Sotomayor hearings
Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post does a good job of laying out what I've found to be the most irritating aspect of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings thus far:
"Republicans' outrage, both real and feigned, at Sotomayor's musings about how her identity as a 'wise Latina' might affect her judicial decisions is based on a flawed assumption: that whiteness and maleness are not themselves facets of a distinct identity. Being white and male is seen instead as a neutral condition, the natural order of things. Any 'identity' -- black, brown, female, gay, whatever -- has to be judged against this supposedly "objective" standard."
"Republicans' outrage, both real and feigned, at Sotomayor's musings about how her identity as a 'wise Latina' might affect her judicial decisions is based on a flawed assumption: that whiteness and maleness are not themselves facets of a distinct identity. Being white and male is seen instead as a neutral condition, the natural order of things. Any 'identity' -- black, brown, female, gay, whatever -- has to be judged against this supposedly "objective" standard."