Stephanie Mercimer tries to parse Andy McCarthy 's latest attack on Elena Kagan, which is titled: Hmmm ... Is it just me or does this sound familiar ? I just can't quite ... Oh. It's almost as though when McCarthy finds someone he doesn't like, he finds a way to draw a connection between them and Sharia. McCarthy's column is mostly a rehashing of Frank Gaffney 's conclusion that the Islamic Finance Project at Harvard Law is a stalking horse for implementing Taliban-style law in the U.S. Islamic Finance is a growing sector of the global financial system; it's basically a way for Muslims to participate in the finance industry while observing religious prohibitions against certain kinds of financial practices. It's a perfectly reputable field of study for a law school to offer, especially if you're interested in working for a company that is based or does business in the Muslim world. Despite some early interest from Sen. Jeff Sessions , Republican senators at some point realized that...

The term "reverse racism" has always bothered me, but until recently I never realized why. I suppose there are some people in academia who still think that "black people can't be racist," because black people don't have the political or social power to implement their prejudice as policy, but these people are obviously a minority. As I've been thinking about the New Black Panther Party voter-intimidation case, and reading through the conservative complaints, it occurred to me why so many people use the term "reverse racism" rather than "racism" to refer to racial prejudice expressed by blacks toward whites. It's because "reverse racism" offers a clear distinction between racial prejudice against nonwhites, which doesn't matter, and racial prejudice against whites, which does. I'm sure I'm not the first person to figure this out, but I just thought it was worth mentioning.

Rush Limbaugh , arguing that the Obama administration is prolonging the recession as "payback" against white people: He said somebody else said, 'This is payback,' meaning, 'All right, look. We don't care if it's the New Black Panthers or whoever it is. Black people in this country have never, ever had a fair shake. This is payback. O.J. Simpson was payback. How does it feel?' That word 'payback' is not mine, [but] it is exactly how I think Obama looks at the country: It's payback time. ... There's no question that payback is what this administration is all about, presiding over the decline of the United States of America, and doing so happily." Limbaugh defenders would bristle at the notion that this sort of comment implies racism on Limbaugh's part, but let's set aside the term for a moment. Limbaugh's world is filled with angry black people, who despite already having everything handed to them, spend their time looking for "payback" against whites in the form of violence or coerced...

More on "acting white" from Jamelle Bouie . The revamped military commissions secure their first conviction, against Osama bin Laden 's cook. Another reason to like the Fake AP Style Book more. Mitt Romney 's efforts to show he has a grasp on foreign affairs continue to fail. But at least he knows what he's doing on health care right? Former Bush -era Voting Section Chief John Tanner , who resigned after making racially charged remarks regarding voter ID laws, writes something sensible about voter ID laws. Amanda Hess on sexism and The Daily Show . I'm pretty shocked that Germany lost today, but they're a young team -- they've probably got a World Cup or two in their future.

As I noted earlier this morning, the Justice Department has challenged Arizona's draconian immigration law on the grounds that it infringes on the federal government's authority to enforce immigration laws, not on the basis of civil rights. I noted that, given the circumstances, this might be a smart political choice. A coalition of civil-rights groups filed a challenge months ago contending that the law didn't merely preempt the federal government's authority but that it would lead to racial discrimination. But there are at least two practical legal reasons for the DoJ to avoid the civil-rights route as well, according to Cristina Rodriguez , a law professor at New York University School of Law. The first is that the DoJ is challenging the law before it has been enforced, which means they'd have to prove that there is no way the law could be enforced in a nondiscriminatory fashion, and they'd have to do it without any real-world examples. "[DoJ lawyers] would have to prove that it...

Mariana Cotlear takes issue with James McWilliams ' claim that a McDonald's Big Mac is healthier than a Chipotle burrito: This is real food. This is food that doesn’t make you feel sick after eating it. This is food that actually fills you up and doesn’t produce a sugar spike which will make you crave more in a few hours. I don’t think there’s any way you can say the same for the BigMac. [...] And yet: This may get me into trouble, but if you are going to over eat, I’d rather you have one thousand calories of real food than one thousand calories of processed food. So in the end, I’d say that Chipotle is still offering us a better choice than McDonalds. Not to diminish the importance of accuracy, but setting aside the sustainable-food argument, I ultimately feel like this is like picking a more comfortable method of execution. No one expecting to lose weight or stay healthy should be eating either at Chipotle or McDonald's. And while Cotlear is right that you can find ways to eat at...

Race continues to play a role in the immigration debate, but with its challenge yesterday, the Justice Department made it clear it's one they'd rather avoid. Despite public statements from the president himself and Attorney General Eric Holder expressing concerns that the law could lead to racial profiling, the federal challenge to Arizona's draconian immigration law is drawn along strict constitutional grounds -- that the law itself infringes on the federal government's constitutional role in enforcing immigration laws. Calling the law "misguided," President Barack Obama told an Iowa audience in April that the law "undermines basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans," adding that he had "instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation." Holder, meanwhile, told ABC News in May that while the law wasn't "racist in its motivation," it could still lead to racial profiling. Those...