Brickbats

? Azusa, California, has a reputation as a conservative town. Activists there forced the local cable company to block the Playboy channel, for instance. But City Manager Rick Cole may have gone just a little too far in his quest to keep out what he thinks is indecent material. The Los Angeles Avengers, an arena football team, took out an ad on a billboard promising "Six Beautiful Women Will Show You Their Panties" if you attend their games. It was a joking reference to the team's cheerleaders, but Cole found nothing funny about the sign. So he took one of the town's cherry-picker trucks and splashed paint on the sign. His fellow city council members applauded his actions, rule of law and the First Amendment apparently not being conservative values. But local prosecutors are investigating whether he should be charged with vandalism.

? Let's hope the muckety-mucks in Oakland, California, don't try to imitate their comrades in Azusa. Health officials there are upset that a local billboard company won't take their ads mocking Budweiser's beer-drinking frogs. The company says it has a policy not to take ads attacking other customers' products, and that it will take anti-drinking ads that don't single out a particular product or company. Local officials claim the company's refusal to run their ads violates their First Amendment rights.

? The Selective Service system never seems to give up in its quest to punish men who don't want to kill others. Last year, it tried to convince the state of California not to award high school diplomas to young men who hadn't registered for the draft. That move failed. Now it wants the state to deny them their driver's licenses.

? In New York City, students who arrive late for school are being taken into custody by the police. Mayor Rudy "Arrest 'Em All And Let The Courts Sort 'Em Out" Giuliani says the cops are just enforcing truancy laws. But it isn't clear that kids who are going to school, albeit late, are truant.

? North Carolina's Piedmont High School had a cake left over from an ROTC booster club event, so a teacher let students have it. One student helpfully pulled out his pocket knife and cut the cake. He was then suspended for five days for having a weapon.

? In Malaysia, the government wants to include religion on national identity cards that everyone must carry. That way, it can stop Muslims from avoiding fasting during Ramadan by pretending to be non-Muslim.