Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Random Thoughts (Thomas Sowell)
Townhall.com ^ | March 22, 2007 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 03/21/2007 9:13:33 PM PDT by jazusamo

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Random thoughts on the passing scene:

A reader asks: "Why do we drive on the parkway and park on the driveway?"

You can fall in love with an individual but you marry into a whole family.

It is fascinating to hear subprime lenders being accused of "exploitation" while they are losing millions of dollars and some of them are going bankrupt.

Will those who are dismantling this society from within or those who seek to destroy us from without be the first to achieve their goal? It is too close to call.

One of the many fashionable excuses of our time is that some words or actions were "taken out of context." Those who say this seldom, if ever, bother to say what these words or actions mean when taken in context.

No music moves me like the third movement of the Grieg Concerto. Am I not supposed to appreciate it because I am not Norwegian?

According to a report from a news agency in Kuwait, deaths of American troops are down since the recent "surge" in U.S. troop strength. But the mainstream American media apparently do not consider that news, since it goes against their political grain.

"Women's Liberation" and the "sexual revolution" have not liberated women. They have liberated the sort of man who is a "love and leave 'em" kind of guy, who lets the woman deal with the consequences, including pregnancy.

Amid all the media hysteria over the price of gasoline and the profits of "Big Oil," one simple fact has been repeatedly overlooked: The oil companies' earnings are just under 10 percent of the price of a gallon of gas, while taxes take 17 percent. Yet who ever accuses the government of "greed"?

After President Bush fired a handful of U.S. attorneys, it has become a big scandal in the media. But when President Clinton fired all the U.S. attorneys in the country -- including those who were investigating him for corruption in Arkansas -- it was no big deal. Yet many in the media still claim that there is no bias.

Where are all the beautiful movie actresses? There are some better looking women on television news programs.

Why did special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald put a reporter in jail and ruin a government official's life in an "investigation" of things he already knew, including the fact that it was Richard Armitage who revealed that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA? Perhaps it was the corrupting influence of unbridled power.

Despite political spin about "tax cuts for the rich," cuts in tax rates have led to increases in tax revenues -- not only in this administration, but in the Reagan administration before that, and the Kennedy administration before that, not to mention in India and Iceland as well.

When the Constitution's protection of private property was disregarded, so that politicians could rob from the rich to give to the poor, that also gave politicians the power to rob from the poor and give to the rich -- such as seizing homes in low-income neighborhoods and turning that property over to developers.

Whenever I see the kinds of expressions on the faces of people in high-fashion ads, I feel lucky that I never met them.

When the University of California system and the California State University system raised their tuitions, the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle read: "UC, CSU Reach Again for Students' Wallets." Apparently you are only supposed to reach for the taxpayers' wallets.

A reader says that he had a T-shirt made that said: "Stop Continental Drift!" It made as much sense as "Stop Global Warming."

When Democrats are criticized, they counter-attack. When Republicans are criticized, they apparently believe in "the soft answer which turneth away wrath." In politics, however, a soft answer is like blood in the water that provokes piranhas to more vicious attacks.

At a recent debate over global warming sponsored by National Public Radio, the audience was polled beforehand and was solidly on the side of the hysterical predictions. Afterwards, they switched to a slight plurality against those predictions. Don't look for the global warming crusaders to risk doing any more debates.

Why should they, when they have virtually a monopoly in the media, in schools and colleges, and among politicians?

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: sowell; thomassowell
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-33 last
To: jazusamo
cuts in tax rates have led to increases in tax revenues -- in this administration... in the Reagan administration ...the Kennedy administration ...in India and Iceland as well.

I believe you can add Ireland to that list also.

But that still is not enough proof to the loones on the left.

21 posted on 03/21/2007 10:01:47 PM PDT by Michael.SF. (In this (political) War, Republicans are gutless appeasers. -- Ann Coulter)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dcwusmc; GOP_Raider
I agree fellows. I have A LOT to thank the W/libbers for.
I think it would make Gloria Steinem very angry....JJ61 P.S. The ladies seemed happy though. (shut up John!) wink
22 posted on 03/21/2007 10:03:42 PM PDT by JerseyJohn61 (Better Late Than Never.......sometimes over lapping is worth the effort....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: piasa

Why is there no milk in Peanut Butter???....JJ61


23 posted on 03/21/2007 10:07:47 PM PDT by JerseyJohn61 (Better Late Than Never.......sometimes over lapping is worth the effort....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Michael.SF.

Hah! No amount of proof is going to convince them otherwise of something they're wrong about.


24 posted on 03/21/2007 10:11:36 PM PDT by jazusamo (http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/DefendOurMarines.htm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: rwilson99

After the big L.A. earthquake I bought a sweatshirt that said "STOP PLATE TECTONICS"

I don't think that many people understand it, if you get my drift.



25 posted on 03/22/2007 12:16:11 AM PDT by patriciaruth (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562436/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: piasa

giggle


26 posted on 03/22/2007 12:16:45 AM PDT by patriciaruth (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562436/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo; Jim Robinson; Registered; summer; All
When Democrats are criticized, they counter-attack. When Republicans are criticized, they apparently believe in "the soft answer which turneth away wrath." In politics, however, a soft answer is like blood in the water that provokes piranhas to more vicious attacks.

How can we forward this gem by Thomas Sowell to every Republican in Washington???

27 posted on 03/22/2007 12:26:23 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat (I am SO glad to no longer be associated with the party of Dependence on Government!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
When Democrats are criticized, they counter-attack. When Republicans are criticized, they apparently believe in "the soft answer which turneth away wrath." In politics, however, a soft answer is like blood in the water that provokes piranhas to more vicious attacks.

To quote Bacon: "if it come to that, that the best actions of a state, and the most plausible, and which ought to give greatest contentment, are taken in ill sense, and traduced: for that shows the envy great, as Tacitus saith; conflata magna invidia, seu bene, seu male, gesta premunt. Niether doth it follow, that because these fames are a sign of troubles, that the suppressing of them with too much severity, should be a remedy of troubles. For the despising of them, many times, checks them best; and the going about to stop them, doth but make a wonder long- lived."

"The motion of factions, under kings, ought to be like the motions (as the astronomers speak) of inferior orbs; which may have their proper motions, but still, are carried by the highest motion of primum mobile"
28 posted on 03/22/2007 1:31:05 AM PDT by Blind Eye Jones
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo

Thanks, Jaz. A great read over morning coffee. :)


29 posted on 03/22/2007 5:25:31 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo

Thanks for the ping, jaz!


30 posted on 03/22/2007 5:34:30 AM PDT by RebelBanker (May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
Some of my favorites

Will those who are dismantling this society from within or those who seek to destroy us from

Amid all the media hysteria over the price of gasoline and the profits of "Big Oil," one simple fact has been repeatedly overlooked: The oil companies' earnings are just under 10 percent of the price of a gallon of gas, while taxes take 17 percent. Yet who ever accuses the government of "greed"?

When the University of California system and the California State University system raised their tuitions, the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle read: "UC, CSU Reach Again for Students' Wallets." Apparently you are only supposed to reach for the taxpayers' wallets.

Government greed something that no one ever seems to mention in the MSM.

31 posted on 03/22/2007 5:40:42 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: patriciaruth

LOL...That's creepy.


32 posted on 03/22/2007 7:12:14 AM PDT by jazusamo (http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/DefendOurMarines.htm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
That's creepy

Agreed. There are a lot of creeps on this website now.

33 posted on 03/22/2007 3:54:31 PM PDT by patriciaruth (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562436/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-33 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson