Some real "Pearls of Wisdom" from Thomas Sowell

Even
squirrels know enough to store nuts, so that they will have something to
eat when food gets scarce. But the welfare state has spawned a whole
class of people who spend everything they get when times are good, and
look to others to provide for their food and other basic needs when
times turn bad.

* * * *

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution prescribes
"equal protection of the laws" to all Americans. But what does that
mean, if the President of the United States can arbitrarily grant
waivers, so that A, B and C have to obey the laws but X, Y and Z do not
-- as with both ObamaCare and the immigration laws?

* * * *

Two reports
came out in the same week. One was from the Pentagon, saying that, in
just a few years, Iran will be able to produce not only a nuclear bomb
but a missile capable of carrying it to the United States. The other
report said that the American Olympic team has uniforms made in China.
This latter report received far more attention, both in Congress and in
the media.

* * * *

People who lament gridlock in Washington, and express
the pious hope that Democrats and Republicans would put aside their
partisan conflicts, and cooperate to help the economy recover,
implicitly assume that what the economy needs is more meddling by
politicians, which is what brought on economic disaster in the first
place. (Skeptics can read "The Housing Boom and Bust.")

* * * *

Racism is
not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race
hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others
as "racists."

* * * *

One of the arguments for Medicare is that the
elderly don't want to be a burden to their children. Apparently it is
all right to be a burden to other people's children, who are paying
taxes.

* * * *

Those who talk as if more people going to college is
automatically a Good Thing seldom show much interest in what actually
goes on at college -- including far less time spent by students studying
than in the past, and a proliferation of courses promoting a sense of
grievance, entitlement or advanced navel-gazing and breast-beating.

* * * *

One
of the most dangerous trends of our times is making the truth socially
unacceptable, or even illegal, with "hate speech" laws. It is supposed
to be terrible, for example, to call an illegal alien an "illegal alien"
or to call an Islamic terrorist an "Islamic terrorist." When the media
refer to "undocumented" workers or to violence committed by "militants,"
who is kidding whom -- and why?

* * * *

After the charismatic -- and
disastrous -- Woodrow Wilson presidency, the voters did not elect
another president in the next decade who could be considered the least
bit charismatic. Let us hope that history repeats itself.

* * * *

For more
than two centuries, the U.S. military never had a public celebration of
anybody's sex life -- until the recent "gay pride" event under the
Obama administration. Here, as elsewhere, the gay political agenda is
not equality but privilege. [I have to give Dr. Sowell an "Amen" on this, it's what I've been saying for years!]

* * * *

Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said,
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Then he proceeded to generate
fear among businesses for years on end, with both his anti-business
rhetoric and his anti-business policies. Barack Obama is repeating the
same approach and getting the same results -- namely, an agonizingly
slow economic recovery, as investors hang on to their money, instead of
risking it in a hostile political environment.

* * * *

If we wake up some
morning and find some American cities in radioactive ruins, courtesy of a
nuclear Iran, nobody is going to care whether the president who lets
this happen is the first black president or the last WASP president.
But, in the meantime, many people will keep on voting for symbolism, as
if an election is a popularity contest, like choosing a college's
Homecoming Queen or Parade Marshal.

* * * *

There seems to be something
"liberating" about ignorance -- especially when you don't even know
enough to realize how little you know. Thus an administration loaded
with people who have never run any business is gung-ho to tell
businesses what to do, as well as gung-ho to tell the medical profession
what to do, lenders whom to lend to, and the military how to fight
wars.

Thomas Sowell