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Sowell: Is Thinking Obsolete?
Creators Syndicate ^ | August 5, 2014 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 08/04/2014 2:27:51 PM PDT by jazusamo

Some have said that we are living in a post-industrial era, while others have said that we are living in a post-racial era. But growing evidence suggests that we are living in a post-thinking era.

Many people in Europe and the Western Hemisphere are staging angry protests against Israel's military action in Gaza. One of the talking points against Israel is that far more Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli military attacks than the number of Israeli civilians killed by the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel that started this latest military conflict.

Are these protesters aware that vastly more German civilians were killed by American bombers attacking Nazi Germany during World War II than American civilians killed in the United States by Hitler's forces?

Talk show host Geraldo Rivera says that there is no way Israel is winning the battle for world opinion. But Israel is trying to win the battle for survival, while surrounded by enemies. Might that not be more important?

Has any other country, in any other war, been expected to keep the enemy's civilian casualties no higher than its own civilian casualties? The idea that Israel should do so did not originate among the masses but among the educated intelligentsia.

In an age when scientists are creating artificial intelligence, too many of our educational institutions seem to be creating artificial stupidity.

It is much the same story in our domestic controversies. We have gotten so intimidated by political correctness that our major media outlets dare not call people who immigrate to this country illegally "illegal immigrants."

Geraldo Rivera has denounced the Drudge Report for carrying news stories that show some negative consequences and dangers from allowing vast numbers of youngsters to enter the country illegally and be spread across the country by the Obama administration.

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: aliens; geraldo; illegals; israel; minimumwage; sowell; thomassowell
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To: jazusamo

...And thanks for the ping!


41 posted on 08/04/2014 9:22:08 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: VideoDoctor
We're in the early stages of what will eventually lead to what we laughed at in Mike Judge's great movie comedy "Idiocracy"

Truly. We're reaching the stage where every scene could arguably be called documentary footage.

42 posted on 08/04/2014 9:26:35 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: F15Eagle
Or try to find someone living on 401k’s and gov’t checks about the state of the American economy.

Hey!

43 posted on 08/05/2014 2:46:07 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: stephenjohnbanker

Well worth repeating here...


" ” As a result, intellectuals are free from one of the most rigorous constraints facing other occupations: external standards. An engineer will ultimately be judged on whether the structures he designs hold up, a businessman on whether he makes money, and so on. By contrast, the ultimate test of an intellectual’s ideas is whether other intellectuals “find those ideas interesting, original, persuasive, elegant, or ingenious. There is no external test.” If the intellectuals are like-minded, as they often are, then the validity of an idea depends on what those intellectuals already believe. This means that an intellectual’s ideas are tested only by internal criteria and “become sealed off from feedback from the external world of reality.”

An intellectual’s reputation, then, depends not on whether his ideas are verifiable but on the plaudits of his fellow intellectuals. “
Thomas Sowell

44 posted on 08/05/2014 2:48:38 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: jazusamo
The idea that Israel should do so did not originate among the masses but among the allegedly educated intelligentsia.

Fixed it!!

45 posted on 08/05/2014 3:19:24 AM PDT by Islander7 (There is no septic system so vile, so filthy, the left won't drink from to further their agenda)
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To: jazusamo

Geraldo’s brain is probably in pristine condition. I don’t believe its ever been used.


46 posted on 08/05/2014 5:27:19 AM PDT by ops33 (Senior Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired))
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To: Elsie

Kinda says it all.


47 posted on 08/05/2014 10:40:27 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (The only people in the world who fear Obama are American citizens. KILL THE BILL!)
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