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Obama V: For Vendetta

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Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Sowell is one of the country's leading economists and thinkers and his views are generally spot on. He's also black, so Obama's folks can't criticize him for being racist when he criticizes the administration.
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

French Rage said:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1224631.html

Good thing ACORN determined that the registrations were fraudalent and alerted the authorities of them and who the perpetrators were.

I'm sorry, that should have read: ZOMG ACORN CONTHPRIACY COMMUNIST!!!
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No, no. The appropriate, Fox News-approved, mouth-breather reaction for anything is: "Clinton! Obama! Muslim! Africa!!!! Kennedy! Socialist! Liburel! Hates Baby Jesus!!! Blarrgghh!!!"

Or so I heard at my last Federalist Society confab. ;)
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Bill said:
Sowell is one of the country's leading economists and thinkers and his views are generally spot on. He's also black, so Obama's folks can't criticize him for being racist when he criticizes the administration.
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It's embarrassing when experience trumps ideology. Sowell is a leading economist of a very particular stripe. His views are strongly ideological and he readily admits it. I worked on a panel with him at Hoover when I was at Stanford in the late 80's (the Soc dept at that time was populated almost exclusively with Hooverite business psych types). Interesting guy, much more self-effacing than his public persona -- very, VERY political and unapologetic about it.

To be cited as somehow above the fray would make him laugh, hard.

His NRO piece was Concern Trolling, same as if Howard Dean had written an op ed about his being "troubled" by an AMA position.
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Wait...I thought economists were elitists...did someone forget to forward me the talking points again! :( ;)
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Kepler said:
It's embarrassing when experience trumps ideology. Sowell is a leading economist of a very particular stripe. His views are strongly ideological and he readily admits it. I worked on a panel with him at Hoover when I was at Stanford in the late 80's (the Soc dept at that time was populated almost exclusively with Hooverite business psych types). Interesting guy, much more self-effacing than his public persona -- very, VERY political and unapologetic about it.

To be cited as somehow above the fray would make him laugh, hard.

His NRO piece was Concern Trolling, same as if Howard Dean had written an op ed about his being "troubled" by an AMA position.
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I don't have any problem with Sowell leaning to the right. It's his choice. Is there anything in his Obama piece that is inaccurate?

Pretty much anyone who cares about anything is going to have ideological views of one persuasion or the other.

Isn't using Thomas Sowell and Howard Dean in the same sentence sort of like using Einstein and Lenny Dykstra in the same sentence?
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Bill said:
I don't have any problem with Sowell leaning to the right. It's his choice. Is there anything in his Obama piece that is inaccurate?

Pretty much anyone who cares about anything is going to have ideological views of one persuasion or the other.

Isn't using Thomas Sowell and Howard Dean in the same sentence sort of like using Einstein and Lenny Dykstra in the same sentence?
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Nobody's criticizing him for having views, but you were the one trumping up his admittedly ideological views under the guise of academic truth due to his economics qualifications.
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Bill said:
Isn't using Thomas Sowell and Howard Dean in the same sentence sort of like using Einstein and Lenny Dykstra in the same sentence?
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Einstein was a helluva leadoff man ... :mad: ;)
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

blockski said:
Nobody's criticizing him for having views, but you were the one trumping up his admittedly ideological views under the guise of academic truth due to his economics qualifications.
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Are there any points in his Obama piece that you think are inaccurate? Sowell is a lot higher on the totem pole of the country's thinkers than most commentators. If everyone on this forum already knows that, then I apologize for bringing it up, but I kind of doubt that they do. We would do well to give serious thought to his views, regardless of our political leanings.
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Bill said:
Are there any points in his Obama piece that you think are inaccurate? Sowell is a lot higher on the totem pole of the country's thinkers than most commentators. If everyone on this forum already knows that, then I apologize for bringing it up, but I kind of doubt that they do. We would do well to give serious thought to his views, regardless of our political leanings.
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Put it this way. Chomsky is far higher on the totem pole than Sowell. It doesn't make you any more likely to take his views to heart.

I actually do take both Sowell and Chomsky seriously, but they operate from axioms so alien to mine that they aren't going to come to the same conclusions as I, even if they scrupulously observe rules of fair reasoning. There is a point at which a cat is a cat and a dog is a dog. Maybe there's one cat in a million who is bright, genuine, and honest enough to break down that barrier -- Oakeshott, Kirk and Buckley on odd-numbered days are the only three from the right in the last century who would reach that mark -- but for the rest the best we can hope for is polite and mutually respectful disagreement.

If all sincere and smart people were arguing from the same perspective, politics would be easy.
 
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Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Bill said:
Are there any points in his Obama piece that you think are inaccurate? Sowell is a lot higher on the totem pole of the country's thinkers than most commentators. If everyone on this forum already knows that, then I apologize for bringing it up, but I kind of doubt that they do. We would do well to give serious thought to his views, regardless of our political leanings.
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It's not a matter of accuracy. Sowell, like any other person offering their opinion, sets the table with a few facts and then offers his interpretation.

Kepler's right. Chomsky is high on the totem pole, too. Doesn't mean people have to agree with him.
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Kepler said:
Put it this way. Chomsky is far higher on the totem pole than Sowell. It doesn't make you any more likely to take his views to heart.
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Maybe strictly from an IQ standpoint, but isn't Chomsky an Anarchist, which is a pretty extreme political position to take? That kind of makes his political views unacceptable to the vast majority of people. You could argue that Sowell is higher on the totem pole in terms of those whose views are less extreme. I don't care how smart someone is; if their political views are extreme enough, hardly anyone is going to take them seriously.
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Chomsky's an idiot. Nuff said. I don't worry myself about Chomsky because he's an absolute nothing, and I don't worry about nothings.
 
Re: Obama V: For Vendetta

Bill said:
I don't care how smart someone is; if their political views are extreme enough, hardly anyone is going to take them seriously.
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That's pretty much what conservatives (even paleocons) said about Sowell when he wrote that inner city blacks are lazy, slutty and criminal because they learned it from southern white hicks.

He really doesn't have a lot of friends on the right, either. :)

There's also Shockley Syndrome to account for. Chomsky is a genius in linguistics; Victor David Hanson is a revered classicist. That doesn't make either of them less of a tin foil windbag about politics.
 
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