Do commenters on other sites have a right to their anonymity? IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I don’t set any of the comment policies here. However, at my own blog, I have always respected the anonymity of my commenters and — barring anything unexpected — I don’t see that changing for foreseeable future.

Has anyone tried to show that the original intent or meaning of the 14th Amendment was to establish a “color-blind” constitution. I’ve heard it asserted, but I’ve never seen anyone back it up with supporting documentation (ratification debates, contemporary commentary, etc.). By contrast, I’ve seen plenty of contemporaneous evidence that the 14th Amendment was never envisioned as demanding a color-blind polity. But if anyone does have historical evidence that this was...

Franklin Foer’s painstaking reconstruction of the entire saga, including TNR’s incredibly thorough investigation of the entire proceedings, is a model in how a magazine should respond to controversy. Way too many people — people who claimed to only want “truth” — were furious that the magazine would actually take the responsible course of action and thoroughly check and recheck its sources to figure out what actually happened. These same men and women — again,...

One of the most annoying things in the world to me is knowing a song by tune but not title, and not being able to find it. Normally, I’ll just punch the lyrics in a search engine, but that doesn’t work for instrumentals. So, while I don’t like viewing TMV readers as my personal gophers, I’m enlisting the collective help of the blogosphere in my quest. Does anyone know what the song playing through most of this YouTube video is? (The song I’m talking about starts at 0:48): It’s...

Yes, CNN should have known and disclosed General Keith Kerr’s links to the Clinton campaign before letting him ask his question. But you know what? It was a good question, and he was the right person to ask it. The people who act as if it’s a huge affront that Republicans had to even hear a question from someone who’s voting Democratic (Kerr is a Log Cabin Republican but is supporting Hillary Clinton this cycle) have precisely the wrong idea when it comes to American politics. The...

Unlike Mitt Romney, John McCain had the right answer when asked whether he’d accept a qualified Muslim his cabinet. Of course, that this is even a question is sad. That it’s a question where McCain may well be in the minority of his party is even sadder. But let’s not dwell on the negative. McCain gave the right answer, he gave it strong, and he gave it to the base. Credit is due.

You may have noticed a brief skip in my blogging these past few weeks. While there have been many reasons for this — finals, applications, holidays — the excuse I’m currently settling on is that I’ve been finishing up my latest article. And I am pleased to announce that I have just posted a completed draft of “Racism as Subjectification” online to the SSRN (you can download the PDF from there). Unlike my last paper, this one is still a work in progress. In fact,...

Should a three year old kid be suspended from school for wearing his hair in dreadlocks?

A completely non-scientific survey of the racial composition of “elite” versus “non-elite” private colleges and universities. “Elite” colleges measured were Amherst, Brown, Carleton, Chicago, Duke, Harvard, Pomona, Stanford, Swarthmore, Williams, and Yale. The “Non-elites” were Allegheny, Beloit, Bennington, Boston University, Drexel, Goucher, Seton Hall, St. Olaf, Tulsa, Villanova, and Wake Forest. All fine schools, mind you — just not the absolute...

There are many fine qualities to be spoken of all the major contenders for the Presidency. But only Barack Obama, sheerly via who he is, can single-handedly alter the global perception of America for the better.

Why the “mis-match” argument against affirmative action doesn’t hold together (and why, for the sake of my own law school applications, I’m very glad it doesn’t!).

Many conservatives are adamantly declaring that water-boarding is not torture. The Attorney General can’t decide one way or the other. You want to know who could figure it out? The Mississippi Supreme Court. In 1922. Overturning the conviction of a Black man charged with killing a White guy, whose confession was gotten through “the water cure” (as water-boarding was known at the time). It’s always a treat to dip beneath Jim Crow Mississippi on the scales of justice.

The first thing an incoming Democratic President should do in 2009? Pardon George W. Bush.

It’s difficult for me to imagine anyone with a soul electing Haley Barbour to anything — but here he is, handily racking up his second term as governor of Mississippi. Apparently, he has his eye on the 2008 GOP VP nomination. To which I say, if Democrats can’t exploit that, they don’t deserve to win.

To really prove your conservative, anti-immigration bona fides, you can’t just drive out restaurants that cater to Latino immigrants — you got to brag about the ensuing downturn in business.

I’d be a lot more comfortable with the whining about Hillary Clinton “playing the gender card” if there was more recognition that every single male Presidential candidate in the history of the Republic has played the same card incessantly. Or can you tell me another function of the various hunting trips (“my gun’s bigger”), baseball questions (why no questions about shoes or fashion?), and windsurfing ads (he’s so effeminate….and probably French)?

Anti-racist signaling, or the affirmative action vote.

Why Clinton/Sebelius will never happen.

Is there a difference between conservatives on Rick Warren’s invitation to Obama, and liberals on Obama’s invitation to Donnie McClurkin?

I’m not surprised that White Jena residents are beginning to push back against the narrative that the Jena Six is proof of racism. I am surprised that anybody is giving their wildly biased accounts even the remotest credibility. Anybody with even a passing knowledge of the history of the American South would recognize these pieces for what they are. Historically, White southerners have been near-pathological in their denial of racism in their midst — secure in the knowledge that any account...

A poem for Islamo-fascism awareness week.

Maryland Judge throws out case where a man was observed hitting his girlfriend in front of a gas station, arguing that “Sadomasochists sometimes like to get beat up.” There was no proof that the woman was a sadomasochist (she disappeared and thus didn’t testify).

That other Senator from Connecticut is finally starting to gain some traction in his Presidential campaign. And he’s doing it the old-fashioned way: taking gutsy (but correct) positions, at the right time, for the right reasons. Dodd may not ultimately have the star power to win the nomination. But at the moment, he’s pushing Democratic candidates (and the political debate as a whole) in the right direction, and for that alone he deserves accolades.

In several states, the Republican Party is stuck in a cycle of destruction, with an electorate trending toward the middle paired against a Party controlled by its right flank. Virginia, Kansas, Arizona, and Colorado are all, to varying extents, exhibiting this trend. And unless the ever-vanishing GOP moderate can reassert itself, all four states will be prime targets for a Democratic resurgence (where they haven’t taken control already, as they have in Colorado).

Huckabee calls post-Roe v. Wade America a “holocaust”. This is how the GOP thinks it will attract Jewish voters? Oh, and this isn’t the first time Huckabee’s been a bit loose with Shoah references either.