"Today there is much focus on our rights ... I think there is a proliferation of rights.”

Guess who is the author of those deathless sentiments, expressed recently to a gathering ofs school-children?

Wanna clue? (Okay, the illustration's a give-away)

He's a high Government Official in the USer system.

He's in an appointed position.

He's a 'judge.'

And he's got a thing for pubic hair.

Yes! You got it! Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence ("Unca") Thomas, who

...turned up in a Washington ballroom the other night to respond to questions from the winners of a high school essay contest. His answers and the remarks that preceded them provided a revealing (how about "terrifying," or "ghastly," or "reprehensible," considering the person expressing them is a member of the US Supreme Court? W) look at Justice Thomas’s worldview these days.

He talked about his own school days, reminiscing fondly about seeing “a flag and a crucifix in each classroom.” He talked about his burdens and his dark moods and about seeking inspiration in speeches and movies. And though the dinner was sponsored by the Bill of Rights Institute, he admitted to an uneasy relationship with the whole idea of rights.

Yeah, the nun's whacking him on the head and hands seem to have had their desired effect: He's a firm member of the SCOPUS Dei wing of the Court. His remarks in the following exchange only highlight how utterly and completely unqualified he STILL is for the position he holds:

The questions from students were read to Justice Thomas, and the first one seemed to throw him off. “Since the Civil War, what has changed the way Americans view the Constitution the most and why?” an unidentified student asked.

Justice Thomas gave a rambling response, touching on the Fourteenth Amendment, the rights of freed slaves, the application of parts of the Bill of Rights to the states and Justice John Marshall Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 Supreme Court decision that endorsed the doctrine of “separate but equal.”

“I’m sure there are other things that have happened,” he said, wrapping up his answer. “So I would have to say just off the top of my head the Fourteenth Amendment. And I bet you someone’s going to hear that and say, well, no, it’s the dormant commerce clause or something.”

That was a curious aside. Few Americans could name the the dormant commerce clause, and it has no obvious connection to how popular views of the Constitution changed after the Civil War. “This job is easy for people who’ve never done it,” Justice Thomas said later. “What I have found in this job is they know more about it than I do, especially if they have the title, law professor.”

You'll have noted Unca Thomas didn't say there was "too much" attention paid to rights; the "too" was tacit, though, and clearly audible in the context of the remarks.

What the United States needs now is a bunch of sexually repressed women smacking us about the head and hands to re-invigorate virtue: Domine, domine, domine, yer ALL Catholics now! Jaysus, what a fucking loser...

P.S.: I'd agree that the 14th Amendment was crucial to the post-Civil War era development of the civil state. But I'd also bet that Unca Thomas would decide AGAINST gay marriage as a 14th Amendment ("Equal Protection" clause) as a "right" protected by the Constitution.

. Anybody wanna bet?