Clarence Thomas, the misunderstood Supreme Court Justice? - This Washington Post article details his uneasy relationship with blacks, and other liberal groups. For example, this passage was striking:
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii proposed inviting Thomas to participate in an upcoming debate on affirmative action. In previous years, the group had featured other conservatives, including political organizer Ralph Reed and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But when Thomas's name came up, a new threshold had been crossed.
Having Thomas debate affirmative action would be no different from "inviting Hitler to come speak on the rights of Jews," said Eric Ferrer, one of the Hawaii group's three black board members.
I didn't think that Thomas was qualified for the job when he was nominated, but I didn't understand then (and I still don't understand) the acrimony towards Thomas. One gets the sense that the people who shun him do so because of his ideology and his race. I think this is deeply unfair. The statement above is poignant, not just because it is so ludicrously over-the-top, but also for its suggestion that Thomas has betrayed his race. As though by merely being born with a certain skin color he was ordained to follow a certain ideology. If that is a fair view, then the quest for freedom in this country has been a very strange quest indeed.
10:47:38 PM
ActiveRoll is now Active - got the blog roll on the right of the home page. Cool! Thanks Marc.
Paper - the last refuge of a scoundrel on NPR last week an NYU professor offered her suggestion for reforming the how insider stock sales are reported. She explained that the current system, which is based on paper filings, is flawed because it actually delays the dissemination of critical information. She recommended that insider sales be reported in electronic form so that the information could be quickly posted on a website accessible by all. Another suggestion: make corporate insiders post this information for at leas 24 hours before they execute their sale of stock. Makes sense to me....
