Black legitimacy is based on suffering and victimization. Ergo, if someone isn't a victim, they can't be black.

What a bunch of nonsense! You don't have to be descended from certified "victims" to belong to a group which has been historically oppressed. My Jewish ancestors were not Holocaust survivors, because they left Europe before it happened. Does this make me less authentically Jewish?

An even more insidious interpretation of Dickerson's argument is that a black politician that white voters like can't really be black. By this reasoning, no truly black politician can succeed in a white area. This is a recipe for political failure.

Nothing to do with flopping, but anyone who thanked Joan Jett for saving rock and roll can take it back. She's shilling for Cadillac now.

Hmm... Led Zeppelin went commercial for Cadillac too. Is this like the old "we know what kind of person your are, we're just negotiating the price" joke? Too much integrity to sell out for Chevy.

Neither of them are particularly brave or admirable. All they are showing us is 20/20 hindsight and empty gestures. It doesn't take any courage to say that the emperor has no clothes when everyone has already figured that out.

Speaking for myself, it is not just the original vote itself that bothers me about Hillary Clinton. She keeps saying things about the war that make me wince. For example, now she is claiming that if she were President at the time she wouldn't have gone to war. What the heck does that mean?! If she knew the war was a bad idea, why did she vote for it? Maybe she is trying to tell us that she was being clever and triangulating. Vote for the amoral person who supposedly knows how to win. No thanks.

During the 2004 primaries, the theory in the Democratic Party was that no one should say anything bad about another Democrat because that would just provide fodder for the opposition. Once it looked like Kerry was going to be the nominee, we were all supposed to fall in line because he was the "electable" one with his wonderful military record.

Well, we know how that turned out. Kerry had a glass jaw, but we didn't find out until the general election because none of the Democrats would take a punch. Furthermore, tied himself in knots trying to explain how position on the Iraq War. Hillary Clinton would be in a similar conundrum, trying to blame the war on Bush when she was on record as his enabler.

Let's try a different approach this time and get everything out in the open early. If Hillary can't explain her position now, then she won't be to explain it in 2007 either. Better to wash her out now when we have the opportunity to choose a better candidate.

A bank may have long lines, but they don't have the authority to lock the door and make you wait in them.

That's why regulation is needed: because there is an imbalance of power.

The writer displayed no wit in her letter whatsoever. None. That's not an insult. Maybe if she flashes her wit more she will find more takers. No one's going to be interested if they can't see the merchandise.

Let's suppose a student has a broken leg, and if he tries to go to class on crutches there is a slight danger he could fall and reinjure himself. In fact, there is even a remote chance that he could hurt someone else if he fell and knocked them over.

Is the school justified in prohibiting him from class?

I think not. In fact, the school would probably be legally obligated to HELP him come to class. I don't see why depression or other mental illness should be any different. If there is truly a substantial risk of the person hurting someone else, that is a different story. If it is a matter of the person simply hurting themselves, I think my example shows that that excuse could be used to exclude almost any disabled person. We don't excuse the blind and deaf from participating in civic life, even though they are obviously at risk from cars, etc. But if they were barred from universities they would be marching in the streets, with many allies at their side.

I think the difference between these illnesses and mental illness is that the latter is viewed as a moral failing (“narcissism”), so people feel comfortable discriminating.

I find it hard to believe that depressed or other mentally ill students are really a massive burden on other students. Is there any evidence of this?

Actually, it occurred to me that there is an easy way for mentally ill students to avoid being expelled, as long as they have sufficient means. All they have to do is get all of their counseling and medical care from outside of the university, where they are protected by medical privacy laws. As for the poor kids, apparently they have to hope the government enforces the discrimination laws. But that is usually how it works, isn't it?

I also made a random bracket (without using any child labor) and it is at 140.

What if about five seconds were knocked off the clock every time there was a foul in the last two minutes? The idea is to let teams stage a comeback when there is a minute or so left and they still have a change, but avoid the tedious endgame when there are single digits left on the clock and the losing team is dragging things out hoping for a miracle.

I gave up on Geldof when he warned musicians performing at Live 8 not to criticize Bush.