To the back of the bus!

Dispatching a second-class citizen to the back of the bus has an ugly history in America, so it comes as something of a shock to discover that the practice is alive and well and living in Brooklyn, where the B110 bus runs into Manhattan with men at the front and women at the back. The bus company is privately owned, but it competed for and won a city contract, so Mayor Bloomberg argues that it's bound by the city's  non-discrimination rules. “Private people: you can have a private bus,” he added. “Go rent a bus, and do what you want on it.” I don't often agree with Hizzoner, who is prone to enforcing his own liberal opinions on the rest of us, but here he has a case. Indeed, I would go further: Guys, if you don't want to sit with women on your way to work, you can get down from the bus and walk. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford