Legal Commentary

Google Sex Discrimination

Posted on May 01, 2008
No, no. My title is neither an instruction nor a request to google ?sex discrimination.? But if you did you should, but won?t, find what I am in fact referring to, which is this report in the Chronicle of Higher Education about Google?s own sex discrimination, which of course was not described as sex discrimination in either the Chronicle report or Google?s announcement of its sex-restricted scholarship program: The U...

Little (?) Wright Lies...

Posted on April 29, 2008
Prevarication often leads to contradiction. When you don?t tell the truth, it?s hard to keep your story straight. Rev. Wright on Bill Moyers show last Friday: BILL MOYERS: You know, you mentioned Senator Obama. In the 20 years that you?ve been your [sic] pastor, have you ever heard him repeat any of your controversial statements as his opinion? REVEREND WRIGHT: No...

Computerized Race Norming

Posted on April 29, 2008
One of the dirtiest little (or big) secrets of the race preference industry is that it depends on the practice of ?race norming,? selecting the most attractive applicants from various approved racial or ethnic groups. One of the least objectionable aspects of this practice is that it is flatly illegal, at least in employment...

Rev. Wright At The National Press Club

Posted on April 28, 2008
As I write I?ve just been listening to Rev. Wright at the National Press Club. I?ll probably have more to say after he completes his speech and a transcript becomes available, but I was struck enough by something he said early on to blog it now. The attack on him, he said, was not personal, not against Rev...

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What Is A ?Level Playing Field??

Posted on April 27, 2008
One of the most common arguments in support of racial preferences is that they are needed to ?level the playing field,? or sometimes ?until the playing field is level.? Or sometimes both, as in the following statement by Brandon Davis, political director of the regional chapter of the Service Employees International Union: We think until we have a level playing field, affirmative action must remain in place as one of the most effective tools to level the playing field for women and minorities In pursuit of this elusive and undefined goal of the level playing field, SEIU has joined with others in Missouri to send out roving bands of intimidators to disrupt signature-gathering for the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative...

Time Klein Indicts Mainstream Media

Posted on April 24, 2008
Joe Klein of Time Magazine, who was not a Weatherman but is a weathervane of liberal Democratic opinion, blasts the irresponsibility of the mainstream media! Discussing what the Pennsylvania primary did to Obama, ?who entered the primary as a fresh breeze and left it stale, battered and embittered,? Klein writes: In the course of six weeks, the American people learned that he was a member of a church whose pastor gave angry, anti-American sermons, that he was "friendly" with an American terrorist who had bombed buildings during the Vietnam era, and that he seemed to look on the ceremonies of working-class life ? bowling, hunting, churchgoing and the fervent consumption of greasy food ? as his anthropologist mother might have, with a mixture of cool detachment and utter bemusement...

The Real Barack Obama?

Posted on April 22, 2008
This morning E.J. Dionne writes: The result of the 2008 election may come down to how voters decide to define Barack Obama. Is he Adlai Stevenson or John F. Kennedy? Note well that this formulation of the central question of the election does not deign to ask who Obama really is, emphasizing instead that ?almost all of the turns in this contest have been driven by how Obama presented himself and how voters perceived him...

UPDATE To ?Emendations Upon Clarifications...?

Posted on April 21, 2008
I have added an UPDATE to my Emendations Upon Clarifications (Of Obama on Affirmative Action).

OAMI Whammy

Posted on April 21, 2008
One of the contradictions in the defense of ?diversity? at many institutions is that those same institutions often practice the opposite of what they preach, sponsoring racially and ethnically separate dorms, clubs, graduation ceremonies, and even academic majors (Black Studies, Chicano Studies, etc...

Currying Favor With Affirmative Actionists

Posted on April 20, 2008
As I discussed here, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a terrific piece two days ago by Kevin Ferris. Today, perhaps in a misguided attempt to be balanced, it ran an atrocious one by George Curry on the ?Continuing relevance of affirmative action.? Before I discuss Curry?s article, however, I can?t resist telling you more than you want to know about ?currying favor...

Just Goes To Show You...

Posted on April 20, 2008
... that newspapers in major cities can be fair if they put their mind to it. The Lincoln Journal-Star published a Q&A about the proposed Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative that is fair, balanced, and neutral. What a shame such coverage is so rare.

Emendations Upon Clarifications (Of Obama on Affirmative Action)

Posted on April 19, 2008
Several posts below (here) I discussed Obama?s comments on affirmative action in the recent Philadelphia debate, finding them a continuation of the obfuscatory waffling I?d criticized in earlier posts cited there. Two close observers I highly respect, however, Mickey Kaus and Roger Clegg, were far more optimistic (I discussed their views in UPDATES to my recent post), as was Chet Zarko, a frequent commenter here whose views I also respect (in this comment to the above post)...

Here?s A New One...

Posted on April 18, 2008
I?m always looking for new arguments supporting racial, ethnic, gender preferences, arguments, that is, that oppose requiring the state to treat all individuals ?without regard? to their race. New arguments like that are hard to find, but here?s an amusing one by Dana Goldstein in Tapped, the group blog of The American Prospect...

More Sad Than, Well, Bitter...

Posted on April 18, 2008
Read Kevin Ferris?s superb OpEd in the Philadelphia Inquirer. ?Sadness,? Ferris writes, ?is the right response to Barack Obama's now famous riff on small-town America.? Not because he?s no longer walking on water. The Messiah of Change image started sinking when Obama lied about hearing incendiary comments from his pastor, the Rev...

Paving The Way For Diversity On (In?) The Road...

Posted on April 18, 2008
Reader Alex Bensky sends word of this article urging the state of Michigan to do more to ensure that more ?Disadvantaged Business Enterprises? (aka DBEs, aka firms owned or apparently owned by minorities) get state contracts for highway construction. We should all applaud this effort, as does Alex, who writes: I can tell you, John, I?m with them on this one...

UPDATE!

Posted on April 18, 2008
In what seems to be my current role as extinguisher of all optimism falsely generated by seemingly deviationist comments on race by Democrats, I have UPDATEd this post on Obama?s preference waffle in Philly once again.

Obama Attempts To Clarify His Stance On Race Preferences

Posted on April 17, 2008
Regular readers will know that I have criticized Obama?s various pronouncements on affirmative action as waffling obfuscation, muddled, lacking any commitment to his own announced vision, to name a few of my reservations. Thus I was quite interested in his attempt at clarifying his views last night in the Philadelphia debate with Sen...

Go To Missouri! Gather Signatures!

Posted on April 17, 2008
You will noticed the ad in the right column, seeking signature gatherers for the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative. To see why you should volunteer, read the post immediately below. To find out more, click on the ad and send an inquiry.

Where Are The Liberals When You Need Them? Not In Missouri...

Posted on April 17, 2008
At their best, liberals have defended free speech for those with whom they disagree; defended the rights of workers to organize even when they didn?t like the unions the workers were likely to choose; and defended voter registration drives even if they suspected the newly registered voters would support candidates the liberals opposed...

Live By The Word ...

Posted on April 17, 2008
How odd. Barack Obama, whose whole appeal rests on his eloquent speeches, who said not long ago It's true I give a good speech. What can I do? Nothing wrong with that? and who shouted ?Don?t tell me that words don?t matter!? now complains that ?some people spend way too much time ?obsessing? about some of the things he and others have actually said...

Madison Avenue Backbone

Posted on April 17, 2008
No, this post isn?t really about backbone on Madison Avenue. If it were, I would have already written too much, since that would be shortest post ever written. Instead, what follows is about lack of backbone on Madison Avenue. By way of preface, I?ve written before (here and here), about two years ago, about a witch hunt ?diversity probe? of New York ad agencies by New York City?s Commission on Human Rights, which was shocked that right there in diversity city there weren?t more minorities working in the big advertising firms...

Michelle: Me And Barack Aren?t Elitists...

Posted on April 17, 2008
I was beginning to wonder what they?d done with Michelle, but yesterday she turned up in Indiana, rejecting the elitist label that had been pinned on her husband and herself. EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Michelle Obama said Wednesday she is a product of a working-class background and rejected characterizations of her and her husband as elitist...

Offensive, Left-Field Editorializing In New York Times Article

Posted on April 16, 2008
Perhaps New York Times editors and reporters, bitter over impending layoffs caused by declining numbers of newspaper readers and ad revenues and hence clinging to comfortable ideological bromides, cannot resist disparaging those who are different from themselves...

More Fraud In Colorado

Posted on April 15, 2008
Opponents of state civil rights initiatives always complain about fraud by initiative supporters, by which they mean petition gatherers describing as a civil rights measure a proposal that would prohibit the state from treating some people better and others worse because of their race ...

Holy Holistic, Batman! It Works!

Posted on April 15, 2008
The new University of California admissions statistic are now out, and UCLA is pleased as punch to announce that the ?holistic? system it devised to admit more blacks and Hispanics (and, correspondingly, fewer Asians and whites) actually admitted more blacks and Hispanics and fewer Asians and whites...

Cling-Gate: Hard For Polman To Gauge...

Posted on April 14, 2008
Dick Polman, the celebrated Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, offers a plague on both their houses analysis of cling-gate on his blog. He scores some points against Obama ... and Clinton ... and McCain, but there?s a lesson here other judgmental reporters should heed: if you?re going to cleverly zing Hillary (or anyone) by humorously (but also snidely) noting that I half expect to see her marching in the Lehigh Valley, clad in a bowling shirt, with a ...

Democrats Add A Dose Of Bitters To Their Campaign

Posted on April 14, 2008
[NOTE: This post has been UPDATed Twice] According to an entry in Wikipedia, A bitters is a preparation of herbs and citrus dissolved in alcohol or glycerine with a bitter or bittersweet flavor. The various brands of bitters, once numerous, were formerly manufactured as patent medicines...

Are Poor Rubes Free To Subordinate Economics To Culture?

Posted on April 14, 2008
James Taranto makes a very good point: Underlying [Obama?s] criticism is a curious normative premise: that the nonaffluent ought to prioritize their material interests over moral and cultural concerns. ?Workers of the world, unite!? meets ?The Virtue of Selfishness...

Maybe There Was Fraud In Colorado...

Posted on April 14, 2008
Not long ago I discussed (here) the predictable charges of ?fraud? emerging in Colorado by people stepping forward to claim that they were duped into signing a petition for the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative. The assumed, they claimed, that the initiative was in favor of civil rights and opposed discrimination only to discover to their horror that it in fact ...

Obama?s Frank Analysis Of Delusional Small-Town America

Posted on April 13, 2008
(You think ?Delusional? is too strong? Perhaps you?re right. Substitute ?Irrational? or even ?Misguided? if you prefer.) One of the virtues of being late to the feast of devouring Obama?s latest misstep ? his condescending dismissal of the rubes in small-town America ? is that you all already know what I?m talking about...

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