From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Kwame
Wallace
In November voters in the Wolverine State will decide whether to approve the
Michigan Civil
Rights Initiative, a ballot measure banning racial preferences by government
agencies, including public educational institutions. Similar measures have won
approval in California and Washington, both more liberal-leaning states than
Michigan, so one would expect the MCRI would have a pretty good chance of passing.
Not surprisingly, the civil rights establishment opposes the Civil Rights Initiative, as the Associated Press reports:
In blunt and passionate tones, officials at a major NAACP fundraiser that drew 10,000 people blasted a ballot initiative that aims to restrict affirmative action programs in Michigan.
"On behalf of the city of Detroit, I say, 'Bring it on,' " Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said at the 51st annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner on Sunday. "If you want a fight, there is one waiting for you right here." . . .
"There will be affirmative action here today," Kilpatrick said. "There will be affirmative action here tomorrow and there will be affirmative action in our state forever."
This puts Kilpatrick at odds with the U.S. Supreme Court, which, although it approved some of the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), also stated that "25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary." That deadline is now only 22 years, one month and three weeks away.
More curious is Kilpatrick's choice of slogans. "Bring it on"? That's how losers talk. The mayor may as well inquire as to the location of the outrage or opine about the riskiness of the scheme.
Even worse is that "affirmative action forever" line, an echo of--of all people--George Wallace. In his 1963 Inaugural Address Alabama's then-governor declared:
In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.
It didn't quite work out that way. Eighteen months later, the Civil Rights Act was the law of the land. The Wallace-Kilpatrick parallel illustrates a point we made in January:
During the decades between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Act, white Southerners were extreme political outliers. Much of their political energy was invested in defending a system of racial discrimination that privileged them. They voted Democratic in overwhelming proportions, sometimes approaching 90%, even during periods when Republicans were the dominant party nationwide. . . . The political behavior of white Southerners then is remarkably similar to that of black Americans today.
Still, it seems odd for Kilpatrick to adopt the rhetoric of an avowed segregationist. Why not instead modify Martin Luther King: "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged by the color of their skin, but not by the content of their character"?
Where
No Man Has Gone Before
Sen. Hillary Clinton claims she didn't really want to be a politician, the Associated
Press reports from Purchase, N.Y. Indeed, politics was at best her fifth career
choice:
"I wanted desperately to be an Olympic athlete," Clinton said Monday at a Purchase College symposium on Title IX, the 1972 law outlawing sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding. "I tried everything. I ran every race, and if I was really lucky I finished second to last. . . . I couldn't jump, I couldn't run, I couldn't swim."
After determining she'd never be an athlete, she set her sights on becoming an astronaut.
"So I wrote to NASA and said, 'How do I sign up to be an astronaut?' " she said. "And they wrote back very politely and said, 'We don't take girls.' "
She also nixed medicine because she "kept getting lightheaded and woozy when I saw anyone in any kind of distress," and math and science because her grades were lousy.
But wait. Is that NASA story believable? First, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, is only 3 1/2 years younger than Mrs. Clinton. Second, given that she has an epicene name, how did NASA even know she was a girl?
Chutzpah
Alert
"Iran denounced the United States on Monday for contemplating possible
nuclear strikes against Iranian targets and urged the United Nations to take
urgent action against what it called a dangerous violation of international
law," the Associated Press reports from the U.N.:
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan obtained by The Associated Press, Iran's U.N. Ambassador Javad Zarif called President George W. Bush's refusal two weeks ago to rule out a U.S. nuclear strike on Iran and a similar follow-up statement by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "illegal and insolent threats."
Isn't this the same Iranian regime that has been threatening to destroy Israel and that last week professed not to give a damn about U.N. resolutions?
'Personal
Use'
"Three teenagers from the Arab town of Qalansawe [Israel] were arrested
after 150,000 detonators were found in the house of one of them. The teenagers,
age 15 and 16 were taken to a police station for questioning where they claimed
that the detonators meant for their personal use."--Ynet News, May 1
Lazy
Columnist Watch
Nancy Kruh, a contributor to the Dallas Morning News, has an amusing treatment
of New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, who writes many columns about Iraq,
all of which say pretty much the same thing. In fact, two of them said almost
exactly the same thing. This is from Herbert's July 11,
2005, column:
The photos showed the president peering behind curtains and looking under furniture for the missing weapons. Mr. Bush offered mock captions for the photos, saying, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere" and "Nope, no weapons over there . . . maybe under here?"
And this is from his Jan. 26, 2006 column (which is behind the Times subscription wall, but a pirated copy is here):
The photos showed the president peering behind curtains and looking under furniture in the Oval Office for the missing weapons. Mr. Bush offered mock captions for the photos, saying, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere." And, "Nope, no weapons over there, maybe under here."
Aside from the phrase "in the Oval Office" and the slight variations in punctuation of the last quote, these paragraphs are exactly the same. This isn't exactly a high journalistic crime; wire stories, for instance, often include boilerplate background sentences. But you'd think a columnist at the New York Times would be expected to come up with something original twice a week. Otherwise they may as well just replace him with a machine.
Only
Eight Months Late!
"Nagin Outlines New Orleans Evacuation Plan"--headline, Associated
Press, May 2, 2006
Life Imitates 'The Simpsons'
"Homer discovers that he has a long-lost half brother in Detroit, Herb Powell, who is the wealthy CEO of a car company. . . . When Homer and Herb meet, they instantly hit it off and Herb takes in the Simpson family as his own and then he hires Homer to help design and make a car for regular guys. "--"The Simpsons" episode description, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou," aired Feb. 21, 1991
"Project Runway, meet Monster Garage. That is the gist of a concept executives at the Ford Motor Company are tossing around for a new reality show. While corporate sponsorships of reality shows are nothing new--Ford has been a prominent sponsor of "American Idol"--the company is looking to produce the show itself in the hope of reconnecting with younger consumers who have drifted away to other brands like Honda and Toyota."--New York Times, May 1, 2006
That's Just
Supercool
"Scientists Sound Ultrafine Alarm"--headline, San Bernardino (Calif.)
Sun, May 2
What
Would We Fear Without Experts?
"Fear the Phone, Not the Doorknob, Germ Expert Says"--headline, Reuters,
May 2
Let's
Hope They Decide Against It
"Experts Discuss Escalating Suicide Rate"--headline, Australian Broadcast
Corp. Web site, May 2
Bottom
Story of the Day
"Wyoming Plans Another Ferret Release"--headline, Associated Press,
May 1
Spot
the Idiot
"Acclaimed American actor/director Tim Robbins blasted the US government's
policy on terrorism--and the US media's failure to examine it critically--at
a news conference in Athens promoting his stage version of George Orwell's "1984,"
Agence France-Presse reports:
Robbins pointed out similarities between current US policies on terrorism and the authoritarian society described by Orwell.
"Unfortunately, the book and the play is more relevant now than it ever has been," he said. "(It) talks about continuous warfare as a means to control the Western economy, and as a way to control rebel elements within society through the use of fear, constant fear."
"In my country we seem to be sanctioning renditioning [sic] of innocent people without trial . . . put them in jail without telling anyone . . . and torture them out of suspicion of what we think they might do," Robbins said.
"This is exactly what Orwell was talking about when he spoke of thought crimes," he added.
Orwell's bleak classic, published in 1949, is based on a futuristic society in which the government, known as "Big Brother," spies on its citizens' every move and tortures them on suspicion of dissent.
Upon his return from Athens, Robbins was thrown in prison and tortured. Oh wait, sorry--no he wasn't. Ah well, one can always dream.
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Charles Brown, Gary Kolb, Jim Hook, Edward Tannen, Carl Stritter, William Katz, Michael Zukerman, Avinoam Sharon, David Mastio, Ray Samori, John Steele Gordon, Rod Pennington, Robert White, David Schlosser, Phil Hord, Chris Hayes, Rowe Sergent, Gary Petersen, Daniel Goldstein and Donald Segal. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Shelby Steele: Why is America so delicate with the enemy? White guilt.
- Brendan Miniter: On the highway, fuel is in short supply. In Washington, ideas are.
- Bill Keller: The New York Times executive editor on leaks and partisanship.
- Leonard Gilroy: Today's urban planners falsely claim Jane Jacobs's legacy.
