Category Archives: Sowell

Roundup That Matters

Posted on by
2

Here are a few things that caught my attention, but not enough for a full-fledged blog.

Thomas Sowell does and excellent job showing BHO’s dislike and disdain for Israel. BHO will do whatever it takes to cause a rift between the U.S. and Israel. His Islamic roots are coming home to roost, so to speak. Sowell writes:

Whether as a radical student, a community organizer or a far left politician, Barack Obama’s ideology has been based on a vision of the Haves versus the Have Nots. However complex the ramifications of this ideology, and however clever the means by which Obama has camouflaged it, that is what it has amounted to.

No wonder he was moved to tears when the Reverend Jeremiah Wright summarized that ideology in a thundering phrase– “white folks’ greed runs a world in need.”

Israel is one of the Haves. Its neighbors remain among the Have Nots, despite their oil. No wonder that Barack Obama has bent over backward, in addition to bowing low forward, to support the side that his ideology favors.

Whether at home or abroad, Obama’s ideology is an ideology of envy, resentment and payback.

This is one of the reasons I admire George W. so much. He was not petty. BHO is very petty and will do everything he can to attack his enemies. That truly shows he is a small man… if a man at all. Not Bush. He flew above it and continues to do so. BHO is bitter and will be so for the rest of his life. Poor soul.

Open Letter to John Piper — Frank Turk has an excellent open letter to John Piper concerning Piper’s recent interview with Rick Warren of Saddleback church. A lot of us have problems with Warren and his purpose driven gospel. It’s hard to pinpoint Warren down on some of his techniques and practices, but it’s enough to cause a lot of us alarm since he is so influential. The fall-out from Warren’s ministries among other Baptist churches is noticeable and sad. In the long run, it seems that Warren is doing far more damage to the health of the church than he is in helping it. Read Turk’s letter and some of the links he posts in the midst of it for more details.

Roundup That Matters — This is simply the name of this type of post in keeping with the theme of this blog and is not intended to imply that other bloggers who use the word “roundup” in their posts are insignificant or do not matter. Neil has some of the best “Roundups” around, typically far better than mine. By the way, Neil could call his “Roundups” something like “Roundup for Eternity” in keeping with his theme. (Neil, there is no charge for that one.)

Top-Ten Five Favorite Stores

Just thought of this today while buying some shoes for the boys. I have a lot of favorite stores that I like to go to when I have an extra .50 cents to spend. So, here is my list.

  1. Dick’s Sporting Goods — not for shoes or clothing, but for the hopes of being able to buy a new set of golf clubs some day. I would love to go in there and get some brand new Taylor Made clubs that are actually made long enough for my height. I have some clubs that have been extended, but for the best results, one would need to have the shafts originally made to length. I was told that with the right clubs, I could take 10 strokes off my game for over all improvement. I was also told that with golf shoes, I could do the same. I’ve also been told that if I have the right golf ball and the right golfing glove, I can knock another 10 strokes off my game. Either, I need to get a golf company to sponsor me so I can go on the tour, or all those words of advice are mere hyperbole to get me to buy more golf stuff. After all, just given that advice, which I have partially taken, would mean that my game would improve by 30 to 40 strokes over all. Given that my game has not improved 3 to 4 strokes over all since taking it up… I’m guessing hyperbole.
  2. Gander Mountain — this one simply because they have been so helpful in buying shoes. I’ve been in there twice and they have YET to have my size. But they are really helpful about helping me pick out the style I like, and making sure I have the correct web site in order to order those shoes. That site would be: http://www.keenfootwear.com/ By far my favorite shoes since they look sporty, and feel really great on my feet. When you weigh as much as I do, you pay attention to how much support are on your feet.
  3. Lowe’s Home Improvement Stores — with all the hopes of improving my home, there is no limit to the number of projects I would love to do by going into this store. My latest project was making Andy and Joey swords (see post below). I loved making those swords and actually just finished putting on the final coat of polyurethane yesterday in order to bring out the beauty of the oak wood. I also love the smell of fresh cut and sanded wood. There is something noble about doing things that a carpenter might have done. Let’s not forget the power tools that lawn mowers, and grills, and all the other things that help make a home much improved.
  4. Home Depot — Only not so much given their stance on the gay agenda.
  5. Best Buy — electronics. New electronics. Fancy electronics. Waste of money but gotta have electronics. Cameras, both digital and video, flat-screen televisions, DVD’s a million, computer stuff, even IMacs, IPhones, IPads and all the I-equipment one can want. Yes, all this to say that electronics make this my favorite store.

Stop Subsidizing the Rich

Posted on by
Reply

No, I’m not going liberal on you. I’m still conservative in my religious, moral and political views. I still believe in free-market societies. I still think the best government is a small government that focuses on it’s Constitutional responsibilities. So what am I saying here? Simply that I agree with Thomas Sowell’s latest column on reducing the budget by ending subsidies to the rich. Sowell is adding his own plan and  writes:

My plan would start by cutting off all government transfer payments to billionaires. Many, if not most, people are probably unaware that the government is handing out the taxpayers’ money to billionaires. But agricultural subsidies go to a number of billionaires. Very little goes to the ordinary farmer.

Big corporations also get big bucks from the government, not only in agricultural subsidies but also in the name of “green” policies, in the name of “alternative energy” policies, and in the name of whatever else will rationalize shoveling the taxpayers’ money out the door to whomever the administration designates, for its own political reasons.

The usual political counter-attacks against spending cuts will not work against this new kind of spending cut approach. How many heart-rending stories can the media run about billionaires who have lost their handouts from the taxpayers? How many tears will be shed if General Motors gets dumped off the gravy train?

It would also be eye-opening to many people to discover how much government money is going into subsidizing all sorts of things that have nothing to do with helping “the poor” or protecting the public. This would include government-subsidized insurance for posh and pricey coastal resorts, located too dangerously close to the ocean for a private insurance company to risk insuring them.

This approach would not only circumvent the sob stories, it would also circumvent the ideological battles over whether to cut off money to Planned Parenthood or National Public Radio.

The money to be saved by cutting off agricultural subsidies to the wealthy and the big corporations is vastly greater than the money to be saved by cutting off Planned Parenthood or National Public Radio, much as they both deserve to be cut off.

Given that the Republicans in Congress cannot get it through their thick heads that we sent them there to cut spending and NOT capitulate to the Democrats, this plan might actually work. After all, the Republicans won’t have to worry about those dreadful and false cries that go out about them whenever the Dems are trying to stop them from cutting the budgets. You know the ones, “The Republicans want to kill your babies and are controlled by aliens!”

I really am sickened by this latest budget battle. The Republicans are just plain stupid when it comes to doing battle with the Dems. They always let the Dems frame the argument, and the moment they do that, they lose the battle. It’s the old, “hey, have you stopped beating your wife,” ploy, and the Gomers in Washington fall for it every time. Maybe Sowell’s plan will gain traction. Stop subsidizing the rich. No sob stories there.

UPDATE: Taxing the Rich Won’t Solve the Budget Problems Either

Walter Williams points out that even if we tax 100 percent of income of those who make $250,000 a year or more, that this will only pay for the current spending levels for 141 days. That is not enough to get us through the year. So taxing the rich will not do it. We need to cut spending. Read Williams post here.

Saturday Round Up — Sports, Atheists and Top Ten Vices for Health

Posted on by
1

Yes, just a few things of interest today.

Atheist De-baptize Themselves.

Good luck with that. These bozos are going through the process of un-doing their baptisms they received as children. I guess they feel a need to let everyone know that they are not Christians. Don’t worry atheists, we were on the up and up already. No one was mistaking you for believers.

Ten Vices That Are Good For You

From CNN.com comes a list of 10 vices that are good for you. I’m not sure some of the would be considered vices, such as eating dark chocolate, but it’s their list. This list includes sleeping, morning coffee, healthy sex (which only comes between a man and women who are lawfully married), drinking a glass of wine, etc. Like I said, in the proper context, none of these things are truly vices… except maybe the massage. But I’m open to debate on that one.

Houston Astros Will Return to the World Series by 2015

This, of course, is from the department of “we hope you don’t remember this prediction when 2015 rolls around.” But Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle is saying with the recent draft picks and signees the Astros have made, that we should expect the team to return to the World Series by 2015. For those of us who are Astros fans, this is as about as hopeful as it gets. We’re not chanting, “wait till next year!” We’re chanting, “Wait for 5 years!” How is that for you?

As we wait, more and more of us are slowly becoming Rangers fans. By the time 2015 rolls around, the Rangers will have won a series or two.

Here is some of what Justice writes:

If you’re keeping count, the Astros have spent close to $20 million to bring 95 new players into their system the last two years.

This year, they’ve spent $10.7 million on 43 new guys, and who’s to say some of them aren’t as good as Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt, etc.?

These aren’t your 2007 Astros. That was the year the club failed to sign three of its top six draft picks, leading, in part, to the front office overhaul in which Drayton McLane hired GM Ed Wade, who hired scouting director Bobby Heck, who doesn’t mess around.

Wade has succeeded in doing something his predecessors had a tough time with. That is, he has convinced McLane that the one and only way to build a successful big league franchise is by doing the right things in player development.

Once more, the Astros have done that. There are no guarantees with these young guys. If one of them turns out to be an All-Star and two more become contributors on playoff teams, it will have been a terrific draft.

But the first step is writing the big checks, and the Astros again did they. They shelled out $7.2 million to sign their 35 2010 draft picks. That’s a big jump from the $5.5 million they paid for 36 draft picks in 2009, most of that increase coming from picking higher.

They signed 35 of 52 picks in all, including 16 of the top 18. Let’s hope there are a half-dozen future All-Stars in that group.

Texas Ranks Best State to Recruit Running Backs for 2011

Bleacher Report does a great job putting together lists that compare various aspects of college sports. One such list gives us the top states for potential 2011 recruits at the running back position with the state at number 1. The State of Texas will offer up four running backs ranked as 5-star players, five running backs at 4-star players, and 15 running back with 3-star ratings. That is a bevy of backs and if they all stay in Texas schools, the collective offensive output should increase over the next few years. Given that offenses at schools like A&M, t.u., Texas Tech, etc., have all improved over the years, the years, the Texas schools would be unstoppable.

Thomas Sowell ON Bean Counters and the Baloney Put Forth as Racism

Sowell writes

The bean-counters have struck again– this time in the sports pages. Two New York Times sport writers have discovered that baseball coaches from minority groups are found more often coaching at first base than at third base. Moreover, third-base coaches become managers more often than first-base coaches.

This may seem to be just another passing piece of silliness. But it is part of a more general bean-counting mentality that turns statistical differences into grievances. The time is long overdue to throw this race card out of the deck and start seeing it for the gross fallacy that it is.

At the heart of such statistics is the implicit assumption that different races, sexes and other subdivisions of the human species would be proportionately represented in institutions, occupations and income brackets if there was not something strange or sinister going on.

I love it when Sowell addresses the issue of racism, because he puts it into perspective. He continues:

In countries around the world, all sorts of groups differ from each other in all sorts of ways, from rates of alcoholism to infant mortality, education and virtually everything that can be measured, as well as in some things that cannot be quantified. If black and white Americans were the same, they would be the only two groups on this planet who are the same.

One of the things that got us started on heavy-handed government regulation of the housing market were statistics showing that blacks were turned down for mortgage loans more often than whites. The bean-counters in the media went ballistic. It had to be racism, to hear them tell it.

What they didn’t tell you was that whites were turned down more often than Asians. What they also didn’t tell you was that black-owned banks also turned down blacks more often than whites. Nor did they tell you that credit scores differed from group to group. Instead, the media, the politicians and the regulators grabbed some statistics and ran with them.

The bean-counters are everywhere, pushing the idea that differences show injustices committed by society. As long as we keep buying it, they will keep selling it– and the polarization they create will sell this country down the river.

Read the entire article here.

Finally…

Only 14 more days until the Texas Aggies start their football season and their march to the return to supremacy!!!

Hubris-Laden Charlatans

Posted on by
Reply

That is what Thomas Sowell calls the president and his claim that the new health care proposal will not add a single dime to the deficit. Obama’s claim is a joke. This is what Sowell is pointing out, that really doesn’t need to be pointed out. Anyone who knows anything about how our government works, knows that there will be fraud, waste, and excessive prices because of the new legislation. There is no way around it. That is what the government does best.

Here is part of what Sowell writes:

To tell us, with a straight face, that he can insure millions more people without adding to the already skyrocketing deficit, is world-class chutzpa and an insult to anyone’s intelligence. To do so after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has already showed this to be impossible reveals the depths of moral bankruptcy behind the glittering words.

Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin FREE

Did we really need CBO experts to tell us that there is no free lunch? Some people probably did and the true believers in the Obama cult may still believe the President, instead of believing either common sense or budget experts.

Even those who can believe that Obama can conjure up the money through eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” should ask themselves where he is going to conjure up the additional doctors, nurses, and hospitals needed to take care of millions more patients.

If he can’t pull off that miracle, then government-run medical care in the United States can be expected to produce what government-run medical care in Canada, Britain, and other countries has produced– delays of weeks or months to get many treatments, not to mention arbitrary rationing decisions by bureaucrats.

Obama can deny it in words but what matters are deeds– and no one’s words have been more repeatedly the direct opposite of his deeds– whether talking about how his election campaign would be financed, how he would not rush legislation through Congress, or how his administration was not going to go after CIA agents for their past efforts to extract information from captured terrorists.

Emphasis added. Obama words mean nothing. As Joe Wilson so elegantly put it on the floor of the chamber during O’s speach, “You lie!” And Wilson was right on the money. Obama is doing nothing but lying so that the government can take over our health care.

Hopefully, it will fail, and fail soon. We don’t need the lies of this administration. For more, here is what Rush had to say on the issue:

You want a summary of the lies? He lied about only 5% of Americans being forced to the public option. Not true. He lied about the money he would drain from Medicare. Not true what he said. He lied about end-of-life decisions which comes down to rationing. He lied about coverage for illegal aliens, on and on and on, having attacked and lied throughout this thing. He then claims he wants to work with Republicans with whom he has not met since April. He claims to be nonpartisan, above the fray. Now, Joe Wilson, congressman, South Carolina, this is what happened at one point during the speech last night.

OBAMA: There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This too is false. The reforms — (crowd rumbling) the reforms I am proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.

WILSON: You lie! (crowd rumbling)

OBAMA: It’s not true.

RUSH: That’s Joe Wilson, a congressman from South Carolina, a freshman. That was a blatant lie. I’m going to tell you something. One of the things that’s really irritated me all morning and last night was listening to Republicans, even after Wilson has apologized, and I wish he had not, but he’s apologized and even after he’s apologized, members of his own party are all over television denigrating him, “It was bad decorum.” Folks, can I tell you what is happening here? This speech last night and this administration is not your average presidential administration. This is not a garden party. This is not a lecture at Harvard or any other University. We are in the process, we are in the midst of an administration that is trying to totally tear down the institutions and traditions that have made this country great. He is lying, President Obama is, from the moment he opens his mouth until he ends the speech. I was shouting, “You’re lying,” throughout the speech at the television. You’re lying! It’s a lie! Joe Wilson simply articulated what millions of Americans were saying. This is a beanbag.

I agree with Rush. I wish Wilson would have stuck to his guns. He was the only one speaking the truth that night.

Liberals and Sharia Law

Posted on by
Reply


I love this quote from Thomas Sowell:

Perhaps people who are busy gushing over the Obama cult today might do well to stop and think about what it would mean for their grand-daughters to live under sharia law.

The glib pieties in Barack Obama’s televised sermonettes will not stop Iran from becoming a nuclear terrorist nation. Time is running out fast and we will be lucky if it doesn’t happen in the first term of this president. If he gets elected to a second term — which is quite possible, despite whatever economic disasters he leads us into– our fate as a nation may be sealed.

Read the rest of his column here.