[Diddle E. Squat]

Well, well, well, the entire article is based on a false premise, since a medical exemption is specifically mentioned in Prop 54. From the Prop 54 website, ( http://www.racialprivacy.org/miscellaneous.htm ):

"...And finally, in the interest of public health, we have exempted ALL racial categorizations made by health care and medical professionals. Clause (f) of the initiative reads, “Otherwise lawful classification of medical research subjects and patients shall be exempt from this section.” No person’s health care, or any epidemiological studies that reveal disease patterns, will be affected by RPI."

So either the writer and the Chronicle news editors never read the prop, or they are purposefully lying by ommission and misrepresentation(I know, par for the course for the Chronicle).

Maybe we can have a contest to see who, if any, can write a pithy correction slapping them down for such a ridiculous journalistic error. Such false reporting is totally unacceptable. Here is their contact info:

To contact us: E-mail: online@chron.com Office phone: 713-220-2700 Main Switchboard: 713-220-7171 Address: Houston Chronicle 801 Texas Ave. Houston, Texas 77002 Reader Representative: James T. Campbell E-mail: readerrep@chron.com Phone: 713-220-6303

[Diddle E. Squat]

Thanks for pointing out on another thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/972825/posts the relevant medical exemption info from the Prop 54 website.

[Diddle E. Squat]

This may be the best contact info, since the phony article is printed in the outlook section:

Readers interested in expressing their opinions and views in Outlook may now send essays to our new e-mail address outlook@chron.com. Op-ed pieces can still be submitted by fax at 713-220-3575 or by regular mail to the Houston Chronicle, P.O. Box 4260, 77210, attention Outlook Editor.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Overmedication can be a problem, too.

True, true. It's been known to lead to demonstrably idiotic newspaper columns, in the past. :)

[weegee]

The only way we will ever arrive at a colorblind society is when we stop taking note of skin color.

[weegee]

At least they didn't blame this on Tom DeLay...

[fire_eye]

Oh, *really*...

I guess that means, extending the twisted (as usual) logic of the loony left, that we should be encouraging DNA cataloging of all humans so that "Medical Science" can deicide exactly what to do when one of us specimens walks into a doctor's office, based on our DNA profile and the exhaustive database that "Medical Science" has accumulated... and they're afraid that Prop 54 will...

(oops... sorry, forgot to turn my crystal ball off, dammit.)

[Coeur de Lion]

The reasons Californians should support Proposition 54 are for all the reasons that the author says we should reject it. Namely, the presupposition that any statistical differences between the races and ethnicities are a clear indication that discrimination and racism is the root cause.

Everyone of the examples which the author quoted as reasons for continuing the collection of this information can be easily explained as a result of something other than racism and discrimination if a little bit of intellectual rigor was used. Of course, if this were the case, we might actual be able to solve these problems if they have solutions at all ( i.e. I don't know what I can do to remedy the poor credit histories of blacks and Hispanics).

The argument that we need to collect these statistics, because they will point out the existence racism and discrimination, kind of commits the classic mistake of "begging the question."

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

The author of this article sounds like a very good, loony left, friend of mine who sports a "Racism is Typical" bumper sticker. I asked him recently (while camping up in Pt Reyes, in the SF Bay area, really beautiful by the way) whether he really believed that, and he replied that he believes that "racism is woven into the fabric of society."

So, no amount of progress is good enough for these people. They see racism somewhere and assume that it exists everywhere. I don't know how many times I've gotten liberal friends of mine to admit (after trying to persuade them through reason or moral arguments) that they think most people are racist and so government must do this or that. I don't know whether they actually believe this, but they have surely convinced themselves that it is an a priori position required by their politics.

[bonesmccoy]

Has the Houston Chronicle carried any news and info about the decapitation of that poor trainee doctor at St. Joseph's Hospital?

Where's the story on the workers comp claim, life insurance claim, and hapless hospital administrators who permitted such a disaster????

[DoctorZIn]

PING!

Your One Stop Resource For All The California Recall News!

Want on our daily or major news ping lists? Freepmail DoctorZin.

[Criminal Number 18F]

OK, so let me get this straight. Liberals believe:

1. "There is no such thing as race."
2. "There are no differences between the races,"
3. "The differences between the races are the only important thing."

Anybody else see a little contradiction here?

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[goldstategop]

They're lying libs on racial classification just as they're lying about congressional redistricting in Texas. That's the Houston Chronicle for y'all.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[Onelifetogive]

race is very real and cannot yet be ignored.

A couple of observations:

1) This statement loses some of it's impact when translated from the original German...

2) Klan members, such as David Duke or Robert Byrd, couldn't have said it better.

[cyborg]

This article is crap. I think I will be a medical profundity then... maybe I will need my own specialist seeing as how because my grandmother is black the breathing tube may not go in all the way. Or maybe because my another one of my grandparents are Asian I may get glaucoma partly... GARBAGE. They're trying any which way to get around Prop 54. They can't make a person select their race. When I went to hospital, I asked my race to be left black but the nurse put black, then white. I told her she's more confused than me. Frankly, it would be another paper trail for the government to look at in the interest of 'national security'.

[ElkGroveDan]

We'd never know just how much more difficult it was for African-Americans and Hispanics to get bank loans or home mortgages, or that a visit to the doctor by people of color didn't automatically result in the same quality of care.

What about people with big noses? What about people with blonde hair vs. red hair, what about bowlegged people vs. flat-footed people? How do we know how much more difficult life is for THEM? I think we need some really long checklists if we are going to really effectively divide our society into envious squabbling factions.

[speekinout]

We'd never know just how much more difficult it was for African-Americans and Hispanics to get bank loans or home mortgages,

Those are mostly based on credit ratings. It's been years since I had to have an interview for a loan. I suppose people named "Kweisi" or "Gonzales" might think their problems are race based, but I'd guess that credit ratings are the problem.

And we wouldn't have known that in some cities where "minorities" constitute a substantial portion of the population, candidates of color never seem to get enough votes to win an election.

How can that be racism? It seems to me that the racist view is the one that thinks minorities are too dumb to vote.