December 31, 2014
Random Thoughts
Thomas Sowell
12/30/2014 12:01:00 AM - Thomas Sowell
It tells us a lot about academia that the president of Smith College quickly apologized for saying, "All lives matter," after being criticized by those who are pushing the slogan, "Black lives matter." If science could cross breed a jellyfish with a parrot, it could create academic administrators.
Mitt Romney seems to be ready to try again to run for president in 2016. But most defeated presidential candidates who ran again lost again. There are much stronger Republican candidates available now than there were in 2012, including governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At this crucial juncture in the nation's history, why run a retreaded candidate?
Explaining differences in achievements between groups often pits those who attribute these differences to ability against those who attribute differences to barriers. Neither seems to pay much attention to differences in what people want to do. Few guys from my old neighborhood were likely to end up as violinists or ballet dancers, simply because that was not what they were interested in.
When Professor Jonathan Gruber of M.I.T. boasted of fooling the "stupid" American public, that was not just a personal quirk of his. It epitomized a smug and arrogant attitude that is widespread among academics at elite institutions. There should be an annual "Jonathan Gruber award" for the most smug and arrogant statement by an academic. There would be thousands eligible every year.
Every society has some people who don't respect the law. But, when it is the people in charge of the law -- like the President of the United States and his Attorney General -- who don't respect it, that is when we are in big trouble.
Has anyone asked the question, "How could so many people across the country spend so much time at night marching, rioting and looting, if they had to get up and go to work the next morning?"
Hillary Clinton's idea that we have to see the world from our adversaries' point of view -- and even "empathize" with it -- is not new. Back in 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said, "I have realized vividly how Herr Hitler feels." Ronald Reagan, however, made sure our adversaries understood how we felt. Reagan's approach turned out a lot better than Chamberlain's.
Our schools and colleges are laying a guilt trip on those young people whose parents are productive, and who are raising them to become productive. What is amazing is how easily this has been done, largely just by replacing the word "achievement" with the word "privilege."
There are few modest talents so richly rewarded -- especially in politics and the media -- as the ability to portray parasites as victims, and portray demands for preferential treatment as struggles for equal rights.
Republicans complain when Democrats call them racists. But when have you ever heard a Republican counterattack? You don't win by protesting your innocence or whining about the unfairness of the charge. Yet when have you heard a Republican reply by saying, "You're a lying demagogue without a speck of evidence. Put up or shut up!"
President Obama's establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba was not due to what the American public wanted or even what his own party wanted. It was a decision in defiance of both, just as his decisions about military matters ignore what generals say and his decisions about medical matters ignore what doctors have said. Yet pundits continue to depict him as a helpless lame duck president.
When the political left wants to help the black community, they usually want to help the worst elements in that community -- thugs they portray as martyrs, for example -- without the slightest regard for the negative effect this can have on the lives of the majority of decent black people.
If anyone in the mainstream media is at a loss for what New Year's resolution to make, try this:Stop "spinning" or censoring stories about race, and try telling the plain truth, if only for the novelty of it.
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December 31, 2014
Random Thoughts
Thomas Sowell
10/28/2014 12:01:00 AM - Thomas Sowell
Now that the Western democracies have learned the hard way what the consequences are when you admit all sorts of people into your country -- including people who hate both the principles and the people of your society -- will that cause zealots for open borders and amnesty to have some second thoughts, or perhaps first thoughts?
I hope Yankees manager Joe Girardi was watching the World Series when Madison Bumgarner was allowed to come out and pitch the 9th inning, even though he had already made 107 pitches. Time and again, Girardi has taken out a pitcher who was pitching a great game, and brought in a reliever who lost it. Baseball statistics provide good rules of thumb, but bad dogmas on a given day.
There seem to be a lot of comic-book-level movies, with human beings playing the role of cartoons.
Never take other people for granted. There is a point of no return in all relationships.
Back in 1947, J.A. Schumpeter said, "effective political reasoning consists mainly in trying to exalt certain propositions into axioms and to put others out of court." That is still the game being played by "global warming" zealots.
Some people question Barack Obama's competence, because he appointed a man with no medical background to be the Ebola czar. But Obama is not trying to solve a medical problem. He is trying to solve a political problem, on the eve of an election -- and a political partisan is the way to do that. Expecting Obama to be concerned about a medical threat to the American people is unrealistic, in view of the man's whole history.
When I see some of the bonehead plays by professional football players, I cannot understand why guys getting paid millions of dollars cannot stay alert for two hours, once a week.
Too many intellectuals are too impressed with the fact that they know more than other people. Even if an intellectual knows more than anybody else, that is not the same as saying that he knows more than everybody else put together -- which is what would be needed to justify substituting his judgment for that expressed by millions of others through the market or through the ballot box.
Sean Hannity recently pointed out an essential parallel between Islamic extremists and Nazis. One believed that they were the "master race" and the other that they are the only true religion. Both believed that this entitled them to kill others, just for not being part of their group.
Unless the Secret Service is given unambiguous authority to shoot anyone who climbs over the White House fence, without being second-guessed by people who will say "he shot an unarmed man," any president is needlessly at risk -- and millions of American voters' choice for that office can be nullified by any crackpot. You don't know who is armed or unarmed until it is too late.
Attorney General Eric Holder hit a new low, even for him, when he acted indignant about the leak of evidence supporting the police officer in the Ferguson, Missouri shooting -- on grounds that this was an attempt to influence public opinion before the grand jury makes its ruling. What was Holder doing from day one, other than trying to influence public opinion in the opposite direction?
In going through my mail, I am always amazed at how many people seem to think that a series of unsubstantiated pronouncements constitutes an argument.
Except for Congressional elections, the most important election this year is the close race for governor of Wisconsin. Governor Scott Walker has shown that he has substance and guts, rather than image and rhetoric, by opposing the government employee unions that have been bleeding the taxpayers. He would make a far better Republican presidential candidate in 2016 than Congressional phrase-makers or a retreaded candidate who lost in 2012.
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