Posted on 07/28/2008 9:02:51 PM PDT by jazusamo
Random thoughts on the passing scene:
Government bailouts are like potato chips: You can't stop with just one.
Anyone who is honest with himself and with others knows that there is not a snow ball's chance in hell to have an honest dialogue about race.
I wonder what radical feminists make of the fact that it was men who created the rule of "women and children first" when it came to rescuing people from life-threatening emergencies.
Barack Obama's motto "Change you can believe in" has acquired a new meaning-- changing his positions is the only thing you can believe in. His campaign began with a huge change in the image he projects, compared to what he was doing for 20 years before.
Despite the New York Yankees' awesome record over the years, no one has ever made 3,000 hits in his career as a Yankee, nor has any pitcher ever had 300 lifetime victories with the Yankees. Despite their well-deserved reputation as "the Bronx Bombers," there is only one Yankee among the top ten career homerun hitters.
After getting DVDs of old "Perry Mason" TV programs and old "Law & Order" programs, I found myself watching far more of the "Perry Mason" series. The difference is that too many "Law & Order" programs tried to raise my consciousness on social issues, as if that is their role or their competence.
What is amazing this year is how many people have bought the fundamentally childish notion that, if you don't like the way things are going, the answer is to write a blank check for generic "change," empowering someone chosen not on the basis of any track record but on the basis of his skill with words.
With all the big-name entertainers who have put on shows in prisons, why have so few put on shows for our troops in Iraq?
To me, the phrase "glass ceiling" is an insult to my intelligence. What does the word "glass" mean, in this context, except that you can't see it? Yet I am supposed to believe it without evidence because, otherwise, I will be considered a bad person and called names.
When New York Times writer Linda Greenhouse recently declared the 1987 confirmation hearings for Judge Robert Bork "both fair and profound," it was as close to a declaration of moral bankruptcy as possible. Those hearings were a triumph of character assassination by politicians with no character of their own. The country is still paying the price, as potential judicial nominees decline to be nominated and then smeared on nationwide television.
Some of the most emotionally powerful words are undefined, such as "social justice," "a living wage," "price gouging" or a "fragile" environment, for example. Such terms are especially valuable to politicians during an election year, for these terms can attract the votes of people who mean very different-- and even mutually contradictory-- things when they use these words.
It may not be possible to have machines call balls and strikes in baseball, since the vertical strike zone depends on the height of each batter. But a machine can tell whether any part of the ball passed over any part of the plate, so that umpires won't be able to call their own "wide strikes" any more.
It is hard to get the supporters of Barack Obama to give a coherent reason for their support. The basis for their support seems to be guilt, gullibility or-- in the case of some conservatives-- a hatred of John McCain.
It is heart-warming to see the Williams sisters maturing as people. They made tennis history from the beginning but they had a lot to learn about human relations-- and now they seem to have learned it.
How many in the media have expressed half as much outrage about the beheading of innocent people by terrorists in Iraq as they have about the captured terrorists held at Guantanamo not being treated as nicely as they think they should be?
Although most of the mainstream media are still swooning over Barack Obama, a few critics are calling the things he advocates "naive." But that assumes that he is trying to solve the country's problems. If he is trying to solve his own problem of getting elected, then he is telling the voters just what they want to hear. That is not naive but shrewd and cynical.
I've been trying to come up with a riposte or simple commentary to a few of Mr. Sowell's "random thoughts"; but he's worded these so perfectly, and in line with what I think also; I can't. He's that good at hitting them out of the ballpark. :)
This one, tho, caught my attention last night, when I read your ping to his article:
It is hard to get the supporters of Barack Obama to give a coherent reason for their support. The basis for their support seems to be guilt, gullibility or-- in the case of some conservatives-- a hatred of John McCain.
I have been wondering about that hatred of John McCain. Really focusing on it. Attempting to understand it. I have to agree with Mr. Sowell -- it is indeed hatred. It comes across as irrational and non-substantively in kind as does the fanatic adulation for Obama. When I come across the "buzz" for Obama and then the sizzle against McCain (and I don't mean "disagreements, I mean "hate"), there's a similarity there, and I can only think it comes from the same place in the human psyche; altho it exhibits differently.
Sean Hannity had Jesse Ventura on last night, along with Susan Estritch (sp) filling in for Alan Colmes.
Jesse exhibited the same "source" types of emotives as one sees in Obama zealots and anti-McCain zealots. It was quite revealing, that about Jesse.
Additionally, he didn't do the SEALS anything proud last night.
So, in my initial wonderings out loud here in post, my primary analysis asserts what these individuals have in common is their inability to synthesize or even suspend their own "internal conflict".
Meaning, there's a "holding" file missing from their make-up; they are therefore unable to see beyond themselves, outside themselves, when presented with what appears to be two sets of objective reality.
On the personal note, for starters, this makes me wonder if some of this isn't the result of the deleterious effects of divorce on children, for example. Having to choose between two parents a child loves dearly.
Thanks for listening, time for more coffee.
(Psst. yes my brain was ticking away on this throughout my sleep.)
Mickey, Yogi and Phil started and Mickey hit a homer! Elston Howard pinch hit for Yogi and he was outstanding, just like Tom Sowel.
Economists are math and history adept and draw logical conclusions. Obama hasn't a clue, (Mr Sowell in the living room with a keen mind!)
Most feminists are "principle-less". They'll take the positive aspects but deny the premises on which they are based.
"women and children first" extends from the Biblical roles of men and women - men are charged with the protection and provision of their families. With this requirement goes the authority to "head" the family.
In 1956 I was fortunate to go to the Scout Jamboree at Valley Forge, PA with a group of Scouts and Explorers from SoCA. We toured a few other places, NY City being one and included the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and though we didn’t go to a game at Yankee Stadium our busses drove by it, it impressed us.
Dr. Sowell was attending Harvard that year which helped set the foundation for one of the greatest thinkers and writers in our country.
BO attended Harvard Law and I’ve yet to figure out what he learned, public speaking with the help of teleprompters maybe?
Right.
If I - or any other conservative wants to be preached at - we'll go to church.
If Hollywood doesn't understand how giving the finger to the half of Americans who are conservatives works, let them look at the numbers. We don't watch their shows.
It's not "entertaining" ... period.
Thanks for the ping.
Well after having read Thomas Sowell for over 20 years he has finally said something that I think is a terrible idea.
I forgive him though.
Exactly...When I watch a movie or TV show, which is seldom, I watch for entertainment. I don't care to be preached to re the latest fad or social issue and I don't find it entertaining to see heads, arms or hands separated from bodies. I guess I'm just too old fashioned.
I agree with you and forgive him too, everyone is allowed at least one mistake in their life. :-)
On Dec 24th my daughter was born. I couldn't be present for the birth since the maternity ward was closed due to an influenza epidemic. I waited by the phone for news of the birth. I watched the Apollo 8 mission and just as the crew was reading from Genesis the doctor called and said I had a healthy baby girl!
I had been reading the Godfather and thought that Michael's wife's name might be just what the doctor ordered. When I suggested Apollonia my wife said "Heck No!"
Go figger!
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.