Articles

What we can learn from the black kicker anomaly

Statistics disparities do not equal racism This is a football story with both political and legal implications. It was fourth down in a National Football League game, and the punting team came onto the field. The other team went into their formation to defend against the punt. Then somebody noticed that the man set to […]

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Our presidential predicament this election season

There is no point denying or sugar-coating the plain fact that the voters this election year face a choice between two of the worst candidates in living memory. A professor at Morgan State University summarized the situation by saying that the debates may enable voters to decide which is the “less insufferable” candidate to be […]

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A stand against political correctness in Chicago

We have gotten so used to seeing college presidents caving in to so many outrageous demands from gangs of bullying students that it is a long overdue surprise to see that at least one major university has shown some backbone. Dr. Robert J. Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago, has spoken out in the […]

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Differences don’t equal discrimination

If there were a contest for the most stupid idea in politics, my choice would be the assumption that people would be evenly or randomly distributed in incomes, institutions, occupations or awards, in the absence of somebody doing somebody wrong. Political crusades, bureaucratic empires and lucrative personal careers as grievance mongers have been built on […]

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The Supreme Court’s affirmative action fraud goes on

Last month the Supreme Court of the United States voted that President Obama exceeded his authority when he granted exemptions from the immigration laws passed by Congress. But the court also exceeded its authority by granting the University of Texas an exemption from the Constitution’s requirement of “equal protection of the laws,” by voting that […]

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Socialism for the uninformed

Socialism sounds great. It has always sounded great. And it will probably always continue to sound great. It is only when you go beyond rhetoric, and start looking at hard facts, that socialism turns out to be a big disappointment. While throngs of young people are cheering loudly for avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, socialism has […]

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Democrats’ Supreme Court hypocrisy tiresome

If there is one thing that is bipartisan in Washington, it is brazen hypocrisy. Currently, Democrats are expressing much indignation because the Republican-controlled Senate refuses to hold confirmation hearings on President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Democrats complain, and the media […]

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Paranoid politics: Will voters believe the hype?

Amid all the media analyses of the prospects of each of the candidates in both political parties, there is remarkably little discussion of the validity—or lack of validity—of the arguments these candidates are using. It is as if what matters this election year is the fate of a relative handful of people running for their […]

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SOWELL: Obama’s latest gun proposals destined to backfire

None of the things proposed by the President Obama is likely to reduce gun violence. Like other restrictions on people’s ability to defend themselves, or to deter attacks by showing that they are armed, these new restrictions can cost more lives on net balance.

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SOWELL: Battling back against surging campus intolerance

Storm-trooper tactics by bands of college students making ideological demands across the country, and immediate pre-emptive surrender by college administrators—such as at the University of Missouri recently—bring back memories of the 1960s, for those of us old enough to remember what it was like being there, and seeing firsthand how painful events unfolded. At Harvard, […]

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SOWELL: Facts challenge our beliefs about race

Depressing news about black students’ scoring far below white students on various mental tests has become so familiar that people in different parts of the ideological spectrum long ago developed their different explanations for why this is so. But both may have to do some rethinking, in light of radically different news from England.

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SOWELL: Does Yellen portend a return to Keynes?

The nomination of Janet Yellen to become head of the Federal Reserve System has set off a flurry of media stories. The Federal Reserve has become such a major player in the American economy that it needs far more scrutiny and criticism than it has received, regardless of who heads it.

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SOWELL: No compassion in minimum wage laws

Political crusades for raising the minimum wage are back again. Advocates of minimum wage laws often credit themselves for being more “compassionate” toward “the poor.” But they seldom bother to check the actual consequences of such laws.

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SOWELL: Political correctness diminishes military

For thousands of years, people around the world had the common sense to realize that putting young men and young women together in military operations was asking for trouble, not only for young people of both sexes, but for the effectiveness of military forces entrusted with the fate of nations.

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SOWELL: Undoing university brain-washings

This time of year, as college students return home for the summer, many parents may notice how many politically correct ideas they have acquired on campus. Some of those parents may wonder how they can undo the brainwashing that has become so common in what are supposed to be institutions of higher learning.

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