"Now I've Found/That the World Is Round/And Of Course It Rains Every Day"

Bouquet for the morning:

• Ta-Nehisi Coates on the continuing effort to decouple American history from racism.  Jesse Curtis notes the article and makes a brief observation:

  Many of us want to think of racism only as a sudden evil that intrudes out of nowhere, rather than a pervasive background that shapes all sorts of beliefs and decisions.

• Mr. Curtis also takes down a conservative effort to claim the civil rights movement for Republicans:

  I've written before about the Republican Party's effort to pretend that it is  and always has been the progressive party on issues of race and civil rights. In this week's edition of the premier conservative magazine, National Review, Kevin D. Williamson undertakes the most ambitious effort I've yet seen to advance this myth. This is a real problem for conservatism. Look, in a lot of ways I want to be a conservative. In a lot of ways I am. But how are we to take "conservatism" seriously when its flagship publication is still engaging in such blatant stupidity on issues of race?
  
  [...]
  
  It's not polite to say so, but the irony of Williamson's piece is that its rooted in these racist assumptions. I'd say that considerably undercuts his argument. No one says hedge fund managers are on the plantation because they support the party that gives them tax breaks. No one says corn growers are on the plantation because they vote for people who support ethanol subsidies. No one says pro-lifers are on the plantation because they support a party that still hasn't managed to overturn Roe v. Wade. It's all just normal constituencies voting their interests. But when black people vote their interests, somehow it's a problem that needs to be explained.
  [Emphasis in original.]

• No, not Harry Potter; stock price rises on news of job destruction:

  And we're supposed to believe that NOT ONE of these 27,000 people can possibly be trained to do the jobs in the areas of strategic focus? Seriously? Note what happened today: HP beat Wall Street's expectations, and are STILL jettisoning 27,000 jobs. HP is supposed to be one of the "job creators", isn't it? Don't "Rich People Create Jobs"?

  Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast. For the Win.
  
• Video:  From the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Burning Issue lecture on Human Rights.

  Gearty, a professor of human rights law and a practising barrister, looks at the history of human rights and ideas that have informed their development such as democracy and dignity. He challenges the notion that human rights are a western idea, a mere 'cultural accessory', or that they can be used to justify 'necessary evil' – as an excuse to go to war or to torture as part of interrogation for example.

Enjoy.