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Legal Commentary

Discriminations

who? Discriminations is the joint production of John and Jessie Rosenberg. John is one of the world's older grad students, now completing a 30-year overdue dissertation at Stanford on discrimination. Jessie is a 16 year old junior at Bryn Mawr College majoring in physics.
\r\nwhat? John's focus, not surprisingly, will be on the theory and practice of discrimination, and how it is reported and analyzed.
\r\nJessie's will be discriminating thoughts on ... whatever catches her fancy or attracts her attention. (Email: jrosenbe@brynmawr.edu)

Post Frequency: 13.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 09:31:52

Something Else To Celebrate!

Posted on July 03, 2010
Once again the invaluable Pacific Legal Foundation has won an important victory for civil rights. In 1996 the voters of California passed Prop. 209, which amended the state constitution to prohibit the state or any of its agencies from discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to any individual on the base of race, ethnicity, or gender in public contracting, education, or employment...

?Gender Gap? Mania

Posted on June 30, 2010
Minding The Campus has a very interesting (at least to me) critique of yet another survey finding a ?gender gap? in science salaries. I encourage you to read it since it?s just the sort of commentary that could have been posted here.

Excellence? How Un-American...

Posted on June 28, 2010
There has been a good deal of news and commentary over the past few days about the G-20 nations? rejection of Obama?s push for ?continued global stimulus? as the ?G20 summit rebuffs Obama.? Almost overlooked in this controversy, however, is one area where Germany, a leading critic of Obama?s continuing deficit spending, has launched a major new spending program, ?the Excellence Initiative,? that is also very un-Obamian in nature...

Consistency Is The Hobgobln Of Small Liberal Minds

Posted on June 28, 2010
Much of the criticism of Arizona?s recent immigration law is that the state presumptuously, and illegitimately, trespassed on federal prerogatives by stepping in where the federal government refused to. This criticism would be more credible if critics also complained about all the ?sanctuary cities? that vociferously defy federal law and the recent decision of the city of Philadelphia to cease an important area of co-operation with federal immigration authorities...

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Here We Go Again: New Debate Over SAT ?Bias?

Posted on June 24, 2010
A new study in the Harvard Educational Review purports to confirm a highly criticized older study that purported to find racial ?bias? in a handful of questions on the SAT. (On that earlier study, see my ?Biased ?Bias?? from October 2003, which has a couple of links to thorough, and thoroughly critical, analyses of it...

My McChrystal Ball

Posted on June 23, 2010
Why is the press so single-mindedly focused on whether McChrystal will be fired and largely ignoring whether or not everything he and his associates said was true? Oh wait, I think I know.

Father Obama Forgot Something...

Posted on June 21, 2010
In his Presidential Proclamation declaring Father?s Day, President Obama declared the following: Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a step father, a grandfather, or caring guardian...

Scene & Herd In San Francisco, Ver. 3.0

Posted on June 18, 2010
(If the title of this post is confusing to you, see the explanation in Version 2.0 two days ago, quoting the first one in the series from last September.) This morning the San Francisco Chronicle has a fascinating criticism of ObamaCare. Naturally, it?s by ?a lifelong Democrat,? but that?s not surprising since there probably aren?t any Republicans in San Francisco or among the Chronicle?s readership...

Voters Split?

Posted on June 18, 2010
I?m not a pollster, I don?t follow polls very closely, and I?m certainly not familiar with polling terms of art or other conventional usage. Still, I found Gallup?s recent headline rather odd, given the data it presented: U.S. Voters Split on Obama Re-Election in 2012 Little change seen since March on this measure by Frank Newport PRINCETON, NJ ? U...

Rep. KIng Not Apologizing For Obama Bias Remark

Posted on June 17, 2010
Rep. Steve King (R, Iowa) ?is not apologizing for saying that President Barack Obama ?favors the black person.?? Politico reports that ?King stands by Obama bias claim,? as though King actually said something wrong. Chris Harris of MediaMatters said King has ?routinely accused the president of ?playing race-bait games? and favoring ?the black person...

?The Right?s Civil Wrongs?

Posted on June 16, 2010
Ramesh Ponnuru has a powerful critique of some conservative ? and especially libertarian ? civil rights views in National Review. Read it. It will bother some of my friends, offend others, and please still others who, like me, believe that civil rights laws regulating even (some) private behavior are both necessary and constitutional.

Scene & Herd In San Francisco, Ver. 2.0

Posted on June 16, 2010
Last September I began Scene & Herd In San Francisco by noting that my wife, Helene, and I are house-sitting in San Francisco, a wonderful, quirky city but also home pond to Nancy Pelosi and other odd ducks. Following are a few random sightings and quotes that provide a small whiff of the atmosphere here...

Ban Beauty Bias? (And The Horse It Rhode In On...)

Posted on June 14, 2010
Deborah Rhode, a Stanford law professor, has a new book, The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law, calling for banning beauty bias. (See here for a favorable review.) Rhode notes in a recent Washington Post OpEd that lookism is pervasive...

The Alien In The White House, Release 2.0

Posted on June 13, 2010
A few days ago I referred you to Dorothy Rabinowitz?s superb piece in the Wall Street Journal, ?The Alien in the White House.? She was referring, by the way, to his attitudes, values, and ideology, not to the circumstances or location of his birth, but even so describing him as ?alien? may be too weak...

Dr. Jessie: It's Official!

Posted on June 13, 2010
Daughter Jessie (make that Dr. Jessie!) received her Ph.D. at Caltech?s commencement on Friday. As everyone can plainly see, she was the star of the show.

Surprise! Poor Students Go To Poor Schools In Poor Neighborhoods!

Posted on June 13, 2010
Richard Kahlenberg, long-time advocate for class-based affirmative action, notes with alarm the findings of a new National Center for Education Statistics report finding that poor and minority students are increasingly concentrated in high poverty elementary and secondary schools...

Sublime & Ridiculous In Today?s Papers

Posted on June 09, 2010
Blogging may be a little spotty for the next few days (then again, it may not), since Helene and I are on the way to Pasadena to watch her receive her PhD at the Caltech commencement on Friday. (Then, as long as we?re there, we?ll stay in Calif. for a couple of weeks, culminating in my happily annual visit to a wonderful gathering Ward Connerly hosts every summer at the Reagan Library...

?Black Flight? From Dallas

Posted on June 07, 2010
In the post immediately below I discussed ?white flight? in California ? not from Los Angeles or San Francisco or other urban centers but from the entire state. Now comes the Dallas Morning News with a major series whose first installment is ? ?Black flight? changing the makeup of Dallas Schools...

Does Massive New ?White Flight? Call For ?Reverse Diversity??

Posted on June 05, 2010
It is now well known that court-ordered busing to promote racial balance in the schools was a major impetus to ?white flight? from the affected cities to the suburbs. ?Back in 1975,? Time reported in 1978 (?Education: Forced Busing and White Flight?), Chicago Sociologist James Coleman, having looked at the early figures, felt called upon to report what most Americans thought they knew already: court-ordered busing to achieve racial balance in large U...

Where Is Diversity When You Need It?

Posted on June 02, 2010
As regular (and even irregular) readers of DISCRIMINATIONS know all too well, I spend a great deal of time and text criticizing ?diversity,? which I put in scare quotes to distinguish ?diversity? as it is practiced today ? it is usually nothing more than naked racial preference ? from true diversity...

A Defense Of Rand Paul (Or At Least Criticism Of His Critics)

Posted on May 31, 2010
A. Barton Hinkle has an excellent column in the Richmond Times Dispatch skewering many of Rand Paul?s critics for the hypocrites they are. He entertained the Libertarian notion that private entities ought to be allowed to discriminate. His most vociferous critics, on the other hand, vociferously support discrimination by both private and public entities...

More On The Assumptions Of Obama-like (or -liking) Americans

Posted on May 27, 2010
Yesterday I quoted Matt Bai, writing in the New York Times, arguing that anyone who ?question[s] the responsibilities of government and private entities when it comes to race? is an ?ideological outlier? but that, even so, ?Americans the president?s age and younger are inclined to assume that one can question? those race policies ?without necessarily being dismissed as a racist...

Still Crazy After All These Years...

Posted on May 26, 2010
Writing in the New York Times, Matt Bai is bewildered that ?2010?s Debates Still Trapped in the 1960s.? This wrinkle in the political space-time continuum was supposed to have been smoothed out, of course. Barack Obama based his presidential campaign on the notion that the nation needed to step past the cultural chasm of an earlier era, and younger Americans, in particular, endorsed that vision...

More Startling Education News

Posted on May 26, 2010
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports this morning: High-School Dropout Rate Is Cited as a Key Barrier to Obama's College-Completion Goal Really? Who?d a thunk. A senior Education Department official, speaking at a college-readiness forum [in Washington] on Tuesday, singled out the nation?s dropout rate among high-school students as a key obstacle to fulfilling President Obama?s goal of putting the United States atop the world by 2020 in the proportion of residents with a college degree...

The Restful President

Posted on May 25, 2010
May 14, 2010 Obama Says He Will Not Rest Until Oil Spill is Contained Drudge Report, May 25, 2010 Another Vacation? Obama schedules second since oil spill... Withdrew to Grove Park Inn & Spa as flow began to grow...

Cereal Offender! Don?t Eat Any More Cornflakes ...

Posted on May 21, 2010
... until you read this breakfast-spoiling piece by Stephan Thernstrom about what the Kellogg Foundation is doing.

What Ails Males?

Posted on May 17, 2010
At least since 2000, the American Council on Education has reported, about 57% of college students have been women. This ?underrepresentation? of men may or may not be a problem, and if it is it may or may not be a big one, but even if it is and is a big one it may or may not be a civil rights problem (although all those who assume ?underrepresentation? is always smoke caused by the ever-present fire of discrimination will no doubt think it is)...

An Edley Medley

Posted on May 17, 2010
We?ve encountered Christopher Edley, currently dean of the Boalt Hall law school at the University of California, Berkeley, a number of times: here, describing him as a former White House aide, co-author of President Clinton?s ?mend it, don?t end it? review of affirmative action policies, advisor to Clinton?s race commission, fervent advocate of racial preferences (he described Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom?s America in Black and White as ?a crime against humanity?), and advisor to the 2000 Gore campaign...

San Francisco: Hilarious Or Pathetic (Or Both?)

Posted on May 16, 2010
Sometimes reality ? especially in California ? can be stranger than fiction, more humorous than stand-up comedy, more pathetic than loud drunks. A good example was on display in the California Supreme Court about ten days ago. By approving Proposition 209 in 1996 the voters of California amended their constitution to bar the state from discriminating or giving preferential treatment based on race, ethnicity, or gender...

The Democrats: Deeming A Budget...

Posted on May 15, 2010
Remember back when the Dems didn?t have enough votes to pass health care they trotted out ?a so-called ?deem and pass? strategy that would allow House members to approve the Senate version of health care bill without an actual vote before taking up a second ?fix-it? resolution, known as reconciliation?? Now they?re at it again, in effect redeeming deeming by their current plan to propose the following budget resolution for this year: {BeginDemBudget} {/EndDemBudget} You will have noticed that something is missing...

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