DougR, point is, government will be messing with our ss regardless, in one way or another, since it's a government system. People polled can favour admissions based on merit alone, but they are not going to get it, AA or not. We have no tests which can measure people, or predict the future. Many people suppose we do, or should, but we don't, so we make value judgements, guesses, and when we test those value judgements and guesses, they turn out to have been skewed by race.

   So you don't believe minorities should be passed over--then either you believe they aren't, which is wrong, in point of fact, or that nothing should or can be done about it. Which I think is wrong, although what can be done does have some side-effects. It's not ideal.

I think the poll reflects a feeling that there should not be artificial interference in a supposedly natural and regular process of selection, but the process is both artificial, anyhow, and unreliable and screwy, on top of that. Popular sentiment reflects that we wish it was just fair and made sense. Sure, I do too. In the meantime, we have to deal with the mess we have. And the horse it rode in on.
   
   I don't care if Bush got into Yale--at my old school they taught you to speak english. And it cost much less.