Well, Dave, consider the source.  Ayn Rand's philosophy is closer to the
law of the jungle than the credo of most civilised societies.

It is not too hard to shoot holes in the argument.  Suppose someone DID
take a bat to Tiger Wood's knee - would he be banned from competition
because a doctor restored it? How about the "yip" putter, with its long
handle, used by senior members of the tour? Should that also be banned,
as an unfair advantage?  Randian Thought sounds good in theory, but
doesn't stand the test in practice, basically its a civil cloak for a
philosophy based on outright greed.  It is silent on the prospect of
what would happen to the so-talented beneficiaries of her system when
the downtrodden rise up waving machetes!

It might be another school of thought that Casey Martin was smart enough
to avail himself of the system, and thereby displaced less intelligent
golfers, (something of which Ayn Rand would have surely approved), he
being smarter than his opponents.

Its a free country.  People are entitled to their opinion, no matter how
whacko it might be.

Rick Sinclair
SNA


Dave at Inclusion Daily Express wrote:
>
> Hi folks,
> I found this one during my search this morning.
> I'm still trying to get my heart rate and blood pressure to
> come down. It's amazing to me that some people still think this way.
>
> http://www.aynrand.org/medialink/op-eds/martin_case.txt
> ---Original Text Follows---
> SHAME ON CASEY MARTIN
> Disabled Golfer Asks Supreme Court to OK His Forced Entry into Tournaments,
> via Law
> That Penalizes the Able
>
> By Thomas A. Bowden
>
> When a supporter of Tonya Harding attacked Olympic skating rival Nancy
> Kerrigan
> back in 1994, clubbing Kerrigan's right knee and leaving her writhing in
> pain, the
> legal system sprang to the victim's defense. The attacker was caught and
> punished
> for his disgraceful attempt to eliminate a superior competitor through brute
> force.
>
> But now, seven years later, as golfer Casey Martin appears before the
> Supreme
> Court asking approval for his own forced elimination of superior rivals, the
> legal
> system appears poised to punish the victims and reward the attacker. This
> sad
> reversal is made possible by a federal statute that penalizes ability in the
> name
> of helping the disabled.
>
> Casey Martin is a talented golfer whose rare circulation disorder prevents
> him from walking the length of a golf course. This handicap disqualifies him
> from
> competing in events run by the PGA Tour, a private organization whose rules
> require
> each athlete to walk from shot to shot.
>
> Golf is a game of extreme precision. Tiny variations in the swing of a club
> determine whether a shot lands on the green or in a sand trap, whether a
> tricky
> putt falls in or rims out. Only golfers with great stamina can maintain this
> precise control while fighting the fatigue that sets in after walking many
> miles,
> sometimes over rough terrain, and standing for many hours. The PGA's rules
> require
> and reward such stamina.
>
> But instead of gracefully accepting his inability to beat able-bodied
> opponents under the rules of an organization he voluntarily joined, Martin
> chose to
> force his way into PGA competition by invoking the Americans With
> Disabilities Act,
> a law requiring "reasonable modifications" to accommodate the handicapped.
> At
> Martin's request, a federal court forced the PGA Tour to change its rules
> and let
> Martin ride in a motorized cart, while everyone else walked.
>
> If the Supreme Court rules in Martin's favor, as seems likely, it will
> probably not even pause to identify the innocent victims of such a decision.
> The
> first victim is the PGA Tour, which should have an absolute right to set its
> own
> rules for its own tournaments. The next victims are the spectators, who want
> to see
> professional golf played at its highest level, in PGA competitions winnable
> only by
> the ablest athletes.
>
> And there is yet another victim, nameless but equally deserving of
> sympathy--
> the able-bodied golfer who is cut from the tournament to make room for
> Martin, and
> who is expected to pick up his broken dreams and go quietly home. No
> newspaper
> photographs will show the pain in this man's face, the way they showed Nancy
> Kerrigan's anguish after she was assaulted, but one can imagine his torment
> at the
> injustice of being penalized simply for having abilities that another man
> lacks.
>
> The legal and moral principles at stake here extend far beyond the realm of
> spectator sports.
>
> Under the ADA, which was designed by disability advocates who resentfully
> describe healthy people as "temporarily abled," no employers may simply fire
> disabled employees--or even hire able ones--so long as "reasonable
> accommodations"
> might help the handicapped compete. The list of bureaucratically required
> accommodations, from wheelchair ramps to sign-language interpreters, is
> endless--
> and all at the employer's expense.
>
> In a recent case, a Pennsylvania elementary school fired a psychotic
> secretary who missed deadlines, forgot to deliver messages, and couldn't
> cope with
> rearranged furniture. When she sued under the ADA, a federal court ruled
> that
> instead of firing her, the school should have engaged in an "informal
> interactive
> process" to identify "reasonable accommodations"--such as slowing down the
> rate of
> change in the office.
>
> The ADA's backers count on decent people to support the statute as a
> sympathetic expression of benevolence. But genuine benevolence toward the
> disabled
> is possible only through voluntary good will; it cannot be achieved by
> coercion,
> which results in punishing the able.
>
> This last point would be more obvious if the government were simply handing
> Casey Martin a baseball bat and letting him take a swing at Tiger Woods's
> knee. Yet
> the ADA achieves the same end through government force, penalizing mentally
> and
> physically superior candidates by making it illegal for employers and other
> organizations to prefer them over the disabled.
>
> In a rational society, everyone's life and happiness depend upon finding and
> rewarding the very best people--the best athletes, the best teachers, the
> best
> surgeons. To recognize this simple fact is to see why the Americans with
> Disabilities Act must be repealed--and why Casey Martin deserves to lose his
> case.
>
> Thomas A. Bowden practices law in Baltimore, Maryland, and is a senior
> writer for
> the Ayn Rand Institute in Marina del Rey, Calif. http://www.aynrand.org The
> Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and
> The
> Fountainhead.
>
> THE AYN RAND INSTITUTE
> 4640 Admiralty Way, Suite 406
> Marina del Rey, CA 90292
> Phone: 310.306-9232 x224    TEAR SHEET REQUESTED
> Fax: 310.306-4925
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Contact: Jason Sagall
>
> This Op-Ed and a photo of Thomas A. Bowden can be found at:
> www.aynrand.org/medialink/martin_case.shtml
> ---End of Article---