and to broader geographic diversity, counselors assign ten points for Michigan residency, six additional points for residency in underrepresented Michigan counties, and two points for residency in underrepresented states. Applicants receive one or four points for alumni relationships[emphasis added]. The personal essay can earn up to three points. Based on an applicant's activities, work experience, and awards, counselors may assign up to five points for leadership and service, and five more points for personal achievement.

(snip)

The University recognizes that a selection index score may not always reflect an applicant's potential contribution to LSA. Therefore, OUA asks counselors to identify applications that would benefit from review by the Admissions Review Committee ("ARC"), which evaluates more complex cases through an informal discussion format. A counselor may, in his or her discretion, "flag" an application for ARC discussion if the applicant: (1) is academically prepared to do the work at LSA; (2) has a selection index score above a certain level; and (3) possesses at least one of a variety of qualities or characteristics important to the University's composition of its freshman class, such as underrepresented race, ethnicity, or geography; high class rank; socioeconomic disadvantage; unique life experiences, challenges, circumstances, interests or talents; connections to the University community; or athletics [emphasis added]. For example, a counselor might flag an applicant whose outstanding essay described exceptional community leadership, but whose selection index was average.

Heavier vehicles generally stand up better in collisions than lighter vehicles, but any benefit that sport utility vehicles derive from size is offset by the fact that they are three times as likely as cars to roll over and cause deaths. Over all, S.U.V.'s have a slightly higher death rate for their occupants than passenger cars, according to a recent study by the National Academy of Sciences.

"Would this tragedy have happened if the boys had not smoked marijuana? No," continued Crutcher. "I believe the suspect's THC intoxication contributed to his lack of care and social inhibition concerning pointing a dangerous weapon, a .22 caliber rifle, at his best friend, and then pulling the trigger."