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About once a year, we get a visit from the master himself, the great Thomas Sowell. This year’s session is on the occasion of the publication of his new book, Charter Schools And Their Enemies and more importantly, his 90th(!) birthday on June 30th. We talk about the success of charter schools despite the teacher’s union and America’s worst mayor doing everything they can to undermine them. Then Ricochet’s Senior Supreme Court and Legal Analyst John Yoo joins to break down last week’s curious DACA and Bostock decisions. Finally, some thoughts on statues.
We’re off next week for the holiday. Stay safe everyone!
Music from this week’s show: Sweet Soul Music by Arthur Conley
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always had Rob pegged as the “I Gave My Love a Cherry” type vs. Lileks
Yes!!!!!!! The master indeed!!! Can’t wait to listen!! Thank you so so so much for having/getting Thomas Sowell on the program!! Mr. Robinson I have watched your Uncommon Knowledge interviews with Dr. Sowell hundreds of times and had my students watch them!!!! This is awesome!!!!
Love the Image as well!!!!
Best graphics in a long, long time!!! Love it!!
Only a few seconds in, but I am delighted to learn that Dr. Sowell and my late father were born on the same day.
What happened to LAST WEEK’S Post Of The Week? It still doesn’t show up in the sidebar.
Politicians and teacher unions oppose charter schools for the same reason they embrace govt-controlled public schools–They both are succeeding, in different ways, at an alarming rate!
Walter Karp: “When 58 percent of the thirteen-year-olds tested by the National Assessment for Educational Progress think it is against the law to start a third party in America, we are dealing not with a sad educational failure but with a remarkably subtle success.” Why Johnny Can’t Think: The Politics of Bad Schooling
https://sourcetext.com/why-johnny-cant-think/
Fixed!
I love Sowell, and that cover pic is freaking awesome.
And everyone watch the movie Uncle Tom. Fantastic!
John Yoo is a peach. More of him, please.
John Yoo AND Thomas Sowell! Must put at top of my listening priority for the weekend.
What we mean to say is, “Thanks for the T-shirt!”
Thank you, @peterrobinson, for repeating your LAST name near the end of the Sowell interview. I wasn’t sure which Peter I was hearing.
I doubt Peter ever dressed like that. But I feel certain that if so, college graduation certainly put an end to such lackadaisical haberdashery.
Man, I hurt myself trying to anticipate where James was going with tents in the city park and the feeling that you can’t do anything about it. Seemed the natural destination was an awful pun on “impotent.” But that did not happen. And I’ve lost precious brain cells in the attempt to come up with one. I want them back. (Is the awful pun in the missing couple of minutes at the end? Is that why they’re missing?)
James will have answer where he was going, but the clips at the end are not missing audio, they’re just outtakes recorded while we were in between segments or before we started.
I have been asked to post this photo to dispel any rumors that the image of @johnyoo in the Photoshop above was not manipulated in any way:
Great podcast, predictably.
You want pessimism? Those charter schools represent the next generation; not the generations currently challenged with stopping an avalanche of lawless officials, violent mobs, hatemongering “charities”, censorship and extortion, attempted coups, etc.
For republican government and American liberty to survive until those students enter the working world and vote, the good Lord will have to radically transform both Left and Right in record time. Public society is quickly proceeding from indoctrination to intimidation and destruction.
Sorry. I cut myself off because I figured I was ranting and treading on the patience of Rob and Peter, and didn’t want to get too dramatic about the inevitable lesson in these instances of civil disorder: there is no one I can call who will listen. The dispossessed can live in the park and use the trees for a toilet three yards from where the children play, and I’d best examine my privilege if I have a problem with that. Previously we had an arrangement: I pay my taxes, and they don’t take my house. Now it seems as if I am expected to acquiesce to the trashing of public spaces, public monuments, private businesses, and get used to boards over windows spattered with all manner of juicy assertions, because, well, you know, there are more important things for my elected representatives to do.
We had a deal: high taxes in exchange for efficient public services. Now people in my neighborhood are feeling like Lando complaining to Vader. The deal has been altered. Pray they do not alter it further.
When I was recently asked for names of people who I think they should follow or read, Mr. Sowell’s name was the first. I’m thrilled that he’s still publishing!
I forwarded this quote from Mr. Sowell to a couple of friends: “Lenin once said that the capitalist will sell you the rope with which to hang him. Today, in these more politically-correct times, the socially-responsible capitalist will donate the rope with which to hang him.” (34 minutes into the podcast)
Or better yet, just hang himself so nobody else needs to bother.
The reason the education system exists is to steal from the tax payer and the students and for indoctrination.
This is like the third explanation I’ve heard about DACA. I just cannot believe how comprehensively illegal this thing is. Any Republican that supports any of this is out of their mind. Another breakdown of civil society and good government like we expect in the West.
Great show. Always good to hear from Thomas Magnus. And John Yoo brings a very sunny presence to the podcast.
James, buck up, man. Anything that can’t go on forever won’t. Don’t set the park on fire yet.
I thought for sure the exit song would be REM’s Gardening At Night for this episode.
If Thomas Sowell wasn’t on this episode, it would have been. Actually tried to put it under John’s intro, but it didn’t really work.
Charter school advocates are the ones that believe black lives actually matter, while DeBlasio, the teachers’ unions, and the NAACP clearly believe that black lives don’t matter that much.
Gorsuch is a Libertarian guy, the fact that he voted to expand Gay rights, should not be a shock to anyone, and the fact that so many people seemed to be shocked by his decision, just goes to show me how few conservatives pay any attention at all.
It occurs to me that Dr. Sowell was still 37 when I was in Seoul, Korea, where Prof. Yuu had been born a few months before…Despite all of the madness, these two voices of reason can give us hope, faint as it may be…I wish there had been more discussion about the lawlessness being condoned for political ends, namely the defeat of Donald Trump and the triumph of the deranged left, its puppet figure being Joe Biden… I live far away from America and thus may see what it is occurring in overly dramatic terms, and yet this time the madness seems to be of a different dimension–and far more threatening for the future of the republic.
It think it was Mr. Sowell who years ago was demonstrating how young the country was by saying that he’d been around for one third of it. Have a happy ninetieth birthday.
Excellent podcast, guys! @roblong, you know your gov. has declared NC a “no go zone”. Make sure you quarantine when you get back to NYC. HAHA! Enjoy our beaches.