As a nurse for 30 years, I found this topic relevant. I'm not sure I agree with it, at least as related to my own experiences. I think it is more like 'greenism' in medicine, ie them with good insurance/money gets. This week, I saw 2 patients. they both had similar symptoms, pain and needed to have MRI's. The man with Medicaid will wait 3 weeks to get insurance approval, then another week to be scheduled at an approved provider. The man with BC/BS will have his MRI early next week, and treatment can be started next week.The man with Medicaid is white, the man with BC/BS is AA. I know that racism is alive and well in America, but medicine is a money-making enterprise, and I think green trumps race. This only my opinion, based on my experiences here in Atlanta.

Can we please, please, please start calling ti the Straight Jacket Express?

Ill tell you what's up Natasha, Hillary in Gallup's daily tracking poll!

If everyone read Miss Manners, the world would be a much, much more comfortable place to live in.  Her understanding of how manners work in society, and to what end, is comprehensive.  

And she's frickin' funny too. A reader wrote in "How does one introduce onesself to a homosexual couple?"

MM's response?

"How do you do? How do you do?"

Miss Manners is flawless. So there you go. Read the book.

I find Miss.Manners to be an outdated reinforcer of socially constructed perscriptions for behavior, myself.  While it is perfectly nice to take some time make others feel more comfortable and efficient to behave in a way that reduces social friction, it inevitabily turns into proscriptions against "behavior deviants" and gives people an excuse to chastize people that do not act a certain way saying its cause they don't care or are "jerks".When in actuallity they main have cultural or linquistic challenges.  My partner has mild Aspergers syndrome, which means the part of his brain that codes, interprets, and accesses social information does not function as highly and is less accessible.  People with this autism-related condiditon are often misfits or social paria simply because they cannot understand what is non-verbally communicated.  Think Commander Data from Star Trek.  Maybe i'm a little personally invested.  So its great if you want to be more social and get a long with people but remember that just because someone doesn't act like Miss Manners says they should doesn't mean they are trying to be rude.  That said, some people are just ass holes and they should read Miss Manners or go away.