[thecavemaster]

I think that Paul has made some contradictory statements on this issue and I disagree on his statement here. One can make a libertarian argument against any government involvement in banning racial discrimination for individuals purely operating in the private sector. However, if you accept the premise that a person's right of freedom of association is trumped by a right not to be shunned by another person or private business, then the federal government is logically the correct entity to enforce that right. We saw what happened when state and local governments in the South legislated on this issue. Civil rights do not change when your cross state or local jurisdictional boundaries.

Thomas Jefferson, a paraphrase: "Human beings would rather suffer the consequences of their own evil actions and thoughts and habits, even though they are perfectly capable of changing, than to put forth the effort that it takes to change." ("We would rather suffer evil, while evils are suffrable, than to right ourselves to the forms to which we have become accustomed.") With that view of human nature, you going to tell me Jefferson trusted "the public," had great faith in "private enterprise," to ensure human and civil rights in this nation? Give me a break. In other words, Hoot, you and I may be close to agreeing here... did the earth just move? In this vein, BP isn't alone to blame in all this. Each time I turn the ignition in my car, I, too, participate. It's so easy for Anderson Cooper and the like to simply blame BP, blame the President, etc. We, the public, eat that up, right up our alley. However, there's a boomerang in all of it... and it turns and flies right back at our foreheads.