A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
Peter Robinson ·
Oct 16, 2011 at 9:08am
Prepping to interview Tom Sowell for Uncommon Knowledge the day after tomorrow, I've spent several engrossing and completely enjoyable hours with his newest book, The Thomas Sowell Reader. Below, the first couple of paragraphs from the essay that Tom wrote on the death of Ronald Reagan:
There are as many ways to judge a President as anyone else. One old-fashioned way is by results. A more popular way in recent years has been by how well someone fits the preconceptions of the intelligentsia or the media.
By the first test, Ronald Reagan was the most successful President of the United States in the 20th century. By the second test, he was a complete failure.
Have you ever seen a sweeter one-two punch?
- Comment (12)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
Jan '11
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
Indeed.
For the rest of us, when our convictions prove wrong, reason demands that we change convictions. However, when the media and intellligentsia are proved wrong, they feel no compulsion to change convictions. Which only reveals, in turn, that their convictions weren't based on reason in the first place.
Oct '11
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
So true KC...Thanks for the part Sowell, can't wait for the rest on "Uncommon Knowledge"
Mar '11
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
Dr. Sowell on UK is always a treat.
Oct '11
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
I always love it when you get Dr. Sowell on UK, but I was bit disappointed with his Ricochet debut. It wasn't that what I got wasn't great, but I wanted more! More!
Apr '11
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
I always listen or read Dr Sowell's words over again when the need to regain focus in my mind on true principals becomes necessary, after hearing all the chatter that pours fourth under the guise of wisdom.
Thank you Peter, NRO, UNK and Ricochet.
Apr '11
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
It's a question of being held accountable for what a person states he/she believes ,for doing things consistent what he states and , in addition, to it's consequences . In general , the believers in the "non constrained " view of Government power to do good (most of the Monarchs of Subliminal Mischaracterization) , are enablers of contempt towards most voters(conservative) by elected officials who hold this world view . Only when certain sacred secular cows (abortion rights, green energy, ) are threatened , reality bites them hard on "the bottom line ", or their expected Utopian vision does not come to fruition despite the attempt by preferred Keynesian method ( therefore necessitating a scapegoat), does their cannibalistic potential become apparent .
May '10
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
Dr. Sowell is a national treasure. My political attitudes began to change when I stumbled onto his column in The San Francisco Examiner in the 1980's. All the opinion pieces in the papers of those days were pretty much the mainstream center-left variety.
The Examiner used to put the writer's photo at the top of their column, so I knew Dr. Sowell was black, and I just assumed that he held the same liberal views as other black public intellectuals of that time; William Raspberry, Clarence Page, Robert C. Maynard, etc.
But Dr. Sowell was a total surprise, and a shock to a soft-headed liberal like me. His logic and reasoning and just good common sense really turned my head. I didn't go so far as to become a Reaganite then (more's the pity) but I was on my way to conservatism through Thomas Sowell.
I read all of his columns that I can, and have a respectable shelf of his books. May he go on forever.
Edited on Oct 16, 2011 at 11:09amJun '11
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
By the first test, President Obama is a complete failure. By the second test, he is the greatest president of all time.
Jan '11
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
Keep in mind that Dr. Sowell started his intellectual climb by starting at the Marxist rung of the maturation ladder, not surprising considering the social context of his youth. But being susceptible to logic, reason, and common sense, he followed the light out of the darkness. It must have been an interesting personal journey. I think most of us on the conservative side of things have undergone a similar sort of metamorphoses. Reading his A Man of Letters give one a glimpse into that growth; his and the reader's.
Oct '11
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
Great stuff. We need Sowell out there speaking his mind. Thanks for interviewing him again.
Jun '10
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
Tom Sowell "floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee." Sowell v. Krugman: no contest--TKO for Tom in the first round.
He is the archetype for the conservative principle that great societies revere the accumulated wisdom of their ancestors.
And does the man have the greatest set of pipes (only James Earl Jones rivals him)?
Edited on Oct 17, 2011 at 8:40amJun '10
Re: A Little Sowell for Your Sunday
Peter: Did I imagine it, or did Dr. Sowell recently have a health scare?