I think you guys might be interested in looking up how pro-statehood politicians in Puerto Rico want to impose English as the language of the public education system, yet few of them actually know how to speak it.

The double standards in our island I think are worthy of the national spotlight.

Regarding all the Amendment 1 nastiness spewing from the NC GOP convention last weekend...may I simply say that there was an op-ed in the Charlotte newspaper the morning of May 9 (the day after the primary, when the stupid amendment passed) to the effect that private corporations in the state ought now to withdraw the benefits they offer to same sex couples. Our Repeal Amendment One organization is actively campaigning to replace all the members of the State Assembly who support this thing (and voted for other ALEC sponsored legislation to restrict abortion access and voting rights). The Remember in November campaign started here!

A tiny ray of hope from North Dakota!

Right on, ND! You lead the nation in common sense.

And just in from Florida, today at Williams Park in downtown Saint Petersburg where people registering people to vote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The girl that asked me to register in fact was a very nice looking (Red) African American woman...

So I asked her what she thought about all this liberal hate media aimed at Florida, "It's all bunch of Bull$hit"..

Same at the last MLK parade, people all over the place asking to resistor people to vote.

I understand from Twitter that Ezra will be on, interviewing Chris Hayes. Rather than lofting a softball or cover the same ground these two normally do, perhaps Ezra could ask a hard question of Hayes. Maybe a question that comes out of the same blind spot Ezra suffers from.

Richard Rorty encouraged individuals to understand how their thinking was being regimented by representational metaphors which often serve to not to shine new light on a subject, but to perpetuate darkness both for the individual and societies that share them.

Knowing Hayes’ admiration for Rorty, one might expect his newly released book, to re-vision the contingent language of merit in America. This was not the case.

As an egalitarian ideal, when choosing who will have educational opportunities or be allowed to contribute to an organization, one framework has been to see that selection is not corrupted by the subjective bias of those taking the measure of the individuals. Hayes makes some examination of the limit of defining merit as that which can be impartially measured.

Repeatedly through the text Hayes questions the fairness and competence of the system of “meritocracy”. Where does Hayes look outside the customary boundaries of the framing of merit? Everywhere he turns, he seems unable to escape the confines of a language of merit that represents anything other than traits such as cleverness, talent, of verbal and deductive agility...

The startling reality is that as individuals we employ a different language for choosing those we personally regard as meritorious. We prefer to admire and celebrate the Bob Cratchits and Fezziwigs of our personal lives rather the sharp and cunning Marleys and Scrooges. It matters little to us how fast a mind assembles an inference, if the heart of the individual relentlessly leads them to apply such powers to dark inclinations.

When America’s institutions begin choosing individuals based on the merit in the hearts individuals rather than on the mechanical efficiency with which their minds can produce expected results, we shall be entitled to expect different results from those institutions.