Natural Law

OPPONENTS of Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court warn that he is a judicial activist -- a judge who values his own concepts of justice and natural rights over Congress' laws, established precedents and the Constitution.But to label him a judicial activist or a natural law judge is unfair. A look at the 17 opinions that Judge Thomas has written during his tenure on the U.S. Court of Appeals shows that he firmly believes in judicial restraint, and suggests how he'll vote on important issues including police conduct and the rights of the accused.

LONG BEACH, Calif. - The Reform Party split into separate factions yesterday, putting it into a political parallel universe with two of everything - two sets of delegates, two conventions and two presidential candidates calling themselves the rightful leaders of the independent movement. Both groups - one headed by conservative television commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, the other by physicist and transcendental meditation practitioner John Hagelin - declared their faction the "real" Reform Party while clashing over who was the legitimate heir to a stash of public campaign money.

THERE'S NO question that too many of us are awash in stress, not doing enough to relieve it, and falling ill or even dying from it. Stress takes a big toll, day in, day out. So it's hard to thoroughly make light of the Denver drive that gathered enough signatures - just 2,462 - to put to an unprecedented vote this November whether the city should be required to increase "peacefulness" by identifying and providing "scientifically proven" stress-relief programs...

DENVER - Sensing that his hometown was on the verge of a collective breakdown, lanky activist Jeff Peckman quietly gathered enough signatures to put a stress-reduction measure on Denver's November ballot. If approved, it could lead to Indian music being pumped into city office buildings, "less stressful" food in school cafeterias and mass meditation focusing on peace and tranquillity. "This is what I was meant to do," he said. "I find progressive solutions to big problems." Denver could certainly use some down time.

Ilan Averbuch's stone sculpture "The Shadow of the Sun," at the C. Grimaldis Gallery, looks like a relic of some long-dead civilization -- like Stonehenge, a composition of some deep, mysterious, possibly scientific and possibly religious meaning.Part of the mystery lies in its simplicity: 20 oblong stones placed so that their inner ends form a smooth circle on the floor, their outer ones a jagged circle. Near the inner edge is a circular trough holding water.The whole thing suggests a primitive but profound attempt to express some universal concept; it invites contemplation, and rewards it with a certain sense of serenity.

WASHINGTON -- By soap-opera time this afternoon, television watchers will begin to hear the first significant words from Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in his public effort to persuade a majority of the Senate to vote to put him on the court.What he says as he makes his initial statement will start to show how much the nominee and his supporters on the committee intend to rely on his personal story -- the tale of his seriously deprived childhood and how he grew beyond it -- to set the tone of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.

Fight apathy; make it easy to registerIn discussing voter apathy, Maryland's Democratic Party chairman Nathan Landow is right when he says, "Many people just don't give a damn anymore because they see government in the hands of a small group of powerful individuals."Silver dollars rather than silver tongues are controlling the political process. It's pathetic to imagine that less than half of the eligible voters are expected at the polls in the '92 presidential election. Mr. Landow, and the Democratic Party, deserve credit for advocating procedures to make voter registration easier.

WASHINGTON -- Trouble may be brewing for Pat Buchanan in his drive for the presidential nomination of the Reform Party, with old party members growing increasingly resentful about his tactics in attempting to take control of the party and, they charge, revamp its focus and purpose. An effort at last weekend's California Reform Party convention to tie Mr. Buchanan's hands on the vice-presidential nominee and on the party's agenda, under the threat of disaffiliation from the national party, fell short.

It is fair for Mr. Bush to say that Clarence Thomas, his nominee for the Supreme Court, is ''much closer to the mainstream of America than some of the groups that are opposing him.'' This is politics, after all. It is even fair for the president to assert, as he did in announcing his selection, that Judge Thomas is the best qualified person in the nation to sit on the high court.It is not fair for Mr. Bush and his nominee to demand senatorial confirmation without offering some proof of those claims.

BEIJING -- Under pressure from international animal rights groups, the Chinese government has drafted regulations to prohibit the feeding of large mammals -- such as live cows, pigs and sheep -- to tigers and lions as a form of public entertainment.The regulations, announced this month, are designed to prevent the nation's growing number of commercial wildlife parks from using the slaughter of domestic animals as a money maker and tourist attraction.Because the practice is not covered by law but only by less stringent regulations, Chinese officials acknowledge that it will be difficult to enforce.