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Jewish World Review / June 26, 1998 / 2 Tamuz, 5758
Thomas Sowell
THE LEAST PRODUCTIVE PEOPLE are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding
meetings.
Many vices are just virtues that have been carried too far.
If the voting public is ready to stand for tax increases of hundreds of billions of dollars, at a
time when there is a budget surplus, just because politicians are shouting "Big Tobacco!"
or purring "it is for the children," then we have a terminal case of gullibility.
The only thing better than "hands-on" experience is hands-off experience -- enough
experience to understand that some things will turn out better if left alone.
Judging by the scathing attacks on Monica Lewinsky's former lawyer William Ginsburg by
nationally prominent attorneys and leading law professors, she might have a good case for
a malpractice suit against him. At the very least, it seems a shame for her to have to pay
him for "services" that were disservices.
When someone defined "baroque" as "not having enough Monet," I said that I thought
Monet was the root of all evil. To this a reader replied: "There you Gogh again. It's the 'love'
of Monet that's the root of all evil."
Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7th, 1941 "a date that will live in infamy." Not at
Harvard, Stanford or Princeton, where less than half of all students interviewed knew the
date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The political left always wants to equalize expenditures per school or school districts. But
they show no interest in equalizing expenditures per child, regardless of what school that
child attends, including private schools that accept vouchers.
Young people in general -- and young women in particular -- need to understand that they
cannot retrieve in their forties the opportunities they threw away in their twenties.
Karl Spence of the Chattanooga Free Press aptly characterizes the views of the liberal
intelligentsia as: "Let my conscience be your guide."
If it were up to me, I would take Teddy Roosevelt down from Mount Rushmore and put
Ronald Reagan up there instead.
Critics of schools and departments of education often urge that particular courses be
added to give more intellectual substance. But what is crucial is what courses need to be
subtracted -- the confused and mushy courses that repel intelligent people, who are much
needed as teachers.
One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how
thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be and how dangerous it is to trust them.
Recent census data show how much the American family has deteriorated. Forty percent of
all adults are living alone and nearly a third of all children are not living with both parents.
Among blacks, two-thirds of all children are living with only one parent or with neither parent.
After the Clinton White House has proven once more that the best defense is a good
offense, when will the Republicans learn to stop being apologetic and defensive? When
was the last time you saw a Republican express anger or outrage? Or does your memory
not go back that far?
They say "No good deed goes unpunished." That is certainly true if you donate money to
causes you believe in, because it will get your name put on mailing lists. One way to avoid
this is to go to the bank and get a cashier's check made out to the organization you wish to
support -- and leave your name off the check.
People who claim that sentencing a murderer to "life without the possibility of parole"
protects society just as well as the death penalty ignore three things: (1) life without the
possibility of parole does not mean life without the possibility of escape or (2) life without
the possibility of killing while in prison or (3) life without the possibility of a liberal governor
being elected and issuing a pardon.
I tend to get upset when people keep saying things that insult my intelligence, but
apparently many others do not, judging by the popularity of Bill Clinton.
One of the cheapest and most effective ways of bringing down the crime rate is to let
law-abiding citizens carry guns, according to a recent study. We would probably also be
more polite to each
Random Thoughts
Teachers who think that they have a right to use other people's children as guinea pigs for
social experiments should be fired.
6/24/98: An angry letter
6/22/98: Sixties sentimentalism
6/19/98:Dumbing down anti-trust
6/15/98: A changing of the guard?
6/11/98: Presidential privileges
6/8/98: Fast computers and slow antitrust
6/3/98: Can stalling backfire?
5/29/98: The insulation of the Left
5/25/98: Missing the point in the media
5/22/98: The lessons of Indonesia
5/20/98: Smart but silent
5/18/98: Israel, Clinton and character
5/14/98: Monica Lewinsky's choices
5/11/98: Random thoughts
5/7/98: Media obstruction of justice
5/4/98: Dangerous "safety"
5/1/98:
Abolish Adolescence!
4/30/98: The naked truth
4/22/98: Playing fair and square
4/19/98: Bad teachers"
4/15/98: "Clinton in Africa
"
4/13/98: "Bundling and unbundling
"
4/9/98: "Rising or falling Starr
"
4/6/98: "Was Clinton ‘vindicated'?
"
3/26/98: "Diasters -- natural and political"
3/24/98: "A pattern of behavior"
3/22/98: Innocent explanations
3/19/98: Kathleen Willey and Anita Hill
3/17/98: Search and destroy
3/12/98: Media Circus versus Justice
3/6/98: Vindication
3/3/98: Cheap Shot Time
2/26/98: The Wrong Filter
2/24/98: Trial by Media
2/20/98: Dancing Around the Realities
2/19/98: A "Do Something" War?
2/12/98: Julian Simon, combatant in a 200-year war
2/6/98: A rush to rhetoric
