The Connoisseur of Contrarian Thought Indulges His Wildest Imaginations (But Is It All Imaginary....)
Affirmative action: Ricci Case
Posted Jul 2, 2009 at 01:06 PM by NextLevel
Unsurprisingly, the Ricci Case has gotten very little discussion on the NVS. But I think the nature of the case and the glaring injustice speaks for itself. The only way you can justify what the original ruling in favor of the City of New Haven is by saying that different races being held to different standards for being good firemen is the right thing to do.
I actually often sympathize with liberals when they argue that tests are biased. After all, we are taught that all men are equal, so the conclusion must be that if men perform unequally, the cause is that some men are unfairly advantaged with resources. But all men are not equally gifted, then some of this nonsense can be put to rest. Unfortunately, the racial overtones of genetic diversity don't make putting this to bed as easy as one would want.
I'm a fan of reading the rulings of the Supreme Court first hand and in doing so, I've gained far more respect for Clarence Thomas than I would have had based on his being a SCOTUS justice. When you read an 8-1 opinion with Thomas being the only dissenter, you learn a lot about how one traditionalist thinks.
For this Ruling, I would recommend that anyone with an interest in the case read Justice Alito's concurring opinion. It describes the machinations of New Haven politics in great detail and how the mayor of New Haven decided to invalidate the test results because of political pressure and not because the test, which had been prepared in such a way as to make it immune to criticism of being racially biased, was shown to be so.
Anyone who reads that and thinks that corruption in America is less than corruption in Nigeria is living in lalaland. The real problem in Nigeria, as I've repeatedly argued, is the lack of sufficient talent to fulfill obligations across diverse industries. Most people flock to the most profitable industries, leaving less profitable and less attractive industries unable to thrive on their own.
Here is the letters page in response to the NY times editorial on the case, an editorial so silly that the letters in response were almost uniformly critical.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/op...otus.html?_r=1
I actually often sympathize with liberals when they argue that tests are biased. After all, we are taught that all men are equal, so the conclusion must be that if men perform unequally, the cause is that some men are unfairly advantaged with resources. But all men are not equally gifted, then some of this nonsense can be put to rest. Unfortunately, the racial overtones of genetic diversity don't make putting this to bed as easy as one would want.
I'm a fan of reading the rulings of the Supreme Court first hand and in doing so, I've gained far more respect for Clarence Thomas than I would have had based on his being a SCOTUS justice. When you read an 8-1 opinion with Thomas being the only dissenter, you learn a lot about how one traditionalist thinks.
For this Ruling, I would recommend that anyone with an interest in the case read Justice Alito's concurring opinion. It describes the machinations of New Haven politics in great detail and how the mayor of New Haven decided to invalidate the test results because of political pressure and not because the test, which had been prepared in such a way as to make it immune to criticism of being racially biased, was shown to be so.
Anyone who reads that and thinks that corruption in America is less than corruption in Nigeria is living in lalaland. The real problem in Nigeria, as I've repeatedly argued, is the lack of sufficient talent to fulfill obligations across diverse industries. Most people flock to the most profitable industries, leaving less profitable and less attractive industries unable to thrive on their own.
Here is the letters page in response to the NY times editorial on the case, an editorial so silly that the letters in response were almost uniformly critical.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/op...otus.html?_r=1
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