Ranger from the North

Seriously, if you think there is a way to release half of the prison population and stop locking so many people up, let's hear your plan. The data is all out there for your use, Senator Sanders. Let America know which of these criminals you plan to dump back into our neighborhoods and how your law enforcement agencies will respond when most of them go back to their old ways.

When it comes to law enforcement, the government's duty (among things) is to arrest and prosecute those who commit crimes. It should do so without regard to race. Absent evidence of discriminatory policing practices (and Tan presents none for Montgomery County or anywhere else), it should be a matter of indifference to the government whether fulfilling this responsibility means disproportionately more criminal convictions for members of a particular race.

When it comes to student achievement scores, the government's duty is to provide all students who attend its schools with quality instruction, without regard to race. If the government fulfills this duty but students of one race outperform students of another race, it's not the government's fault. No special measures need be taken to reduce the gap, although reasonable measures to address it are commendable as long as they don't lower standards or come at the expense of non-low achievers.

The remedy for an achievement gap is for those who are achieving less to do what it takes to achieve more. As long as the government isn't blocking anyone's achievement, and (if the gap is racial) isn't discriminating on the basis of race, it has no responsibility to reduce the gap. Nor, as the title of the Post's article concedes, is there much it can do to reduce the gap — other than perhaps to dumb things down and tolerate misconduct.

Left unsaid? When Washington controls virtually all health spending, instead of just fighting with your insurer over coverage, you'll be fighting against everyone from the lowliest welfare recipient to giant defense contractors over a common pool of tax dollars.

Greenwald's approach is the right one for those who are falsely accused of racism in cases where something is at stake. Where nothing is at stake, the best one-step approach is to tell the accuser to f*ck off.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Hasnas explains, colleges and universities cannot discriminate in hiring any more than other employers can. "These legal restrictions," he writes, "mean that to diversify their faculties, universities must create new positions that would appeal only to women or minority scholars or for which women and minority scholars are likely to be the most qualified candidates. The surest way to do this is to increase the number of positions in women's studies, critical race theory, LGBTQ studies, and other cultural identity-based programs. To a significant extent, the growth of what the Sokal Squared authors derisively refer to as grievance studies is a by-product of universities' efforts to obtain a more diverse faculty."

That is a problem, he argues, because it distorts the curriculum. Growth has been dictated not by academic considerations, but by the supposed need to have more "diversity."