It doesn’t matter how smart you are, unless you stop and think.
Dr. Thomas Sowell
Jamie posted this at 10:54 AM CDT on Friday, August 20th, 2010 as The Conservative Sowell
August 20th, 2010
Quote of the Day
September 29th, 2009
Vintage Sowell
There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs.
Hubbard posted this at 1:17 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 as The Conservative Sowell
March 9th, 2009
Our splendid cuss
In an interview, Thomas Sowell pulls no punches:
JH: Now, we’ve heard people say that this is a uniquely bad economic situation — that it could be as bad as the Depression, etc. However, looking at GDP and job loss numbers, it doesn’t look as bad as, say, the recession in the early 80s. So how bad is this really and if you were advising the president, what would you tell him to do?
Thomas Sowell: Resign.
Awesome. Read the whole thing.
Hubbard posted this at 10:14 AM CDT on Monday, March 9th, 2009 as The Conservative Sowell
October 24th, 2008
The philosopher comes down
The tart tongued Krauthammer is backing McCain. Taking a philosophical view is Thomas Sowell:
In his classic 1987 work, A Conflict of Visions, Sowell identifies two competing worldviews, or visions, that have underlain the Western political tradition for centuries.
Sowell calls one worldview the “constrained vision.” It sees human nature as flawed or fallen, seeking to make the best of the possibilities that exist within that constraint. The competing worldview, which Sowell terms the “unconstrained vision,” instead sees human nature as capable of continual improvement.
You can trace the constrained vision back to Aristotle; the unconstrained vision to Plato. But the neatest illustration of the two visions occurred during the great upheavals of the 18th century, the American and French revolutions.
The American Revolution embodied the constrained vision. “In the United States,” Sowell says, “it was assumed from the outset that what you needed to do above all was minimize [the damage that could be done by] the flaws in human nature.” The founders did so by composing a constitution of checks and balances. More than two centuries later, their work remains in place.
The French Revolution, by contrast, embodied the unconstrained vision. “In France,” Sowell says, “the idea was that if you put the right people in charge—if you had a political Messiah—then problems would just go away.” The result? The Terror, Napoleon and so many decades of instability that France finally sorted itself out only when Charles de Gaulle declared the Fifth Republic.
What role have the two visions played in the campaign? Sen. John McCain, who is trailing, has by and large embraced the constrained vision; Sen. Barack Obama, who is leading, the unconstrained vision. Asked if Obama represents the purest expression of the unconstrained vision since Franklin Roosevelt, Sowell, himself an African-American, replies: “No. Since the beginning of American politics. This man [Obama] has been a left ideologue for 20 years.”
Hubbard posted this at 10:26 AM CDT on Friday, October 24th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, The Conservative Sowell
September 30th, 2008
Disgust
Thomas Sowell, one of the brightest economists today, opposes the bailouts:
It would be better if no such government-supported enterprises had been created in the first place and mortgages were in fact left to the free market. This bailout creates the expectation of future bailouts.
Phasing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would make much more sense than letting politicians play politics with them again, with the risk and expense being again loaded onto the taxpayers.
Jonah Goldberg, one the best political analysts today, supported the bailout but is rightly dropping scorn on both parties:
On Sunday evening, Republican House Minority Leader John A. Boehner explained his considered opinion on the $700-billion Wall Street bailout plan: It’s a “crap sandwich,” he said, but he was going to eat it.
Well, it turned out he couldn’t shove it down his colleagues’ throats. The bill failed on a bipartisan basis, but it was the Republicans who failed to deliver the votes they promised. Some complained that Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi drove some of them to switch their votes with her needlessly partisan floor speech on the subject. Of course Pelosi’s needlessly partisan. This is news?
The Republican complaint is beyond childish. Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, a man saturated with guilt for this crisis, nonetheless was right to ridicule the GOP crybabies on Monday. “I’ll make an offer,” he added. “Give me [their] names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they’ll now think about the country.”
Goldberg’s conclusion sums up how I feel right now:
I loathe populism. But if there ever has been a moment when reasonable men’s hands itch for the pitchfork, this must surely be it. No one is blameless. No one is pure. Two decades of crapulence by the political class has been prologue to the era of coprophagy that is now upon us. It is crap sandwiches for as far as the eye can see.
It takes a misanthrope to see a bright side in all this, so here ’tis: the stock market is almost certainly going to drop, so now is the time to increase 401(k) contributions if you can. Buying cheap and waiting for things to rebound is a good idea when you’re young. If you’re old—well, talk to a professional (not me).
Hubbard posted this at 9:41 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 as The Conservative Sowell, There Is Only One God And Jonah Goldberg Is His Prophet
August 26th, 2008
Does one of our heroes read us?
From Thomas Sowell:
At one time, it was said “The truth will make you free.” Today, there seem to be those who think that rhetoric and hype will make you free. It might even be called the audacity of hype.
Yeah, I realize that anyone with half an ear can coin the phrase which has become our most used category behind “uncategorized.” But let me dream that one of the biggest brains in the business reads us.
Hubbard posted this at 8:50 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, The Conservative Sowell
August 5th, 2008
Thought for the day
From Thomas Sowell:
Many have argued that capitalism does not offer a satisfactory moral message. But that is like saying that calculus does not contain cabrohydrates, amino acids, or other essential nutrients. Everything fails by irrevelant standards.
Hubbard posted this at 9:15 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 as The Conservative Sowell, The Right Words
June 5th, 2008
Yeah, pretty much
Thomas Sowell is feeling depressed:
Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober—if not grim—assessment of where we are.
Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When election day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home.
The only real quibble I can think of is that 1976, the Carter-Ford race, wasn’t exactly brimming with adequacy either.
Hubbard posted this at 8:06 AM CDT on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, The Conservative Sowell
March 25th, 2008
Sowell on Obama the Leftist
Barack Obama’s own account of his life shows that he consciously sought out people on the far left fringe. In college, “I chose my friends carefully,” he said in his first book, “Dreams From My Father.”
These friends included “Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk rock performance poets” — in Obama’s own words — as well as the “more politically active black students.” He later visited a former member of the terrorist Weatherman underground, who endorsed him when he ran for state senator.
Obama didn’t just happen to encounter Jeremiah Wright, who just happened to say some way out things. Jeremiah Wright is in the same mold as the kinds of people Barack Obama began seeking out in college — members of the left, anti-American counter-culture.
We know that guy. He was that guy in college who didn’t personally have a Che flag, but sometimes gave a “Right on!” to the guy who did. He thought those people were cool and interesting, and an exciting diversion from what he thought was his white bread world. They were authentic in a way he wasn’t, so he sought to be around them. And in case you were curious, I really didn’t like that guy at college either.
I don’t think this is inconsistent with my thesis that he’s the That’s-a-valid-point professor. I think that guy I just described wants to be the That’s-a-valid-point professor when he grows up. Because that’s the best way to keep hanging out with the “Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk rock performance poets” and the “more politically active black students” without facing the consequences of being one of them yourself. He may not be one of them, but he still thinks those people have valid points that need to be recognized.
Apollo posted this at 3:19 PM CDT on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, The Conservative Sowell
March 18th, 2008
An Obamplosion?
How one deals with racists is instructive. In the 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan received a very troubling endorsement: from the KKK. He publicly repudiated them, saying he would rather lose the race than win on the strength of a racial appeal.
Now we’re seeing Barack Obama deal with Jeremiah Wright. My reaction to the matter is similar to Thomas Sowell’s:
While talking about bringing us together and deploring “divisive” actions, Senator Obama has for 20 years been a member of a church whose minister, Jeremiah Wright, has said that “God Bless America” should be replaced by “God damn America” — among many other wild and even obscene denunciations of American society, including blanket racist attacks on whites.
[snip]
In just what context does “God damn America” mean something different?
Spin number two is that Barack Obama says he didn’t hear the particular things that Jeremiah Wright said that are now causing so much comment.
It wasn’t just an isolated remark. Nor were the enthusiastic responses of the churchgoers something which suggests that this anti-American attitude was news to them or something that they didn’t agree with.
If Barack Obama was not in church that particular day, he belonged to that church for 20 years. He made a donation of more than $20,000 to that church.
In all that time, he never had a clue as to what kind of man Jeremiah Wright was? Give me a break!
[snip]
Equality means that a black demagogue who has been exposed as a phony deserves exactly the same treatment as a white demagogue who has been exposed as a phony.
The raison d’etre of Barack Obama’s candidacy was that he would heal racial divides and that, though he had little experience, he had the good judgment needed in a good president. The Jeremiah Wright mess has called into question the Obama campaign’s reason for existence.
What Obama must do in his speech tomorrow is somehow prove that he’s not a phony. I’m not sure it’s possible. But that’s for voters in Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina, Oregon, etc., to decide.
Hubbard posted this at 9:06 AM CDT on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 as Audacity of Hype, The Conservative Sowell
July 17th, 2007
Ok, and then what?
Thomas Sowell has an interesting question for those of us that believe we should pull out of Iraq immediately:
“And then what?” That is the question which should be asked of those who are demanding that we pull out of Iraq now.
No candid answer should be expected from cynical politicians like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who have their bets riding big time on an American defeat in Iraq, as their ticket to winning the 2008 elections.
But that question should be answered by those who honestly and sincerely think that a troop pullout is the answer to the Iraq problem. What do they think will happen if we do?
That question is studiously avoided by those in politics and the media who urge pulling out.
Those who deal in talking points may believe, or claim to believe, that there will be no further repercussions. But those who have to confront the real world know that pulling out now is a formula for a bigger disaster than anything that has already happened in Iraq.
Reminds me of Toms question to the morons sporting the bumper sticker “War is Not The Answer” – “Ok, so what is the answer?”
Jamie posted this at 12:53 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 as The Conservative Sowell
June 19th, 2007
Quote of the Day
Thomas Sowell on Nifong’s disbarment:
The sad and tragic fact is that the civil-rights movement, despite its honorable and courageous past, has over the years degenerated into a demagogic hustle, promoting the mindless racism they once fought against.
Jamie posted this at 3:22 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 as The Conservative Sowell
June 14th, 2007
When Your Guests Won’t Leave
Thomas Sowell as an astute analysis of the problems with a guest worker program in the United States:
What may be especially relevant to the situation in the United States is that the immigrant parents and grandparents of the violent youths came to France with a very different view.
They were glad to be in France, which for most was a big improvement over where they came from. “They were better Frenchmen than either their children or grandchildren,” Dalrymple noted.
They would never have booed the French national anthem at a public event, as the later generations did — and as the American national anthem has been booed in Los Angeles.
The later generations were not born in the third-world countries from which their parents and grandparents escaped. They were born in France, and resented not having the same prosperity as other Frenchmen.
I have lived in a country with a successful guest worker program, Singapore. This is probably the model most Open Borders folks would like to point to as an example of a legitimate, successful and safe guest worker program. There are two problems with that analogy: 1) Singapore is an island nation with vary easily controlled borders and 2) Singapore has barely 1/100th the population of the United States.
Sowell is very astute to draw parallels between the recent ethnic violence in France and the potential for such violence from an entrenched underclass here in the US. I only hope that recent rumors of a revival of Bush’s immigration bill are just that, rumors.
Jamie posted this at 1:54 PM CDT on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 as The Conservative Sowell, The Melting Pot Boils Over
May 31st, 2007
Some Common Sense
As usual Thomas Sowell exposes the irrationality of the arm-flapping over the price of gas. How does he do it? By explaining basic economics:
Get Some Control
You could gouge your eyes out listening to some congressmen.By Thomas Sowell
With gasoline prices rising, political rhetoric is rising even faster. Liberals in Congress and in the media have launched a war of words, whose net result may well be a demand for some form of price control.
Price controls are not a new idea. There have been price controls in countries around the world. There were price controls during ancient times in Babylon and in the Roman Empire.
Whatever the hopes that may have inspired price controls, economists have studied their actual consequences, which have been remarkably similar from one place to another and from one time to another — and almost invariably bad.
That history has even included higher prices in places with price controls. For example, New York and San Francisco have severe rent-control laws — and some of the highest average rents in the country.
But those pushing for price controls on gasoline are not likely to go into facts about the consequences of price controls, much less go into the economics that explains why such bad consequences have repeatedly followed price controls.
This issue, like so many others, is likely to be settled on the basis of rhetoric. And, on that basis, the left has always had the advantage.
As former House Majority Leader Dick Armey — an economist by trade — has put it: “Demagoguery beats data” in political battles.
It never ceases to amaze me how a basic understanding of economics shines a bright spotlight onto the bunk that is liberal demagoguery. For anyone that didn’t go to CMC, please read Sowell’s Basic Economics. It provides a very basic understanding of economics that even the the layest of the layman could understand. Another fantastic read is Marxism: Philosophy and Economics which my dad gave me to read back in high school. This book gave me a better understanding of Marxism than 4 years of college political philosophy.
Jamie posted this at 4:17 PM CDT on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 as The Conservative Sowell