I have been a long critic of many of Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinions which often reject basic individual rights while embracing police and national security powers. However, I believe that Thomas is often treated unfairly for being a black conservative on the Court. While others like Justices Alito, Scalia, and Roberts routinely vote along the same lines, Thomas’ race is commonly cited in commentary while that is not a factor in the other justices on the right of the Court. This unfairness was vividly shown by the comments of Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) that Thomas is an “Uncle Tom” and suggested that he was not an authenticate black person. He has refused to retract or apologize of the attack. In the meantime, Democrats are uniformly silent in the face of this uncivil and outrageous attack.
In an interview with CNN, Thompson said that Thomas apparently “doesn’t like black people, he doesn’t like being black.” After raising votes in areas like voting rights, he added that “All those issues are very important and for someone in the court who’s African American and not sensitive to that is a real problem.”
Let’s be clear, I did not view Thomas as someone who was well-suited for the Court. However, many of these justices and their predecessors were on an the top lists of legal experts. They were selected for their lack of prior controversy or other more political factors. What concerns me is that his race is constantly raised by critics. He has every right to be a conservative and has shown a consistent and committed jurisprudence supporting those views. I do not agree with those positions but I fail to see why he should be defined by his race. Indeed, I thought that one of the key objectives of the civil right movement was to allow African Americans to be judged not by the color of their skin. Thomas follows the same interpretive approach as his colleagues — an approach mind you that is not supposed to be based not on a jurist’s personal desires or association with any group. He is not supposed to show loyalty to a particular group or fulfill expectations due to his race. I have no problem with criticizing Thomas for his votes in the same way as we often criticize his colleagues, but he should not face a race test by critics.
Thomas deserves better. I have always been moved by his life’s story. His father was a farm worker and his mother was a domestic worker. They were poor and both descendants of American slaves. The family spoke Gullah as a first language. His mother literally worked for pennies a day and his early life was spent in a home without indoor plumbing. The second of three children, he later lived with his grandparents when they became homeless. Thomas was the only black person at his high school in Savannah and yet was able to remain an honor student. He went on to attend college and Yale Law School. While few seem to want to admit it, that is a remarkable and inspiring life. He developed conservative principles and values in his life. Some find that incomprehensible but his incredible struggle produced a strong personality and will that can be admired even if you strongly disagree with his views.
What concerns me most is the virtual silence from Democrats to denounce this type of race-based attack. Being called an Uncle Tom is obviously deeply offensive to African Americans. Thomas and his family have gone through too much suffering and struggle to be treated so unfairly in my view. The suggestion is that being genuinely black requires you to reach the right conclusions and support the right positions. However, the very struggle that Thompson is describing was a fight to allow black men and women to be treated as individuals and not categorized by the color of their skin. Thompson should apologize and Democrats should show that they are not selectively outraged by race-based attacks.
What do you think?
Source: Washington Post
Burger King can barely handle a new $20 much less gold.
hskip, you are free to invest in gold. It’s not for me. Much too volatile.
BTW, weren’t you one of the ones complaining about the transcontinental railroad being subsidized?
The gold standard was dumped many years ago. In fact, didn’t the entire world dump the gold standard? Sorry. I won’t engage in that argument.
Byron
I think you have to be cautious when allowing profitability to guide decisions on public services to the nation.
Such a measure would have meant much of Texas hill country would not have been electrified, along with most of those wide open spaces in the West. And all that Big Sky country probably still wouldn’t have mail service. And what public services (or bridges) are self-sustaining in the small and isolated communities in Alaska? How many county roads would have been built that serve five families on a long lonely stretch of road? How many county hospitals and clinics would need to be shut down? For that matter, do prisons and jails show a profit? Ha! Stupid me. Thanks to privatization, now tons of money can be made running prisons.
Anyway, I think you get the idea and you will have no problem making your own additions to those examples.
I’m not ready to give up our railroads. We need to improve them and support innovation. But this country doesn’t seem to be very interested in improving anything or innovation. And then they will scream about the country going to the dogs.
Fools. (and their (fools) abundance is probably a function of our unwillingness to support our schools and disdain for science)
You seem to think the government is needed for everything. But electricity can be created in other ways besides a grid. Gas-oowered electric generators come to mind. We are not talking about getting rid of railroads. We are talking about getting rid of Amtrak, which would save us a lot of money.
feynman:
You are unaware of that point?
What was gold selling for per ounce in say 1900 and what is it selling for now?
From 1833 to 1918 gold was about 19/oz. It now sells for about 1300/oz.
1300-19/1300 * 100 = 98.54%
That is the money government has stolen from the people, it is the reason collectivists do not like or want a gold standard, they can inflate currency, they cannot inflate gold.
Another point to make is that this country was much more free in the years when gold was stable than we are today.
http://www.nma.org/pdf/gold/his_gold_prices.pdf
in regard to Amtrack. You can pooh pooh the source but the author makes some good points which can be verified [I would think].
http://capitalismmagazine.com/2005/09/life-imitates-fiction-at-amtrak-shades-of-atlas-shruggeds-taggart-transcontinental-railroad/
1. Today, Amtrak runs trains like the Southwest Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles whose financial loss is so great that it requires a federal subsidy of $420 per passenger. It’s cheaper for taxpayers to buy airline tickets and give them to these Amtrak passengers than to preserve the train.
2. Last year Amtrak lost more than $908 million on its 15 long distance routes, which could easily be cut since more than 50 percent of Amtrak passengers ride on just ten percent of the system.
3. Amtrak allocates capital to frivolous projects while being painfully slow over three decades in correcting safety shortcomings in its Manhattan tunnels, the busiest in the country. U.S. DOT Inspector General Ken Mead concluded that it’s unacceptable for Amtrak to budget millions of dollars to repair sleeper cars for long-distance trains while under-investing in strategic fixed assets.
4. If train service is discontinued completely on a route, a severance package provides many employees with full salary for five years. Amtrak’s job-protection absurdity is unparalleled in other industries.
5. Congress has long empowered Amtrak to operate over tracks of the freight railroads and pay far less than commercial rates. This despite the fact that its trains often interfere with freight operations and add to delays, which cheats shareholders of the track-owning companies. The Union Pacific Railroad said that Amtrak underpays by $60-70 million annually for using its facilities. Incidentally, even publicly sponsored commuter railroads like Metra in Chicago pay acceptable, negotiated rates to
6. After more than $27 billion in federal subsidies to Amtrak another Congressional bailout will only perpetuate Amtrak and its deplorable management. We need to get rid of market-irrelevant routes and open remaining lines to competitive bids from private companies that specialize in contracting-out for services.
Hve things gotten worse or better at Amtrack since 2005?
hskip,
I’m unaware that our currency has lost 97% of its value. Can you provide some supporting links?
Thanks
Feynman. It’s a math problem. Take the value of $20.00 = 1 ounce gold coin in 1900 and place it at todays value of $1250.00 per ounce. You could actually go right up until 1933 when FDR confiscated the Citizen’s gold and raised the value to $32.00, debasing the purchasing power of the paper money the citizens received in exchange for their gold by about 40%. To lazy to look up the formula. Already did it once to check it’s accuracy. It’s accurate enough to give us some idea of what lies ahead for the future.
It actually closed at $1,299.00 on Friday but $1,250 is near the average over the last years. The value of gold although not a perfect constant is the best measure in relation to the devaluation of a specific currency.
It is important to note that all fiat currencies issued throughout the world have historically reached their intrinsic value; the paper it’s printed on and thus it not a matter of if, only a matter of when.
Thinking that America’s fiat currency and it’s politicians are something special that can thwart such a situation from happening is in my opinion naĂŻve.
hski I prefer the value of platinum since it is scarcer for use as a measure. Or for the farmers, they would prefer wheat to use as that. It seems that you are more interested in religion than economics in this since you go on faith.
A far more rational means is the measure of consumer goods and relative wealth in that measure since none of us use or need gold or platinum. I think it is funny that some folks hoard gold as a hedge against hard times. If an economy fails or war time comes and food is scarce, try going to Burger King and getting a burger with gold, or most anything else. The use of gold as a medium of exchange is long gone and actually held back economic development in our history. Even now, go into a car dealer and drop a bag of gold on the salesman’ desk and see if he will let you drive off in a new car when you do that. Now if you go to Pawn Stars, THEY will take it, but at a nice cut in price for themselves too.
randyjet – I am willing to bet if you dropped enough gold bars at your car dealer they would take them.
Dredd – you often lose debates on here and do not realize it. Do you then have the Uncle Clarence syndrome?
In the debates yesterday concerning the Uncle Clarence syndrome that nourishes the Surveillance State:
(Guardian). This 6 out of 10 people (in favor of Greenwald) result shows that the Stockholm Syndrome / Uncle Clarence syndrome can be treated.
The other debater, the military NSA spymaster, who likes to spy on all Americans (“Get It All”) and who was debating Greenwald, did not realize he was losing the debate.
And probably does not know he lost big.
He is a disciple of Saint Reagan who taught them how to forget what was most important:
Putin is planning on buying and selling all goods with rubles. USD is no longer good in Russia or any place they conquer (annex). Right now we are a paper tiger
Perfect Propaganda Pitch….
“Dems enslaved (nice choice of words) blacks and Latinos again with free stuff”.
Somebody would be well served if he turned off Fox news for just a few hours each day.
And I am puzzled about the “again” part. There has been a lengthy discussion regarding all the Dems were members of the KKK. Did the KKK give free stuff to blacks and Latinos?
Al Zhiemers,
Splendid post.
I was around in 1964. I’m ashamed that I don’t remember it like you do. What the hell was wrong with me?
Regarding the debt…
Throughout human history, wars create debt. Every time we have a big war we go into debt. It’s been happening since the Revolution. This isn’t a new phenomena .
If you give two wars and cut taxes (thanks GWB) the debt is going to increase. Especially if you run those wars off the books – like maybe nobody will notice – debt is going to explode. If you are running 2 wars, and cut taxes AND SUFFER A HORRIFIC FINANCIAL CRISIS, well, my friends, you are going to have a godzilla size debt.
But nobody noticed much until we got a NEW president. Then all hell broke loose, Gotta get rid of the debt. It will be the end of America. Gotta have a budget that’s balanced – just like I have to balance my household budget (a ridiculous comparison). The sky is falling (although interest rates are at all time lows.) Talk about interest rates would usually prompt cries of ‘Runaway Inflation”. Not today, though. We know what happened in 2009 and 2010 and 2011and 2012. No runaway inflation. Damned little inflation as a matter of fact.
And the new guy has to save the banks, cut taxes further because of the recession, get a stimulus going to get us out of the recession and get people back to work, AND still run two wars. And there’s just one teeny little problem, the Republicans vow from day one to make this president fail. (Nice of them not to give a sh*t about what happens to the country. as a consequence)
Now you want to argue about bailing out the banks? Fine. Think Greece. There was a run on their banks. Think that was a better way to go? Are you ready to stand in line at your bank and see signs posted on your ATM “closed’? Iceland let their banks fail and they toughed it out and I think they are now okay. But Iceland was NOT the driver of the entire world’s economy. If we had chosen that route, I think the headline might read “Banks Fail – Trouble Ensues”.
The debt will be managed. As I said, they’ve been around since the Revolutionary War. The deficit is falling faster than ever. Balanced budgets will really, really, really screw up this country. It will destroy the social safety net. (a feature, not a bug, for the right). The only good news about it… we will never go to war. Can’t do that and have a balanced budget. But you are also going to have to pray we don’t have a recession. A recession makes things very very difficult. Soon you have to privatize all our nice things, all those shiny monuments in DC, all those National Parks, all the highways. Maybe we’ll even have to sell an aircraft carrier or two.
Feynman, your economic propaganda is much to the rhetoric of Marx. Believing that the level of the redistribution of wealth now placed on our society provides a benefit to the majority is not recognizing the increase in social problems that has developed as the level of the redistribution of wealth has increased. The majority are much worse off today than they were 50 years ago because tax and regulatory fees have risen sharply over this period.
From licensure requirements to greater across the board taxation and regulation, we are bankrupting our society. Try entering into just about any business and see how much it costs to start and operate that business. Why do you think that that are so many bankruptcies that have been filed over the last 30 years.
The first $35,000 of income should be exempt from taxation or better yet abolish the income tax all together. It is a disgrace to tax the lower socioeconomic levels of our society. Than we wonder why 50 million Americans are at or near poverty.
As far as managing our debt. You have not been paying attention. The Fed is having to buy our Treasuries because the are not able to sell than at the same amounts as they once did on the open markets. We’ve debased our currency to such a degree that it has now lost 97.31% of it’s value.
The economy as it is now being operated can not be sustained. The unfunded liabilities alone cannot be sustained.
The welfare state, both individual and corporate causes more harm than good. Ignoring the harm it does, will not make it go away.
Have you noticed the amount of female panhandlers now doing that in our major cites. You act as if everything is hunky dory and under control.
Have you noticed the increase in food prices over the last 6 months while wages are not increasing.
The various threads here conjoin to bring us back to Justice Clarence Thomas. He lived in a little town in Georgia. He is only 65 years old but he grew up in segregated Georgia. I rode a train through his area in about 1964 before they desegregated anything. Bathrooms in the train stations had separate and unequal. I went into the White Only and then the Colored. It did not say Colored Only. Just Colored. It was not equal. There was no Colored allowed in the restaurant. No separate but equal restaurant. There was no voting by any Negros at all then. Some of the white trash did not vote. It was heritage. My daddy didn’t vote and I don’t vote. There were some lynchings by the Klan of negros in those years in Georgia. Clarence must have not known an integrated school until Yale. The Southern Strategy evolved from Lee Atwater, from South Carolina and the purpose was to win power in both Southern States and in so called Northern States. They succeeded. The new RepubliCons were not the Party of Lincoln and they adopted all the old Segregationist ways. The South is now all Red States or RepubliCon. There are a few Blacks who are RepubliCons but you must inquire as to why. Especially in a Southern State. They can personally gain. If they support the new Voting ID laws it will adversely affect Blacks. Good for me maybe but bad for the advancement of colored people in Georgia. Clarence Thomas never belonged to the NAACP. By the same token not one Supreme Court Justice has ever represented a defendant in a criminal jury trial. Not one Justice has ever represented a plaintiff in a civil rights trial. Thomas is the only one from a Southern State. Two are from CA. The rest are New York and Jersey. Those Yorkies all rode trains in life to work. They all ride in First Class now and do not know nuthin bout birthin babies. The times they are a changing but not the members of the Supreme Court. They just eviscerated the Voting Rights Act. Bye bye Miss American Pie, drive your Chevy to the levee.
Good Nite from the old farts home.
Let’s do Spartacus!
I’m an Italian!
Annie,
If he got a standing ovation, he must be Irish! 🙂
Who created us? The flying Spaghetti Monster, an Italian of course.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/05/02/3176742/alabama-chief-justice-gets-standing.html?sp=/99/296/
He got a standing ovation! Maybe he’s Italian.
Nick – true. I got so engrossed in this thread that I almost forgot about my mushroom risotto. Saved it just in time.
Ah yes, “A Christian Nation”.
Here’s another fine Republican that should scare the bejeezus out of every American – Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Chief Justice Roy Moore of Alabama…:
Speaking at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures” who created us.
So, who do you think created us?