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
Paul,
Quite right. Verde and Salt are tributaries to the Colorado and drain into the Colorado. I had it backwards.
Paul, I see those huge hay farms in AZ. They get 3 cuts in Wi. if the weathers right. The blend here is mostly hay, then beans, and corn.
Feynman, You mean when I say something that comports w/ your strident ideology I “do a fime job of explaining things.” Feynman, my job was to read people. Most people stand naked in front of me, whether they like it or not. My ability to read people, QUICKLY, has literally saved my life. “Literally” being used in the literal sense.
Do not think that family dairy farms do not use antibiotics, they do. They just don’t use them per bovinapita[get it] as factory farms. I first realized this when I had to go to a coop feed store to interview a witness. There are Costco sized bottles of antibiotics for anone to purchase. My daughter had so many ear infections as a kid I thought about buying a bottle!!
If you don’t want to concern yourself with the human costs, here is another reason why we should worry about the farmers in CA
Central Valley
Virtually all non-tropical crops are grown in the Central Valley, which is the primary source for a number of food products throughout the United States, including tomatoes, almonds, grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus.[26]
Imperial Valley
…economy is heavily based on agriculture due to irrigation, which is supplied wholly from the Colorado River via the All-American Canal. Thousands of acres of prime farmland have transformed the desert into one of the most productive farming regions in California with an annual crop production of over $1 billion
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I wouldn’t think VA, OH or IN can make up the shortfall.
Must be that the Salt and Verde tributaries are siphoning off too much of the water from the Colorado. 🙂
Dredd – we know you got to lesson two in your course, but as I asked before, could you move on to lesson three?
feynman, if you have been eating that pie, you are already destined for the bypass table, completely oblivious of the ingredients of commercial, processed food. Maybe Obama Care can save you.
Gotta luv the Uncle Clarence syndrome … sin drone in southern comfort lingo (“there is no such thing as science”).
So you want to walk back that tributary comment or are you just going to ignore it?
Mr. Indoctrination and Prep H,
I wonder if the wrong-wing nuts here understand that they can take reading comprehension classes at their local community college at night … assuming they have one in their community … and of course there is also Liars Anonymous.
Saguaro cactus is one of many types of cacti found in the Sonoran Desert. They are very distinctive but I prefer the ocotillo when it’s in bloom.
Saguaro is only found in the Sonoran Desert.
Byron,
You are kidding, aren’t you? Nick, will you please explain to Byron? I also give up with Byron.
(And when you’re not in attack mode, you do a fine job of explaining things)
Nick,
Will you explain about the thing about hay and the dairy factory farms and antibiotics to Paul? I give up.
Other than making some rather broad statements, you have explained nothing.
Paul,
Why won’t you accept some information? The Salt and Verde rivers are tributaries of the Colorado. They wouldn’t exist without the Colorado.
BTW, Mexico is also supposed to get a share of the Colorado. I think this will be the first year in a long time that they will get some. So that’s good news.
Why do you insult me with cracks about “geographically challenged”? Why do you assume that I don’t know about the Sonoran Desert? Maybe I also know about “Bloody Basin” (and that great place that sells pies).and when the desert blooms and when you first begin to see Sonora cactus driving south on I17.
this is what a tributary is
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tributary
Mexico gets water because we built a desalinisation plant to make up the difference.
Are you sure you don’t mean saguaro cactus which define the Sonoran Desert? No saguaro, no Sonoran Desert.
I am curious why we should worry about farmers in CA? The farmers in Virginia will pick up the slack as will the farmers in Ohio and Indiana.
The farmers in CA should be planting crops which rely on little water until the drought is over. They should also have planned for drought.
Factory farms are an abomination. The wholesale use of antibiotics is criminal. I know about that stuff.
It is interesting to learn about the switch to hay and what that means for dairy farming.
Gonna need those food inspectors! More government.
You don’t inspect hay. BTW, they are just doing the first cut of alfalfa now, in Arizona. We will have at least two more crops this year. We export to other states.
Paul
Lord knows we need more than basic geography!
But thanks for the info that water runs downhill.
BTW. It’s not ALL downhill for the Salt Water project. Some parts go uphill and they have to pump the water up. That is true for many portions of the West (which basically wants to be a desert) that get their water from the Colorado or the Columbia.
Well, a drought is a drought and both valleys are in one. The Central Valley is bigger so I assume a bigger producer. The Imperial Valley is making some changes due to the drought, a change that I do not support. Living in Wi., there are NO factory farms. Factory farms are enormous dairy farms w/ tens of thousands of cows. The cows do not graze, they are crowded in ALL THE TIME. Because of these conditions more antibiotics are used to prevent disease. This is a primary reason for bacteria resistant antibiotics. If you drive Interstate 10 and 8 through Texas, NM, AZ and Ca. you see these factory farms. They smell, are an eyesore, and you know I’m not a lefty, but ANYONE w/ an open mind can see this is not how you want to get your dairy products. These farms need alfalfa hay. You can grow that in a variety of climates w/o much irrigation. So, the Imperial Valley is turning a lot of acreage used to grow produce, which requires much irrigation, to providing hay for factory farms cropping up now.
Byron.
Really? They should just desalinate water needed for irrigation? And you’re fine with that as a solution to drought? Aren’t you the fellow who is concerned about costs and government programs?
Just wait until they have to desalinate all our water. And listen for the screams when we have to begin using grey water.
And of course, Perry can pray. I just don’t think that is much of an approach to a big problem. Especially if one is a governor.
Basic geography would help here. The dams are uphill of Phoenix. Water runs down the Salt River and then is diverted into a series of canal systems. Just to be clear, the water runs downhill. The Indians are upset that the Snow Bowl, run by a private company, wants to run in competition with Sunrise, which is run by Indians. I don’t ski, so I only have the word of friends who have been to both that they each have great skiing, but Sunrise is further from Phoenix and has less to do at night.
April 17, 2014 US AG named the Imperial valley as a primary natural disaster area due to drought.
Both the Central Valley and the Imperial Valley and the entire state are in drought conditions…..
The drought is hitting the farm industry and its workers particularly hard. The Central Valley, one of the world’s richest food-producing regions, is up against what geologists are calling the 500-year drought. Fresno County, the heart of the Central Valley’s San Joaquin Valley farm belt—and the number one farming county in the nation—may lose up to a quarter of its orchards and fields this year for lack of water. Growers in Shasta Valley were expected to have only enough water to irrigate what equals a single irrigation on about half of their acreage.
The state’s farmers will leave about 800,000 acres idle this year, according to estimates by the California Farm Water Coalition, which will negatively impact the state’s entire economy. As a result, consumers can be expected to pay more at the grocery store for a wide range of staple foods. The Department of Agriculture warns that “major impacts from the drought in California have the potential to result in food price inflation above the historical average.
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As concerns drought, is there an important distinction between the Central Valley and the Imperial Valley? Which is the bigger producer – Central or Imperial?