Storm Warning

Until recently I thought Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D, Tex) was a rather typical liberal, Democratic, Black Caucus-member Congressperson, although the fact that she insisted on being picked up and driven to work in a limousine did provide a whole new dimension to “limousine liberal” inasmuch as her office was only 200 paces — yes, paces — from her apartment.

Now, however, I’m beginning to wonder whether she might be a figment of Rush Limbaugh’s imagination, or perhaps a paid agent provocateur created by Texas oil tycoons and sent to Congress for the purpose of making liberals look bad.

These thoughts are provoked by her recent complaint, reported in The Hill, that “popular African American names, like Keisha, Jamal and Deshawn, are nowhere to be found” on the list of names of … hurricanes. “Lee said she hoped in the future the weather establishment ‘would try to be inclusive of African American names.'”

This self-parody was noticed by Eugene Volokh, and recently lampooned on WorldNetDaily.

I take Rep. Lee’s demand as an encouraging sign. If we are now encouraged to direct our concern to discrimination and exclusion in the naming of hurricanes, perhaps more substantive problems are under control. But maybe there is also some actual benefit to her suggestion. Given the discrimination job applicants with identifiably African-American names are said to face (Richard Morin has just discussed a study to that effect that was bandied about the blogs quite a bit several months ago), maybe any hurricane with a name like Keisha, Jamal, or Deshawn would never be called into action and allowed to perform.