৩০ সেপ্টেম্বর, ২০২১

"You can't do affirmative action, maintain black dignity, and maintain the standards at the same time. That's a trilemma."

"You can't do all of those things at the same time. If you lower the standards for black people to admit them to elite venues of intellectual performance and the standards are correlated with performance, you assure as a statistical necessity, on average, lower performance of the blacks whom you've admitted. If you insist on their dignity, you can't be Sandra Sellers. This is the adjunct lecturer at Georgetown Law Center who was caught on an open mic lamenting the fact that most of the kids in her class who were at the bottom were black.... And the whole brouhaha, the whole navel-gazing conflagration that happened at the institution of Georgetown Law with a black faculty demand of the white faculty that they acknowledge their white supremacist, blah, blah, blah. It's all a cover for black mediocrity. Yes. There, I said it. You lowered the standards. Now the black kids are at the bottom, but they have to have dignity. Therefore, you immolate yourself morally.... [T]hey’re now going to search under every bed for racist white people."
 
Said Glenn Loury, talking with Bari Weiss on her podcast "Honestly" — which has a transcript, here. (I've changed the punctuation a bit.)

৫৮টি মন্তব্য:

gilbar বলেছেন...

i'm not sure how this results in Haitians;
but clearly, we just need different blacks

Just like imported wines/beers/cars are better than domestics; the same seems true here
Look at Colin Powell, Barak O'Bama, Kamela Harris, Nikki Haley, etc...
There are LOTS and LOTS of articulate and bright and clean and nice-looking POC's out there;
But, MOST of them are imports (Condoleezza Rice appears to be the exceptional domestic)

Since we (Apparently) NEED POC's that their people can look up to; importation seems necessary
Of course, we'd need to combine that with MASSIVE abortion rates, to get rid of the cheap domestics we already have... Which, come to think of it; We're ALREADY DOING!

Look! the government is ALREADY on the case! Once we have replaced the inferior domestic strains of POC's, with sturdier smarter better looking imports; everyone will be happy!

right? i mean, right? It's What we're doing, and it's intentional; isn't it?

Mike (MJB Wolf) বলেছেন...

It was always sleight of hand to pretend “affirmative action” as anything other than quotas, set asides or favoritism of another flavor. At least physics still recognizes that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Only politicians with their film flammy habit of ignoring reality would posit that government can take “action” that has no unintended effect. If government is pushing someone to the front of a line then someone else is pushed out of line. A failure to discuss this honestly (and “Honestly” is a good title for it) since 1964 is how we find ourselves unable to admit it’s wrongheadedness now, altogether.

Glenn is good and honest here and it reminds me of the old manufacturing saying that a customer wants his goods to be supplied quickly, cheaply and high quality: but you can only pick two of the three. You just can’t do all three at once. Glenn’s formulation for AA appears to have the same ring of truth and limit of only two being achievable in an endeavor not all three.

Achilles বলেছেন...

The aristocracy stuffs black kids into shitty public schools that are perfectly socioeconomically segregated.

These schools serve poor black kids badly.

Then they implement affirmative action to eliminate meritocracy and enforce a tribal spoils structure.

People are catching on.

Enigma বলেছেন...

The Sandra Sellers event was not news. It resulted in 100% feigned shock and outrage. Many sincere people have aggressively studied and sought to eliminate academic group differences and discrimination for more than 50 years. The large majority of these efforts were likely initiated and conducted by left-leaning people and organizations.

Not News: Consider the Texaco executives "Black Jelly Beans" secret tape from 1996:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0893318999124001

This state of affairs reappears in every setting: underqualified students/employees of any race or group underperform qualified people. All attend the same lectures, can take notes as they desire, and receive identical tests. Successful learning during each school term is demonstrated through neutral, blind, and objective methods: computerized scoring now, and "ScanTron" multiple-choice fill-in bubble forms many decades ago.

Finding group differences is by no means racism in any form. Some students of each race perform at the top and some of each race perform at the bottom. The percentages in each bracket vary, so the differences thereby require a complex and nuanced interpretation. A large majority of the left held this position in their analyses and proposed policies until the last few years.

Are we on the cusp of a broader reacceptance of these cold, hard facts?

Unknown বলেছেন...

I was disappointed that the interviewer expressed their opinions by phrasing them as questions, for example: "Did it feel like you were saying something out loud and in public that many people you knew and probably many people you grew up with believed, but it just wasn't allowed to be said out loud at a place like Harvard?"

Richard Dolan বলেছেন...

Very much a voice in the wilderness, which he would be the first to say. It must kill the powers-that-be at Brown that they can’t just fire him as a crypto-racist and white supremacist, or chase him away a la Charles Murray. And, for sure, they won’t engage what he has to say on the merits.

Sebastian বলেছেন...

"you assure as a statistical necessity, on average, lower performance of the blacks whom you've admitted"

Loury is right in general, of course, but he does not consider the unstated assumption: that after lowering standards for admission elite venues will maintain standards of judgment and performance, resulting in "lower" performance of minorities. Of course, that is another form of inequity, easily remedied by antiracist grade inflation. Result: everybody "performs well."

Longer-term result: elite institutions lose their signaling function. Companies where performance still matters will have to use other information. Which will lead to new "inequity." Etc. etc.

Mike Sylwester বলেছেন...

A major reason why Blacks score relatively low in school tests is that they score relatively low in intelligence tests.

Their lower intelligence is also a major reason they score lower in other metrics, such as career progression and earnings.

I don't like to say that, but I also don't like our successful economic system being ruined because Blacks' problems are being blamed entirely on systemic racism.

If our entire economy will be made into a Socialist economy, then Blacks still will score lower on school tests and still will achieve less career progression and earnings.

rhhardin বলেছেন...

He gets dignity a little wrong. It comes from doing something for somebody else. What works for an individual works for a race - let blacks take up a collection for poor whites and see what happens to black dignity as a race, regardless how well they do academically.

rhhardin বলেছেন...

Loury and McWhorter always dance around black IQ and ultimately reject it as an explanation for anything. It would be too depressing, is the argument, as if everybody isn't lower IQ than lots of people in their lives, mostly without knowing it or caring about it.

Critter বলেছেন...

America should gain some patience with change. Forcing equality through policies like quotas (the reality of affirmative action) is always bound to fail. Besides, forcing equality at the collegiate level is far too late. America needs to enable black kids to access a top quality primary education and then students will sort themselves out based on academic achievement. The only reason we have not done this is the teachers unions and Grier death grip on the Democrat Party. That is where change is needed. That is where systemic racism exists.

Dave Begley বলেছেন...

I can't imagine the grief Glenn takes. I'm sure he's called an Uncle Tom or worse. Like Larry Elder, Glenn is the new face of White Supremacy.

wendybar বলেছেন...

Now do Doctor Ben Carson, who despite extreme poverty and a single mother who couldn't read, went on to become pediatric neurosurgeon and his brother became a lawyer. It takes a mother who wanted her kids to have a better life, and does something to give it to them.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves বলেছেন...

You cannot talk honestly about race without some [btw - white] hivemind democrat calling you a white supremacist. or Don Lemon.

Dave Begley বলেছেন...

Here are a few things I learned from the Jesuits:

1. See God in all things.

2. We are all made in the imagine and likeness of God.

3. Respect and care for the individual.

4. We all have different talents. Figure out what you are good at and like and then excel at it.

5. Everyone can learn and be educated. Be challenged in school; academically and physically. Magis.

None of the above fits with today's liberal narrative.

PB বলেছেন...

If you lower standards to admit certain groups at higher rates than normally justified, you end up creating a noticable disparity in student performance in the classroom. Just as pressure forced the entry of more less quallified students that same pressure will force different grading standards to equalize nominal achievement. As these students graduate, companies will notice a difference between students with similar grade point averages, but will hire them due to the the same pressure to achieve social goals. Company performance will inevitably decline. Overall damage to the economy occurs.

Big Mike বলেছেন...

Why does a liberal have to wait for Glenn Loury to say the obvious before it’s obvious to them?

retail lawyer বলেছেন...

All the institutions think we can do it. Pretend harder, eliminate all measures of performance or competence, change some curriculums, have some dignity bolstering public service announcements on NPR and TV. Hire some more diversity inclusion and dignity professionals.

Dave Begley বলেছেন...

We can't talk honestly about race in this country. And that's the way the Dems want it.

They want a victim class to keep the tribalism narrative going.

This will end badly.

Mike Petrik বলেছেন...

@rhhardin --
I don't think Loury or McWhorter are dancing around anything. They know that IQ tests do not measure innate intelligence, but instead measure (albeit imperfectly) intelligence at a single moment in time, which means that life experience and environment are influencers. Murray is wrong and Sowell is right -- the disparities are chiefly a function of cultural advantages and pathologies, all of which have been influenced by geography and history.

See also https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6526420/

Original Mike বলেছেন...

""You can't do affirmative action, maintain black dignity, and maintain the standards at the same time."

Loury states the obvious. At least it is obvious to me. I believe it is obvious to most others as well. I base that belief on two things:
i) it is obvious, and
ii) the furiosity with which advocates are pushing this equity stuff. It's as if they think if they scream loud enough nobody will notice the elephant in the room.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne বলেছেন...

Why must society maintain black dignity? I'm a 57 year old white man whose family has been in America since colonial times. No one has ever done anything to maintain my or my family's dignity except for me and my family. I'm sure it's the same for the rest of the Althouse commentariat.

MikeD বলেছেন...

Thomas Sowell has been pointing this out for decades. It's not like it's some newly revealed truth. The race hustlers and their supporters ignored him then and will continue to ignore the facts for eternity.

Original Mike বলেছেন...

"as if everybody isn't lower IQ than lots of people in their lives, mostly without knowing it or caring about it."

Having reached the level of faculty in a STEM graduate department I found myself as a colleague of some people much smarter than me. It was a joy working with them. You can accomplish amazing things working with brilliant people.

It saddens and scares me that we are now lowering the standards of the very institutions that society needs to advance. I don't think it matters if standards are lowered in the so-called humanities, but I never thought it would creep into the sciences.

mikee বলেছেন...

Had my ancestors risen from slavery to freedom, endured an insane and despicable prejudice from those around them, been used as a group by the government for political ends with only bad results, and yet still succeeded in life as individuals and as a group enough to be politically important, I'd be proud as hell and mad as hell over my background. And I'd try to make the government, the prejudiced, and the historically illiterate pay for their behavior until the cost was so high they all left me and mine the hell alone to get on with our lives. I'd say we aren't quite at the maximum cost to society and government, or the hands off behavior, required for that success to be fully realized.

Fernandinande বলেছেন...

It would be too depressing, is the argument, as if everybody isn't lower IQ than lots of people in their lives, mostly without knowing it or caring about it.

That's because people mostly associate with other people who have similar IQs; they can still easily identify others who are not similar to them.

The IQ problem is really that "Together, these findings provide further evidence for the pre-dominance of genetic influences on adult intelligence over any other systematic source of variation." (Discussion here)

wild chicken বলেছেন...

He cops out by blaming teachers unions. Anything to avoid blaming the students. Because you know, a fourteen year old has no moral agency.

Teachers need combat pay and police protection on those districts. If D'rontae knocks the teacher on her ass for taking his phone, the pointy haired admin will insist she must have handled the situation poorly.

For that you need good strong unions.

Narayanan বলেছেন...

so it has taken almost a century to find this out?

Paul বলেছেন...

Between welfare and 'affirmative action' the Black community has spiraled down to being ghettoized.

Go look the the skyrocketing murder rate.. most of it is black on black.

Welfare destroyed the Black family. Now it's 'baby daddies' and 'baby mommies'. A bastardization of their whole race. Huge drop out rates from high schools, drugs, drinking, crime....

And 'affirmative action'. Watered down racism. Now by lowering the standards you have them coming into the workplace without being able to read well (if at all.) Hence they go to the bottom fast... cause they can't cut it. And the reason they can't cut it is because they were 'allowed' to pass...without the necessary skills.

And this 3.5 Trillion dollar BS Democrat plan... more of the same. The US will look like across between Haiti and Venezuela. One big ghetto with skyrocketing inflation.

Scott Patton বলেছেন...

Glenn has a way with words. His use of "navel-gazing conflagration" is gold, pure gold. Especially considering lint makes for good tinder.

PM বলেছেন...

Black students who excel in school are often accused by other blacks of Acting Asian.

Douglas B. Levene বলেছেন...

@Gibar: It used to be true that imported beer was better than domestic (compare, e.g., Grolsch with Budweiser), but that’s no longer the case. We live in a glorious era of craft beer and ale making, and there is readily available lots of amazingly good, local beer that is far better than the imports. That is the case not only in cities like Portland or Seattle, but also in small towns throughout the US.

Earnest Prole বলেছেন...

I cannot recommend this podcast highly enough.

wild chicken বলেছেন...

I've long suspected that unprepared students are radicalized when they encounter that first rigorous college course. Like any math or science class, though I heard one complain about having to write a paper for freshman English.

It's less embarrassing than dropping out.

Scott বলেছেন...

First time I've ever seen the word "trilemma." www.m-w.com says it's a word, so whatever.

Are there other cognates? Are four possible outcomes a quatrolemma? Five a quinolemma? Seven a heptolemma?

"Trilemma" seems a bit twee. My general sense is that "dilemma" can apply to a conundrum with any number of possible choices; none of which leads to an acceptable resolution. This makes it different from a problem, which is solvable. Dilemmas cannot be solved.

gspencer বলেছেন...

Read Charles Murray's Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America (2021) where he lays it all out.

In mind-numbing detail. Using records going back more than 100 years. Cognitive ability rankings never vary. Asians, White, Hispanic, Black.

"The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart float free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability. The allegations of racism in policing, college admissions, segregation in housing, and hiring and promotions in the workplace ignore the ways in which the problems that prompt the allegations of systemic racism are driven by these two realities."

Scott বলেছেন...

"You can have it good, you can have it fast, you can have it cheap. Pick two and call us back." --sign in a printer's office

Owen বলেছেন...

Loury is very good on this stuff. So too are John McWhorter, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Coleman Hughes. So too was Walter Williams, of blessed memory.

Their clarity exposes the racist rot for what it is. And really it isn’t about race or justice or “equity.” Those are just shiny distracting rhetorical toys. It’s all and always about power.

Michael K বলেছেন...

Affirmative Action = White Supremacy. What other explanation is there after all these years?

They are ignoring the obvious explanation and getting angry about it.

It's not whites that are enraged.

gilbar বলেছেন...

I'm frequently at odds with some of the things that Professor Althouse says or posts;
and sometimes i forget the things she's brought into my life


Thank You Professor Althouse, for expanding my horizons. I never would have known about Either of these two people (Bari or Glenn) without you and your blog.
I am obligated to you

gilbar বলেছেন...

Mike Sylwester said...
A major reason why Blacks score relatively low in school tests is that they score relatively low in intelligence tests.
Their lower intelligence is also a major reason they score lower in other metrics, such as career progression and earnings.
I don't like to say that


now let's play; The Other Side of the Coin

A major reason why white score relatively low in college sports is that they score relatively low in athletic tests.
Their lower athleticism is also a major reason they score lower in other metrics, such as sports careers and earnings.
I don't like to say that

SHOULD there be affirmative action in college sports? If Not, Why Not?
IF there WAS AA in college sports; would white players dignity suffer? Most Probably

Richard Aubrey বলেছেন...

Loury is a smart guy. Like all smart guys, he knows that belaboring the obvious is a civic duty.

Happened, too late in life, to read "Black Rednecks, White Liberals". Sowell read D.H. Fisher's "Albion's Seed" so you don't have to.
Black ghetto culture mimics the counterproductivity of cracker culture. Difference is...the counterproductive characteristics are celebrated.

gilbar বলেছেন...

Douglas B. Levene said...
@Gibar: It used to be true that imported beer was better...

Sorry, i meant to write "Were SAID to be better" ...
Please don't tell my sister i wrote it as i did; she's a oenophile, AND a former GM exec
I would LITERALLY never hear the end of it

Ann Althouse বলেছেন...

"First time I've ever seen the word "trilemma."..."

In law, you see "cruel trilemma" all the time.

Here's Justice Scalia (in 1998):

"The bon mot 'cruel trilemma' first appeared in Justice Goldberg’s opinion for the Court in Murphy v. Waterfront Comm’n of N. Y. Harbor, 378 U.S. 52 (1964), where it was used to explain the importance of a suspect’s Fifth Amendment right to remain silent when subpoenaed to testify in an official inquiry. Without that right, the opinion said, he would be exposed 'to the cruel trilemma of self-accusation, perjury or contempt.' Id., at 55. In order to validate the 'exculpatory no,' the elements of this 'cruel trilemma' have now been altered–ratcheted up, as it were, so that the right to remain silent, which was the liberation from the original trilemma, is now itself a cruelty. We are not disposed to write into our law this species of compassion inflation. Whether or not the predicament of the wrongdoer run to ground tugs at the heart strings, neither the text nor the spirit of the Fifth Amendment confers a privilege to lie."

Don't you miss Justice Scalia? "Compassion inflation" — that's a good one.

Beaver7216 বলেছেন...

Warning: contains triggering word.
Malcolm X was onto something in his Ballot or Bullet speech in Cleveland in 1963 when he stated:
"Right now, in this country, if you and I, 22 million African-Americans -- that's what we are -- Africans who are in America. You're nothing but Africans. Nothing but Africans. In fact, you'd get farther calling yourself African instead of Negro. Africans don't catch hell. You're the only one catching hell. They don't have to pass civil-rights bills for Africans. An African can go anywhere he wants right now. All you've got to do is tie your head up. That's right, go anywhere you want. Just stop being a Negro. Change your name to Hoogagagooba. That'll show you how silly the white man is. You're dealing with a silly man. A friend of mine who's very dark put a turban on his head and went into a restaurant in Atlanta before they called themselves desegregated. He went into a white restaurant, he sat down, they served him, and he said, "What would happen if a Negro came in here? And there he's sitting, black as night, but because he had his head wrapped up the waitress looked back at him and says, "Why, there wouldn't no nigger dare come in here."

Nigerian and Ghanaian immigrants to the US have higher incomes than do white Americans while immigrants from British West Indies are just slightly lower. Yet African Americans make c. $20,000 less income. The issue seems cultural, not racial, and until that message predominates, we will have problems. Should not be a surprise that Malcolm's mother was from Grenada. Or that Obama had a Kenyan father.

Wa St Blogger বলেছেন...

Affirmative action, while a good start at the beginning of the black/white disparity is unhelpful in the long run. It is trying to apply a fix at the wrong end of the issue. If you don't get kids up to speed at the very start, they will continually lag or lose ground as you go. It's a social problem, a cultural problem, a political problem, and a power problem. Most of these points have all been covered, but I will summarize.

Unions don't care about kids, so they don't look to solve the education disparities of the youth. American black culture disdains education, so kids are held back by their own people. Politicians need wedge issues, so they foment racial tension rather than solve root causes. Government subsidizes single parenthood so kids raised by just a mom have huge disadvantages. By the time the kids are adults, they have lost too much ground to compete with people who lived in stable homes, had good nutrition, lived with parents that fostered learning, did not learn that someone else was responsible for their life circumstances. You break them beginning at age 1, don't expect them to magically succeed at age 18.

Yancey Ward বলেছেন...

Biden isn't capable of anything these days more than reading off a few words on a teleprompter, and he doesn't even do that well enough to put out in public more than one time a week if that.

Yancey Ward বলেছেন...

And the Georgia Senate seats were lost because of the refusal of the Georgia Republican Party to rein in the mail-in-ballots and the accompanying fraud. Remember- David Perdue didn't even get to 50% in the November election- there was no reason at all to expect he would do so in January either given the exact same voting methods. You can't blame Trump for the voting method- that was all on Kemp and Ratfucker.

wildswan বলেছেন...

If schools are "charter" schools, black students do well in them and go on to do well in college. If schools are "Catholic" schools, black students do well in them and go on to do well in college. If schools are "private" schools, black students do well and go on to do well in college - if a "CRT" curriculum has not been adopted. If schools are "public" schools in large Dem controlled cities, black students do poorly in them and go on to do badly in college - if they even graduate, so as to be eligible for college. 40% do not graduate high school. How is it that someone with the average black IQ is successful in charter, Catholic and most private schools but fails in public schools? How can that be genetic? But some say it is

What is the cause? The Department of Education has completely failed to find the cause even though it is staffed by people with above average IQ's who went to college and graduated. Is it because they are white? Is it genetic? Some say it is.

Two systems, both failing, both concerned with the same subject - public school education. One white, high IQ, college degrees; the other black, low IQ, 40% failing to get high schools degrees.

Off to the side - other systems not failing. Is it possible that something is wrong with the way public school education in the black communities in the big Dem cities is being done and with the way the Department of Education is being staffed? I think so. It is racism? Racism is in the mix somewhere but not necessarily where the Teachers unions and education departments say it is, not in the community. The racism must be the utter refusal of the public school education establishment to reform in any direction except lowering standards and/or actually teaching the Confederate theories on race of the late John C Calhoun as anti-racism. And yet that refusal to reform probably isn't racism either. It's probably just that the stupidest group of college students who took the softest subjects - anthropology, education, psychology - and became teachers, administrators and HR department employees are in power in the regulatory state and implementing rules that shield them from the criticism they've always faced from smarter people who took the hard subjects. And now when the physics majors sneer at them and talk about calculus, they can call them racists and get them fired. POWer And now they're just as smart, if not smarter, than the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. POWer. In short, we have a Bourbon elite too incompetent even to see the need for reform but well able to good chant slogans and stab reformers in the back. And what's going to happen to the students from the black community in the big Dem cities who aren't aborted or shot if there's no reform? Fear not! Someone with shiny, shifty lefty eyes will steal their vote and keep the Dems in power and the painted ponies will go round and round. And what is that? That's how the followers of Marcuse and Derrida like Governor Evers and Charles Blow do racism. That's where it is.

Birches বলেছেন...

I haven't heard the entire podcast yet, but I've listened through what you blogged. Their interview definitely hit a crescendo there; Loury became more animated and passionate discussing AA than anything discussed previously. It feels like he's about to hit his stride and I'm excited to finish.

But I stopped listening for a moment to ponder why Loury is one of the few crying out in the wilderness. I'm also comparing his career arc to Clarence Thomas, who also says many of the same things.

Earlier in the podcast, Loury mentioned that someone at the University of Michigan said they would have hired him even if he was Jewish. I think the knowledge that he was qualified without AA has given Loury some confidence many others lack. Thomas didn't have that same confidence early on.

Birches বলেছেন...

Sowell also had that same confidence. He also knew he would have been hired even if he was Jewish. Haha

There might be something to knowing you aren't an AA hire to say uncomfortable truths.

West TX Intermediate Crude বলেছেন...

Mike Petrik at 0741 said-
Sowell said... "the disparities are chiefly a function of cultural advantages and pathologies, all of which have been influenced by geography and history."

I haven't read enough Sowell to know how accurate that is, but I would like it to be true.
I think it's not true, however, just looking at African countries run by black people. They are largely unpleasant and poor places. They are the places that well meaning Americans (and similar) go to to teach them how to do simple things like drilling a water well. They rely on Americans for more advanced activity such as drilling for oil, repairing hernias, building anything more than simple machinery.
You can't blame African nations' poverty and backwardness on racism. You can't blame it on slavery, at least not from white enslavers.

As noted upthread, individual Africans come to the USA and do very well, and so do many of the descendants of American slaves. In the aggregate, though, they don't so nearly as well as non-Africans. I don't think it's in the water.

gahrie বলেছেন...

They know that IQ tests do not measure innate intelligence, but instead measure (albeit imperfectly) intelligence at a single moment in time, which means that life experience and environment are influencers. Murray is wrong and Sowell is right -- the disparities are chiefly a function of cultural advantages and pathologies,

How and why did racist White people produce tests that have identical results worldwide, that put Black people at the bottom and Jews and Asians at the top?

Narayanan বলেছেন...

Nigerian and Ghanaian immigrants to the US have higher incomes than do white Americans while immigrants from British West Indies are just slightly lower.
-----------
let us say : if these form right tail of IQ curve -
how do they compare to right tail of American negroes ?

Owen বলেছেন...

West TX Intermediate Crude @ 2:45 PM: "...I haven't read enough Sowell..."

It's probably not possible to read enough Sowell. He has a lot of publications to his name and I have been trying to keep up for years - unsuccessfully. But I can attest that almost any sampling of Sowell will give you the full sense of his perspective, his command of the material, his very dry humor. "Maverick" is the recent biography and an easy read. Here are two of his bons mots (from memory so a bit sloppy):

"In economics, the first law is scarcity: there is never enough of anything. In politics, the first law is to repeal the first law of economics."

"If you want to help somebody, tell them the truth. If you want to help yourself, tell them what they want to hear."

On the issue of schooling and how well POC kids can do, try his "Charter Schools and Their Enemies." Typically packed with data and delivering very clear messages that should give us hope - if only we can get the money to follow the students.

Douglas B. Levene বলেছেন...

@Yancey Ward: The GOP lost the two senate seats in Georgia because a few hundred thousand GOP voters who had voted in November stayed home for the runoff election, while the Democrats all showed up, including a bunch who hadn't voted in November. Now there are various different theories about why the GOP voters stayed home, but personally, I blame President Trump and his campaign of lies about election fraud, which apparently convinced lots of his supporters that there was no point in voting. He's just a sore loser, and I hope the GOP can find a winner in the next election.

wendybar বলেছেন...

Douglas B. Levene said... but personally, I blame President Trump and his campaign of lies about election fraud, which apparently convinced lots of his supporters that there was no point in voting. He's just a sore loser, and I hope the GOP can find a winner in the next election.

Maybe we can get somebody safe like a Romney to run??? Why bother having anybody who will do the same old same old. We wanted somebody who would actually work for US...not the lobbyists. I guess you like the way things have been forever. Your loss.

Greg The Class Traitor বলেছেন...

Blogger Douglas B. Levene said...
@Yancey Ward: The GOP lost the two senate seats in Georgia because a few hundred thousand GOP voters who had voted in November stayed home for the runoff election, while the Democrats all showed up, including a bunch who hadn't voted in November. Now there are various different theories about why the GOP voters stayed home, but personally, I blame President Trump and his campaign of lies about election fraud, which apparently convinced lots of his supporters that there was no point in voting. He's just a sore loser, and I hope the GOP can find a winner in the next election.

Congratulations on affirming that you're an ignoramus and a moron.

1: GA Senate runoffs. What happened the seek before the runoffs? Why the "republican" Senate passed a "Covid bill" that was chock full of Democrat goodies and Democrat priorities.
Now: why the hell would people bust their butts to get out and vote for a "Republican Senate", when that "Republican" Senate just told them to FOAD?

2: President Trump didn't tell us the election we stolen by vote fraud, the Democrats did.

They did it when then "stopped counting" on Election Night, while they still had votes to count. And then the next day, when they "started counting" again, the votes for Biden suddenly appeared to flip their States for him.

The did it when they blocked poll watchers from actually monitoring what the poll workers were doing. because the only time you do that is when your'e intent on committing fraud

3: President Trump didn't tell us the election we stolen by vote fraud, Raffensperger did.

When he absolutely refused to look into any of the questionable activities occurring in the Atlanta "vote counts". When the people responsible for making sure the vote count I honest refuse to do their jobs, that tells the voters that their votes do not, in fact, count.
A simple example: https://thevirginiastar.com/2021/05/18/six-months-after-the-2020-election-fulton-county-has-failed-to-produce-chain-of-custody-documents-for-18901-absentee-ballots-placed-in-drop-boxes/

You want to know who lost the "Republican" Senate? Look at the "Republican" Senate "leadership", and the "Republican" Secs of State who all refused to fight the Dems.

And thus told conservative voters that their votes don't matter, so why bother voting.