Legal Commentary

American Exceptionalism And The Separation Of Race And State (Revisited)

Posted on December 04, 2009
Randolph Bell, formerly special envoy in the Bureau of European Affairs at the State Department and now a columnist for the Richmond Times Dispatch, has an interesting column today discussing the differences between religious diversity in Europe and the United States...

The Obama White House: An Imitation Of Saturday Night Live?

Posted on December 03, 2009
In what could easily pass as a rather unfunny attempt at comedy, the Obama White House, after demanding and getting $800 billion ten months ago to stimulate the economy, has now, with unemployment passing 10% and rising, decided to convene a ?summit? of business leaders and others to try to figure out how to create jobs...

Where We Are Now...

Posted on December 02, 2009
An interesting measure of where we are now ? or at least where the Democratic Party is now ? is seeing this link on Drudge, Howard Dean Declares Debate Between Capitalism and Socialism to Be Over..., and realizing that you have to go to the source to discover which side Dean thinks won the debate...

?Diversity? As A Two-Edged Sword

Posted on December 01, 2009
The New York Times has a front page article today, ?In Job Hunt, College Degree Can?t Close Racial Gap,? about the continuing discrimination faced by black college and business school graduates. In place of evidence, however, there is innuendo, implication, perception, etc...

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Ironic Award

Posted on November 27, 2009
[NOTE: November 30. An important UPDATE has been added to this post!] The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is seeking nominations for its 2010 ?Fulfilling the Dream? award, an annual honor bestowed upon those who personify and promote ?the ideals of Dr...

Sometimes A Headline Says It All...

Posted on November 27, 2009
From the first page of the Metro Section in today?s Washington Post: Alexandria rethinks gifted education MORE DIVERSITY SOUGHT IN CLASSES The headline is so complete that the article hardly needs any text, and the text that follows contains no surprises...

Stark Racial Divide In Views Of Obama

Posted on November 26, 2009
[NOTE: This post has a new ADDENDUM] Rasmussen reports today that President Obama ?earns approval from 97% of African-American voters and disapproval from 61% of white voters.? Looking at those with intense feelings, Rasmussen reports that ?Seventy-four percent (74%) of African-Americans Strongly Approve along with just 19% of white voters...

Ricci Finally Gets His Promotion!

Posted on November 25, 2009
Yesterday U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who threw out the case brought by New Haven firefighter Frank Ricci et. al., ?entered a judgment finding that the city violated the civil rights of a group of white firefighters when it threw out two promotional exams in 2004, and ordered the city to promote 14 of them...

Are The Democrats Nuts?

Posted on November 23, 2009
This has become a serious, not metaphorical, question, a question seriously considered by serious analysts. Although there is not (yet?) a consensus, more and more analysts are answering in the affirmative. Thus Jay Cost, one of my favorites, asked a few days ago, Have Democratic Leaders Gone Mad? After noting that proposing cuts in Medicare dearly cost the Republicans back in the 1990s and that the Reid bill, according to the CBO, would cut Medicare $491 billion, Cost concluded, dumfounded: Why are Obama, Pelosi, and Reid doing this? How could they be so foolish as to repeat the most egregious mistake of the Republicans of the 104th Congress? Why are they forcing their vulnerable members to vote on a bill that would cut Medicare in this fashion? Do they dislike their moderate colleagues? Do they find the chore of being the majority party too burdensome? Have they simply gone mad? In short, they?re nuts...

Does History Have Sides?

Posted on November 23, 2009
I studied history for a number of years, but I never could figure out something that Sherrod Brown, the left-wing Democratic Senator from Ohio, expresses with great if unearned confidence: History has ?sides,? for and against, and it always supports progressives against their opponents...

Witch Hunt

Posted on November 22, 2009
Inside Higher Ed reported Friday, based on an article in the Lincoln Journal Star, that ?the University of Nebraska at Lincoln has agreed to pay $40,000 to a former employee who says she was fired after the university learned that she is a witch.? The Journal Star reported that the plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, said she took a job with the university in 2007 directing a youth program...

UPDATE!

Posted on November 22, 2009
George Bernard Shaw On Mary Landrieu ha received an important UPDATE.

CNN Poll: Interesting Unasked Question

Posted on November 21, 2009
From a CNN poll released yesterday morning: Thirty-six percent of people questioned said that President Obama?s policies have improved economic conditions, with 28 percent feeling that the president?s programs have made things worse, and 35 percent saying what he?s done has had no effect on the economy...

UPDATE!

Posted on November 20, 2009
Narcissist In Chief has been UPDATED.

George Bernard Shaw On Mary Landrieu

Posted on November 20, 2009
[NOTE: This post has been UPDATED] According to ABC News, Mary Landrieu (D, La) was paid $100 million (in the form of an earmark for Louisiana that Sen. Harry Reid inserted into his health care bill) for her support on health care. If true, Sen. Landrieu will be cast forevermore as the justly skewed damsel in George Bernard Shaw?s famous observation: the playwright George Bernard Shaw was overheard at a party to have said that anyone could be bought for a price...

Faltering Defense Of ?Diversity??

Posted on November 20, 2009
Prof. John L. Jackson, Jr., whom we have encountered many times here as the Chronicle of Higher Education?s designated BOC (Blogger Of Color [my term, not the Chronicle?s]), is troubled today by the increasingly ineffective (I would say pathetic) defenses of ?diversity...

The Washington Post?s Confusing (But Obama-Flattering) Coverage Of The New Iranian ?Revelations?

Posted on September 27, 2009
I must be missing something (and that chorus in the background shouting ?Not for the first time!? can pipe down now). It is not unusual for me to disagree with the Washington Post?s editorializing (both on its editorial pages and, not infrequently, in news articles), but I rarely find its coverage incoherent...

No Good Deeds (Really) ...

Posted on September 26, 2009
Those of you interested in Virginia's gubernatorial race, and the level of the Washington Post's coverage of it, may find this letter in today's Post of interest.

More Required ?Not Required? Reading

Posted on September 25, 2009
Those of you who remember this may find this vaguely familiar, but I hope you will still find it interesting.

Minority Math: More = More

Posted on September 23, 2009
You will have gathered from this post?s titile, I hope, that minority math is indistinguishable from non-minority math, a point that is strangely absent from the Chronicle of Higher Education?s article this morning, ?Minority Students Needed in Math and Science to Combat 'Brain Drain,' Professors Say,? and the professors quoted there...

Exposing Fears

Posted on September 22, 2009
Take a look at the masterful job Scott Johnson of Power Line has done in exposing the ?disgusting? performance of the Washington Post and its reporters, Darryl Fears and Carol Leonnig, in ?sliming? James O?Keefe, the ACORN slayer. I especially appreciate his generous acknowledgment of my various Fears pieces in the second of those posts.

The Soft Bigotry Of Low Expectations?

Posted on September 22, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports this morning that the Department of Education ?has made little progress in monitoring,? i.e., knows little or nothing about, ?what happens to the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants given to minority-serving institutions and colleges that enroll a large proportion of low-income students...

Deficit-Reduction Idea

Posted on September 21, 2009
Here?s an idea that would go a long way toward reducing the federal deficit: A presidential fib tax on Obama every time he says something that?s not true. Over this just past media-blitz weekend, for example, Obama said that fining people who do not buy health insurance is not a tax...

?Racial Apologetics??

Posted on September 21, 2009
The silliest thing (although it is a close call) in John L. Jackson Jr.?s ?Brainstorm? entry titled ?Racial Apologetics? on the Chronicle of Higher Education blog is that it was organized around the incident of Rep. Joe Wilson shouting ?You lie!? at President Obama in frustrated response to Obama?s now well-documented (even by MSNBC!), well, misrepresentation of the facts about health care coverage of illegal immigrants...

Is MSNBC A News Organization?

Posted on September 21, 2009
As I write (about 8:40AM Monday morning) MSNBC?s ?Morning Joe? is playing in the background. A moment ago Helene (the Discriminating Wife) just screamed, and when I ran in to see what had provoked it (a mouse? the cat throwing up on the bed?) it turned out to be Andrea Mitchell saying in response to a question that she didn?t know ACORN had been accused of (and often indicted for) extensive voter fraud.

?Diversity? At The University Of Virginia?

Posted on September 21, 2009
The Cavalier Daily sported an entire newspaper page today of ?Students and administrators reflect[ing] on the Office of Diversity and Equity?s efforts to create a more welcoming, inclusive University community.? It?s a pretty weak reflection; nothing much shows up...

Obama On ACORN: ?What?s ACORN??

Posted on September 20, 2009
Well, almost. When ABC?s George Stephanopolous asked Obama, ?How about funding ACORN?? Obama replied: You know, if ? frankly, it's not really something I've followed closely. I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money. Instapundit seems to doubt Obama?s veracity here, but I don?t...

MegalObamania?

Posted on September 19, 2009
Maybe we need to coin a new word to cover the chutzpah of our chief executive: megalObamaniac. How else would you describe his remark to students at the University of Maryland that the effort to pass his health care reform ?will be remembered as one of the defining moments in the nation?s history?? Obama?s still non-existent ?plan? (or maybe one of the House?s 1000 page plans) is thus presumably right up there with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Lincoln?s first and second inaugural addresses and his Gettysburg Address...

David Brooks Condescendingly Bestows Absolution...

Posted on September 18, 2009
Well, now we can rest easy (or maybe just easier). David Brooks, the house conservative at the New York Times, has just absolved us of racism. But this absolution didn?t come cheap, since he does convict our ?populist backlash? against Obama of being ?ill mannered, conspiratorial and over the top...

Did Obama Really Deny That Race Motivates His Critics?

Posted on September 18, 2009
The Associated Press is running a story on the first spate of President Obama?s weekend flurry of appearances under the headline, ?Obama: Health care anger not motivated by his race,? but is that really what he said? Here?s what, according to the AP article, he told CNN: ?Are there people out there who don?t like me because of race? I?m sure there are,? Obama told CNN...

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