4.07.2009

Sowell's Random Thoughts

Thomas Sowell has a brain dump of random thoughts up at Capitalism Magazine, and it's full of great and pithy insights. Some of my favorites:
Barack Obama seems determined to repeat every disastrous mistake of the 1930s, at home and abroad. He has already repeated Herbert Hoover's policy of raising taxes on high income earners, FDR's policy of trying to micro-manage the economy and Neville Chamberlain's policy of seeking dialogues with hostile nations while downplaying the dangers they represent.

We seem to be moving steadily in the direction of a society where no one is responsible for what he himself did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did, either in the present or in the past.

Barack Obama's favorable reception during his tour in Europe may be the most enthusiastic international acclaim for a democratic government leader since Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich in 1938, proclaiming "peace in our time." [bold added]
His final observation is a perfect encapsulation of the dangerous farce we are witnessing in Washington:
Socialists believe in government ownership of the means of production. Fascists believed in government control of privately owned businesses, which is much more the style of this government. That way, politicians can intervene whenever they feel like it and then, when their interventions turn out badly, summon executives from the private sector before Congress and denounce them on nationwide television. [bold added]
But my favorite bit was the following:
The famous editorial cartoonist Herblock could write as well as draw. In one of his books, he said something like: "You too can have the soothing feeling of nature's own baby-soft wool being pulled gently over your resting eyes." I think of that every time I see Barack Obama talking. [all emphasis added]
And now I'll think of that saying every time I hear Obama, too.

1 comment:

Per-Olof Samuelsson said...

I liked the one about Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich. Except it may turn out to be prophetic.