SHOULD McCAIN RESIGN IMMEDIATELY? OR IS ONE SENATE ELECTION ON THE NOVEMBER BALLOT ENOUGH FOR ARIZONA? If he resigns before May 30, such an election would be necessary. Steve Hayward has some thoughts.

YOUR LAST WARNING:  DON’T FORGET IT’S MOTHER’S DAY TOMORROW: And in case you are wondering who the original “mother” in Mother’s Day was, it was Ann Maria Jarvis (1832-1905) (mother of Mother’s Day founder Anna Marie Jarvis). The elder Jarvis was in fact a remarkable woman. She bore at least 11 children, only four of whom survived to adulthood (although, alas, that didn’t make her remarkable for the time). For Jarvis, her losses were a call to improve health conditions in Taylor County in what is now West Virginia. She organized “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to raise money for medicine, care for sick mothers, inspect milk, and train women about how to deal with disease. This was before we all got used to the government doing this for us.

During the Civil War, she wanted these clubs to provide aid to fallen soldiers, no matter which side of war they had been fighting for. She is said to have provided the only prayer for the body of the first Union soldier to be killed by Confederate soldiers, Thornsbury Bailey Brown.

Weirdly, her daughter Anna regretted having been the founder of Mother’s Day. She resented any commerciality being associated with it. Printed Mother’s Day cards made her angry. She even tried to get official recognition of the day rescinded.  She failed.

THIS WEEK IN HATE:  The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is holding a hearing on hate crimes on Friday.  (Yes, of course, you’re invited.)  For the reasons I wrote about in Lights! Camera! Legislation!:  Congress Set to Adopt Hate Crimes Bill That May Put Double Jeopardy Protections in Jeopardy, I opposed the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009.  But … well … I lost.  That happened to me a lot during the Obama Administration.

On Friday, I hope to learn more about how the statute has been implemented.  One of the things about the Act that bothers me is that is doesn’t actually require the prosecutor to prove the defendant was motivated by hatred.  It’s enough that the defendant acted “because of” somebody’s race, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.  That can cover an extraordinarily broad range of cases (as I describe in my essay).

PATRICK MORRISEY WINS GOP PRIMARY IN WEST VIRGINIA:  That means that Don Blankenship lost, which is good news for those who would like to see a viable GOP candidate go up against Joe Manchin in November.

ROBERT MORRIS MAY WELL HAVE BEEN AS INDISPENSIBLE AS GEORGE WASHINGTON: The wealthy financier and merchant signed all three of the nation’s founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. Roger Sherman is the only other person who did so. But Morris’ real claim to fame is that he financed a major portion of the Revolution. Alas, business reversals in the 1790s landed him in debtors’ prison in 1798. He languished there over three years till Congress, in part out of sympathy for Morris in particular, passed its first bankruptcy statute in 1801. Morris never regained his health or wealth. He died on this day in history, 1806.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO FRIEDRICH HAYEK:  He would have been 119 today.

THE 27TH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION:  There aren’t many stories about the Constitution that I would term “adorable.”  But this is one of them.  And it limited Congress’ power too.  So good-o.

ON THIS DAY IN 1711, David Hume was brought into the world via the miracle of birth.

NOBODY WANTS TO TALK PUBLICLY ABOUT MALAYSIA’S AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY, BUT VOTERS SURE DO THINK ABOUT IT: From the Nikkei Asian Review:

For decades Malaysia has granted privileges to ethnic Malays … or Bumiputera [translation: “Sons of the Soil”], under a policy of affirmative action for the majority group that is less wealthy than the country’s ethnic Chinese minority. While this policy has created discontent …, it has largely dropped out of the political debate ahead of general elections on May 9 ….

“There is always unfairness we feel,” a 58-year-old retired ethnic Chinese man told the Nikkei Asian Review on Thursday, speaking of … affirmative action … officially known as The New Economic Policy, launched in 1970. He was attending an evening rally by the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan, or Alliance of Hope, … which drew about 1,000 people from diverse races. Together, they called for the defeat of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s ruling coalition.

The retired man said he felt that the Chinese were treated as “second-class or third-class citizens.” … [H]e added: “We are all hoping that there will be some changes [in the Bumiputera policy].”

Malaysian politics is not as different from American politics as one might hope. Polls indicate that Americans oppose race-preferential college admissions and employment practices, and the clearer the poll questions, the more strongly they oppose such preferences.  It’s very likely this issue has contributed to the pattern of racially-polarized voting that we see today.

The kicker—as I discuss in A “Dubious Expediency”: How Race-Preferential Admissions Policies on Campus Hurt Minority Students—is that affirmative action admissions policies aren’t even good for their supposed beneficiaries. Nobody ever said public policy is rational.

GRANDPA BILL IS A HERO:  Ohio man trips fleeing gunman with his cane.  Captured on video.

ADMIRAL CUOMO PREPARES FOR WAR:  The duly-elected governor of the Empire State has lost his ever-lovin’ mind.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, 1983, THE SO-CALLED HITLER DIARIES–A SUDDEN GLOBAL SENSATION–WERE EXPOSED AS A FORGERY:  In my family, credit goes to my ex-husband, who said to us at the time: “They ought to test the ink, not the paper. Any idiot can find old paper to write on.”  Right again, Mr. Brock.  It was indeed the ink that proved the diaries were fake.

HEROIC SEATTLE POLICE OFFICER FACES DISCIPLINE:  Should the officer have waited for the lunatic with an ice ax stolen from the REI to kill somebody before putting him in a bear hug?  Somebody at the Seattle police department must think so.  It’s amazing anybody is willing to be a police officer these days.

TODAY IN HISTORY: Today in 1787, James Madison arrived in Philadelphia, nine days before the Constitutional Convention’s scheduled start (and twenty days before its actual start). He stayed at Mary House’s boarding house at Fifth & Market Streets and dined at the Indian Queen Tavern (also owned by Mrs. House) nearby. And why shouldn’t he get there early? The guy was born for this job.

His fellow delegate William Pierce described him this way: “Mr. Madison is a character who has long been in public life; and what is very remarkable every Person seems to acknowledge his greatness. He blends together the profound politician, with the Scholar. … The affairs of the United States, he perhaps, has the most correct knowledge of, of any Man in the Union.”

DON’T MESS WITH BEARS:  Really.  No selfies with bears.  That’s a rule to live by.

I TOOK A LOOK AT THE TEXT OF THE LOGAN ACT:  I’m not sure it’s the most carefully considered legislation Congress ever produced, but I didn’t see anything about its applying only to Republicans.

HYPOCRISY ALERT: A new study finds that the more one believes in global warming, the less one is likely to engage in eco-friendly individual behaviors. It’s funny how that works.

KANYE IMAGINE THAT?: If you didn’t watch the Bill Whittle video posted by Stephen Green this morning, here’s the part you shouldn’t miss: Kanye West isn’t just a guy who has a few nice things to say about Donald Trump. He listens to Jordan Peterson AND HE QUOTES THE GREAT THOMAS SOWELL.

I tend to be pretty skeptical of celebrity endorsements in politics. And to be honest, I remain skeptical of this one. But I have to admit, learning that Kanye West quotes Thomas Sowell made me smile. Maybe there’s hope for the world after all.

THE LITTLE VARMINTS ARE AFTER GEORGE WASHINGTON NOW: Students at GWU don’t like the university’s “Colonial” mascot, which has honored the school’s namesake, George Washington, since 1926.

THE EEOC SUES ALBERTSONS GROCERY CHAIN FOR REQUIRING ITS BILINGUAL EMPLOYEES TO SPEAK ENGLISH WHEN AROUND ENGLISH-SPEAKING CUSTOMERS: Seems like  an extreme interpretation of liability under Title VII to me (and indeed several federal courts have agreed).

A few years ago, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights asked employers why they chose to require their bilingual employees to speak English while at work, and their responses seemed sensible: First, it’s human nature that when some people hear others speaking a language that they don’t understand, they worry whether the others are talking about them. So it’s rude speak in a language that others don’t understand. When customers (or even fellow employees) are the one’s who feel uncomfortable, it’s bad for business. Second, sexual harassment law makes an employer liable for “hostile environment.” But if the employer or the employer’s managers speak only English, it is much more difficult to supervise and to ensure employees are not being abusive to each other. And there were other reasons. I wrote about the topic in my Commissioner Statement in the Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on English-Only Policies in the Workplace.

I can’t help but wonder if Americans would have a more favorable attitude toward immigration if the federal government hadn’t been zealously pursuing anti-assimilationist policies for so many decades. Attempts to impose bilingual education and affirmative action are two of the biggest ones. (Why identify with the majority if your one of your grandparents will get you diversity points?) But in a small way these “Speak English, please” rules are another example. (By the way, the EEOC seems to be going out of its way to “interpret” the Albertsons rule to be more demanding than it really is. It is not the intent of the rule to prevent Spanish-speaking employees from assisting Spanish-speaking customers in Spanish if they happen to be within earshot of an English-speaking customer.)

While all this is happening, Trump’s appointees to the EEOC are still awaiting Senate confirmation. And it’s 2018. Tick, tick, tick.

THOUGH SHE BE BUT LITTLE, SHE IS FIERCE: On this day in 1776, Rhode Island (officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations) renounced its allegiance to George III—a full two months before the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. For such a little squirt, Rhode Island was fiercely independent. It refused to send a delegation to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and for a long time refused to ratify the Constitution the Convention produced. Finally, after the Constitution was up and running, President Washington was inaugurated, and the 1^st Congress was assembled, Rhode Island was reminded that if it isn’t part of the United States and America, then it’s a foreign country. If it’s a foreign country, then tariffs can (and likely will) be imposed. Meanwhile, Congress passed the Bill of Rights, which reduced some of the concerns of Rhode Island citizens. Rhode Island decided to be “in.”

MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS:  On May 3, 1973, this day in history, Chicago’s Sears Tower was “topped off.”  It remained the tallest building in the world for 23 years.

As a good Chicagoan, I cannot bring myself to call it the Willis Tower.

THE TRANSGENDER BATHROOM WARS CONTINUE IN STATE COURT:  Now that the Trump Administration has withdrawn the “Dear Colleague Letter,” the argument that Title IX covers this has dried up.

CAN I KISS YOU? NO, NEVER MIND. I’D BETTER NOT. I COULD WIND UP IN A HEAP OF TROUBLE: Stephen Green pointed out yesterday that the Pentagon has spent $697,627 on “Can I Kiss You” training. I strongly suspect that is just a small sliver of what the Pentagon spends on the prevention of what it calls “unwanted sexual contact.”

In 2013, the military released the results of its 2012 Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members, which purported to show a large uptick in “unwanted sexual contact.” Those results, however, were utterly unscientific and almost certainly wrong (as I described at length in my individual Commissioner Statement in the Commission on Civil Rights’ Report on Sexual Assault in the Military).

Nevertheless, on June 4^, 2013, in a regrettable spectacle, the Senate Armed Services Committee conducted a hearing at which some of the military’s highest-ranking officers were berated about the survey results. It was not the first such hearing. Congress has held at least 10 such hearings over the years. At the June 4, 2013 hearing, a supplicating Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno attempted to reassure the panel by testifying, “Two weeks ago, I told my commanders that combating sexual assault and sexual harassment within the ranks is our No. 1 priority.”

No doubt preventing sexual misconduct is important. Still, I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t make me feel safe and warm to think the military’s top priority is the prevention of sexual misconduct. How about a little perspective?

FALKLANDS IRREDENTISM?: Today is the 36^th anniversary of the sinking of Argentina’s General Belgrano (originally the U.S.S. Phoenix, a Brooklyn-class light cruiser) by the H.M.S. Conqueror, a British nuclear submarine. It was the deadliest day of the Falklands War. I visited Buenos Aires last year and found more references to the war than I expected. There is an impressive map of Las Islas Malvinas (the Falkland Islands) on the wall at the Casa Rosada. Argentinians haven’t forgotten.