Bob's Blog

Newt Gingrich on Sotomayor

From his twitter account:

Imagine a judicial nominee said “my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman” new racism is no better than old racism

Three points about this.  Even in the narrow literal context, Newt is distorting Sotomayor’s quote, which was: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,”.

Note:  better conclusion, not better.  This is a significant distortion, Newt.

Secondly, her full quote includes “a white male who hasn’t lived that life”.  Which is a much more specific qualification of that white male, also ignored.

Finally, her quote was in reference to determining race and sex discrimination cases.  Not a stretch to understand why someone who’d have experience living through race and or sex discrimination would “more often than not” reach a better conclusion.

Shame on you, Newt, for not only fanning these flames but hiding behind the false flag of racism.  If nothing else, you prove her point well.

Update:  A reasonable criticism of that quote here.

Staying Healthy...

Just observed that neither Bri or I have had either a cold or flu for the past year.  To what can we attribute this extended period of firmity?  Hard to put my finger on one thing, our lives have changed a great deal in this time.  Here are some possibilities:

• Relationship: ours and our children, doing very well;
• Exercise: almost daily and strenuous;
• Avoidance: working from home many days, not in an office environment (our children, who are in school, have gotten the usual colds — though we’ve managed somehow to not get what they’ve gotten);
• Diet: eating well, lots of vegetables, low carbs (though not obsessive; we’ve had our share of sweets, and we both drink our share of diet soda, though less than in previous years);
• Vitamins: we both take multivitamins and fish oils daily, about 1000-1500mg C, and a few thousand units of D during the winter.

Hard to say if any of these in isolation made the difference, but can’t argue with the combined results!