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Copyright Ó 2004, by Alec Rawls
Article 5/6/04
Racist prosecution in Palo Alto
In response to pressure by black activists, two Palo Alto police officers of Asian descent are being prosecuted for following correct police procedures in subduing a belligerant black man.
Article 2/28/04:
Saving democracy from, and for, homosexual marriage
Homosexuals have a right to tolerance, not approval. Homosexual marriage is about approval, not tolerance. Thus it properly falls under the purview of state majorities, as regulated by the state constitutions they have enacted or may enact. It is for state majorities to decide what kinds of marriage they will recognize and what kinds of unions they will grant the incidents of marriage to. Securing these state's rights will require a federal constitutional amendment.
Article 2/17/04:
Not just democracy, but republicanism
In Iraq, America again confronts 1858, when the great contest was whether new states entering the union would be slave or free.
Newsmax/Stanford Review article, 10/3/03:
Recall "the gringo dollar system"?
California gubernatorial replacement candidate Cruz Bustamante and his organization MEChA are cadre of radical leftists who espouse the most explicit racism while proclaiming that the real racist force, the great enemy to be destroyed, is American liberty.
Self ratings for the above article: How important: For California, 10/10, general points about liberty, 8/10. How right: On Bustamante, 7/10 (only address his worst points), on general points, 10/10. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: accuracy of representations of cited sources, 9/10; general points, 10/10.
Lawsuit update, 9/27/03:
Appeal was submitted to the United States Supreme Court on 9/23. See Petition for writ of certiorari here
Mainpage update, 9/27/03:
A new section, Distrust in truth: studies in the phenomenon of illiberal "liberalism, has been added to my main page, complete with a couple of introductory paragraphs. At present, this heading contains two "Special Reports":
Self ratings for the above article: How important: 8/10. How right: 9/10. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: accuracy of representations of cited sources, 9/10; personal knowledge of facts cited, 1/10.
2) Using the leftist theory of conservatism to derive a theory of illiberal "liberalism"
Self ratings for the above article: How important: 9/10. How right: 9/10. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: accuracy of representations of cited sources, 9/10; moral logic 10/10.
Article, 6/7/03:
Any Palestinian state must contain and protect Jews What the Arab world needs is not just democracy, but republicanism, the system of liberty under law, with religious liberty, political liberty, economic liberty and equal protection. President Bush proclaimed to the assembled Arab leaders at Sharm el-Sheikh that it is “a universal call… the call of all religions, that each person must be free and treated with respect.” If the Arab model of modernity is allowed to become "liberty for me but not for thee," the war for President Bush's morally correct objective will be lost, with consequences we don't even want to think about. The principles of republicanism, especially freedom of contract, show the way.
Self ratings for the above article: How important: 10/10. How right: 10/10. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: moral logic, 10/10, historical facts, 2/10 (but in the limited way used 9/10).
Article, 5/8/03:
Racial profiling in Palo Alto The data show that Palo Alto police are searching blacks and Hispanics pulled over in traffic stops at higher rates than they are searching whites, but these relative rates are lower than the relative crime rate. Unless black criminals are better at hiding their criminal natures, this suggests that police are searching relatively unsuspicious seeming whites while giving a pass to relatively more suspicious seeming blacks. Palo Alto police are not profiling blacks and hispanics, but they should be.
Self ratings for the above article: How important: 6/10. How right: 4/10 on the parsing of the statistical implications; 10/10 on the analysis of the propriety of profiling. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: 9/10.
Article, 4/17/03:
Is there a gene for appeasement?
Self ratings for the above article: How important: 7/10. How right: 7/10. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: 8/10. How interesting? 10/10.
Article, 3/20/03:
The end of equal protection: Korematsu to Bollinger The Supreme Court in Korematsu (the internment case) pulled off a coup, applying the 14th amendment to the federal government, even though the 14th Amendment explicitly does not apply to the federal government. To hide its coup, the Court established a test for compromising equal protection that failed to distinguish between state and federal interests. This test denies the supremacy of the Constitution, placing merely allowed state interests on a par with express constitutional purposes. If such state interests are allowed to take precedence over the 14th Amendment in Bollinger (the affirmative action case now before the Court), then equal protection is dead.
Self ratings for the above article: How important? 10/10. How right? 9/10. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: 5/10.
Article, 2/26/03:
Thinking straight about race Information about people as individuals is more specific, and hence more valuable to employers and other associates, than group based expectations. Thus under liberty, private institutions will develop so as to bring out and act on information about people as individuals, lessening reliance on group based expectations. Interference with liberty, through such mechanisms as equal employment opportunity law and state imposed affirmative action, only keeps this progress from occurring, causing group based expectations to play a larger role in society than they otherwise would.
Self ratings for the above article: How important? 10/10. How right? 8/10. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: 9/10.
Article, 1/2003:
Stop anti-natalist tax cuts Non-conservatives still operate under the delusion that human reproduction does more harm than good. Conservatives, in contrast, are alert to the developing tragedy of western population implosion. Anti-natalist tax proposals from supposedly conservative policy-makers indicates a terrible lack of vital economic understanding….
Self ratings for the above article: How important? 6/10. How right? 8/10. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: 7/10.
Article, 11/21/2002:
Blacks and Guns African-Americans have a serious problem with guns.... They don't have enough of them. Law abiding blacks must be free to defend themselves and each other so that they can live as safe as other people without being under the heel of the police.
Self ratings for the above article: How important? 10/10. How right? 10/10. My competence to speak authoritatively as to the rightness of the article: 10/10.
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