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Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Thomas Sowell :: Townhall.com Columnist
Random Thoughts
by Thomas Sowell
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Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


The same people who think it was wonderful that the Warren Court forbad government to assign children to schools on the basis of race think it is terrible that the current Supreme Court has recently stopped local governments from assigning children to schools on the basis of race.

In politics, there are few skills more richly rewarded than the ability to misstate issues in a way that will sound plausible and attractive.

Most of the time, I don't feel any different from the way I felt when I was 50 years younger. But that doesn't mean that I can actually do whatever I did when I was 50 years younger.

"Nations are like men in that they prefer a fuss made in their behalf to real services rendered." Although de Tocqueville said this back in the 19th century, it may help explain why the black vote today is so overwhelmingly for the Democrats, when Democrats have done so little good for blacks and so much harm.

In contrast with today's senators who try to get every Supreme Court nominee to pledge allegiance to Roe v. Wade, when Abraham Lincoln was considering nominees to that court, he said, "we cannot ask a man what he will do, and if we should, and he should answer us, we should despise him for it."

If the Democrats' presidential and vice-presidential candidates next year are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, most of the mainstream media will just gush at the image and the rhetoric of a woman and a minority -- and specific issues and track records will fade into the background.

A month doesn't go by without several offers to lend me money arriving in the mail. Where were these people when I was broke?

Many people who have never held a firearm in their hands are nevertheless convinced that the police fired too many shots in a confrontation with a criminal.

Many people who have never run one business for one day are nevertheless confident that they know corporate CEOs are not worth as much as they are paid.

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About The Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of The Housing Boom and Bust.
 
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Sauras
Glad to know I'm not being delusional in my opinion of excessive Police cruiser lighting.

enemaofthestatusquo
writes:
"Another Random Thought
Strobe lights have been around since the 1960's, I remember they were big novelties in dance clubs, where as you watched other dancers they appeared to be momentarily frozen in time, which brings me to--->Lets say you're driving at night and come upon a routine police traffic stop, and the police cruiser(s) are/is equipped with enough strobe lights to tour with ELP, or the Rolling Stones, or some other band of legendary musical and live concert stature. Yellow, white, and blue lights are flashing and thus urging you to proceed with reduced speed and watchful caution. However, the strobes are mesmerizing in their visual effect and shroud the scene in mystery disguising any movement by any police officer who may have be outside their cruiser. Aren't (& I've counted as many as 32 pairs of different timed strobes on a police cruiser) these lights a bit like camouflage at night? and counter-productive of officer and traffic violator safety when stopped?"

That is precisely why most agencies have gone to the use of LED lighting rather than strobes, and also why street-wise cops (of which I was one) turn off all the circus lighting and switch on the alternating or hazard flashers when making a car stop. It HAS been demonstrated that people tend to focus on flashing lights and indeed tend to steer toward a police vehicle rather than avoid it.
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