V-E DAY:  GERMANS SURRENDER, AMERICAN CELEBRATE, HARRY TRUMAN TURNS 61, and CANADIANS RIOT … ALL ON THE SAME DAY:  On this day in 1945, the definitive German Instrument of Surrender was signed in Berlin.  Americans celebrated.  It also happened to be President Harry Truman’s birthday.  And Canadian sailors … uh …. rioted and looted in Halifax, mobbing liquor stores and breaking windows in Halifax.  Ha!  Those darn Canadians.  Who are they trying to kid when they look down their noses at Americans?

THAT’S NO WAY TO WOO A LADY … OR A COUNTRY:  On this day in 1544, the English army, acting on orders of Henry VIII, ransacked and burned Edinburgh.  Scotland’s offense against England was that its parliament had rejected plans for Mary, Queen of Scots (then only a toddler), to marry Henry’s son, Edward (then six years old).  Henry had been trying to draw Scotland away from its “Auld Alliance” with France and hoped that one day his heir would occupy the thrones of both England and Scotland.

Henry’s brutal instructions to his army were as follows:  “Put all to fire and sword, burn Edinburgh, so razed and defaced when you have sacked and gotten what ye can of it, as there may remain forever a perpetual memory of the vengeance of God lightened upon [them] for their falsehood and disloyalty.”

The violent period in Scottish-English relations from late 1543 to early 1551 has come to be called “the Rough Wooing.”   The term is thought to have been derived from a comment by the Earl of Huntly:  “We liked not the manner of the wooing, and we could not stoop to be being bullied into love.”

Upon Henry’s death, his son became the English king.  But Edward died at age 15 and thus his planned marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, would likely have never taken place anyway.  On the other hand, Henry’s dream of a single monarch on the thrones of both England and Scotland was eventually realized.  But not the way he envisioned it:  It was Mary’s son, James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England.  That ended the Tudor dynasty in England and began the reign of the Stuarts.  (As a group, they weren’t so great either.  Always heed the  Psalmist’s advice: “Put not thy trust in princes …”).

By the way, there are those who believe that Henry’s erratic mood swings may be attributable to one or more  head injuries suffered in jousting accidents.

STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS v. HARVARD:  The “friend of the court” briefs supporting Students For Fair Admissions in the Harvard case are due on Monday.  One of the briefs will be making the argument found this article:  How can the Court find that the case for race discrimination in college admissions is “compelling” if American voters have over and over again found it to be a crock?

A WAR ON TESTS IS A WAR ON EXCELLENCE:  “Rescuing ‘Virtue and Talents’ Amidst the War on Tests.”

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S OWN:  We can start our own institutions:  The example of Hildegard College.

(Yes it might be more fun to have Elon Musk take over Oberlin College, but he can’t do everything.)

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:  I linked last week to “The Sausage Factory,” an article that attempts to explain why essentially all selective colleges and universities engage in race-preferential admissions.  It isn’t because they each have made an independent pedagogical judgment that the education they offer would be improved by such a policy.  Rather, it is because state legislators demand such policies, foundations and the federal government dangle carrots to encourage such policies, accreditors demand greater and greater diversity, etc.  Under the circumstances, open dissent is unlikely.

One thing I failed to discuss in “The Sausage Factory” is the federal “Hispanic Serving Institutions” program.  Under it, colleges and universities that are eligible for lucrative grants if at least 25% of their students are Hispanic.  As a result some schools have been falling all over themselves to get to 25%.

JOHN FUND:  The Mouse Has Misstepped.

THE CHILDREN’S CANDY BAR CRUSADE:  On this day in 1947, Canadian children in Ladysmith, British Columbia hit the streets to protest an increase in the price of chocolate bars from five cents to eight cents.  As the children marched, they sang:

We want a 5 cent chocolate bar, 8 cents is going too darn far

We want a 5 cent chocolate bar, Oh, we want a 5 cent chocolate bar.

The protest soon spread to Victoria and Burnaby.  Within a week, 300 children were marching down Jasper Avenue in central Edmonton.  In Toronto, 500 children marched along Bloor Street.  A smaller crowd of about 60 marched on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

The candy bar protests were quite the thing for a week or so.  Candy bar sales dropped 80%.

According to the Wikipedia entry, the end came when “an anonymous tipster told the Toronto Evening Telegram that the National Federation of Labor Youth, which had supported the Toronto protest, had communist backing.”  The protest quickly fizzled as parents kept their children out.  What the Wikipedia entry doesn’t mention is that—for whatever you’d like to make of it—the allegation of communist backing was essentially true.

Candy bars remained at 8 cents.

“THE SAUSAGE FACTORY”:  Hot!  Hot! Hot!  Race-preferential admissions policies are like sausages.  The more you know about how they are made, the less they should inspire your respect (or the Supreme Court’s deference).

(This essay is now available for the first time on the internet.  It’s also part of my anthology.).

MY FRIEND GEORGE SAYS THE ANSWER IS NO:  “Should we replace racial preferences with socio-economic preferences?”

“TOWARDS AN ANTI-WOKENESS POLITICAL PROGRAM“:  Richard Hanania and I discuss “Title VII Disparate Impact Liability Makes Almost Everything Presumptively Illegal” and “Roots of Wokeness.”

THE PROGRESSIVE CARTEL:  Who enforces the “progressive cartel?”  Put differently, who makes sure that all progressives toe the line on issues like transgender locker rooms, etc.?  These things don’t happen by magic.  Michael Lind writes:

Who decides what is and is not permissible for American progressives to think or discuss or support?  The answer is the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and other donor foundations, an increasing number of which are funded by fortunes rooted in Silicon Valley.  It is this donor elite, bound together by a set of common class prejudices and economic interests, on which most progressive media, think tanks, and advocacy groups depend for funding.

Lind isn’t a big fan of what he calls “Conservatism, Inc.” either.  He’s not entirely wrong.  But my experience has been we’re not (yet) in the same league with our progressive brethren on this.

INSTITUTIONALIZED–A NEW PODCAST:  Charles Fain Lehman and Aaron Sibarium recently interviewed me about my new “Roots of Wokeness” article.  Check out the podcast!

I SUSPECT THAT THIS IS LARGELY WHY “MATERNAL MORTALITY” APPEARS TO BE INCREASING:  Doctors now classify a death as pregnancy-related where they didn’t used to.  One can argue over whether a suicide or drug overdose by a recent mother should be attributed to the pregnancy.  But, if one changes the previous policy to include such deaths, one cannot then argue that pregnancy-related deaths are increasing.  I wrote about this a few months ago (and, more significantly, about why, contrary to what some claim, the racial disparities are not the result of racist doctors and nurses).

Being on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights gives me a window into the progressive mind.  Until my progressive colleagues started suggesting that we study maternal health, I had no idea how much attention that issue was getting.  It even made it into Biden’s SOTU address.  The most commonly offered solution is to hire large numbers of “doulas” to assist African American mothers with birth.

SIGH:  Woke medical schools.

THE LEFT HAS CAPTURED EVERY CRAPPY MAGAZINE IN AMERICA THAT ISN’T AVOWEDLY CONSERVATIVE:  Teen Vogue attempts to persuade teenaged girls that affirmative action benefits “white women” most … forgets to mention that many liberal arts schools discriminate against them and in favor of men in admissions.  Here’s a burning question that needs to be addressed:  When will Popular Woodworking wade into the transgender issue?

HELP WANTED:  Conservative or libertarian lawyer, 1 to 5 years experience, D.C. area.  Must be fearless, principled, and able to deal politely individuals with very different views of the world.  Must be able to talk about issues of race, ethnicity, religion, and sex without getting a deer in the headlights look and trying to hide under a table.  Sense of humor a plus for this job … and for everything else in life.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  Congress passed the Naval Act of 1794, which established a permanent navy and authorized the construction of six frigates, which (surprise!) ended up costing more than Congress originally appropriated.

The six ships were:  United States (1797), Constellation (1797),  Constitution (1797), Congress (1799), Chesapeake (1799), and President (1800).  Of these, only the Constitution is still afloat.

THE CRAZY YEARS CONTINUE:  Washington State “Schools Adopt Race-Based Discipline, White Students to Get Harsher Punishment.” (Yes, of course, this is illegal.)

UNC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE:  “Diversity, Equity and Confusion.”

IF ONLY THE SUPREME COURT CAN AVOID ACTING LIKE A PEANUTS CARTOON: I am optimistic about the two race-preferential admissions cases before the Supreme Court—Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. Of course, it may be that the Supreme Court will do a “Lucy with the football” number, but … well … for now at least I remain optimistic.

Note that amicus curiae briefs in support of SFFA aren’t due till early May. There’s still time for you to write one if you are so inclined. I’ll be working on mine in the month of April.

Here’s the amicus curiae brief that Peter Kirsanow and I filed at an earlier stage in the proceedings. Our new brief will expand on the themes in it and add one or two more.

MARK PERRY:  “Let’s Work Together to Challenge the Selective Double Standard for the Enforcement of Title VI and Title IX in Higher Education.”

Strong majorities of Americans oppose race and sex discrimination and reject the notion that it’s all a matter of whose ox is being gored.  But they don’t speak up.  Take a look at what Mark Perry has to say about filing Title VI and Title IX complaints.  Sometimes they work, and the college or university backs away from the discrimination.  Always they remind the college or university (and the federal bureaucracy) that we’re not all onboard with the program.

IT’S THE FACT-CHECKING INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX:  “Invasion of the Fact-Checkers.”

WE ALL PREFER WORKING TOILETS: The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General is calling for the “immediate relocation” of all detainees from an ICE facility in New Mexico on account of water leaks, clogged toilets, and mold. ICE strongly opposes this recommendation.

I can’t say how bad things are at this particular facility. But I suspect that if clogged toilets cause immigration detention facilities to be evacuated, we’re going to see a sudden spike in clogged toilets.

For what it’s worth, when my fellow commissioners on the Commission on Civil Rights and I made an official visit to immigration detention facilities, one of the facilities we saw was surprisingly nice. The other, though hardly lovely, was clean and orderly.   One of the detainees at the second facility told us that if they would let him out on Sundays, he wouldn’t mind staying indefinitely. My progressive colleagues were … uh … a bit surprised. It was amusing.

MY “ROOTS OF WOKENESS” ARTICLE MAKES IT INTO THE NEWSPAPERS; THAT’S PRETTY UNUSUAL FOR A LAW REVIEW ARTICLE:  I don’t think this version is behind a paywall.  The WaPo version (by George Will) is.