The Republicans' confused assortment of announced presidential candidates-- as well as unannounced candidates and distant possibilities of candidates-- seems to be clarifying somewhat. The withdrawal of Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee, as well as the withdrawal of much of Newt Gingrich's staff, seems like a much-needed weeding-out process.Although Mitt Romney...
The media have recently been so preoccupied with a Congressman's photograph of himself in his underwear that there has been scant attention paid to the fact that Iran continues advancing toward creating a nuclear bomb, and nobody is doing anything that is likely to stop them.Nuclear weapons in the hands...
The Fourth of July may be just a holiday for fireworks to some people. But it was a momentous day for the history of this country and the history of the world.Not only did July 4, 1776 mark American independence from England, it marked a radically different kind of government...
One of my earliest memories of revulsion against war came from seeing a photograph from the First World War when I was a teenager. It was nothing gory. Just a picture of a military officer, in an impressive uniform, talking to a puzzled and forlorn-looking old peasant woman with a...
Basic Economics, by ThomasSowell
One of the most crucial sets of tools in the adroit conservative’s arsenal is a basic understanding … of economic theory, which is exactly what ThomasSowell provides in his aptly titled, educational and revelatory book. … Sowell steers clear of numbers, graphs and highfalutin terminology to straightforwardly explain the nuts and bolts of economics, and…
No one is more of a master of political talking points than President Barack Obama. Remember "shovel-ready projects"? These were construction projects where the shovels were supposed to start digging the moment the government gave them the "stimulus" money.Two years later, Obama can joke about the fact that the shovels...
It is hard to understand politics if you are hung up on reality. Politicians leave reality to others. What matters in politics is what you can get the voters to believe, whether it bears any resemblance to reality or not.Not only among politicians, but also among much of the media,...
This notion hibernated in the back of my mind until I read Thomas Sowell’s recent column, “Blacks and Republicans.” Dr. … Sowell described how Blacks had been driven out of San Francisco because of housing prices, and how Blacks are nowhere to be found…
Life has many good things. The problem is that most of these good things can be gotten only by sacrificing other good things. We all recognize this in our daily lives. It is only in politics that this simple, common sense fact is routinely ignored.In politics, there are not simply...
When Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense, he coined some phrases about knowledge that apply far beyond military matters.Secretary Rumsfeld pointed out that there are some things that we know that we know. He called those "known knowns." We may, for example, know how many aircraft carriers some other country...
, loot, to make extensive use of as if by plundering, use or use up wrongfully
Enter Bernie Madoff:
As Thomas … Sowell wrote on June 21, 2011:
Many retired people remember the money that was taken out of their paychecks for years and feel … And Sowell also points out, it's young people, not seniors who suffer the most from the Ponzi scheme known as Social Security:…
Three recent sports biographies -- two about baseball stars Stan Musial and Hank Greenberg, and another about boxing great Joe Louis -- are not only interesting in themselves, but also recall an era that now seems as irretrievably past as the Roman Empire.They also raise questions about who is remembered...
Many of us never thought that the Republicans would hold tough long enough to get President Obama and the Democrats to agree to a budget deal that does not include raising income tax rates. But they did -- and Speaker of the House John Boehner no doubt desires much of...
Barack Obama's political genius is his ability to say things that will sound good to people who have not followed the issues in any detail -- regardless of how obviously fraudulent what he says may be to those who have. Shameless effrontery can be a huge political asset, especially if...
Despite the old saying, "Don't cry over spilled milk," the Environmental Protection Agency is doing just that. We all understand why the Environmental Protection Agency was given the power to issue regulations to guard against oil spills, such as that of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska or the more recent...
Professor Irvine has also discovered that suggestions of bringing people like ThomasSowell to campus are met with one pretty serious … problem: Most liberal professors have never heard of ThomasSowell. … According to one of my left-leaning colleagues - one who actually knows who ThomasSowell is - the students don’t need to read Sowell…
Rocky Marciano was the only heavyweight champion who never lost a single fight in his whole career-- and, at the time, he seemed the least likely fighter to do that. In many a boxing match, he was battered, bruised and bleeding.
One of the reasons Marciano took so much...
Those who see hope in the Middle East uprisings seem to assume that they will lead in the direction of freedom or democracy. There is already talk about the "liberation" of Egypt, even though the biggest change there has been that a one-man dictatorship has been replaced by a military...
Moderation-- at least verbal moderation-- is suddenly in vogue. President Obama's rhetoric has moderated, even if his policies and practices have not. Among Republicans, voices of moderation are warning that the party cannot win elections without having a "big tent" and reaching out to Hispanics, for example. Recently, talk show...
Nothing more clearly illustrates the utter irresponsibility of Barack Obama than his advocacy of "high-speed rail." The man is not stupid. He knows how to use words that will sound wonderful to people who do not bother to stop and think. High-speed rail may be feasible in parts of Europe...
The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians. Nothing shows the utter cynicism of the unions and the politicians who do their bidding like the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act"...
San Francisco's irrepressible former mayor, Willie Brown, was walking along one of the city's streets when he happened to run into another former city official that he knew, James McCray.McCray's greeting to him was "You're 10.""What are you talking about?" Willie Brown asked.McCray replied: "I just walked from Civic Center...
