New Haven Firefighters

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the "New Haven 20" today. The 5-4 ruling said that firefighters were truly denied promotions due to their skin color.

The story goes, firefighters took their promotion boards. Black candidates didn't score high enough to place in the top 20 spots so the test was invalidated and nobody got the promotion for fear that the affirmative action police would get them.

My question is, why is race even a factor here? People took a test knowing that the top 20 got promotions. It just so happened that 19 white and one Hispanic people took the top 20 spots. The issue of race is far too overused in today's society.

Many say this was a slap in the face to Sotomayor. I say, not so. This was a ruling for truth and justice. The 20 passed the test and deserved the promotion.

Anti-smoking bill...

President Obama claimed he will quickly sign an anti-smoking bill... after his smoke break, or has he officially quit? Who knows... He's tried a few times.


Don't get me wrong, I know how hard it is to quit smoking. I smoked for 10 years. It doesn't make sense that a smoker would rush to pass an anti-smoking bill.

The bill is aimed to help keep kids off of cigarettes by not having ads within 1,000 feet of schools, doing away with flavored cigs, and make cigarette ads in convenient stores disappear.

Who knows, it just might work.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

It surprises me to hear that Ahmadinejad is accusing Mousavi of using tactics likening those of Adolf Hitler. How can you deny that the Holocaust ever happened, but still use Hitler in a rebuttal? It doesn't make sense to me. 

Can minorities be racist?

Recently, Judge Sotomayor, the forerunner for the open Supreme Court seat, has been charged with being a racist. Many people are saying that she, as a minority, cannot be a racist. What is a racist anyhow?

Merriam-Webster define racist as, "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." So, racism produces a superiority of one race over another and you are racist if you feel superior to a race.

Sotomayor is a racist by that definition. She feels she is better than a white person because of her status as a Latin American female. It's plain and simple. One's racist remark cannot be viewed as freedom of speech by another race. It's just not right. Minority have clubs, organizations, television channels, radio stations, etc. If a majority member tried to make an exclusive club, he'd be called a racist.

It's a soapbox that I must try to overcome due to the fact that it will never change.