Clarence Thomas and affirmative action

The school of very hard knocks
The Economist, 10/25/07 (online)

Lexington does a good job of summarising Justice Thomas, his views, and his detractors. However, there is a small error in that it states, "he got into Yale because of racial preferences...". This has never been confirmed. And the fact that it keeps coming up is the best reason for ridding higher education of affirmative action; no matter how much a black person accomplishes, it will always be tainted by whether it is due to merit or a handout from "The Man."

Death Penalty must be administered in a painless manner?

Spare us
Austin American-Statesman, Oct. 18, 2007, at __

We are not dealing with a case where an innocent man was put to death. We are dealing with a case where a guilty man was seeking to avoid the death penalty because he may feel some pain as the result of the lethal injection.

I can assure you Richard’s pain at the hands of the State of Texas paled in comparison to that of his victim.

[This piece was heavily edited by the paper. For more details on this story read the article I was responding to. Also, Mark O'Bar's letter, with whom I proudly share the column does a good job of summarizing the issue (Mark told me his letter was, likewise, heavily edited).]

Marriage confusion

The Providence Journal, October 15, 2007, at C5.

Rhode Island’s concession “that a state court could grant the two women a divorce without answering the highly charged question of whether a same-sex marriage performed in Massachusetts should be recognized in Rhode Island” is unprincipled and, frankly, silly.

How can one dissolve something that does not exist?

What happens if the two women reconcile and have that divorce judgment set aside? Are they married again? In Rhode Island? In Massachusetts?