-
The Loss of Trust
June 18, 2013 | 32 comments
-
Sex and the Military
June 12, 2013 | 58 comments
-
Economics vs. ‘Need’
June 11, 2013 | 29 comments
-
Historic Rescuers
June 5, 2013 | 48 comments
-
Abstract Immigrants
June 4, 2013 | 31 comments
Conservative Tastes
Christmas Books
Holiday reading for the conservative shopper.
During the holidays, a shopping mall can be more like a shopping maul. One way to avoid that scene is to give books as Christmas gifts, since books can be bought online, painlessly.
One book that fits in with the holiday spirit is No, They Can’t! by TV show host John Stossel. It is written with a light touch, but gets across some pretty heavy stuff about economics. The title is a take-off on Obama’s old slogan, “Yes, we can!”
It is the first book I have read that asks a question about electric cars that should have been asked long ago: How much pollution do they cause?
Electric car enthusiasts may say, “None.” But the electricity that runs these cars has to be generated somewhere, and much of that electricity is generated by burning coal. The fact that no pollution comes out of the car itself is irrelevant, when the pollution comes out of a smokestack somewhere else.
Similar common sense analysis punctures many other puffed-up ideas, on subjects ranging from health care to education to government bailouts of failing businesses. No, They Can’t! is a book that makes what used to be called “the dismal science” of economics more lively, and even humorous, as it reveals what nonsense so much of the lofty rhetoric of our time is.
Anyone who wants an honest look at the hard facts about racial preferences in admissions to colleges and universities will find it — perhaps for the first time — in a book titled Mismatch by Richard Sanders and Stuart Taylor, Jr.
The central concern of Mismatch is how racial preferences harm blacks and other minorities. Black students with all the qualifications for success can be turned into failures by being admitted to institutions geared to students with even higher qualifications than theirs.
I saw this happen at Cornell, years ago, when black students with test scores substantially above the national average were nevertheless in deep academic trouble, at an institution where the other students were in the top one percent. Those same black students would have made the dean’s list in most other colleges. But they were mismatched at Cornell, and many failed bitterly.
Mismatch thoroughly analyzes the effects of racial preferences in numerous contexts, showing how what is called “affirmative action” has very negative consequences for its supposed beneficiaries. For example, the data strongly suggest that there are fewer black lawyers when there are racial preferences in admissions to law schools. Racial preferences put more minority students on campus, but in ways that reduce the number who graduate.
Conversely, when racial preferences were banned in the University of California system, the number of black students who graduated actually increased substantially, as did their grade point averages. Instead of failing at Berkeley or UCLA, these students graduated from other good quality universities in the system. The careful analysis of documented facts makes Mismatch a rare and valuable book for people who want to think.
The time is long overdue to discuss racial issues in general in plain, honest words. A new book that does that is titled Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama by Ann Coulter.
In this book, readers will learn many truths for the first time, unfiltered by the mainstream media. For example, they will belatedly learn the truth about how an ex-con and hoodlum was turned into a sympathetic victim by the clever editing of the Rodney King videotape.
My own new book this year is an expanded and much revised edition of Intellectuals and Society. Among its new features is a debunking of murky catch phrases like “social justice” and “tax cuts for the rich” that have spread so much confusion and mischief. Four new chapters have also been added on intellectuals and race. Among the things they reveal is how the political left promoted racism on both sides of the Atlantic during the early decades of the 20th century, even though today the left has swung to the other end of the spectrum and now claims to find racism everywhere in other people.
Merry Christmas — if we are still allowed to say that.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
Photos: www.metaphoricalplatypus.com, top10things (Creative Commons 2.0)
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Thomas Sowell
More Articles From Conservative Tastes
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/12/12/christmas-books
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
The Spectacle Blog
Democrat Dan Maffei Blames Budget Cuts for Girl’s Rape, Mother’s Murder
Robert Stacy McCain | 6.18.13
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Appleby| 12.12.12 @ 6:59AM
I'm going to get the Ann Coulter book, but I won't read it until after Christmas. I'm tired of gloom, despair and agony and am going to give them a couple of weeks off and read upbeat children's stories from the 1940s instead.
Von Mises Jr| 12.12.12 @ 8:34AM
I wish you a Merry Christmas and God Blesses the good people that write and comment at TAS. We come here to learn (since even Fox does not come close to the content at conservative blogs) and to share and teach. I have tried to teach Perp and little alan brooksie, but they are uneducable. So if you know them or they know each other, get them new blow-up dolls since the current plastic fantastic lovers are probably a little gooey by now.
But on a serious note, buy books for all ages. The kids in my family have gotten "1984," "Gulliver's Travels," "Brave New World," "Catcher in the Rye" and "Cat's Cradle" as gifts. They will learn important concepts while having fun. Kids are inquisitive and you can do them a great service in directing them to serious topics through literature.
I told my family last Birthday to buy me a three book set from Hayek. You can find great books for adults at www.mises.org. You will not only help spread conservative ideas, but you will help these writers and organizations.
I have read Dr. Sowell's book "Intellectuals and society" and it is great, just like the other two-dozen Sowell tomes that I own. God blesses you, Dr. Sowell. You are a national treasure.
C. Vernon Crisler | 12.12.12 @ 9:27AM
A lot of good books are available on Kindle or other e-readers. Mises has a great book out on Marx, and there's a terrific biography of Mises by Hulsmann -- all cheaply priced on Kindle.
Maybe an e-reader might make a better gift than a set of books.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 10:46AM
I would suggest, Masters of the Universe: Hayek Friedman, by Jones currently out. It will take a great deal of knowledge and work on all our parts to maintain, let alone rebuild, any senblance of free markets in this country or maybe State by state.
CJW| 12.12.12 @ 11:06AM
Al Adab
We have a better chance at the local and state level.
Obama won the election because he won Ohio, Pennslvania, Florida, Michigan, and Virginia. Yet all these states have Rep governors and mostly Rep legislatures. They all cut spending and balance the budgets.
And incredibly Michigan passed a right to work law. Hard to believe since Michigan was always the strongest union state because of the influence of the UAW.
Obama's victory in these states shows how the electoral vote system where winner of the state takes all should be replaced by a more representative system where the winner of each congressional district gets the electoral vote of that state.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 11:41AM
W:
My concern with having the district electoral vote is that the major cities in each state would, after the next redistricting, preponderate (through gerrymandering) in each CD of the state.
Interesting to compare the map of RTW states with the electoral map. Strange correlation. Or maybe not so strange.
CJW| 12.12.12 @ 10:28AM
Von
Do they have "Half Price Bookstores" in Jersey? They have used and new books on history, bios, fiction, etc at reasonable prices, usually about $5 or $6.
Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals" is similar to Sowell's book on intellectuals. He writes about the rotten personal lives of such intellectuals as Rousseau and others. They preach love of humanity in the abstract but do not practice it in their daily lives with real persons. Sort of like the leftylibs, such as Obama, that spend taxpayer's money but he does not help his aunt and brother who live in poverty.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 10:48AM
Everything is available at "ALIBRIS" on line. No I have no stake in it, but use it often for older volumes.
CJW| 12.12.12 @ 10:59AM
Thanks, Al, will check it.
Von Mises Jr| 12.12.12 @ 11:04AM
Borders went out of Business, but Barnes and Noble still has locations in larger cities in rural and suburban areas. I don't go there that often since I bought so many clearance books over the years I still have not read. But you can build a decent library of biographies and some classics.
I now shop at www.mises.org (hence the name) and online for stuff they never have in liberal New Jersey. You will not find much in philosophy or economics in B&N nor much history that actually happened.
For my friend, Vern, I agree that it is a nice tool, although I would not buy a Kindle or other e-reader. As technology changes, old e-books may not be compatible and selection could become limited to books not approved by the regime.
Remember the Gulf Oil Spill Peer Review "Drilling Report" that the regime changed the "Recommendation," implemented a moratorium, gave the finger to Judge Feldman's "Contempt" citing and held up Permits. Try to find that on the web.
Winston Schmidt from "Ogle" who apparently also likes the crease in the pants that mesmerized Brooks has made sure that that went down the "Memory Hole" at the "Ministry of Truth."
C. Vernon Crisler | 12.12.12 @ 5:50PM
My brother tells me they have an Ipad mini that can read across multiple platforms. Personally, I don't like e-readers that have internet capability (other than wifi downloading). For me, the whole purpose of an e-reader is to read books, not waste time surfing the web. However, for anyone who is worried about non-compatibility issues, it might be the answer.
Von Mises Jr| 12.12.12 @ 11:04AM
Borders went out of Business, but Barnes and Noble still has locations in larger cities in rural and suburban areas. I don't go there that often since I bought so many clearance books over the years I still have not read. But you can build a decent library of biographies and some classics.
I now shop at www.mises.org (hence the name) and online for stuff they never have in liberal New Jersey. You will not find much in philosophy or economics in B&N nor much history that actually happened.
For my friend, Vern, I agree that it is a nice tool, although I would not buy a Kindle or other e-reader. As technology changes, old e-books may not be compatible and selection could become limited to books not approved by the regime.
Remember the Gulf Oil Spill Peer Review "Drilling Report" that the regime changed the "Recommendation," implemented a moratorium, gave the finger to Judge Feldman's "Contempt" citing and held up Permits. Try to find that on the web.
Winston Schmidt from "Ogle" who apparently also likes the crease in the pants that mesmerized Brooks has made sure that that went down the "Memory Hole" at the "Ministry of Truth."
Von Mises Jr| 12.12.12 @ 11:05AM
TAS had a brain fart.
Appleby| 12.12.12 @ 11:35AM
Everyone should get a copy of "Brave New World." Everything you see around you at the present time is straight out of that worthy book. If you can't read a whole book for some reason, read the first two chapters and the chapter where Mustapha Mond explains to John Savage exactly how and why the Brave New World works as it does. But remember: after that talk, John Savage departed and hanged himself.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 12:03PM
I would also suggest Sinclair Lewis', It Can't Happen Here". Totalitarian takeover of The US.
Petronius| 12.12.12 @ 10:33AM
I gave my copy of Visions of the Anointed to a friend. It had the effect of costing her many friendships; of Liberals. The name of Dr. Thomas Sowell on any dust jacket is as a cross held in front of a vampire.
I don't need to read Mismatched or Mugged. The real objective of racial preferences is not the advancements of minorities but the prevention of it to Whites. Not that race really matters. The denial of privilege to any "entitled" complainer and the uproar which follows is now pro forma since everything anyone wants, (unless you're white), is now a Right. Nobody uses the word anymore. It has lost all meaning.
Al Adab| 12.12.12 @ 11:44AM
Are not the true racists those who view every issue and every public person through the prism of race? If so The Left certainly needs to take a hard look at themselves. As this race baiting comes from them not Conservatives.
BTW, why is Dr. Sowell not President?
A Kulak| 12.12.12 @ 10:41AM
I second the "No, They Can't!" recommendation and add "After America" by the brilliant and hysterically funny Mark Steyn.
Nancy in NC| 12.12.12 @ 12:41PM
"After America" is a winner. I can't even call Janet N. anything but Janet Incompetano after reading Mark's book.