Brilliant random thoughts...

[mocgator]

No better thinker than Thomas Sowell...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/12/26/random_thoughts_116513.html

If someone wrote a novel about a man who was raised from childhood to resent the successful and despise the basic values of America -- and who then went on to become President of the United States -- that novel would be considered too unbelievable, even for a work of fiction. Yet that is what has happened in real life.

Some people seem to think that, if life is not fair, then the answer is to turn more of the nation's resources over to politicians -- who will, of course, then spend these resources in ways that increase the politicians' chances of getting reelected.

When I was growing up, an older member of the family used to say, "What you don't know would make a big book." Now that I am an older member of the family, I would say to anyone, "What you don't know would fill more books than the Encyclopedia Britannica." At least half of our society's troubles come from know-it-alls, in a world where nobody knows even 10 percent of all.

The annual outbursts of intolerance toward any display of traditional Christmas scenes, or even daring to call a Christmas tree by its name, show that today's liberals are by no means liberal. Behind the mist of their lofty words, the totalitarian mindset shows through.

The more I study the history of intellectuals, the more they seem like a wrecking crew, dismantling civilization bit by bit -- replacing what works with what sounds good.

[108]

Sowell doesn't fancy himself as an "intellectual" himself?

[g8orbill]

108-since you seem to fancy yourself as some sort of intellectual I have a math question for you


our annual budget for this year is 3.5 trillion dollars

the 47&ers prez has called for 100 million dollars in cuts

what is the % of those cuts as it pertains to our annual budget(and yes I know his proposed cuts are actually over 10 years- but for the sake of this math problem we are going to say those cuts happen this year)

[PSGator66]

Crickets...

[108]

108-since you seem to fancy yourself as some sort of intellectual I have a math question for you

our annual budget for this year is 3.5 trillion dollars

the 47&ers prez has called for 100 million dollars in cuts

what is the % of those cuts as it pertains to our annual budget(and yes I know his proposed cuts are actually over 10 years- but for the sake of this math problem we are going to say those cuts happen this year)

Where was Sowell when the nation was racking up massive debt prior to a massive recession that forced debt?

In terms of actual spending enacted, Obama is on the lower end

[wgbgator]

Sowell doesn't fancy himself as an "intellectual" himself?

Probably at one time he did. But he's been on the conservative pundit welfare gravy train for awhile, so it doesnt really matter. He can churn out some sloppy hot mess that's been said a thousand times before and still part fools from their money to eek out a nice living.

[mocgator]

Probably at one time he did. But he's been on the conservative pundit welfare gravy train for awhile, so it doesnt really matter. He can churn out some sloppy hot mess that's been said a thousand times before and still part fools from their money to eek out a nice living.

I guess Thomas hit you pretty close to home...

[wgbgator]

I guess Thomas hit you pretty close to home...

Or perhaps my comment hit you close to home, because he's been a benificiary of your generous welfare payments?

[g8orbill]

Where was Sowell when the nation was racking up massive debt prior to a massive recession that forced debt?

In terms of actual spending enacted, Obama is on the lower end

all you did was deflect- you did not answer my question

[dangolegators]

Anti-intellectualism is a major part of the new conservative mindset. And it worked so well in China and Cambodia too!

[egator1245]

Anti-intellectualism is a major part of the new conservative mindset. And it worked so well in China and Cambodia too!

Isn't China a Communist/Socialist large central government country?

[wygator]

It isn't just intellectualism that is the problem. It is "intellectual elitism"...the idea that the intellectual's vision for our country, and our government, is superior to yours or mine when their ideas are often concocted in rareified collegiate air and have never been tested in the real world.

Thomas Sowell himself, certainly an intellectual, addresses this in his book, "The Vision of the Anointed." Selected quotes:

“One of the most important questions about any proposed course of actions is whether we know how to do it. Policy A may be better than policy B, but that does not matter if we simply do not know how to do Policy A. Perhaps it would be better to rehabilitate criminals, rather than punish them, if we knew how to do it. Rewarding merit might be better than rewarding results if we knew how to do it. But one of the crucial differences between those with the tragic vision and those with the vision of the anointed is in what they respectively assume that we know how to do. Those with the vision of the anointed are seldom deterred by any question as to whether anyone has the knowledge required to do what they are attempting.”

“A succinct summary of the tragic vision was given by historians Will and Ariel Durant:

“Out of every hundred new ideas ninety-nine or more will probably be inferior to the traditional responses which they propose to replace. No one man, however brilliant or well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for those are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory of history.”

Edit: a couple more:

“If the truth is boring, civilization is irksome. The constraints inherent in civilized living are frustrating in innumerable ways. Yet those with the vision of the anointed often see these constraints as only arbitrary impositions, things from which they–and we all–can be ‘liberated.’ The social disintegration which has followed in the wake of such liberation has seldom provoked any serious reconsideration of the whole set of assumptions–the vision–which led to such disasters. That vision is too well insulated from feedback.”

That quote is one I have often expressed as "liberals want to make policy and be evaluated based on their good intentions...never on outcomes".

“Many of the words and phrases used in the media and among academics suggest that things simply happen to people, rather than be being caused by their own choices and behavior. Thus there is said to be an ‘epidemic’ of teenage pregnancy, or of drug usage, as if these things were like the flu that people catch just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” ...

“Widespread personification of ‘society’ is another verbal tactic that evades issues of personal responsibility. Such use of the term ‘society’ is a more sophisticated version of the notion that ‘the devil made me do it.’ Like much of the rest of the special vocabulary of the anointed, it is used as a magic word to make choice, behavior, and performance vanish into thin air.”...

“The vision of the anointed is one in which ills as poverty, irresponsible sex, and crime derive primarily from ‘society,’ rather than from individual choices and behavior. To believe in personal responsibility would be to destroy the whole special role of the anointed, whose vision casts them in the role of rescuers of people treated unfairly by ‘society’.”

[fredsanford]

No better thinker than Thomas Sowell...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/12/26/random_thoughts_116513.html

If someone wrote a novel about a man who was raised from childhood to resent the successful and despise the basic values of America -- and who then went on to become President of the United States -- that novel would be considered too unbelievable, even for a work of fiction. Yet that is what has happened in real life.

Some people seem to think that, if life is not fair, then the answer is to turn more of the nation's resources over to politicians -- who will, of course, then spend these resources in ways that increase the politicians' chances of getting reelected.

When I was growing up, an older member of the family used to say, "What you don't know would make a big book." Now that I am an older member of the family, I would say to anyone, "What you don't know would fill more books than the Encyclopedia Britannica." At least half of our society's troubles come from know-it-alls, in a world where nobody knows even 10 percent of all.

The annual outbursts of intolerance toward any display of traditional Christmas scenes, or even daring to call a Christmas tree by its name, show that today's liberals are by no means liberal. Behind the mist of their lofty words, the totalitarian mindset shows through.

The more I study the history of intellectuals, the more they seem like a wrecking crew, dismantling civilization bit by bit -- replacing what works with what sounds good.

No bigger waste of column inches you mean...

We saw where electing the C student got us from. 2000-2007.

[bluelang]

It isn't just intellectualism that is the problem. It is "intellectual elitism"...the idea that the intellectual's vision for our country, and our government, is superior to yours or mine when their ideas are often concocted in rareified collegiate air and have never been tested in the real world.


You're confusing intellectual with academic. Two different things.

[108]

Probably at one time he did. But he's been on the conservative pundit welfare gravy train for awhile, so it doesnt really matter. He can churn out some sloppy hot mess that's been said a thousand times before and still part fools from their money to eek out a nice living.

a lot of money to go around here

props to him from finding his niche in it

as for the debt

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/imgs/2013/130107-mitch-mcconnell-its-time-to-confront-our-spending-addiction.jpg

[brainstorm]

That talks about "growth" in spending. That is, MORE on top of the guy before him.

[108]

all you did was deflect- you did not answer my question

was following suite :joecool:

[g8orbill]

wuss

[wargunfan]

Where was Sowell when the nation was racking up massive debt prior to a massive recession that forced debt?

In terms of actual spending enacted, Obama is on the lower end

He was speaking out against deficit spending.
Where were you?