Legal Commentary

In Honor Of Martin Luther King Jr.: Two Recycled Posts

Posted on January 18, 2010
[First posted on Martin Luther King Day, 2004] What Do We Honor When We Honor Martin Luther King? (And Who Are ?We??) When President Bush went to Atlanta last week to lay a wreath on Martin Luther King?s grave, he was greeted with demonstrations and howls of protest...

Dropping The Balz

Posted on January 17, 2010
Regarding Barack Obama as a ?pragmatist? makes about as much sense as describing Ronald Reagan as a socialist, and yet, amazingly, that?s just what Washington Post senior political writer Dan Balz has done in a long, top of the front page, just below the banner article today under the mindboggling headline, ?Testing The Promise Of Pragmatism...

Even When They Get It, They Don?t Get It

Posted on January 17, 2010
Mike Barnicle, taking a day off from MSNBC?s Morning Joe and other talking head assignments, returns to his roots on the streets of Boston to observe the Scott Brown rally with Rudy Giuliani a few days ago, and writes an almost excellent column about it in Time, ?Scott Brown Rides A Perfect Storm in Mass...

Nature, Nurture, Whatever: Release 2.0

Posted on January 16, 2010
Pointing to a new article criticizing the argument that ?race is just a social construct,? Robert VerBruggen noted on phi beta cons yesterday that ?[a]cademics like to say race is a social construct because they think this belief undermines racism.? If something is not genetic, innate, then in their view it is reformable...

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Must MIT Look Like America?

Posted on January 15, 2010
There they go again. Inside Higher Ed has a long article today about a much longer report from MIT urging even greater efforts to promote ?diversity.? ?The report,? Inside Higher Ed reports, ?? more than two years in the making, from a faculty panel ? makes strong statements about the need to increase the representation of minority groups on the faculty...

As If She Hasn?t Done Enough Damage...

Posted on January 14, 2010
... Sandra Day O?Connor is baaaaack. In a fine if depressing article in today?s Chronicle of Higher Education, Peter Schmidt reports that in an article in a new book, The Next Twenty-five Years: Affirmative Action in Higher Education in the United States and South Africa, Sandra Day O?Connor said she didn?t really mean that anyone should regard her ?expectation? that racial preferences wouldn?t be needed after 25 years meant, you know, that racial preferences wouldn?t be needed after 25 years...

Did Harry Reid Write The Census Form?

Posted on January 14, 2010
Apparently there is widespread outrage over the use of the term ?Negro? on the 2010 Census form. The Houston Chronicle, for example, reports that ?Sparks fly over use of ?Negro? by Census.? A tide of indignation has risen over Question 9, which asks for the person's race...

The Chicagofication Of America

Posted on January 13, 2010
From the Associated Press: Massachusetts' top election official says it could take weeks to certify the results of the upcoming U.S. Senate special election. That delay could let President Barack Obama preserve a key 60th vote for his health care overhaul even if the Republican who has vowed to kill it wins Democrat Edward M...

Race Preferences: How Many Benefit, How Many Are Burdened?

Posted on January 13, 2010
[WARNING! This is a long post ? possibly requiring multiple sittings, definitely requiring either great interest or dedication, or both] Two days ago I asked, Will The Sky Fall If Preferential Admissions End? and answered ?No,? based on a new study discussed in the Chronicle of Higher Education...

A Ford, Or An Edsel, In New York?s Future?

Posted on January 12, 2010
Post Politics, ?your one-stop shop for political news and views in Nashville and throughout the state of Tennessee,? thinks Harold Ford, Jr., can win a Senate seat in New York by in effect emulating Barack Obama ? that is, by persuading voters in New York that the political persona he presented to voters in Tennessee throughout his career up to now was a carefully crafted fraud...

Bill Clinton Supports ?Diversity? ... For Everyone Else

Posted on January 11, 2010
For the past day or two the Democrats have been frantically explaining why Harry Reid?s comment about Obama (good that he has a light skin and that he does not have a ?Negro dialect? except when he wants one) is not racist or even offensive. But then, what would you expect of a party that welcomes and even honors Al Sharpton? More interesting to me is the deep hypocrisy revealed by Bill Clinton?s remarks to Ted Kennedy ? not the widely reported snide remark that it hasn?t been long since Obama would have been fetching their coffee but this one: After Kennedy sided with Obama, Clinton reportedly griped, ?the only reason you are endorsing him is because he?s black...

Will The Sky Fall If Preferential Admissions End?

Posted on January 11, 2010
No, says the buried lede in the Chronicle of Higher Education?s article today, 3 Alternatives to Race-Conscious Admissions Won't Do Much to Aid Diversity, Study Predicts. That alternatives to race preferences are not as effective at admitting favored minorities is, I suppose, interesting and newsworthy, but in my view not nearly as interesting or newsworthy as other findings in the study that are also reported in the Chronicle article...

Influential Analyst Suggests Gov?t Is Manipulating The Stock Market

Posted on January 10, 2010
Charles Biderman, 63, is no wacko conspiracy theorist. A Harvard Business School graduate, he?s a highly respected Wall Street analyst with his own research firm and many subscribers who pay $20,000 a year to read his insights. According to this report in SmartMoney, he has reluctantly come to believe that the government is ?manipulating the stock market and artificially fueling the rally ...

?Diversifying? Science Faculties?

Posted on January 09, 2010
I?ve written a number of times about the offensive silliness of arguments for ?diversifying? science education (see, for example, here, here, here, here, here, and here for starters), but never as well as Roger Clegg did yesterday in Another Bad Idea: ''Diversifying'' Science Faculties at Minding The Campus...

Harry Reid Apologizes For ?Negro Dialect? Remark, Sticks Foot In Mouth Again

Posted on January 09, 2010
It?s not quite clear why Harry Reid making dumb and offensive remarks should be regarded as newsworthy ? to me, his doing so is just another dog bites man story ? but everyone seems to be abuzz with his ?Negro dialect? remark and, once it came to light, apology...

The Chicago Solution To Tests With ?Disparate Impact?

Posted on January 07, 2010
The Chicago Sun Times reported yesterday [HatTip to Meep, a frequent commenter] that [t]he Chicago Police Department is seriously considering scrapping the police entrance exam to bolster minority hiring, save millions on test preparation and avert costly legal battles that have dogged the exam process for decades...

A Lincolnian Speech For Obama

Posted on January 07, 2010
When Newsweek editor Evan Thomas is not comparing Obama to God ? ? I mean in a way Obama?s standing above the country, above above the world, he?s sort of God? ? he?s doing about the same thing, comparing him to Lincoln: It is the season to compare Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln...

Do We Need More Latino Scientists?

Posted on January 05, 2010
Inside Higher Ed reports on yet another report, this one from the University of Southern California?s Center for Urban Education, that measures the success (or lack of it) of various institutions ?in getting students from Latino backgrounds interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM) disciplines and, ultimately, to degrees...

The Wrong Side Of History?

Posted on January 03, 2010
Have you been accused lately of being ?on the wrong side of history?? Yes, I?m sure you have. But not to worry; a response is here.

Retreat, Redistribution, Regulation, Racialism

Posted on December 31, 2009
The declining popularity of President Obama and his handling of both domestic and foreign affairs has for a while now fueled either hopeful or fearful memories of 1994, when the Republicans took over Congress. A better comparison might be to 1884, when the Democrats were largely done in by a devastating slogan that branded them as the party of ?Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion...

More ?Wonderment and Happiness?

Posted on December 31, 2009
Will The Democrats Reap ?Wonderment And Happiness?? has been UPDATED.

Steele Yourself

Posted on December 30, 2009
Way back in the latter middle part (or early late part) of the last century, when under the influence of the developing civil rights movement liberal impulses were just beginning to stir formerly somnolent Stanford, where I was then an undergraduate, an older, activist graduate student for the first time decided to run for student body president...

If I Followed Their Example...

Posted on December 28, 2009
Many, perhaps most, leftists ? from former President Carter down to lowly bloggers like Matthew Yglesias ? obviously believe that opposition to Obama is fueled by racism. So, following their analytical example, perhaps it?s time for me to conclude that anyone who disagrees with me must be anti-semitic...

Will The Democrats Reap ?Wonderment And Happiness??

Posted on December 26, 2009
Compare Harry Reid?s prediction from the Senate floor before the final health care vote ? We?re going to hear an earful, but it?s going to be an earful of wonderment and happiness that people waited for for a long time ? with the greeting of Sen. Christopher Dodd at a news conference shortly after he returned to Connecticut: As Dodd spoke Thursday, a man walking by called out: ?Talk while you can; you?re not going to get re-elected...

Berkeley Solves Racial Achievement Gap!

Posted on December 26, 2009
The Berkeley High School Governance Council is considering, with ?virtually unanimous? agreement, an ingenious (or perhaps ungenius) proposal to close its ?dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse...

Tar Heel Preferences

Posted on December 24, 2009
Compare this recent University of North Carolina Daily Tar Heel editorial ? Admissions decisions should be based solely on the merits of one?s application. Although the female-to-male ratio at universities across the country is rising, administrators at UNC shouldn?t begin giving preferential treatment to male applicants...

Opaque Transparency

Posted on December 24, 2009
Compare Pelosi, Reid to Hold Closed-Door Meetings to Decide Final Bill... to Obama?s campaign promises: November 2007: ?We are going to have a big table, and everybody is going to be invited, labor, employers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, patient advocate groups...

The CBO?s ?Alternate Universe? (And Mickey Kaus?s?)

Posted on December 23, 2009
Mickey Kaus has been following the Obamacare debate much more closely, and deeply, than I, and although I disagree with his bottom line ? he?s for it ? he has cogently skewered most of the deficit/debt/cost curve bending defenses of it. See, for example, his recent post arguing that the CBO lives in an ?alternate universe...

Are Republicans More Principled Than Democrats?

Posted on December 22, 2009
[NOTE: This post has been Updated] Ordinarily I?d say that commitment to principle, or its absence, is bi-partisan, that Republicans are neither more virtuous nor more concerned with the public interest than Democrats (or, obviously, vice versa), but a glaringly obvious yet under-remarked aspect of Harry Reid?s recent ?Cash for Cloture? auction for health care votes calls that assumption into question: all of the bribes financial inducements were taken by Democrats...

UPDATE!

Posted on December 20, 2009
Surreal Words: Reid ?An Abortion-Rights Opponent? And Burris a Believer In ?Mere Fundamentals? has been Updated.

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