Black Bloc, the Game 3.3

Fresh outrage attends the release of a new video game called State of Emergency, due on the market in October from a company called Rockstar. Pop the game in your Sony PlayStation, and you and your droogs can roam the streets of a major city looking for stuff to smash and people to beat up.

State of Emergency isn't your typical slaughter vid, however. It's an "urban riot game set in the near future," reports the Seattle Times, "where the oppressive American Trade Organization (ATO) has declared a state of emergency." The player's job is "to smash up everything and everyone in order to destabilize the ATO." Sound familiar?

You get points by smashing yuppie boutique windows, throwing bricks, injuring bystanders and stomping on the lawmen in SWAT armor who defend the vile order. Worse, you are awarded for fomenting internecine battles between factions of protesters. (So if your grandpa was a member of the CP or SDS--and he can still work a joystick--don't expect to beat him.)

Barr the Door 6.9

Congressman Bob Barr, representative of suburban Atlanta, is a man not afraid to speak his mind. Sure, at times he's had trouble making deed conform to word, especially where the precious right of unborn life is concerned. But like many of his Republican colleagues from the South, he will not back down where principle is at stake. Consider the stand he took at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport in late May, as reported on the Web site of WXIA, a local television station.

It seems Barr got angry when airport guards refused to let a shuttle van drive him to his car in a private parking lot. Barr got out of the van, flashed his congressional credentials and insisted that the vehicle be let in. The guards agreed to let the van in, but asked the driver to fill out a form for a temporary pass.

After a few minutes of waiting for the driver to complete the form, according to a complaint filed by security supervisor Alicia Gordon, Barr jumped out of the van again and shouted, "When are you going to open the damn gate, you stupid black idiot?"

When a guard tried to explain that the form had to be filled out, Barr continued, "Look you idiot little nigger, just open the motherfucking gate."

Barr admits to having a heated argument with security guards, but denies using foul language or racial epithets.

Stormy Weather 3.7

Considering all the things they've been falsely accused of through history, Jews might

TERRY LABAN

justifiably be sensitive to the name proposed for the ninth hurricane for this season: Hurricane Israel.

"With all our current security problems and the concurrent struggle over Israel's image in world opinion, a killer hurricane named Israel is the last thing we need," Efraim Zuroff, an Israeli official at the Simon Wiesenthal Center told the Jerusalem Post. "I shudder to think how terrible it would be in Muslim countries in the Far East if they found themselves suffering from a storm by that name."

Several Jewish and Israeli leaders have criticized the proposed name, but the committee of the U.N. World Meteorological Organization responsible for naming storms has refused to withdraw it. Some see a double standard. "How about Jesus?" commented Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League. "They wouldn't name a hurricane Jesus, would they? If there were a headline that said 'Jesus hits Philippines,' a lot of people would be upset."