Why Thomas Sowell is so Popular with Conservatives

Worth 50 minutes of your time:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdBn7MUM3Yo?rel=0]
Quote of the Day, from the end of the interview:

Peter Robinson: How’s my generation’s project of holding on to liberty coming along?

Thomas Sowell
: Not well. One of the reasons I’m glad to be as old as I am is that it means I may be spared seeing what’s going to happen to this country, either internally or as the result of international complications.

Robinson: You think that America’s greatest days are gone? Full stop? That it’s irreversible?

Sowell: Nothing is irreversible. But I think that we’re like a team that is coming to bat in the bottom of the ninth, five runs behind. We can win it, but this is not… I wouldn’t bet the rent money on it.

Robinson: Last question. What would you say – talking about Milton (Friedman) talking to my generation – what would you say to the next generation, to your grandchildren’s generation about the America for which they should be preparing themselves?

Sowell: Since I don’t know what that America is going to be, I don’t want to say anything to them. By the time they get here I think the issue will have been settled one way or the other.

Robinson: By then it will be irreversible.

Sowell: Either we will have pulled out of the dive, as it were, or else it will be all over.

The Stupidity of the American Voter

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G790p0LcgbI?rel=0]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hcu1S2GKf0?rel=0]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7IlKhqJPH8?rel=0]
Well, he’s right.  I made the argument during what passed as “debate” over Obamacare (as did literally thousands of others) that you could not:

  • add millions to the health insurance rolls
  • add tens of thousands of IRS and other government agents to the federal payroll to regulate the Act
  • not add any doctors or medical centers to the existing system
  • eliminate lifetime payout caps
  • remove limits of insurability for those with pre-existing conditions

and honestly promise a DECREASE in health insurance costs and an IMPROVEMENT in health care services.  Much less “If you like your Plan, you can keep your Plan.  If you like your Doctor, you can keep your Doctor.”

Former Congressman Thad McCotter put it quite succinctly in March of 2010:

The Democratic Party believes that you can take an imperfect health-care system and fix it by putting it under the most dysfunctional and broken entity in the United States today: It’s called the Federal Government.

That proposition is insane.

But that’s how they sold it.  A lot of people bought the lies.  Even worse, a lot still do.

The Democrats depend on the stupidity of their supporters.  After all, it’s served them remarkably well in the past.  In 2000 (long before I started this blog) I wrote a piece now archived at KeepandBearArms.com entitled An Uncomfortable Conclusion.  I will reproduce it here, as fourteen years later I wouldn’t change a word:

With the continuing legal maneuvers in the Florida election debacle, I have been forced to a conclusion that I may have been unconsciously fending off. The Democratic party thinks we’re stupid. Not “amiable uncle Joe” stupid, but DANGEROUSLY stupid. Lead-by-the-hand-no-sharp-objects-don’t-put-that-in-your-mouth stupid. And they don’t think that just Republicans and independents are stupid, no no! They think ANYBODY not in the Democratic power elite is, by definition, a drooling idiot. A muttering moron. Pinheads barely capable of dressing ourselves.

Take, for example, the position under which the Gore election machine petitioned for a recount – that only supporters of the Democratic candidate for President lacked the skills necessary to vote properly, and that through a manual recount those erroneously marked ballots could be “properly” counted in Mr. Gore’s favor. They did this in open court and on national television, and with a straight face.

So, it is with some regret that I can no longer hold that uncomfortable conclusion at bay:

They’re right. We are.

Not all of us, of course, but enough. Those of us still capable of intelligent, logical, independent thought have been overwhelmed by the public school system production lines that have been cranking out large quantities of substandard product for the last thirty-five years or so. The majority of three or four generations have managed to make it into the working world with no knowledge of history, no understanding of the Constitution or civics, no awareness of geography, no ability to do even mildly complex mathematics, no comprehension of science, and realistically little to no ability to read with comprehension, or write with clarity. And we seem to have developed attention spans roughly equivalent to that of your average small bird. (Ed. – Twitter didn’t come along until 2006!)

After all, about half the public accepted the Democratic premise that we were too stupid to vote correctly because their guy didn’t win by a landslide, didn’t they? And the other half was outraged, not that they made such a ludicrous argument, but that they didn’t want to play fair and by the rules that no one seems to understand or to be able to explain.

The other majority party isn’t blameless in this; they like an ignorant electorate too. It’s easier to lead people who can’t or won’t think for themselves. It took both parties and many years of active bipartisan meddling to make the education system into an international laughingstock.

However, the end result of this downward spiral has been an electorate ignorant in the simple foundations of this country and its government. Most especially the foundation of a rule of law in which EVERYONE is equal under the laws of the land. The Democrats have taken advantage of this general ignorance to its logical extreme. President Clinton, when testifying under oath, debates the meaning of the word “is,” and essentially gets away with it. Vice President Gore, when shown to be in direct violation of campaign finance law states that there was no “controlling legal authority.”

Laws don’t MEAN anything to them. A law is an inconvenient bit of wording that just has to be “interpreted” properly to achieve their ends. When they file suit, they must shop for the proper judge, or they might not be able to get the “spin” they want. Like the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, words mean just what they want them to mean, no more no less. And that meaning can change at any time.

What has this election proven? The system is broken beyond a shadow of a doubt. Humpty-Dumpty is smashed. Regardless of who wins the recount in Florida, we have a system that has abandoned the rule of law because the populace let it, not knowing any better. Everything is up for interpretation. We don’t live in the United States of America anymore, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We live in `Merica, land of the free to do whatever we please, with no adverse consequences to our actions because that just wouldn’t be “fair”. Ain’t Democracy wunnerful? Let’s just vote ourselves bread and circuses and wait for the Barbarians to come over the walls. Bet that’ll get more than 49% of the vote, huh?

(This is the piece that got me kicked off of Democratic Underground, BTW. Somebody had to Google my name to find it and then point a DU administrator at it.)

Apparently They Nuked Pandora…

The Na’vi have been wiped out, and mining of Unobtanium has resumed.

My 8-lb. keg of Unobtanium Unique finally came in.  Along with a 4-lb. keg of Power Pistol.

 photo WIN_20141010_175804.jpg
Remember, I found a 8-pounder back in June.  The retailer wanted $299 for it, plus HazMat.  I passed.

Powder Valley still shows the 8-lb. keg for $109.25, but they don’t have any.  My local retailer wanted $199.00 plus tax.  I paid it.  And $99 for the Power Pistol.

Remember those halcyon days of, oh, two years ago when pistol powder was about $18/lb in quantity?  Yeah.  So do I. 

The shop got in two of those 8-pounders.  Another customer saw mine and bought the other one on the spot.

Looks like I’ll be loading this weekend!

Tidyville

Titusville, Florida is where I grew up.  My family moved there in 1966 when I was four, and we left in 1974 when I was 12, so if I’m asked, that’s “where I’m from.”  My father worked for IBM’s Federal Systems Division as a quality engineer for the Saturn V Instrument Unit, the guidance system of the rocket.  We didn’t see dad a lot during those eight years.  After the last Saturn V launch put Skylab in orbit IBM no longer had a contract, and Dad had to transfer back to the division that made commercial products – this time the first of the grocery store laser scanner cash register systems.  We relocated to North Carolina.

Titusville was a great place to grow up during that period, but since the manned space program has been shut down, it’s fallen on pretty hard times, apparently.  I haven’t been there since my wife and I honeymooned in Florida in 1995.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn there the evening of August 3 when Hurricane Erin came ashore just a few miles South of the hotel. 

Good times.

Capitalism

Well, I found some Alliant Unique.

One e-tailer that I’ve found shows stock.  I’ve had an 8-lb. keg on order with my local Merchant O’Death since I got back from last year’s Gun Blogger Rendezvous.  No word on when I might ever see it.  Every other source I’ve checked shows no stock – Midway, Powder Valley, Natchez, Cabela’s, etc. etc. etc.

Except this one.  A couple of days ago, they showed that they had one (1) 8-lb. keg left in stock.  Today they show they have only three 1-lb. bottles.

The keg was $299.  The one-pounders are $42.49 each. That’s right at double what Unique cost a year ago.  (Plus, of course, the $28.50 HazMat charge and shipping costs.) 

People call this “gouging.”  I call it “Economics 101 – supply and demand.”  Had this e-tailer offered their stock at “normal” prices, they’d be out of stock just like everyone else.  By elevating the price, they still have some – for whoever is willing to pay. 

I’m not their guy. More power to you if you are.

Another Interesting Data Point

Even though my office is close to home, I tend to eat lunch at the various restaurants around the area.  When I’m eating lunch by myself, I always have something to read – usually whatever nonfiction book I’m working on at the time.  At one restaurant I almost always get the same waitress, a pleasant woman a few years older than I am, who takes an interest in whatever I happen to be reading.  We’ve had some interesting, if abbreviated, discussions.

I hadn’t been there for awhile, and they have a pretty good patty melt, so that’s where I went today.  After taking my order and then serving me, she said – out of the blue – “At your job, were you able to keep your health insurance?”  When I said yes, she asked how big the company I worked for was.  It’s about 100 people.

Turns out, her husband works for a much smaller company.  She and her husband had just received a letter informing them that they were losing their company-assisted health insurance and would be moving to the Obamacare pool.  The “Silver” plan that would be automatically replacing their previous insurance would cost them an extra $400 a month.

And has an $8,000 deductible.

They could, of course, decline this automatic option and go shopping for themselves.

If, of course, the web site every actually – you know – works.

“So much for being able to keep the plan we were happy with!” she said.  

UPDATE:  Here’s another.

No Shame

Obama in July, 2008:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydZTHPkOnvE?rel=0]
Obama in September, 2013:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58zamUOSPxk?start=102]

Raising the debt ceiling, which has been done over a hundred times,
does not increase our debt.

Then why do we need to raise the ceiling? Aren’t we again “taking out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children” and “driving up the national debt”? What’s different now?

The difference is, now he’s the President, and under his administration, the national debt has increased from $10.5 trillion in November of 2008 to over $16.9 trillion today, some $200 billion over the current “ceiling,” – but through accounting sleight-of-hand by the Treasury, it’s been “officially” stuck at $16,699,396,000,000 since mid-May,  an interesting tidbit the MSM hasn’t found interesting enough to comment on.

It’s like they’re protecting him or something.