Posted on 05/13/2008 6:54:40 PM PDT by jazusamo
Ain't it the truth. BTT.
I didn’t even think about dingy Harry and his land deals till you mentioned it. There’s been threads here in the last couple years on them.
I guess it’s possible but Dr. Sowell is not bashful about naming names if he wants to get his point across. He’s sure been hitting on Obama lately. :-)
From Wiki:
The story contrasts commonplace details of contemporary life with a barbaric ritual known as the "lottery." The setting is a small American town (population of approximately 300 and growing) where the locals display a strange and somber mood, from which unusual things can evidently be observed, like children gathering stones, as they gather on June 27 for their annual lottery. After the husband from each family draws a small piece of paper, one slip with a black spot indicates the Hutchinson family has been chosen. When each member of that family draws again to see which family member "wins," Tessie Hutchinson is the final choice. She is then stoned to death by everyone present, including her own family, as well as both the young men and young girls as a sacrifice to ensure a good harvest, according to the belief of the community. --end snip
Think... Political Correctness lottery gauntlet of our age.
I probably could, but I don't see the point. This guy is just SUCH a genius....
I'd say they easily join Onelifetogive in the top 5...
How come Dr. Sowell isn’t running for President? We need a rational and logical thinker such as him
Are there actually any other "rational thinkers like him?"I have been using this tagline for a while, merely as a way to advocate (alas, how certain it is to be futilely!) for the selection of someone like him for VP. Knowing that Sowell himself is about 77, and considers McCain at 71 to be too old.
Congressman Billybob (actual name, John Armor) recently contended the Asheville, NC Republican primary for nomination to Congress a week ago - and if you checked out his debates on Youtube you would see that you would instantly prefer him to any of the remaining three candidates for nomination as POTUS (in fact, BTW, he did a fundraiser a year ago to get money, I think $1000, to pay the Duke student newspaper to reprint one of Professor Sowell's pieces on the denouement of the Duke Lacrosse "rape" case). In a 3-man race, Armor drew a paltry 10% of the vote.
That pretty much tells you all you need to know about the likelihood of getting a "rational thinker like him" elected President. I had such high hopes, in the late eighties/early nineties, for Jack Kemp. Congressman Kemp redefined conservative political economics by convincing the Republican Party that excessive tax rates were too high a price to pay for fighting inflation, and had been elevated to the level of not merely diminishing but of negative returns. Before Kemp, the Democrats had the Republicans cornered - Democrats would fight for higher spending, getting credit for being Santa Claus, and the Republicans would lose that battle and then "win" the battle to control the deficit by raising tax rates - getting blame for being the Grinch. No wonder Democrats controlled the House continuously for the 40 years from 1955 to 1995!
Kemp was also aggressively non-racist; he would show up at NAACP meetings when no other Republican would do so, and was able to defend his politics in that sort of venue. Alas, Dole nominated him for VP - and he proved to be little more suited to the role of VP candidate than Ross Perot's sidekick, Admiral Stockdale. In the debate, Al Gore found a snarky way of flattering Kemp while smearing the white middle class Republican - and Kemp thanked him for the compliment! Kemp was every inch the Republican political hero, as he had been every inch a star professional quarterback for the Buffalo Bills in the old AFL before the merger with the NFL. Yet signally failing to defend the Republican base from Gore's smear was all it took to make Kemp a has-been on the national political stage. It was that ghastly.
If politics is that treacherous for a rational, competent public speaker like the lawyer John Armor - and even for the intellectual star quarterback and political pro Jack Kemp - what chance is there of ever getting a Thomas Sowell as far as the nomination to national office? Face it, Reagan was one-of-a-kind. And even he wasn't perfect.
And of course Sowell's article itself points out how effective the demagogues are at attacking rationality. This article of mine discusses why journalism plays the role it does in that process.
>>“Tom Sowell is a really cool guy and smart”
>> QBFimi2 is a piece of drek [sic].
I think you may be missing the point here. Dr. Sowell’s usual concise and brilliant columns should stimulate discussion, rather than the plethora of fawning comments I often see. Decades ago, I heard Sowell speak in Denver, and watched him cut the fawners in his audience to the quick (myself included). I would hope that FR remains an intellectual Tom Tiddler’s ground where we all can grow, rather than a me-too “dittoland”.
BTW - From “The Joys of Yiddish” (1968): “Dreck is forceful but vulgar, like its English equivalent ‘crap’”. Neither word was fit for your mother’s ears. If you prefer the Mitteldeutsch or Alte Hochdeutch spelling, it is “drec”. Either way, it may be best confined any to lefty blogs you may frequent.
>>Haven’t heard about that 8-1/2 square mile [Miami] boondoggle. Fill us in on how it relates to the current election.
Well, Dr. Sowell said this: “Is it really too “complex” to figure out that taking vast amounts of land off the market will make the price of the remaining land far more expensive?”
To find the boondoggle, Google up “Grossman Hammock”. The 8-1/2 square miles are just to the east of that. Big Gumm’nt has great contempt for white rednecks. In this case, they also included lotsa Cuban immigrant campesinos who, after being driven from their country farms by Castro, longed from their tiny SW 8th Street Miami apartments for the old days. They found it here, and when my wife and I worked at the Kendall Gliderport (now also land-grabbed by the Feds) just south of Grossman Hammock in the early ‘80s, it was a favorite post-work tour on the way home. The land was condemmed by the Gumm’nt, and after many a lost court battle, the last of the existing houses is slated for destruction as I write this. Just as city folks looked down on the “drunks and rednecks” (many were) who were displaced at 40-Mile Bend (Ochopee, FL, west of Miami), the City Cubans in Miami did the same to these folks. So, the Gumm’nt pigs out and takes more land off the market. Winners: 1/ Present landowners and real estate developers, 2/ Mining companies (the land is platted as being 2’ higher than it really is; they will “restore” the land by charging the Gumm’nt for scraping off that 2’ and then selling it for $35/ton). 3/ The environmental “mitigators”. The homes, palm trees and the native vegetation are all gone, but the evil non-native Australian pines are left standing, awaiting a lucrative removal contract. 4/ The recently-fattened Gumm’nt agencies, who are actively supervising this and nailing up “No Trespassing / Gumm’nt property” signs.
What’s that about a “dangerous servant and fearful master” I’ve heard? To my FR friends: Vote carefully, very carefully.
Fair enough and thanks, your reply shows you’re serious.
Dr. Sowell has quite a following here at FR as he does with many in the country. For people to acknowedge his intellect and writing skills with praise doesn’t deserve the type of post you made, IMO. I do think you were trying to stimulate discussion but believe there are better ways to do it.
Welcome to FR.
That's a ticket I'd not only vote for, but donate money AND volunteer!!!!
>> It is not because supply and demand is too “complex” to understand, but because it is not emotionally satisfying.
What is there to say about those who are emotionally satisfied when forced to adopt a particular behavior?
Excellent.
I am happy that Mr. Sowell is not running for president because he is far too valuable as a social observer and commentator. He could not function in a sea of political schmooze. I would be very happy if our president, who ever that is, would regularly seek and heed Mr. Sowell’s counsel.
EXCELLENT!
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