Reparations for slavery, arguably the daffiest idea in our nation's history, have entered the mainstream.

In California, it would be ordained that every resident with black skin shall receive "compensation" for something — at the outset $360,000 from the taxpayers, which include everyone with black skin.

Immediately, there were cries that it should be higher.  First $1 million, then $2 million, and some prefer $5 million each.

California's profligate politicians already spend far more than the taxpayers give them, but that does not matter.  They clearly are assuming the federal government will bail them out of the fiscal difficulties they create.

This will help the cancer spread.  If we are paying for California, why not pay reparations in our state, too? every liberal in every state will ask.

The money is supposed to atone for the sin of slavery.

Slavery doubtless is a sin, but the sinners are long since dead, along with their victims.

The idea that the sins of the past must be compensated in the present would be nonsensical in any rational world.

Bob Woodson, a prominent conservative with black skin, calls reparations impractical, controversial, and counterproductive.

Should the Italian government be paying the English people because the Romans held them slaves 2,000 years ago?

Slavery has existed for more than 4,000 years, in virtually every part of the world, and it still exists today.

The truth is that it lasted a relatively short time in the United State of America, from 1789 to 1865.  It took a long, bloody war that fractured the nation to bring it to an end after 76 years — one person's lifespan.

As a matter of law, the reparations scheme quickly falls apart.

First, slavery was legal.  Secondly, if it had been illegal, any statute of limitations would have run its course long ago.

Lastly, we don't allow ex post facto laws.

Reparations schemes are nothing more than Democrats elevating their redistribution of income agenda while paying off a reliable bloc for their votes.

There is nothing virtuous about it.  Nothing logical.  Nothing sensible.  And nothing good for America.

Image: Fibonacci Blue.