So many topics, so little time. Welcome, boys and girls — it's time to go around the news world, PTI-style:
Last week I wrote why the University of Wisconsin System should not adopt a race-based admissions policy, referring to the 25-year remaining lifespan that retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor envisioned for affirmative action in her Grutter v. Bollinger decision. The president of the UW Student Bar Association responded in these pages by noting the 25-year window is not binding precedent. Indeed, he is correct — Ms. O'Connor merely indicated that affirmative action cannot go on forever, and she suggested 25 years as a possible end point.
As a matter of policy, though, the time frame is relevant. Ms. O'Connor's suggested sunset is perhaps an ideal vision. But if an institution makes no effort to reach it, it indicates an organization sees affirmative action not as a means to an end but as an end itself. And considering Michigan just became the latest state to recognize, through a constitutional amendment, that race plays no role in admissions decisions, the pendulum is clearly tipped toward eroding the fundamentally flawed and discriminatory policy that is affirmative action. The proposed admissions policy is also drawing scorn from State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, who was recently named the chair of the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee. Mr. Nass has frequently been labeled a "critic" of the UW System — and deservedly so. His condemnation of UW is a constant, and at times it seems driven more for headlines than constructive change. On the other hand, his fellow committee member Spencer Black, who labeled Mr. Nass' appointment as committee chair "extremely disappointing," has largely been extremely forgiving of UW for its transgressions in the past few years. The thought here is that somewhere between leniency and overzealousness resides a happy medium for members of an oversight committee.
Speaking of a "happy medium," the term could be applied to most of the previous two decades of Jimmy Carter's life, when he built a name for himself as an admired international humanitarian. Before that, of course, was his failed presidency, remembered mostly for runaway inflation and the Iranian hostage situation. And succeeding the happy medium that followed his exit from the White House is the Jimmy Carter of today, marked by his inane quest to condemn Israel for all of the Middle East's problems. Mr. Carter's latest effort toward that end is his horribly titled foray into fiction, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
Mr. Carter claims he is trying to create a more balanced discussion about Middle East policy in America, but anybody who would equate the racist policies of mid-20th century South Africa with those of Israel is so far removed from reality that he adds nothing to the debate. According to online excerpts from the book, Mr. Carter puts the fault almost exclusively on the Jewish state for failing to bring peace to the region, saying it has not abided by international law, oppressed Palestinians through checkpoints and fences and stolen land for settlements.
Of course, the fact that Gaza residents reacted to Israel uprooting those settlements in the Strip by launching rockets at Israeli civilians is glossed over by Mr. Carter. And he's apparently not too concerned that Yasser Arafat's counterproposal to Israel's offer of the entire Gaza Strip and nearly all the West Bank to the Palestinians in 2000 was a wave a suicide bombings. But, eh, objectivity, who needs it? Mr. Carter is just seeking to ensure his charity work in the last two decades won't undermine his otherwise embarrassing legacy…
Speaking of Israel, did you know they actually fund the terrorist organization Hamas and nutcase Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Yep, it's true, at least according to perennial presidential candidate Randy Crow. His website is easily one of the funniest on the Internet. For a good laugh, check it out. (Side note: In a recent interview on the Huffington Post, Jimmy Carter claimed Hamas "has stopped its terrorist activity" since being elected. Correction: That is the funniest thing on the Internet.) With Mr. Crow's off-the-wall conspiracy theories, he's just the presidential candidate for…
Kevin Barrett! Maybe the UW lecturer can even be Mr. Crow's running mate. Their campaign slogan: "Mistaken and Delusional." Ah, no, even Mr. Barrett wouldn't believe some of the stuff Mr. Crow does.
As his term at UW comes to a close, Mr. Barrett seems to be going out quietly, a sharp contrast to the media storm surrounding him this summer. May we only hope that as he continues to publicize his Sept. 11, 2001 conspiracy theories as a private citizen that he doesn't tout the "former UW lecturer" status too boldly.
And now for the big finish…
This column marks my final appearance in the pages of The Badger Herald. It's been a wild three-year ride in the news and opinion sections — from President Bush's 2004 re-election to Gov. Doyle's 2006 triumph; from Ward Churchill to Kevin Barrett; from the Paul Barrows saga to the Herald's own cartoon-gate — and I wish to thank those who guided me along the way, including Matt Dolbey, Mac Verstandig, Abby Peterson, Eric Cullen and Mike Robinson — and the many others I have worked with closely — for showing me the rewarding and important field that journalism is.
Ryan Masse ([email protected]) is the editorial board chairman of The Badger Herald. This is his 194th and final article for the Herald.
