[See also: A Tale Of Two Mockingbirds: The Fatal Flaw Of The Civil Rights Movement]

Harper Lee’s death is making international headlines, though she is known for only one accomplishment: To Kill a Mockingbird. The book reinforced the prejudices of the America’s elite and earned Lee eternal adulation by showing a heroic liberal lawyer, Atticus Finch, standing up to the racist, small-minded segregationist South. But last year’s release of Go Set a Watchmen, an earlier draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, tempered the adulation for Finch. As the New York Times notes in Lee’s obituary, “[M]any readers, who had grown up idolizing Atticus, were crushed by his portrayal, 20 years on, as a staunch defender of segregation.” [ Harper Lee, Author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Dies at 89, by William Grimes, February 19, 2016]

To me, it makes Lee and her most famous character much more interesting.

When I applied to law school, the University of Michigan’s application included an optional essay to name a literary character who influenced your decision to attend law school. I did not end up matriculating there, but I remember joking with 0Ls (prospective law students) that, if I were an admissions officer, I would automatically throw out every candidate who chose Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird for Atticus Finch.

Of course my political views influenced that notion. But even non-conservative friends agreed that Atticus Finch epitomized liberal do-gooding. Everyone throughout the legal world knew that citing him was trite and cliché even before we set foot in a law school. Read more >>

See also Rubio, Republicans, “Our New Spanish-Speaking Overlords,” And How To Fight Creeping Bilingualism by James Fulford

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz began unexpectedly debating in Spanish in last Saturday’s Republican debate. The bizarre incident illustrates the confusion that results when American politicians start speaking a language their own constituents don’t understand.

The exchange occurred when the two candidates were arguing about Amnesty:

CRUZ: You know, the lines are very, very clear. Marco right now supports citizenship for 12 million people here illegally. I oppose citizenship. Marco stood on the debate stage and said that.

But I would note not only that — Marco has a long record when it comes to Amnesty. In the state of Florida, as speaker of the house, he supported in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. In addition to that, Marco went on Univision in Spanish and said he would not rescind President Obama’s illegal executive Amnesty on his first day in office. I have promised to rescind every single illegal executive action, including that one.

[Audience responds with a mixture “of applause and booing”].

Read more >>

Republican hawks are aflutter today over China's installation of anti-aircraft missiles on Woody Island in the South China Sea.

But do these Republicans, good free-traders all, realize their own indispensable role in converting an indigent China into the mighty and menacing power that seeks to push us out of Asia?

Last year, China ran up the largest trade surplus in history, at our expense, $365 billion. We exported $116 billion in goods to China. China exported $482 billion worth of goods to us.

Using Census Bureau statistics, Terry Jeffrey of CNSNEWS.com documents Read more >>

[See also George W. Bush Opposed Racial Profiling Of Arabs On Planes BEFORE And AFTER 9/11 by James Fulford]

Donald Trump's latest bombshell, claiming the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction to get us into the Iraq War, is just him doing wheelies on the way to the nomination. He's apparently decided it would be fun to taunt the entire GOP by demonstrating that he can say anything and his voters won't care.

I wish he'd stop showing off, the little scamp, but maybe the GOP establishment will finally get the message that voters have been waiting a really long time for a candidate who would put Americans first. Not donors, not plutocrats, not foreigners, and certainly not foreign plutocrats (i.e., Fox News).

Trump is the first presidential candidate in 50 years who might conceivably: (1) deport illegal aliens, (2) build a wall, (3) block Muslim immigration, (4) flout political correctness, (5) bring manufacturing home, and (6) end the GOP's neurotic compulsion to start wars in some godforsaken part of the world.

That's all that matters! Are you listening yet, RNC?

There is not another candidate who agrees with Trump Read more >>

[Earlier by John Reid: Of Course Scalia Had A Point—But Affirmative Action’s Real Damage Is To Whites, Asians, And America]

The passing of Justice Antonin Scalia is a dark day for American jurisprudence. But although immigration patriots had reason to view him with hope, the immediate negative consequences can probably be contained—unless the GOP Senate caves and accepts Obama’s nominee.

In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt commented on how boring Eichmann’s last words were: “In the face of death, he had found the cliché used in funeral oratory.” She famously concluded that this was the culmination of "the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil."

The American legal system similarly manages to inflict great damage through mind-numbingly boring means. What should be simple issues—whether Arizona has the right to detain criminal illegal aliens; whether President Obama can simply ignore all immigration laws—become hopelessly complicated hundred-plus-page decisions on complex doctrines about statutory preemption and the Administrative Procedure Act. The more incomprehensible these opinions are to the average American, the easier it is to pretend that the decisions are the product of intelligent judges interpreting complex laws rather than what they often are: judicial tyranny.

Justice Scalia did enormous service to this country by cutting Read more >>

Colorado dodged a bullet. After a stinging backlash from local leaders and Rocky Mountain politicians in both parties, the Obama White House retreated this weekend from plans to dump in our state 1,000 minors who immigrated here illegally.

Good riddance to the feckless feds, and don't come back, y'all.

Now, let this be a lesson for other communities facing the D.C.-engineered human flood. You can and should say no—and force Washington to put first things first.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had unveiled a hastily drawn scheme just two months ago to convert a Denver Federal Center warehouse in preparation for another springtime surge of Central American migrants coming through Mexico. Look past the sob stories. The recent surges were Read more >>