The arrest of professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Cambridge police officers even after police determined that he was the resident of the home and not a burglar has sent up a storm of discussion which all seems to be centering on race. Gates assumed the white cop thought he was a burglar because he was black, and he may or may not have been correct in that assumption.

The discussions of this as a racial issue miss a key point: being arrested for being in your own home is a serious abuse of authority by the officers involved. I know I would be very upset with police officers asking me to prove who I am in my own home, and I would expect them, once proof was shown, to apologize and get the hell out to work some actual crime somewhere.

This is on the same level as the Gwinnett County, Georgia cops who recently used their Taser as a toy on a restaurant employee. It should not be tolerated.

“It is pretty bad when I go and fight a tyrannical government somewhere else and then I come home to find it right here at my front door.”

That quote is from Vito Congine Jr of Wisconsin, an ex-Marine who served in Iraq. To protest the Crivitz Village Board’s refusal to grant a liquor license for the Italian supper club he has already invested $200,000 in, buying and renovating a building, Congine had been flying the flag upside down since some time in mid-June. This is an accepted way to signal distress, but apparently some of the local “patriots” don’t know that and became upset.

Ahead of the village’s Fourth of July parade, four police officers, with the approval of the Marinette County District Attorney and Sheriff, came onto Congine’s property and stole the flag. There justification for this was “It is illegal to cause a disruption.” But trespass and theft are legal if done by police officers?

Village President John Deschane said, “If he wants to protest, let him protest but find a different way to do it.” You mean, one that doesn’t get any attention? One that doesn’t get anyone asking any questions about what the protest is about?

The upside down flag itself was not a disruption. Any disruption would have been caused by someone who got upset by it. Anyone who thinks that protesting against a particular government decision is unpatriotic should, first, get a history lesson on how this country was founded, and second, pack up and move to Iran or China. You’ll like how they deal with protestors.

You probably wouldn’t think that Governor Palin’s sudden resignation and an article about how Coke and Pepsi are trying to reverse declining soda sales by tweaking the packaging are related, but I think they are.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution ran an article this past weekend about the new packaging that Coca-Cola is testing. They hope it will make Coke products cool enough that you’ll forget how bad they are for your health and buy them anyway. High fructose Joe Camel.

The new packaging takes up more space, both in shipping and on store shelves. The new packing probably uses more plastic (ie, oil) per ounce of product as well. In other words, the product is the same, the shipping is LESS efficient, more waste goes into the landfills, but its OK, because they’ll make more money by charging more per ounce and hoping you won’t be rational enough to care. As long as there’s room under the credit limit, you’re going to be the coolest obese diabetic on the block.

Sarah Palin is hoping that marketing trumps the truth as well. It was easy to have high approval ratings when Alaska was rolling in oil money – not so much governing in a depression. So she’s bailing out now and starting work on the 2012 campaign. By then people will forget how she quit in the midst of her first term as governor. Just what we need in a President – someone who flees the kitchen when it gets hot. It amazed me how many people in 2008 saw her as a champion of Puritan (oops, I mean Christian Taliban) family values when it was plain she could not communicate those values to her own children.

Wise up people – toss the covers and examine the books.