First word to last I concur.

Thanks.

And happy (belated) 4th of July.

I verify. That is a good method.

And look, you could send ANY American to be ambassador to my home planet, New Jersey!

After all, this is Be Nice To New Jersey Week.

Hey, why don’t we send a Kenyan to the White House?

Few people attend college “to learn anything.” That is a secondary consideration. They are there primarily to acquire a degree—so that they can eventually earn a good living. The liberal arts essentially comprise the disciplines the “winners” could care less about. The hard science majors consider these courses a waste of time. Those studying business related subjects are focussing on getting their resumes ready for a Goldman Sachs interview. Anything else is deemed a distraction. This makes it almost ridiculously easy for the leftists to dominate the softer sciences. One more often than not today must be an intellectual whore to survive a liberal arts curriculum.

The title “ayahtollah” is irrelevent in Islamic religion. All Muslims are treated equal. There is only one title in Islam ie the prophets, messengers of God. Musa, Isa, Mohammad and few other prophets.

I do think the selection process for America’s diplomatic corps needs a massive overhaul. The main question is exactly how America’s selection process should be changed.

Also, while I do agree with you that discrimination (whether anti-Semitic or “positive”) is wrong and goes against America’s liberal tradition of color blindness, there are limits to what can be done about it. The Republican Party won’t do much more than milk affirmative action for votes (and that’s getting old), while the Democratic Party’s present champions leave much to be desired. It looks as though America has two rival camps of bigots who congratulate themselves on how they aren’t anything like the other camp of bigots, never mind how the legacies and the tokens are in what is essentially an uneasy alliance against those free spirits who truly do believe in colorblind meritocracy.

The only way that “affirmative action” makes sense according to its own logic is to presume monopoly power and limited opportunity. Where there is competition, “affirmative action” makes no sense because the college that finds the best talent without regard to ethnicity necessarily excels academically.

I think many colleges play the “status racket”. A college that plays the “status racket” essentially acts as a matrimonial service for those who see college not as a place to learn anything but rather as a place to gain a de facto title of nobility called a college diploma. Think Faber College. In the “status racket”, any student who doesn’t help the college’s social credibility is a liability. Thus, Princeton was once notorious for keeping out blacks and Jews. Yet, when social credibility came from importing exotic pets instead, the ideal of “diversity” got established. When status is involved, one should not assume that academic achievement is anything more than a pretext for a college’s existence.

Colleges such as Harvard and Princeton should have taken a massive hit in their social prestige due to their Wilsonian legacy of race and sex discrimination. They haven’t. These colleges continue to be regarded with more prestige than they merit. Instead, America is faced with the pent up rage and bitterness of Michelle Obama and Sonia Sotomayor. Yesterday it’s Woodrow Wilson; today it’s Sonia Sotomayor; the power of each comes from an illusion of authority that the status racket provides.

It is a mistake to assume that colleges and universities are necessarily interested in academic achievement; some are. Many others are more interested in money and power, and will use academic achievement as a window dressing. To all too many university administrators, social prestige and fashion are far more important than knowledge. Once one keeps that in mind, policies of discrimination make sense in terms of power politics.

Although the status racket exists in America, the United States is far from alone in falling into that trap. For example, Mr. Khamenei’s title of “ayatollah” should be considered to be a political title rather than recognition of his scholarship.

The former ex-President Bush should be on board the warship to welcome home his cowboys and declare to the American public that “MISSION UNACCOMPLISHED !! WE FAILED !! WHAT A SHAME !!

What a shame, and yet you want to claim to be the superpower of the world and trying to dictate and interfere the affairs of other countries. Very disgusting indeed.

Yes…This is the United States of America…This is the Great America…2009…The Land of the Freedom.

Ah…How proud to be an American…And YOU must be proud YOU are an American…I LOVE AMERICA…May God Bless America on Independence Day, and Bless Freedom everywhere on the earth!!!
Happy Birthday & Long live America

Jassem Othman, Syrian