Thomas Sowell from Creators Syndicate

Undoing the Brainwashing for 05/21/2013

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

This time of year, as college students return home for the summer, many parents may notice how many politically correct ideas they have acquired on campus. Some of those parents may wonder how they can undo some of the brainwashing that has become so common in what are supposed to be institutions of higher learning.

The strategy used by General Douglas MacArthur so successfully in the Pa ...

Updated: Tue May 21, 2013

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Wimps Versus Barbarians for 05/21/2013

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

An all too familiar scene was enacted on the campus of Swarthmore College during a meeting on May 4th to discuss demands by student activists for the college to divest itself of its investments in companies that dealt in fossil fuels.

As a speaker was beginning a presentation to show how many millions of dollars such a disinvestment would cost the college, student activists invaded the m ...

Updated: Tue May 21, 2013

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Looking Back -- and Forward for 05/14/2013

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

A hundred years ago, anyone who might have predicted in 1913 the monumental, man-made catastrophes that would occur in the rest of the 20th century would have been considered warped, if not completely mentally deranged.

Who would have believed that the continent of Europe, which had not had a major war in nearly a hundred years since Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, would set off two W ...

Updated: Tue May 14, 2013

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Lies About Libya for 05/14/2013

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

There can be honest differences of opinion on many subjects. But there can also be dishonest differences. Last week's testimony under oath about events in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 makes painfully clear that what the Obama administration told the American people about those events were lies out of whole cloth.

What we were told repeatedly last year by the President of the United Sta ...

Updated: Tue May 14, 2013

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Bouncing Ball Politics for 05/07/2013

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

If you are driving along and suddenly see a big red rubber ball come bouncing out into the street, you might want to put your foot on the brake pedal, because a small child may well come running out into the street after it.

We all understand that an inexperienced young child who has his mind fixed on one thing may ignore other things that are too dangerous to be ignored. Unfortunately, ...

Updated: Tue May 07, 2013

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Words That Replace Thought for 05/07/2013

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

If there is ever a contest for words that substitute for thought, "diversity" should be recognized as the undisputed world champion.

You don't need a speck of evidence, or a single step of logic, when you rhapsodize about the supposed benefits of diversity. The very idea of testing this wonderful, magical word against something as ugly as reality seems almost sordid.

To ...

Updated: Tue May 07, 2013

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The Art of the Impossible for 04/30/2013

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Someone called politics "the art of the possible." But, in the era of the modern welfare state, politics is largely the art of the impossible.

Those people morbid enough to keep track of politicians' promises may remember how Barack Obama said that ObamaCare would lower medical costs — and lots of people bought it.

But if you stop and think, however old-fashioned t ...

Updated: Tue Apr 30, 2013

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Is Thinking Obsolete? for 04/30/2013

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

While it is not possible to answer all the e-mails and letters from readers, many are thought-provoking, whether those thoughts are positive or negative.

An e-mail from one young man simply asked for the sources of some facts about gun control that were mentioned in a recent column. It is good to check out the facts — especially if you check out the facts on both sides of an issue. ...

Updated: Tue Apr 30, 2013

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Immigration Gambles: Part II for 04/23/2013

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Whose interests are immigration laws supposed to serve — and whose interests do current immigration reform proposals actually serve?

In order to have any immigration policy serve any purpose, the border must first be secured. Otherwise American immigration policy exists only on paper, and is mocked by what happens on the ground, as masses of people cross the border illegally, in di ...

Updated: Tue Apr 23, 2013

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Immigration Gambles for 04/23/2013

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Britain's late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said it all when she wrote that the world has "never ceased to be dangerous," but the West has "ceased to be vigilant."

Nothing better illustrates her point than the fact that the West has imported vast numbers of people who hate our guts and would love to slit our throats. Political correctness has replaced self-preserv ...

Updated: Tue Apr 23, 2013

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Genes and Racism for 04/23/2013

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

During decades of watching both collegiate and professional football, I have seen hundreds of touchdowns scored by black players — but not one extra point kicked by a black player.

Is this because blacks are genetically incapable of kicking a football or because racists won't let blacks kick a football?

Most of us would consider either of these explanations ridiculous. Yet g ...

Updated: Tue Apr 23, 2013

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Immigration Sophistry for 04/16/2013

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Most laws are meant to stop people from doing something, and to penalize those who disregard those laws. More generally, laws are meant to protect the society from the law breakers.

But our immigration laws are different. Here the whole focus is on the "plight" of those who have broken the laws, and on what can be done to lift the stigma and ease the pressures they feel, so tha ...

Updated: Tue Apr 16, 2013

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Fact-Free Crusades for 04/16/2013

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Amid all the heated, emotional advocacy of gun control, have you ever heard even one person present convincing hard evidence that tighter gun control laws have in fact reduced murders?

Think about all the states, communities within states, as well as foreign countries, that have either tight gun control laws or loose or non-existent gun control laws. With so many variations and so many s ...

Updated: Tue Apr 16, 2013

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'Proportional' Response for 04/09/2013

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Since when has it been considered smart to tell your enemies what your plans are?

Yet there on the front page of the April 8th New York Times was a story about how unnamed "American officials" were planning a "proportional" response to any North Korean attack. This was spelled in an example: If the North Koreans "shell a South Korean island that had military inst ...

Updated: Tue Apr 09, 2013

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Tests and Tiger Moms for 04/09/2013

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York City's Stuyvesant High School is one of those all too rare public schools for intellectually outstanding students. Such students are often bored to death in schools where the work is geared to the lowest common denominator, and it is by no means uncommon for very bright students to become behavior problems.

Recent statistics on the students who passed the examination to get into ...

Updated: Tue Apr 09, 2013

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Guns Save Lives for 04/02/2013

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

We all know that guns can cost lives because the media repeat this message endlessly, as if we could not figure it out for ourselves. But even someone who reads newspapers regularly and watches numerous television newscasts may never learn that guns also save lives— much less see any hard facts comparing how many lives are lost and how many are saved.

But that trade-off is the rea ...

Updated: Tue Apr 02, 2013

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Middle East 'Democracy' for 04/02/2013

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Obama administration treated the creation of "democracy" in the Middle East as a Good Thing. Ironically, those who created the United States of America viewed democracy with fear— and created a Constitutional republic instead.

Everything depends on how you define democracy. In its most basic sense, democracy means majority rule. But there can be majority rule in a ...

Updated: Tue Apr 02, 2013

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Can It Happen Here? for 03/26/2013

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The decision of the government in Cyprus to simply take money out of people's bank accounts there sent shock waves around the world. People far removed from that small island nation had to wonder: "Can this happen here?"

The economic repercussions of having people feel that their money is not safe in banks can be catastrophic. Banks are not just warehouses where money can be st ...

Updated: Tue Mar 26, 2013

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'Me Too' Republicans for 03/26/2013

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Many ideas presented as "new" are just rehashes of old ideas that have been tried before — and have failed before. So it is no surprise that the recent "Growth and Opportunity Project" report to the Republican National Committee is a classic example of what previous generations called "Me too" Republicanism.

These are Republicans who think that the key ...

Updated: Tue Mar 26, 2013

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A Real Term Limit for 03/19/2013

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The main thing wrong with the term limits movement is the "s" at the end of the word "limit."

What are advocates of term limits trying to accomplish? If they are trying to keep government from being run by career politicians, whose top priority is getting themselves reelected, then term limits on given jobs fail to do that.

When someone reaches the limit of how ...

Updated: Tue Mar 19, 2013

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