Stephen, My interpretation of Joe's email was that it would stay in j.u.Objects unless someone (other than him) contributes the Validate class and tests. Granting your point, his choice would otherwise stand and re-factoring it after JDK 7 would be impossible.
I am interested in such a class and will try submit my first patch for JDK. Do you want to help? I am open to doing it together. Paul
