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Thomas Sowell: Are Facts Obsolete?
Creator's Syndicate ^ | April 4, 2006 | Dr. Thomas Sowell

Posted on 04/04/2006 2:31:22 AM PDT by RWR8189

click here to read article


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1 posted on 04/04/2006 2:31:26 AM PDT by RWR8189
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To: RWR8189

Great column. Sowell is totally correct about the media filtering everything. If you only received your information from the TV news channels, you would think that:

1. The majority of racial crimes are white on black

2. Pretty women are being kidnapped at alarming rates

3. White supremacy is a national problem

4. The polar ice caps are melting and flooding everything, blah, blah, blah.

5. The news media deserves respect and the government officials must answer to them

6. Bill Clinton never used force in international relations

7. Bin Laden only became a problem after Bush took office

8. Repeat ad nauseum.


2 posted on 04/04/2006 2:41:11 AM PDT by okiecon
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To: RWR8189

Facts only matter if I believe them.

I BEEEELLLLLIIIIEEEEEEVVVEEEE John Kerry will be sworn in Jauary 2005, therefore, it's a fact.

</sarcasm>


3 posted on 04/04/2006 2:46:26 AM PDT by zbigreddogz
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To: RWR8189
"Demagoguery beats data."

Truly the liberal's code.

4 posted on 04/04/2006 2:47:53 AM PDT by newzjunkey (Fellow 50th Congressional Freepers: Don't fall for Bilbray!)
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To: zbigreddogz

Sowell bump


5 posted on 04/04/2006 2:48:03 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (How do I change my screen name after Harper's election?)
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To: RWR8189

bump for after the coffee kicks in


6 posted on 04/04/2006 2:54:01 AM PDT by Skooz (Chastity prays for me, piety sings............Modesty hides my thighs in her wings......)
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To: okiecon

I just finished reading Sowell's book "Basic Economics". It is a worthwhile book even for someone who has studied economics.


7 posted on 04/04/2006 2:55:43 AM PDT by tommix2
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To: RWR8189
The media has become a buffet where people choose only the items that support what they WANT to believe.

Dr. Sowell had an earlier article called "Us and Them" (I think) which ties in very well with this article.

Thanks for the post!

8 posted on 04/04/2006 2:56:49 AM PDT by Toadman
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To: RWR8189

The MSM's first rule of business:

"Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story".


9 posted on 04/04/2006 3:06:16 AM PDT by MaDeuce (Do it to them, before they do it to you! (MaDuce = M2HB .50 BMG))
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To: RWR8189
People who have made up their minds and don't want to be confused by the facts are a danger to the whole society.

Wow!

Great line, applicable to many, many situations and explains a whole lot of what is going on today in 'Rat politics.

The title of this article, "Are Facts Obsolete?" rips into the Clintonian relativism. Clinton introduced us to a funky kind of truth which large numbers of our citizens are unable and unwilling to shake.

Clinton has introduced temporary truth. Clintonian truth serves its purpose for the day but it doesn't stand the test of time. But that's OK. It doesn't need to.

The fact that Clintonian truth has an expiration date means that they know their facts will likely be obsolete tomorrow but they really don't care, as long as they serves their purposes today.

So yes Thomas, sadly, the Facts Are Obsolete!

10 posted on 04/04/2006 3:13:38 AM PDT by ThirstyMan (hysteria: the elixir of the Left that trumps all reason)
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To: tommix2
I just finished reading Sowell's book "Basic Economics".

Thanks for the tip. I may just have to read that. I have one with a similar title that was written I believe by Paul Samuelson and some other moron. I got about 50 pages into the book, and had to stop. They were talking about the three greatest economists ever as Adam Smith (true), John Maynard Keynes, and Karl Marx, with special praise for Marx as having a deeper and broader knowledge of economics than anyone ever has because he spent his entire life studying the subject. I pretty much had to stop reading it right there.

11 posted on 04/04/2006 3:15:46 AM PDT by Hardastarboard (HEY - Billy Joe! You ARE an American Idiot!)
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To: RWR8189
What is more frightening than any particular policy or ideology is the widespread habit of disregarding facts. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey put it this way: "Demagoguery beats data."

...... and with the old destructive socialist/liberal media:

Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations. -- Aldous Huxley

12 posted on 04/04/2006 3:19:51 AM PDT by beyond the sea (Claire De Lune ........ 1862)
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To: okiecon
9. Hillary Clinton is an intelligent woman of accomplishment.

(Barf)

13 posted on 04/04/2006 3:21:40 AM PDT by beyond the sea (Claire De Lune ........ 1862)
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To: RWR8189
With all due respect, Soerll needs to check his own facts. Both books he mentioned are in print and available on Amazon.

Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters

Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters

White Gold

White Gold

14 posted on 04/04/2006 3:38:50 AM PDT by BlessedBeGod (Benedict XVI = Terminator IV)
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To: BlessedBeGod

Soerll = Sowell


15 posted on 04/04/2006 3:39:18 AM PDT by BlessedBeGod (Benedict XVI = Terminator IV)
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To: RWR8189

Sowell bump. Great column, as always.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall if he and Mark Steyn were to have dinner together. Throw in Charles Krauthammer, and that would be really interesting.


16 posted on 04/04/2006 3:45:30 AM PDT by proud American in Canada (Come on, Gary, act! (I finally saw Team America and am still laughing))
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To: beyond the sea
9. Hillary Clinton is an intelligent woman of accomplishment. (barf)

LOL! "The smartest woman in the world" (retch) LOL

17 posted on 04/04/2006 3:46:28 AM PDT by proud American in Canada (Come on, Gary, act! (I finally saw Team America and am still laughing))
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To: RWR8189

Two or more generations of electronic mass-media talking has left us all with an exaggerated regard for aired words, not facts. So the losers in an argument never deal with the facts that are against them, but come back with words slanted to make them look like winners. The electronic mass media picks them up and leaves the viewers of the evening news with a 180 degree wrong impression.

I guess it's called "spin". The truth spinner always ends up pointing in the opposite direction. That's called "lies".


18 posted on 04/04/2006 3:49:49 AM PDT by RoadTest (The wicked love darkness; but God's people love the Light!)
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To: RWR8189
Are Facts Obsolete?

Global warming comes to mind. Sowell hits another one out of the park.
19 posted on 04/04/2006 3:51:28 AM PDT by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
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To: tommix2
I read Sowell's Black Rednecks, White Liberals a few months back. Very interesting and informative book, which, unfortunately, has been ignored. I also saw the interview Fred Barnes did of him on FNC. Sowell is not only extremely intelligent but also quite funny, in a sad, cynical way. When asked how the U.S. would change under a Sowell Presidency, he stated liberals would be loading up on boats and planes to get out of the country.
20 posted on 04/04/2006 3:51:38 AM PDT by 7thson (I've got a seat at the big conference table! I'm gonna paint my logo on it!)
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