ChrisCam Broadsheet

2552.\\ Sowell: Too Many Apologies

Brilliant piece today by Thomas Sowell.

I think he hits it straight on when he identifies and laments the absence of personal responsibility in our society. It has been creeping for years, of course, even decades. But the success of the American Republic is absolutely dependent on individualism and responsibility not collectivism and blame.

We are now embarked on a grand experiment in collectivization and group think. It may work out. But it certainly represents the end of the experiment that began in 1787.

Best bit:

For more than a century, the intelligentsia have been trying to get us to focus on the "root causes" of crime-- supposedly created by "society"-- instead of locking up thieves or executing murderers.

If some people don't have the money or the achievements of others, that too is society's fault, in the eyes of those for whom personal responsibility is an outmoded idea.

Personal responsibility is a real problem for those who want to collectivize society and take away our power to make our own decisions, transferring that power to third parties like themselves, who imagine themselves to be so much wiser and nobler than the rest of us.

Aimless apologies are just one of the incidental symptoms of an increasing loss of a sense of personal responsibility-- without which a whole society is in jeopardy.

Reported by Christo the Elder on February 24, 2010 @ 09:57

 TAGGED AS: America, Constitution, Thomas Sowell

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2549.\\ Confiscation of Freedom

Thomas Sowell takes a somber and sobering look at the state of freedom in the United States. It is frankly pretty depressing to read how we are incrementally being deprived of everything the nation was founded to protect.

I renew my prediction of armed insurrection if the trend continues.

Best bit:

Another dangerous power toward which we are moving, bit by bit, on the installment plan, is the power of politicians to tell people what their incomes can and cannot be. Here the resentment is being directed against "the rich."

The distracting phrases here include "obscene" wealth and "unconscionable" profits. But, if we stop and think about it-- which politicians don't expect us to-- what is obscene about wealth? Wouldn't we consider it great if every human being on earth had a billion dollars and lived in a place that could rival the Taj Mahal?

Poverty is obscene. It is poverty that needs to be reduced--and increasing a country's productivity has done that far more widely than redistributing income by targeting "the rich."

You can see the agenda behind the rhetoric when profits are called "unconscionable" but taxes never are, even when taxes take more than half of what someone has earned, or add much more to the prices we have to pay than profits do.

Reported by Christo the Elder on February 16, 2010 @ 12:52

 TAGGED AS: Congress, Constitution, Health Care, Liberals, Liberty, Taxes, Thomas Sowell, Totalitarianism

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2542.\\ Value Proposition

Mr. Sowell has entered the building. And with him comes an overall elevation of the intellectual discourse of the day.

Best bit:

"Since the only resources that the government has are the resources it takes from the private sector, using those resources to create jobs means reducing the resources available to create jobs in the private sector."

Which is why government is almost never the answer to any problem involving the market.

Reported by Christo the Elder on February 2, 2010 @ 08:53

 TAGGED AS: Barack Obama, Economy, Health Care, Insurance, Thomas Sowell

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2500.\\ Holding Holder Accountable

My Alma Mater finally joins the ranks of the right thinking. The Dean Emeritus of the BU School of Law penned an article in which he points out the inherent danger of allowing KSM to be tried as if he were a common criminal.

Put one more up on the board under 'Lesson Not Learned' for the Obama Administration.

The most chilling part of the discussion, which I hadn't even considered (stressed and obsessed as I was with the granting of US Constitutional Rights to an unlawful combatant and a terrorist while I, a legal immigrant, sit without the same Rights), is the notion that 9/11 was in part successful because of the intelligence al-Qaeda obtained from the trial of the 1993 WTC Bomber in regular court. Doesn't this just seem to set up the obvious question of whether or not we're helping some other group plan another attack against us by lifting our kimono?

****UPDATE
And Thomas Sowell weighs in with his usual thoughtful take on the situation.

Reported by Christo the Elder on November 17, 2009 @ 08:22

 TAGGED AS: Al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Boston University, Eric Holder, KSM, Law, New York, Terrorists, Thomas Sowell

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2481.\\ The Conservative Thinker

You might be tempted to think the title is an oxymoron. Sometimes it is. But I've become ever more enamored with Thomas Sowell's thinking and writing and I believe he's the new voice of the reasonable intellectual who happens to be right of center.

Go read these two articles on the dismantling of America (Part One and Part Two). Taken together they are alarming yet offer a reasonable critique (free of foaming at the mouth) and a high level prescription for appropriate change.

I wonder what it is like for him to be who he is and have his opinions at Stanford?

Reported by Christo the Elder on October 30, 2009 @ 11:59

 TAGGED AS: America, Conservative, Constitution, Freedom, Liberals, Liberty, Thomas Sowell, Weakness

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2472.\\ The Smartest Man in America

Every time I read Thomas Sowell I have an increasing admiration and appreciation for his intellect. He's a philosopher in an era of sophists. He's an excellent writer and his knowledge of how the economy really works makes Friedman look like Herbert Hoover.

His latest column, entitled Magic Numbers in Politics, is a devastating critique of the current vogue of political theory that markets are evil and the root cause of the financial crisis was insufficient Statism.

Aside from being a Capitalism 101 lesson that every politician should read, it is a repudiation of the notion that the market caused the financial crisis and that the solution is Barny Frank running your life.

The best bit:

If everything is connected to everything else in a market economy, then it makes no sense to have laws and policies that declare some given goal to be a "good thing," without regard to the repercussions, which spread out in all directions, like waves that spread across a pond when you drop a rock in the water.

Amen. Now, how do we fix it?

Reported by Christo the Elder on October 13, 2009 @ 13:40

 TAGGED AS: Capitalism, Communism, Economy, Philosophy, Thomas Friedman, Thomas Sowell

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2432.\\ RealClearPolitics - The Underdogs

Holy crap. What a fantastic piece by Thomas Sowell. Direct, relevant, poignant. Best read of the week.

Reported by Christo the Elder on September 22, 2009 @ 08:18

 TAGGED AS: Personal Responsibility, Thomas Sowell, US

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