http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/sowell/ en-us Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:35:57 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046936/posts July 16, 2008, 0:00 a.m. Real AutismParents need to be spared the emotional trauma of false diagnoses and children need to be spared stressful treatments that follow false diagnoses. By Thomas Sowell ‘New Ways to Diagnose Autism Earlier” read a recent headline in the Wall Street Journal. There is no question that you can diagnose anything as early as you want. The real question is whether the diagnosis will turn out to be correct. My own awareness of how easy it is to make false diagnoses of autism grew out of experiences with a group of parents of late-talking... National Review Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046936/posts#comment Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:35:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046062/posts "New Ways to Diagnose Autism Earlier" read a recent headline in the Wall Street Journal. There is no question that you can diagnose anything as early as you want. The real question is whether the diagnosis will turn out to be correct. My own awareness of how easy it is to make false diagnoses of autism grew out of experiences with a group of parents of late-talking children that I formed back in 1993. A number of those children were diagnosed as autistic. But the passing years have shown most of the diagnoses to have been false, as most of... Creators Syndicate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046062/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:08:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045527/posts In an election campaign in which not only young liberals, but also some people who are neither young nor liberals, seem absolutely mesmerized by the skilled rhetoric of Barack Obama, facts have receded even further into the background than usual. As the hypnotic mantra of "change" is repeated endlessly, few people even raise the question of whether what few specifics we hear represent any real change, much less a change for the better. Raising taxes, increasing government spending and demonizing business? That is straight out of the New Deal of the 1930s. The New Deal was new then but it... Jewish World Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045527/posts#comment Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:53:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042722/posts Over the years, many statements have been falsely attributed to me, but this is the first year in which a whole column has been made up and circulated in a chain letter on the Internet, claiming that I wrote it. Letters, phone calls and e-mails from readers around the country have asked me if I wrote a column saying that Barack Obama is not an American citizen. The answer is "No." Many of my readers have been savvy enough to tell that the style of the phony column is not mine, but checked with me just to be sure. What... GOPUSA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042722/posts#comment Wed, 9 Jul 2008 02:15:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042187/posts A number of friends of mine have commented on an odd phenomenon that they have observed — conservative Republicans they know who are saying that they are going to vote for Barack Obama. It seemed at first to be an isolated fluke, perhaps signifying only that my friends know some strange conservatives. But apparently columnist Robert Novak has encountered the same phenomenon and has coined the term "Obamacons" to describe the conservatives for Senator Obama. Now the San Francisco Chronicle has run a feature article, titled "Some Influential Conservatives Spurn GOP and Endorse Obama." In it they quote various conservatives... Jewish World Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042187/posts#comment Tue, 8 Jul 2008 02:36:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039055/posts The Fourth of July is a patriotic holiday but patriotism has long been viewed with suspicion or disdain by many of the intelligentsia. As far back as 1793, prominent British writer William Godwin called patriotism "high-sounding nonsense." Internationalism has long been a competitor with patriotism, especially among the intelligentsia. H.G. Wells advocated replacing the idea of duty to one's country with "the idea of cosmopolitan duty." Perhaps nowhere was patriotism so downplayed or deplored than among intellectuals in the Western democracies in the two decades after the horrors of the First World War, fought under various nations' banners of patriotism.... RCP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039055/posts#comment Tue, 1 Jul 2008 10:37:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038934/posts Recent landmark court decisions are reminders that elections are not just about putting candidates in office for a few years. The judges that elected officials put on the bench can remake the legal landscape, change fundamental social policies and even affect the way wars are fought, long after those who appointed them have served their terms and passed from the scene. The Supreme Court recently created a new "right" out of thin air for captured enemy soldiers and terrorists— the right to seek release in the federal courts, something that neither the Constitution nor the Geneva Convention provided. The High... Jewish World Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2038934/posts#comment Tue, 1 Jul 2008 02:05:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035853/posts Some of the people who are most adamant against outsourcing economic activity from the United States to other countries often seem to think we should outsource our foreign policy to "world opinion" or act only in conjunction "with our NATO allies." Like so many things that are said when it comes to public policy, there is very little attention paid to the actual track record of "world opinion" or of "our NATO allies." Often there is a blanket assumption that European countries are just so much more sophisticated than American "cowboys." But there is incredibly little interest in the track... Creators Syndicate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035853/posts#comment Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:59:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035815/posts It must be a bitter disappointment to those in the media and in politics who have been dying to use the word "recession" that, for the second quarter in a row, there has been no downturn in the economy, though growth has been slow. Alarmists have been reduced to quoting other alarmists on the supposedly impending recession but that is still not the real thing. The definition of a "recession" is very clear and straightforward: Two consecutive quarters of negative growth. We have not yet had one consecutive quarter of negative growth. The fault-finding brigades of critics of the American... Creators Syndicate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035815/posts#comment Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:10:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035459/posts If anyone suggested that Tiger Woods should try to be more like other golfers, people would question the sanity of whoever made that suggestion. Why should Tiger Woods try to be more like Phil Mickelson? If Tiger turned around and tried to golf left-handed, like Mickelson, he probably wouldn't be as good as Mickelson, much less as good as he is golfing the way he does right-handed. Yet there are those who think that the United States should follow policies more like those in Europe, often with no stronger reason than the fact that Europeans follow such policies. For some... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035459/posts#comment Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:06:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032146/posts Only with Tim Russert's sudden death at the age of 58 has his true stature as a landmark journalist become as widely recognized as it has long deserved to be. To ask who will replace him as host of "Meet the Press" is to confront the reality that there is no one comparable on the horizon. Those of us who have followed "Meet the Press" since the long ago days of Lawrence Spivak know that Russert was the best of some very good hosts. What made Tim Russert special was not some trademark catchword or contrived persona. What you saw... Creators Syndicate Inc. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032146/posts#comment Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:06:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032123/posts The obsession of many high school students and their parents about getting into a prestige college or university is part of the social scene of our time. So is the experience of parents going deep into hock to finance sending a son or daughter off to Ivy U. or the flagship campus of the state university system. Sometimes both the student and the parent end up with big debts from financing a degree from some prestige institution. Yet these are the kinds of institutions that many have their hearts set on. Media hype adds to the pressure to go where... Jewish World Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032123/posts#comment Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:12:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028682/posts Now that Senator Barack Obama has become the Democrats' nominee for President of the United States, to the cheers of the media at home and abroad, he has written a letter to the Secretary of Defense, in a tone as if he is already President, addressing one of his subordinates. The letter ends: "I look forward to your swift response." With wars going on in both Iraq and Afghanistan, a Secretary of Defense might have some other things to look after, before making a "swift response" to a political candidate. Because of the widely publicized statistic that suicide rates among... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028682/posts#comment Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:07:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028166/posts Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When Election Day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home. This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world - Iran - is moving step by step toward building a nuclear bomb. They're getting that bomb will be the point of no return. Iran's nuclear bomb will be... Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028166/posts#comment Mon, 9 Jun 2008 03:39:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026445/posts Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober — if not grim — assessment of where we are. Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When Election Day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home. This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world — Iran... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026445/posts#comment Thu, 5 Jun 2008 14:17:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026248/posts Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober-- if not grim-- assessment of where we are. Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When election day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home. This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world-- Iran-- is moving step... GOPUSA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026248/posts#comment Thu, 5 Jun 2008 02:46:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025156/posts It is amazing how seriously the media are taking Senator Barack Obama's latest statement about the latest racist rant from the pulpit of the church he has attended for 20 years. But neither that statement nor the apology for his rant by Father Michael Pfleger really matters, one way or the other. Nor does Senator Obama's belated resignation from that church. For any politician, what matters is not his election year rhetoric, or an election year resignation from a church, but the track record of that politician in the years before the election. Yet so many people are so fascinated... Real Clear Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025156/posts#comment Tue, 3 Jun 2008 04:14:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025006/posts EVERY YEAR ABOUT THIS TIME, big-government liberals stand up in front of college commencement crowds across the country and urge the graduates to do the noblest thing possible -- become big-government liberals. That isn't how they phrase it, of course. Commencement speakers express great reverence for "public service," as distinguished from narrow private "greed." There is usually not the slightest sign of embarrassment at this self-serving celebration of the kinds of careers they have chosen -- over and above the careers of others who merely provide us with the food we eat, the homes we live in, the clothes we... Jewish World Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025006/posts#comment Mon, 2 Jun 2008 22:20:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2022894/posts Years ago, when Jack Greenberg left the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to become a professor at Columbia University, he announced that he was going to make it a point to hire a black secretary at Columbia. This would, of course, make whomever he hired be seen as a token black, rather than as someone selected on the basis of competence. This reminded me of the first time I went to Milton Friedman's office when I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago back in 1960, and I noticed that he had a black secretary. This was four years... Inverstors Business Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2022894/posts#comment Thu, 29 May 2008 11:59:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021768/posts “Killing an Unarmed Man.” That is how the front-page headline in the New York Times characterized an incident in which a man tried to run over a policeman with his car and was shot by three policemen on the scene, including his intended victim. An automobile is a deadly weapon. If you are killed by an automobile, you are just as dead as if you had been shot through the heart. A phrase like “an unarmed man” makes a talking point— as if matters of life and death should be discussed in terms of how you can spin a talking... Primetime Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021768/posts#comment Tue, 27 May 2008 04:38:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021755/posts Years ago, when Jack Greenberg left the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to become a professor at Columbia University, he announced that he was going to make it a point to hire a black secretary at Columbia. This would of course make whomever he hired be seen as a token black, rather than as someone selected on the basis of competence. This reminded me of the first time I went to Milton Friedman's office when I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago back in 1960, and I noticed that he had a black secretary. This was four years... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021755/posts#comment Tue, 27 May 2008 04:07:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019022/posts Some parents who are concerned about their children receiving a steady diet of liberal-left indoctrination in schools and colleges regard the summer vacation as a time to show these young people a different way of looking at things, with readings presenting viewpoints that are unlikely to be heard in classrooms that have become indoctrination centers. Fortunately, there is a growing body of literature-- both books and articles-- presenting a very different viewpoint in readable language. The academic year often ends with commencement speakers who have been in government, academia, foundations or various crusading movements, who tell the graduates how much... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019022/posts#comment Wed, 21 May 2008 04:10:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2018465/posts Seeing the Pope driven around in a bullet-proof vehicle reminds me of how much times have changed over the years. I can remember when President Franklin D. Roosevelt rode through Harlem in an open car. A reader's response to my column about the mandated change from incandescent light bulbs to CFL bulbs: "It would be far better to exchange the corrupt hacks in Congress for some winos from the Bowery. Such a transition should open a new bright era for America." Even if you think our presidential choices this election year are between disgust and disaster, anyone who has ever... Jewish World Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2018465/posts#comment Tue, 20 May 2008 03:02:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2016145/posts In one of those typical San Francisco decisions that makes San Francisco a poster child for the liberal left, the city's Board of Supervisors is moving to block a paint store from renting a vacant building once used by a video rental shop. That paint store is part of a chain, and chain stores are not liked by a vocal segment of the local population. Chain stores are already banned from some parts of San Francisco, and at least one member of the Board of Supervisors plans to introduce bans on chain stores in other areas. Chain stores have been... GOPUSA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2016145/posts#comment Thu, 15 May 2008 02:31:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2015591/posts Let's face it. Supply and demand will never replace "need" and "greed" in political discussions of economic issues. Talking about the "need" for more affordable housing or more affordable medical care is what will get politicians more votes this election year. Voters don't want to hear about impersonal things like supply and demand. They want to hear about how their political heroes will stop the villains from "gouging" them or "exploiting" them with high prices. Moral melodrama is where it's at, politically. Least of all do voters want to hear about the most fundamental reality of economics-- that what everybody... GOPUSA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2015591/posts#comment Wed, 14 May 2008 01:54:40 GMT