Thomas Sowell from Creators Syndicate

A Censored Race War? for 05/15/2012

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks — beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work — that might seem to have been news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn't.

"The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel was th ...

Updated: Tue May 15, 2012

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The Moral Infrastructure for 05/08/2012

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The "Occupy" movement, which the Obama administration and much of the media have embraced, has implications that reach far beyond the passing sensation it has created.

The unwillingness of authorities to put a stop to their organized disruptions of other people's lives, their trespassing, vandalism and violence is a de facto suspension, if not repeal, of the 14th Amendment's re ...

Updated: Tue May 08, 2012

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A Cynical Process for 05/01/2012

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Labor unions, like the United Nations, are all too often judged by what they are envisioned as being — not by what they actually are or what they actually do.

Many people, who do not look beyond the vision or the rhetoric to the reality, still think of labor unions as protectors of working people from their employers. And union bosses still employ that kind of rhetoric. However, so ...

Updated: Tue May 01, 2012

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A Cynical Process: Part II for 05/01/2012

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

A small headline in the 2nd section of the Wall Street Journal last week told a bigger story than a lot of front page banner headlines. It said, "U.S. Firms Add Jobs, but Mostly Overseas."

Just as there is no free lunch, there is no free class warfare. Some people may be inspired by President Obama's talk about making "the rich" pay their undefined "fair share&qu ...

Updated: Tue May 01, 2012

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Who Is 'Racist'?: Part II for 04/27/2012

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Around this time of year, I sometimes hear from parents who have been appalled to learn that the child they sent away to college to become educated has instead been indoctrinated with the creed of the left. They often ask if I can suggest something to have their offspring read over the summer, in order to counteract this indoctrination.

This year the answer is a no-brainer. It is a book ...

Updated: Fri Apr 27, 2012

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Who Is 'Racist'? for 04/24/2012

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Whatever the ultimate outcome of the case against George Zimmerman for his shooting of Trayvon Martin, what has happened already is enough to turn the stomach of anyone who believes in either truth or justice.

An amazing proportion of the media has given us a painful demonstration of the thinking — and lack of thinking — that prevailed back in the days of the old Jim Crow Sou ...

Updated: Tue Apr 24, 2012

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Mixing and Matching for 04/17/2012

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Apparently the soaring national debt and the threat of a nuclear Iran are not enough to occupy the government's time, because the Obama administration is pushing to force Westchester County, N.Y., to create more low-income housing, in order to mix and match classes and races to fit the government's preconceptions.

Behind all this busy work for bureaucrats and ideologues is the idea that ...

Updated: Tue Apr 17, 2012

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Random Thoughts for 04/10/2012

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Random thoughts on the passing scene:

How long do politicians have to keep on promising heaven and delivering hell before people catch on, and stop getting swept away by rhetoric?

Why should being in a professional sport exempt anyone from prosecution for advocating deliberate violence? Recent revelations of such advocacy of violence by an NFL coach should lead to his banishment f ...

Updated: Tue Apr 10, 2012

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The Invincible Dogma for 04/03/2012

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

A long-standing legal charade was played out again recently, when Federal Express paid $3 million to settle an employment discrimination case brought by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Federal Express was accused of both racial discrimination and sex discrimination. FedEx denied it.

Why then did they pay the $3 million? Because it can cost a lot more than $3 million to fight a discr ...

Updated: Tue Apr 03, 2012

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Political Word Games for 04/03/2012

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

One of the highly developed talents of President Barack Obama is the ability to say things that are demonstrably false, and make them sound not only plausible but inspiring.

That talent was displayed just this week when he was asked whether he thought the Supreme Court would uphold ObamaCare as constitutional or strike it down as unconstitutional.

He replied: "I'm confident t ...

Updated: Tue Apr 03, 2012

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The Death of Mrs. G for 03/29/2012

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Although we all know that death is inevitable, we are still seldom fully prepared for the death of someone who has been important in our lives. So it was with the recent death of Dr. Marie D. Gadsden, at the age of 92.

Mrs. Gadsden's only official connection with me was that she taught me freshman English at Howard University, more than half a century ago. But she and Professor Sterling ...

Updated: Thu Mar 29, 2012

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Geraldo's Point for 03/27/2012

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

It is not often that I agree with Geraldo Rivera, but recently he said something very practical and potentially life-saving, when he urged black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hoodies.

There is no point in dressing like a hoodlum when you are not a hoodlum, even though that has become a fashion for some minority youths, including the teenager who was sho ...

Updated: Tue Mar 27, 2012

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Back to the Future? for 03/27/2012

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

When a 1942 Supreme Court decision that most people never heard of makes the front page of the New York Times in 2012, you know that something unusual is going on.

What makes that 1942 case — Wickard v. Filburn — important today is that it stretched the federal government's power so far that the Obama administration is using it as an argument to claim before today's Supreme C ...

Updated: Tue Mar 27, 2012

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Race and Rhetoric for 03/20/2012

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

One of the things that turned up, during a long-overdue cleanup of my office, was an old yellowed copy of the New York Times dated July 24, 1992. One of the front-page headlines said: "White-Black Disparity in Income Narrowed in 80's, Census Shows."

The 1980s? Wasn't that the years of the Reagan administration, the "decade of greed," the era of "neglect" of ...

Updated: Tue Mar 20, 2012

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The 'Inevitability' Vote for 03/16/2012

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Many people may be voting for Mitt Romney because of the view in some quarters that he is the inevitable Republican candidate for President of the United States and the candidate with the best chance of beating Barack Obama, rather than because they actually prefer Romney to the other candidates.

Inevitability has a very unreliable track record. Within living memory, totalitarianism was ...

Updated: Fri Mar 16, 2012

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Racial Quota Fallout for 03/14/2012

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Many years ago, I learned of an episode in the life of a promising young black man that is relevant to things happening now. He had been educated at a good school, and went on to receive degrees at good colleges and universities. Then he went for a Ph.D. in mathematics at one of the leading departments in that field.

When he encountered difficulties, his professors essentially wrote his ...

Updated: Wed Mar 14, 2012

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The Big Hoax for 03/13/2012

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

There have been many frauds of historic proportions — for example, the financial pyramid scheme for which Charles Ponzi was sent to prison in the 1920s, and for which Franklin D. Roosevelt was praised in the 1930s, when he called it Social Security. In our own times, Bernie Madoff's hoax has made headlines.

But the biggest hoax of the past two generations is still going strong &mda ...

Updated: Tue Mar 13, 2012

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James Q. Wilson (1931-2012) for 03/06/2012

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

There are undoubtedly many people who are alive today because of James Q. Wilson, who died last week. He was not a doctor or medical scientist, nor was he a fireman or coast guardsman who rescued people from immediate dangers.

James Q. Wilson was a scholar who studied crime. He saved lives because his penetrating analyses of crime, and the effect of the criminal law, debunked the theorie ...

Updated: Tue Mar 06, 2012

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Iran and Obama for 03/06/2012

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

What are we to make of President Barack Obama's latest pronouncements about Iran's movement toward nuclear bombs? His tough talk might have had some influence on Iran a couple of years ago, when he was instead being kinder and gentler with the world's leading terrorist-sponsoring nation. Now his tough talk may only influence this year's election — which may be enough for Obama.

The ...

Updated: Tue Mar 06, 2012

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'Super Tuesday' for 02/29/2012

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Many people are looking to the many primary elections on March 6th — "Super Tuesday" — to clarify where this year's Republican nomination campaign is headed.

It may clarify far more than that, including the future of this nation and of Western civilization. If a clear winner with a commanding lead emerges, the question then becomes whether that candidate is someone ...

Updated: Wed Feb 29, 2012

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