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Random Thoughts (Thomas Sowell)
Townhall.com ^ | June 8, 2010 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 06/07/2010 9:01:48 PM PDT by jazusamo

Random thoughts on the passing scene:

All sorts of "global warming" advocates have all sorts of ideas for cooling the planet. I would be happy if they would just cool the rhetoric.

A newspaper headline said: "U.S. Growing Impatient with Iran." Boy, won't that scare them to death? If they keep going, and make enough nuclear bombs to blast us to smithereens, we will go to the United Nations and get a resolution passed, condemning their actions-- or, if the U.N. won't go that far, deploring their lack of cooperation.

Contrary to what has been widely believed, scholars say that Neanderthals had bigger brains than we have. Why did they become extinct then? Maybe they got too smart for their own good.

When someone in New York says, "Excuse me, sir," you know that you are really old.

Umpire Jim Joyce, who publicly admitted that his wrong call cost pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game, and Galarraga himself both exhibited grace in the way they reacted to the situation. How long has it been since anyone has done anything that called for the word "grace"?

When you consider what an enormous windfall gain it is to be born in America, it is painful to hear some people complain bitterly that someone else got a bigger windfall gain than they did.

After North Korea torpedoed a South Korean ship, killing 46 sailors, was there even one-tenth the outrage that is ringing out loudly around the world because of 9 deaths that resulted from Israeli commandoes intercepting a ship heading for the Gaza strip?

In political rhetoric, "comprehensive immigration reform" means amnesty up front and promises of border control later-- promises that have not been kept in the past and are unlikely to be kept in the future. Anyone who is serious, as distinguished from political, knows that you have to control your own borders before you can even have an immigration policy that means anything in practice.

Even though some people say we are living in a "knowledge economy," we are living in a political atmosphere in which ignorance has more power than ever. Washington politicians who have never run any business are telling all kinds of businesses-- from automobile companies and banks to hospitals and insurance companies-- how they have to run their businesses. This is the golden age of ignorance in power.

Electrical cords seem to be very sociable. Whenever there are two that are near each other, they almost always seem to get intertwined.

It is one of the signs of our times when people in the media ask how some of our home-grown terrorists could "turn against their own country." This was never their country-- and giving them citizenship papers will never make them or anybody else a real citizen, in the sense of someone loyal to this country.

Even experienced politicians would have a hard time coming up with a more grossly misleading phrase than "the Middle East peace process."

We cannot recapture the past, but sometimes it can recapture us-- if we are not careful.

Just as the American left has adopted blacks as mascots, so the international left has adopted Palestinians as mascots. In both cases, the actual well-being of the mascots is not the point.

Mascots exist to be symbols for others. In all the years when the Arab states controlled the area that Israel took over after the 1967 war, nobody cared what happened to the Palestinians, much less offered them a homeland.

Whether Barack Obama is simply incompetent as President or has some hidden agenda to undermine this country, at home and abroad, he has nearly everything he needs to ruin America, including a fool for a Vice President.

We have now reached the truly dangerous point where we cannot even be warned about the lethal, fanatical and suicidal hatred of our Islamic extremist enemies in our midst, because to do so would be politically incorrect here and, in some European countries, would be a violation of laws against inciting hostility to groups.


TOPICS: Editorial; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: randomthoughts; sowell; thomassowell
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1 posted on 06/07/2010 9:01:48 PM PDT by jazusamo
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To: abigail2; Amalie; American Quilter; arthurus; awelliott; Bahbah; bamahead; Battle Axe; ...
*PING*
Thomas Sowell

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Recent columns
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Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to or removed from the Thomas Sowell ping list…

2 posted on 06/07/2010 9:05:02 PM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

Whether Barack Obama is simply incompetent as President or has some hidden agenda to undermine this country, at home and abroad, he has nearly everything he needs to ruin America, including a fool for a Vice President.


My own random thought:

“I’m glad I live in a country in which a man can say this kind of thing publicly and not have to worry about being murdered for it.”


3 posted on 06/07/2010 9:10:42 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly at first.)
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To: All
Whether Barack Obama is simply incompetent as President or has some hidden agenda to undermine this country, at home and abroad, he has nearly everything he needs to ruin America, including a fool for a Vice President.

Absolutely!

4 posted on 06/07/2010 9:11:29 PM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: Beelzebubba

Bump!


5 posted on 06/07/2010 9:12:12 PM PDT by jazusamo (But there really is no free lunch, except in the world of political rhetoric,.: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

“Washington politicians who have never run any business are telling all kinds of businesses ... how they have to run their businesses. This is the golden age of ignorance in power.”

It’s hard to pick a favorite from this list in these times.


6 posted on 06/07/2010 9:16:49 PM PDT by Bhoy
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To: jazusamo

bttt


7 posted on 06/07/2010 9:16:58 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Beelzebubba
“I’m glad I live in a country in which a man can say this kind of thing publicly and not have to worry about being murdered for it.”

Rome was not built in a day. The Progressives are working on that problem.

8 posted on 06/07/2010 9:18:56 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (Flame away...)
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To: jazusamo

This guy is good.


9 posted on 06/07/2010 9:32:43 PM PDT by Tzimisce (No thanks. We have enough government already. - The Tick)
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To: jazusamo
My favorite.

"When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup." - Thomas Sowell

May 1, 2007

10 posted on 06/07/2010 9:33:03 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: WilliamofCarmichael

Savor his words.


11 posted on 06/07/2010 9:45:10 PM PDT by bicyclerepair (FR - my online family. From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida)
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To: jazusamo
Whether Barack Obama is simply incompetent as President or has some hidden agenda to undermine this country, at home and abroad, he has nearly everything he needs to ruin America, including a fool for a Vice President.

I just love reading this guy's stuff!


12 posted on 06/07/2010 9:46:41 PM PDT by Oceander (The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance -- Thos. Jefferson)
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To: Oceander

Sowell is one of my favorite authors. The “Vision of the Annointed” was a wonderful eye opener for me a long time ago.


13 posted on 06/07/2010 9:53:59 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: jazusamo

“After North Korea torpedoed a South Korean ship, killing 46 sailors, was there even one-tenth the outrage that is ringing out loudly around the world because of 9 deaths that resulted from Israeli commandoes intercepting a ship heading for the Gaza strip”?


Nice...


14 posted on 06/07/2010 9:55:55 PM PDT by chasio649 (disgruntled)
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To: jazusamo

bump


15 posted on 06/07/2010 11:15:38 PM PDT by Christian4Bush (Mike/Chris Wallace: Did you give in? Palin: "HELL NO!" 148 days til the midterms, if they're held..)
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To: jazusamo
Just as the American left has adopted blacks as mascots, so the international left has adopted Palestinians as mascots. In both cases, the actual well-being of the mascots is not the point.

Amen, Prof. Sowell. In fact, the mascots suffer horribly at the hands of their self-professed saviors.

Before liberals' Great Society, black families had higher church attendance and lower divorce rates than white families. Their rate of economic progress was higher. Now many black families live in fear of crime and without decent schools for their children.

Before the Arab imperialist wars against Israel, Palestinians were profiting from commerce with Jews. Now they live in a murderous ghetto.

Leftists themselves are the oppressors they claim to be struggling against.

16 posted on 06/08/2010 2:19:42 AM PDT by SupplySider
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To: jazusamo

“Even though some people say we are living in a “knowledge economy,” we are living in a political atmosphere in which ignorance has more power than ever. Washington politicians who have never run any business are telling all kinds of businesses— from automobile companies and banks to hospitals and insurance companies— how they have to run their businesses. This is the golden age of ignorance in power.”

Love it. Thanks for the ping jaz, and thanks for the thoughts Dr. Sowell.


17 posted on 06/08/2010 3:36:42 AM PDT by rockinqsranch (The Left draws criminals as excrement draws flies. The Left IS a criminal organization.)
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To: jazusamo

Words to literally ‘Live by.’

Dr. Sowell is a gift.


18 posted on 06/08/2010 3:38:26 AM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus)
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To: jazusamo
When you consider what an enormous windfall gain it is to be born in America, it is painful to hear some people complain bitterly that someone else got a bigger windfall gain than they did.

19 posted on 06/08/2010 3:38:34 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion ( DRAFT PALIN)
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To: jazusamo

I LOVE this Man!


20 posted on 06/08/2010 4:36:20 AM PDT by left that other site (Your Mi'KMaq Paddy Whacky Bass Playing Biker Buddy)
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