Due to the actions of the Seattle Public Schools in invoking its race-based bussing, I learned about race at a very young age. Going from a predominantly school in North Seattle to a school in the Capitol Hill area, which was predominantly minorities, I was aggressively introduced to what race was by other students. As a result, I've thought about race relations far more than I believe most white people do. I've read Malcolm X's autobiography twice, seen the bulk of Spike Lee's films, and have immersed myself in black culture.

I didn't end up becoming a racist. Far from it. I was also bullied by white kids, and saw myself acting as a bully without realizing it immediately. Despite the conventional wisdom that we had progressed beyond racism for the most part, I kept seeing remnants of it in one of the most liberal cities in America. Over time, I came to the conclusion that racism is about as relevant as someone's hair color or their shoe size when measuring someone's character. 

This was said better than me by Ron Paul. I was skeptical of him until I saw this quote, which pushed me to vote for him: 

"Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans only as members of groups and never as individuals. Racists believe that all individual who share superficial physical characteristics are alike; as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called "diversity" actually perpetuate racism. Their intense focus on race is inherently racist, because it views individuals only as members of racial groups."

Over at her blog former GOP activist and political pundit Sophia Nelson contends that it is a mistake for Republicans to "go after" Michelle Obama. She contends that to do so is to continue in "race baiting:"

If the GOP is so sorry as to have to go after a candidate's wife (wait, haven't we been here before--hmmm--Clinton. . .Hillary--ring a bell anyone???) in what will go down in history no matter what the outcome as the most historic Presidential candidate on record since we started electing Presidents in the 1780s, the Party is in more trouble than I even I had suspected.

The GOP's obsession with sticking with the tried and true of subtle race baiting is starting to annoy me. We saw the ugly specter of race baiting in the democratic primary play out over and over again and sadly, the Clinton's were at the epicenter of the racial storm. Can't the GOP (Grand Old Party) see that to win this election by scaring white voters about the prospect of having a black President and his equally intelligent ivy league educated wife as First Lady is pathetic?

I just read a pretty good article on the overlooking of the concerns of the Iraqi people by American leaders over at Reason magazine. The article's overall thesis was thus: 

In his own defense, Obama might remind us that he's accountable only to his countrymen, not to the Iraqis; that the "good government" he has talked about in his campaign applies to embittered Americans, not to Iraqis embittered by the prospect of a precipitous U.S. departure. He might even be elected on that basis. But this would show that Obama, who has sold himself as a man of vision at home, is selfishly unimaginative abroad. Worse, because it is unlikely he will be able to much alter U.S. policy in Iraq, since Iran will not cede much more to the next administration than it did to this one, Obama's promises are potentially deceitful.

For as long as American leaders don't treat Iraqis as important in their own right, the Iraqis will have no incentive to tie their long-term interests to America's wagon. Should that matter? Both realists and idealists would probably answer in the affirmative. But where does Barack Obama stand? It's hard to imagine that Iraqis see in him change they can believe in.

America shouldn't give a damn about the Iraqis

So asks Mary Battiata at The Huffington Post:

Lately I've been wondering what an Obama White House might mean for the future of bling. For the fate of heavy gold, medallions, below-the-butt denim, the whole hip-hop gangsta fashion habit. What if January 20, 2009 turned out to be not just a cultural and clothing pivot point for adults -- a return to the minimalism of sleek, 60s-era sharkskin suits, the containment of golf-ball sized Barbara Bush costume pearls -- but a watershed fashion moment for teenaged boys? Picture it. On Inauguration Day next year, thousands and thousands of young men and boys from city street corners to suburbs, look up from their X-Boxes and catch a glimpse of the impeccable President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama climbing the steps of the Capitol and suddenly feel... unfashionable. Out of it. Old. What if they are overcome by the same stunned, something's-happening-here feeling that teenagers in the early 60s, their closets full of sock hop regalia, felt when they first laid eyes on The Beatles in 1964, on the nationally televised Ed Sullivan Show. For adults, this kind of moment is, at most, something to take note of. To a teenager, it's a gale force warning of imminent social tsunami, an urgent prod from the eyeballs and the amygdala that to everything there is a season, and now is the time to change, change, change. Ask not what you can do for your closet, but what your closet, if ignored, can do to you.

In addition to the shortage of food globally that has been linked to the use of ethanol for energy, it looks like ethanol stateside is leading to an unintended (but not unexpected) consequence. In Minnesota, the state whose Rep. Collin Peterson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, has led the charge for ethanol subsidizing, the price of popcorn has increased by double digit percentages:

Rising demand for corn for ethanol is one reason theater operators are paying more for popcorn, which typically accounts for nearly a third of their revenue. Some theater operators already have raised prices on popcorn and tickets, but so far others are swallowing the higher costs.

AMC Entertainment, Kansas City, Mo., which runs the AMC Mayfair 18 at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, recently increased its popcorn price by 25 cents, to $4.75, $5.75 and $6.75 per serving, depending on size.

Marcus Theatres, the largest theater chain in metro Milwaukee and the eighth-largest in the country, has seen a 35 percent increase in the wholesale price of popcorn seed since last year, and popping oil and popcorn topping costs have increased in the double-digit percentages, said Bob Menefee, vice president of concessions. Marcus executives expect popcorn prices to more than double again in the next year, he said.