Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.... Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has stated that the blame for the current economic crisis can be laid at the feet of Chris Dodd and Barney Frank.
Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years-- including the present year-- denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.
Please excuse Dr. Sowell for his misuse of the word "liberal". Those of us who favor minimal government interference in the public and private sector are liberals. I am a liberal. Ron Paul is a liberal. Dr. Sowell is a liberal. (Liberty, Liberal, Liberate, Libertarian - all from the same root word.) Dodd and Frank are impostors, and technically should be called "statists". Dr. Sowell has probably grown tired of having to make the proper distinction.
It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis. Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago. Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter? We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the facts show that it was the government that pressured financial institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal action by then Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't. Is that the free market? Or do facts not matter?
Therefore, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank should be sentenced to twenty years of involuntary servitude, driving potential home buyers from place to place and trying to sell them distressed "properties". All sales commissions would be contributed to our national debt payments. Dr. Sowell has spoken. Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas. You may be seated.
For those wanting further devotional readings, copies of the following are available in the narthex of The Sepulchre:
"Frank's Fingerprints Are All Over The Financial Fiasco", by Jeff Jacoby of The Boston Globe. The Globe is Congressman Frank's hometown newspaper. Jeff Jacoby is a libertarian demigod. This piece is highly recommended to those wishing to affirm their faith, or to assist in the spiritual formation of the young.
"The Devil's Kitchen" has written that "Yes, It's Still Largely The Fault Of The State". I recommend this post to the congregation here at The Sepulchre with a few misgivings....The Devil's Kitchen is a British blog, and is therefore far removed from our economic concerns in the U.S. However, Mr. Kitchen is usually entertaining and always accurate. And the language used by his commenters makes you people look like a Masterpiece Theatre presentation.
Once a month, readers of this blog are invited to stand for a reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas. But before we begin our scripture reading for today's services, we have a guest speaker who has come to us with a personal testimony. Please welcome playwright and screenwriter David Mamet to the pulpit. Brother Mamet is best known as the author of "Wag The Dog", "Glengarry Glen Ross", "The Verdict", "Sexual Perversity In Chicago" (filmed as "About Last Night"), and my own favorite, "American Buffalo".
Awkwardness and throat-clearing as Brother Mamet approaches the pulpit with a copy of The Village Voice, where his conversion testimony was recently published.....
I wrote a play about politics (November, Barrymore Theater, Broadway, some seats still available)..... And as part of the "writing process," as I believe it's called, I started thinking about politics.....The argument in my play is between a president who is self-interested, corrupt, suborned, and realistic, and his leftish, lesbian, utopian-socialist speechwriter..... The play, while being a laugh a minute, is, when it's at home, a disputation between reason and faith, or perhaps between the conservative (or tragic) view and the liberal (or perfectionist) view.
Smoke begins to rise from The Village Voice, as it can no longer contain the power of this great man's rhetoric....
The conservative president in the piece holds that people are each out to make a living, and the best way for government to facilitate that is to stay out of the way, as the inevitable abuses and failures of this system (free-market economics) are less than those of government intervention. I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.
The Village Voice begins to spontaneously ignite in Brother Mamet's hands. Truly a sign that he is filled with the Spirit. Fortunately, for those wanting to read the entire text, I have provided a link to Mamet's complete article, eternally preserving it for future theologians should The Village Voice burn all the original manuscripts during a fit of jealousy and Old Leftie repression. Wait !!! A smoldering but legible ember of the text is drifting down to the pulpit.....Mamet grabs it, and continues reading:
"....I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, and Shelby Steele, and a host of conservative writers, and found that I agreed with them: a free-market understanding of the world meshes more perfectly with my experience than that idealistic vision I called liberalism."
At this moment the congregation rises to their feet and begins whooping and hollering like they're hearing Jeremiah Wright on Ecstasy. Brother Mamet, who is accustomed to the calm and serenity of his synagogue, begins edging toward the exit. "Say it again !" the congregation shouts.
"Unhhhh....I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher)....."
All the ladies in the front row begin fainting like it's an Obama rally. They've been alone in the wilderness for so long. Could David Mamet be the one who the prophets foretold? Mamet, finding his voice, tries to say it again, this time with more confidence:
"I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) ! ! ! !"
The congregation is validated. Vindicated. For the first time in his life, The Whited Sepulchre begins speaking in tongues.
"Thomas Sowell is our greatest contemporary philosopher ! !" Mamet screams as he runs from our chapel, probably to go write a Pulitzer Prize-winner where unattractive men sit around in repressive environments and cuss a lot.
Order is eventually restored. Stretchers carry away the ladies from the front rows, probably to Free Market convents of some sort. Now that Brother Mamet's testimony is over, let us continue with our traditional liturgy.
Please stand for the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas:
Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has declared that "Gun ownership deters crime". Therefore, if you want to reduce crime, get a gun.
Thus endeth this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
Walter Edward Williams (born March 31, 1936) is an American economist, commentator, and academic. He is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, as well as a syndicated columnist and author known for his libertarian views.
Williams's family during childhood consisted of himself, his mother, and his sister. His father played no role in raising either child. He grew up in Philadelphia. The family initially lived in West Philadelphia, moving to North Philadelphia and the Richard Allen housing projects when Williams was ten. His neighbors included a young Bill Cosby. Williams knew many of the individuals that Cosby speaks of from his childhood, including Weird Harold and Fat Albert.
Williams was a talented high school student who displayed a very inconsistent performance in his studies. Following high school he came out to stay with his father in California, and attended one semester at Los Angeles City College, in regard to which he would later state that he was not ready yet to be a serious student.
In 1959 he was drafted into the military, and served as a Private in the United States Army. While stationed in the south, he "waged a one man battle against Jim Crow from inside the army. He challenged the racial order with provocative statements to his fellow soldiers. This resulted in an overseeing officer filing a court-martial proceeding against Williams. Williams argued his own case, and was found not guilty. While considering filing countercharges against the officer that had brought him up for court martial, Williams found himself transferred to Korea. Upon arriving there, Williams marked "Caucasian" for race on his personnel form. When challenged on this, Williams replied wryly if he had marked "Black", he would end up getting all the worst jobs. From Korea Williams wrote a letter to President John F. Kennedy denouncing the pervasive racism in the American government and military, and questioning the actions black Americans should take given the state of affairs, writing:
“Should Negroes be relieved of their service obligation or continue defending and dying for empty promises of freedom and equality? Or should we demand human rights as our Founding Fathers did at the risk of being called extremists ... I contend that we relieve ourselves of oppression in a manner that is in keeping with the great heritage of our nation.”
He received a reply from the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Alfred B. Fitt, a response which he termed "the most reasonable response that I received from any official."
Following his military service, he re-entered college as a far more motivated student. Williams earned a Bachelor's Degree (1965) in economics from California State University, Los Angeles. He earned both his Masters Degree (1967) and his Ph.D. (1972) in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Speaking of his early college days, Williams says "I was more than anything a radical. I was more sympathetic to Malcolm X than Martin Luther King because Malcolm X was more of a radical who was willing to confront discrimination in ways that I thought it should be confronted, including perhaps the use of violence. But I really just wanted to be left alone. I thought some laws, like minimum-wage laws, helped poor people and poor black people and protected workers from exploitation. I thought they were a good thing until I was pressed by professors to look at the evidence."
While at UCLA Williams came into contact with economists such as Armen Alchian, James M. Buchanan, and Axel Leijonhufvud who challenged his assumptions. Never one to be over-awed by others, Williams regularly challenged his professors as well. But on examining the evidence of actual outcomes he came to believe such programs were abject failures. "I learned that you have to evaluate the effects of public policy as opposed to intentions."
While at UCLA, Thomas Sowell arrived on campus in 1969 as a visiting professor. Though he never took a class from Dr. Sowell, the two met and began a friendship that has lasted to this day. In the summer of 1972 Sowell was hired as director of the Urban Institutes Ethnic Minorities Project, which Williams joined shortly thereafter. Correspondence between Sowell and Williams appears in the 2007 "A Man of Letters" by Sowell.
********
Long-time readers of this blog know that I believe Thomas Sowell is the smartest man alive, now that Milton Friedman is dead.
"...there's the claim that this or that price is unreasonable. I used to have conversations about this claim with Mrs. Williams early on in our 44-year marriage. She'd return from shopping complaining that stores were charging unreasonable prices. Having aired her complaints, she'd ask me to go out and unload a car trunk loaded with groceries and other items. Having completed the chore, I'd resume our conversation, saying, "Honey, I thought you said the prices were unreasonable. Are you an unreasonable person? Only an unreasonable person would pay unreasonable prices." The long and short of it is that the conversation never went over well, and we both ceased discussions of reasonable or unreasonable prices. The point is that whatever price a transaction is transacted at represents a meeting of the mind of both buyer and seller. Both viewed themselves as being better off than the next alternative -- not making the transaction. That's not to say that the seller wouldn't have found a higher price more pleasing or the buyer wouldn't have been pleased with a lower price."
And another:
What human motivation is responsible for getting the most wonderful things done? I would say greed. When I use the term greed, I do not mean cheating, stealing, fraud and other acts of dishonesty, I mean people seeking to get the most for themselves. One might be tempted to use “enlightened self interest” but I like greed better. Unfortunately, many people are naive enough to believe that it is compassion, concern, and "feeling another's pain" that's the superior human motivation. As such we fall easy prey to charlatans, quacks and hustlers.
Thomas Sowell, who may be the smartest man alive now that Milton Friedman is dead, has given us his list of Christmas books. I'll probably start with "The Prince of Darkness", Robert Novak's autobiography, and then take a stab at "Until Proven Innocent". There's one other title that Dr. Sowell is too modest to mention. Once you've read it, you'll never listen to a phony debate, barroom argument, or Lou Dobbs (is there any difference?) in the same way. Thomas Sowell is probably the clearest writer on this or any other planet. I want to be him when I grow up. Or maybe Robert Novak, since Dr. Sowell would never call himself "The Prince of Darkness".
Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, is now of an age where his quotations are being compiled into "best of" lists. Just as the collection of books loosely known as "Bible" now come in the "Stock Car Racing Bible" and the "Mossy Oak Camouflage Bible", I suspect that we'll soon see the quotations of Saint Thomas in specialty editions like "Thomas Sowell For Voters Who Just Don't Understand Why The Economy Isn't Better", or "The Complete Quotations of Saint Thomas on Why Cash For Clunkers Was Totally F'ed Up" or even "Thomas Sowell: What The Hell Were You Expecting When You Elected That Chicago Machine Dumbass?" with the really good parts in red letters.
But Saint Thomas grows old. His words come more slowly these days. There was one embarrassing two week period (probably because of problems with his blood pressure medication) where he supported the horrific Newt Gingrich.
We speak of Saint Thomas with reverence, all the same. Those of you in the back, stop fidgeting and remain standing. After the scripture reading, you can sit through the sermon.
(Ahem...)
Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has had his life and work examined by John Hawkins of Townhall.com, and these are reported to be his best quotes. Please read along from your Order Of Worship:
25) "Since this is an era when many people are concerned about 'fairness' and 'social justice,' what is your 'fair share' of what someone else has worked for?"
24) "Imagine a political system so radical as to promise to move more of the poorest 20% of the population into the richest 20% than remain in the poorest bracket within the decade? You don't need to imagine it. It's called the United States of America."
23) "Four things have almost invariably followed the imposition of controls to keep prices below the level they would reach under supply and demand in a free market: (1) increased use of the product or service whose price is controlled, (2) Reduced supply of the same product or service, (3) quality deterioration, (4) black markets."
22) "What sense would it make to classify a man as handicapped because he is in a wheelchair today, if he is expected to be walking again in a month and competing in track meets before the year is out? Yet Americans are given ‘class’ labels on the basis of their transient location in the income stream. If most Americans do not stay in the same broad income bracket for even a decade, their repeatedly changing 'class' makes class itself a nebulous concept."
21) "There are few talents more richly rewarded with both wealth and power, in countries around the world, than the ability to convince backward people that their problems are caused by other people who are more advanced."
20) "The poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits ever since 1994. You would never learn that from most of the media. Similarly you look at those blacks that have gone on to college or finished college, the incarceration rate is some tiny fraction of what it is among those blacks who have dropped out of high school. So it’s not being black; it’s a way of life. Unfortunately, the way of life is being celebrated not only in rap music, but among the intelligentsia, is a way of life that leads to a lot of very big problems for most people."
19) "The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."
17) "The vision of the anointed is one in which ills as poverty, irresponsible sex, and crime derive primarily from 'society,' rather than from individual choices and behavior. To believe in personal responsibility would be to destroy the whole special role of the anointed, whose vision casts them in the role of rescuers of people treated unfairly by 'society'."
16) "No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems — of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind."
15) "Life has many good things. The problem is that most of these good things can be gotten only by sacrificing other good things. We all recognize this in our daily lives. It is only in politics that this simple, common sense fact is routinely ignored."
14) "There is usually only a limited amount of damage that can be done by dull or stupid people. For creating a truly monumental disaster, you need people with high IQs."
13) "Civilization has been aptly called a 'thin crust over a volcano.' The anointed are constantly picking at that crust."
12) "We seem to be moving steadily in the direction of a society where no one is responsible for what he himself did, but we are all responsible for what somebody else did, either in the present or in the past."
11)” For the anointed, traditions are likely to be seen as the dead hand of the past, relics of a less enlightened age, and not as the distilled experience of millions who faced similar human vicissitudes before.”
8)” The charge is often made against the intelligentsia and other members of the anointed that their theories and the policies based on them lack common sense. But the very commonness of common sense makes it unlikely to have any appeal to the anointed. How can they be wiser and nobler than everyone else while agreeing with everyone else?"
5) "The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling."
4) "One of the consequences of such notions as ‘entitlements’ is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence."
3) "Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large."
2) "In short, killing the goose that lays the golden egg is a viable political strategy, so long as the goose does not die before the next election and no one traces the politicians’ fingerprints on the murder weapon."
1) "There are no solutions; there are only trade-offs."
Thus endeth the reading from the Gospel According to Saint Thomas. The Man hath spoken. You may be seated while the Sepulchre's Cathedral Choir performs "Song Of Wisdom".
Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas....
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has proclaimed that the loss of Tim Russert was the loss of a national treasure, since there is no replacement journalist of comparable objectivity, intelligence, and diligence on the horizon.
Despite being a huge fan of "Meet The Press", I had vowed not to write anything about Russert's premature departure. I thought that we spend too much energy lamenting the loss of people who happen to be on television, and not enough time enjoying the company of those who aren't.
Dr. Sowell has shown me the error of my ways in this case. Tim Russert seems to have been the real thing.
Therefore, I recant my earlier mistaken opinions about the value of Tim Russert. These opinions are now abhorrent and are an anathema to me. (I think I remember those phrases from an old movie about the Inquisition.)
The man has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
Dr. Sowell rarely names names, but Anna Quindlen irked him....
A recent column by Anna Quindlen in Newsweek (or is that Newsweak?) laments that "the share of the nation's income going to the top 1 percent is at its highest level since 1928." Who are those top one percent? For those who would like to join them, the question is: How can you do that? The second question is easy to answer. Virtually anyone who owns a home in San Francisco, no matter how modest that person's income may be, can join the top one percent instantly just by selling their house. But that's only good for one year, you may say. What if they don't have another house to sell next year? Well, they won't be in the top one percent again next year, will they? But that's not unusual.
He goes on to write that most of the categories our politicians like to throw around, "The Rich", "The Poor", "The Middle Class", are not permanent stations in life. Most of us have been considered poor at some point in our lives. Most of us hope to be rich. We might get there. So the next time you hear Talking Heads decrying the widening gap between the top 5% and the middle 20% of the bottom 10%, please remember all those people who sold a house, cashed in their stocks, won the lottery, or sold a business. They don't necessarily need to be punished. One day the top 5% might be you.
And I never tire of sending people to this site....enter your yearly income here to see how you stack up against the rest of the world (not the nation). Then come back.
Do you still feel like the top 5% should pay far more of the tax burden?
Please stand for this month's reading from the Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has written an epistle to those who are disappointed in Barack Obama:
Many people on various parts of the political spectrum are expressing a sense of disappointment with Obama. But I have not felt the least bit disappointed.
Once in office, President Obama has done exactly what his whole history would lead you to expect him to do.... Disappointing? No. Disgusting? Yes. The only disappointment is with voters who voted their hopes and ignored his realities.
When Dr. Sowell descends from the moutain to address us, we should measure his words carefully. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with Barack Obama. Obama is a human. He is fallible.
So is Ron Paul.
So is Rand Paul.
So is Gary Johnson, great governor from New Mexico.
So is Senator Jim Webb, decent Democrat of Virginia.
The candidate that I worked hardest to elect, the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate Bob Barr, is extremely human. Way human.
Ron Paul occasionally throws in some earmarks for his Texas district.
Rand Paul is opposed to same-sex marriage.
Gary Johnson has completed Iron Man Triathlons, and its all I can do to finish a 10K. This irks me.
Jim Webb had great ideas on gun rights and ending the Drug War. But he was against free trade.
Bob Barr was severely criticized for licking whipped cream off of strippers. (Everyone knows that people of taste and refinment would have covered them with Jello Shots.)
These people shouldn't be our leaders, except in dismantling the machine that we've allowed to take over our lives. Americans shouldn't need inspirational leaders providing their infrastructure, running the court system and defending our borders. We need some dull, uninspiring functionaries who don't want to build empires, we need some lazy, drab, civil-service lifers who want to put in 6 hours a day for 40 years and then retire.
Electing a president should be no more important to you than picking a new lawn service. If the president really matters, then your government has gotten to big. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined.
Please stand again for a second reading from the scriptures:
Many people on various parts of the political spectrum are expressing a sense of disappointment with Obama. But I have not felt the least bit disappointed.
Once in office, President Obama has done exactly what his whole history would lead you to expect him to do.... Disappointing? No. Disgusting? Yes. The only disappointment is with voters who voted their hopes and ignored his realities.
The man has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
You may be seated.
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has given us an assortment of new scriptures to ponder.
As Saint Thomas has grown old, his offerings to his disciples have become shorter, but no less pithy. We should treasure them, ponder them, and hold them in our hearts.
In this reading, The Good Doctor has arisen from his pallet to straighten out the issue of perverse incentives, tax cuts, and the issue of why people hire people and bother to be productive in the first place.
We know that it has become tiresome for Saint Thomas to be bothered with stamping out ignorance in his old age, and value his contribution all the more because of his patience.
Please remain standing until the end of the reading from the scriptures:
The first big cut in income taxes came in the 1920s, at the urging of Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon. He argued that a reduction of the tax rates would increase the tax revenues. What actually happened?
In 1920, when the top tax rate was 73 percent, for people making over $100,000 a year, the federal government collected just over $700 million in income taxes-- and 30 percent of that was paid by people making over $100,000. After a series of tax cuts brought the top rate down to 24 percent, the federal government collected more than a billion dollars in income tax revenue-- and people making over $100,000 a year now paid 65 percent of the taxes.
How could that be? The answer is simple: People behave differently when tax rates are high as compared to when they are low. With low tax rates, they take their money out of tax shelters and put it to work in the economy, benefitting themselves, the economy and government, which collects more money in taxes because incomes rise.
High tax rates which very few people are actually paying, because of tax shelters, do not bring in as much revenue as lower tax rates that people are paying. It was much the same story after tax cuts during the Kennedy administration, the Reagan administration and the Bush Administration.
The New York Times reported in 2006: "An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year."
Expectations are in the eyes of the beholder-- and in the rhetoric of the demagogues. If class warfare is more important to some politicians than collecting more revenue when there is a deficit, then let the voters know that.
The man has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
You may be seated.
We do not ordinarily show videos on pull-down screens here at the Chapel of Saint Sowell, but in this case, as an aid to worship, we have included the following:
This is a video of someone who just....doesn't....get it. If you have children in The Chapel who can't view this type of material without laughing, please take them to the nursery now.
This is why Our Gospel must be spread throughout our land, the world, even to D.C. and The New York Times.
Thank you all for attending our services this morning. Let's all go to Luby's !
Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas....
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has given us new insights into those "who drove the car into the ditch", as our president keeps claiming has happened.
Another political fable is that the current economic downturn is due to not enough government regulation of the housing and financial markets. But it was precisely the government regulators, under pressure from politicians, who forced banks and other lending institutions to lower their standards for making mortgage loans.
These risky loans, and the defaults that followed, were what set off a chain reaction of massive financial losses that brought down the whole economy.
So it doesn't matter who was driving the car when it inevitably went into the ditch? Perhaps we should question those who dug the damn ditch that was running across the middle of the interstate? Give us more, O Saint Thomas, give us more....
Was this due to George W. Bush and the Republicans? Only partly. Most of those who pushed the lowering of mortgage lending standards were Democrats-- notably Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Christopher Dodd, though too many Republicans went along.
At the heart of these policies were Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who bought huge amounts of risky mortgages, passing the risk on from the banks that lent the money (and made the profits) to the taxpayers who were not even aware that they would end up paying in the end.
However, anyone who reads the scriptures of Saint Thomas would've seen this coming from afar. As the good Doctor Sowell has pointed out many times, the stated goals and objectives of any policy do not matter. All that matters are the incentives that are created. In this case, Fannie and Freddie were incentivized to take insane risks because they knew that someone would be there to bail them out if things went badly. That someone would be....you. You have their undying gratitude. Let us continue with the next verses:
When President Bush said in 2004 that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be reined in, 76 members of the House of Representatives issued a statement to the contrary. These included Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel.
If we are going to talk about "the policies that created this mess in the first place," let's at least get the facts straight and the names right.
The current policies of the Obama administration are a continuation of the same reckless policies that brought on the current economic problems-- all in the name of "change." Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still sacred cows in Washington, even though they have already required the biggest bailouts of all.
Why? Because they allow politicians to direct vast sums of money where it will do politicians the most good, either personally or in terms of buying votes in the next election.
The man has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas. You may be seated.
During the unpleasantness of last November, I signed up as a supporter on all the political websites (Demoblican and Libertarian). and I still get mail from both. President Obama left this gem in my inbox sometime last night.
Whited --
This evening, at 11:15 p.m., the House of Representatives voted to pass their health insurance reform bill. Despite countless attempts over nearly a century, no chamber of Congress has ever before passed comprehensive health reform. This is history.
Where to begin, where to begin..... Let's start with the way we use the word "reform". If you destroy something, are you reforming it? Were the 9-11 attacks "Architectural Reform"? In 1941, did the Japanese Air Force carry out a policy of "Naval Reform" at Pearl Harbor? Did Jack The Ripper carry out a policy of Prostitute Reform? Yes, this is history.
But you and millions of your fellow Organizing for America supporters didn't just witness history tonight -- you helped make it. Each "yes" vote was a brave stand....
Brave? Person A takes money from person B to give to person C, so that C will support A in the next election? That's bravery?
.... backed up by countless hours of knocking on doors, outreach in town halls and town squares, millions of signatures, and hundreds of thousands of calls. You stood up. You spoke up. And you were heard.
Speaking of knocking on someone's door, reaching out in a town hall, and making a few thousand phone calls, Joe Cao of Louisiana was the only Republican who voted for this abortion, mostly because it won't allow federal funds to be used for abortions. Please contact Joe, and let him know how you feel about him voting to give government control of the medical industry (because it will keep government out of the abortion industry). Thank God for Louisiana. Their politicians make those of Texas and Mississippi look like the Founding Fathers.
So this is a night to celebrate -- but not to rest. Those who voted for reform deserve our thanks, and the next phase of this fight has already begun.
Like I said, hit the link. Thank Joe.
The final Senate bill hasn't even been released yet, but the insurance companies are already pressing hard for a filibuster to bury it. OFA has built a massive neighborhood-by-neighborhood operation to bring people's voices to Congress, and tonight we saw the results. But the coming days will put our efforts to the ultimate test. Winning will require each of us to give everything we can, starting right now.
Please donate $5 or whatever you can afford so we can finish this fight.
I suggest you hang onto your $5.00 and start hoarding penicillin.
Tonight's vote brought every American closer to the secure, affordable care we need. But it was also a watershed moment in how change is made.
I just woke up the Sepulchral Wife, half the neighbors, and all 12 dachshunds, banging my head through the refrigerator door. Can ANYONE name something that our government has voluntarily made more affordable? (Note: spreading the costs around to people still in diapers doesn't count.) Your share of the national debt is already near $40,000.00 Your share of the unfunded future liability is somewhere between $350,000.00 and $400,000.00
Safe. Secure. Affordable. As long as you die within 5 years. Everyone after that is screwed.
Even after last year's election, many insider lobbyists and partisan operatives really thought that the old formula of scare tactics....
Here's Thomas Sowell, on the use of scare tactics: What is so wrong with the current medical system in the United States that we are being urged to rush headlong into a new government system that we are not even supposed to understand, because this legislation is to be rushed through Congress before even the Senators and Representatives have a chance to read it?
....D.C. back-scratching and special-interest money would still be enough to block any idea they didn't like. Now, they're desperate. Because, tonight, you made it crystal clear: the old rules are changing -- and the people will not be ignored.
Here's some more from The Good Doctor Sowell: All this makes a farce of the notion of a "public option" that will simply provide competition to keep private insurance companies honest. What politicians can and will do is continue to drive up the cost of private insurance until it is no longer viable. A "public option" is simply a path toward a "single payer" system, a euphemism for a government monopoly.
In other words, the D.C. back-scratchers and special interests are buzzing around this thing like green flies swarming over a fresh cow patty.(That additional commentary is mine, not Dr. Sowell's)
In the final phases of last year's election, I often reminded folks, "Don't think for a minute that power concedes without a fight," and it's especially true today. But that's okay -- we're not afraid of a fight. And as you continue to prove, when all of us work together, we have what it takes to win.
Yep. Anyone robbing Peter to pay Paul will always have the support of Paul. And Joe Cao. Here's Cao going home to read what he voted for. This YouTube is actually on his website:
Please donate to OFA's campaign to win this fight and ensure that real health reform reaches my desk by the end of this year:
I'm tempted to hit the link and send the damn fool some money. If he sends out emails this funny for free, no telling what I can get for $5.00.
Here's Jerry Pournelle: With Detroit a ruin and manufacturing industries on the ropes, small business is the only possible engine of recovery from what they don't call a Depression; so the Congress is going to add an 8% tax on employing people. We already have the longest period of increasing unemployment since the Great Depression; I presume we are going for a really big record setting period of increasing unemployment.
What incentives people have to invest and create new jobs in this environment is pretty murky now; with the health bill there will be fewer incentives to invest in new jobs in the US. The incentives are now to the job black market -- hire illegal immigrants who don't have to have health insurance -- or to export the job if that can possibly be done.
Right Wing News has compiled The Best Political Quotes of 2011. I've read them all so that you won't have to. Here are the best (i.e. the Libertarian-ish) ones:
49) NPR is a very elitist and in this case white institution that I think is struggling with the changing demographics of American society. And it struggles with the idea that there are capable thinkers and journalist and people who don’t fit into some box. — Juan Williams on NPR
48) Seriously, in 2008 we elected a community organizer, state senator, college instructor first term senator over a guy who spent five years in a Vietnamese prison. And now he’s lecturing us about how America’s gone “soft”? Really? — Jonah Goldberg Well, some of us haven't been working very hard for Dear Leader like we did back in 2008, have we?
47) Why does the left hate free speech? Because they don’t know how to talk about the substantive merits when they are challenged. Having submerged themselves in disciplining each other by denouncing any heretics in their midst, they find themselves overwhelmed and outnumbered in America, where there is vibrant debate about all sorts of things they don’t know how to begin to talk about. They resort to stomping their feet and shouting “shut up”… when they aren’t prissily imploring everyone to be “civil.” — Ann Althouse
45) There used to be no income inequality in China because everyone was poor. This is a tradeoff you accept for growth and freedom. — Michele Caruso-Cabrera
43) Poverty in Egypt, or anywhere else, is not very difficult to explain. There are three basic causes: People are poor because they cannot produce anything highly valued by others. They can produce things highly valued by others but are hampered or prevented from doing so. Or, they volunteer to be poor. — Walter Williams
42) Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large. — Thomas Sowell
40) If you’ve ever known anyone with a serious addiction, the easiest thing for friends and family to do is pretend it’s not a big deal. Who wants to have a confrontation? Far easier to let things slide and have a good time. “Let’s have a nice Thanksgiving without any arguments, OK?”
The tea party is like the cousin who’s been through AA and refuses to pretend anymore. As a result, he spoils everyone’s good time. For the enablers, and others in denial, he’s the guy ruining everything, not the drunk.
Uncle Sam is the drunk and the tea partiers are the annoyingly sober — and a bit self-righteous — cousin. Measured by spending, and adjusted for inflation, the federal government has increased by more than 50 percent in 10 years. Some have enabled the drunken spending, others continue to deny it’s even a problem.
The tea party is sounding the wake-up call. If America didn’t have a problem, then there really would be good cause to be furious with the forces of sobriety. Nobody likes a party-pooper, especially the people hooked on partying. — Jonah Goldberg
39) Alternatively, suppose Qaddafi winds up hanging from a lamppost in his favorite party dress. If you’re a Third World dictator, what lessons would you draw? Qaddafi was the thug who came in from the cold, the one who (in the wake of Saddam’s fall) renounced his nuclear program and was supposedly rehabilitated in the chancelleries of the West. He was a strong partner in the war on terrorism, according to U.S. diplomats. And what did Washington do? They overthrew him anyway. — Mark Steyn
38) [The Tea Party] has to be the first “Totalitarian” movement in the history of mankind that, if it gets everything it wants…will leave you the hell alone. — Ed Driscoll This is my candidate for quote of the year.
37) (He) doesn’t go into why Obama managed to get to the top of politics without being all that good at it. The answer is distressingly obvious: Obama’s the biggest affirmative action baby in history. When other pols are trying, failing, learning, while climbing up the middle rungs of the ladder, he got a pass. — Mickey Kaus
36) The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians. — Thomas Sowell
34) (Obama) keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don’t invest, their holding too much money. We haven’t heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody’s afraid of the government and there’s no need soft peddling it, it’s the truth. It is the truth. And that’s true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I’m telling you that the business community in this country is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he’s gone, everybody’s going to be sitting on their thumbs. — Steve Wynn, who probably won't change his ways.
33) It’s no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low now that the size of government is at an all-time high. — Paul Ryan
31) I give the president credit for at least one thing. He’s proven that someone can deserve a Nobel prize less than Al Gore. — Tim Pawlenty
27) In his early activist days, Barack Obama the community organizer sued banks to ease their lending practices. Now his administration is suing banks for issuing risky mortgages. — Jim Hoft
26) Well, “The Washington post” three weeks ago had this investigation and they said that President Obama has now raised more money from Wall Street and the banks for this election cycle than all — than all eight Republicans combined. I don’t want to say that, because if that’s the truth, that Wall Street already has their man and his name is Barack Obama, then we’ve got a much bigger problem. — Michael Moore, finally going to Clues R Us and getting one.
25) It’s the usual Socialist fiscal math of 1 + 1 = You’re paying, so who cares. — Rachel Marsden
23) Question: How much do you have to invest in the future before you’ve spent it and no longer have one? — Mark Steyn
22) All of which raises another question: If Obamacare is so great, why do so many people want to get out from under it? — Michael Barone, in reference to the people and organizations who supported the passage of Obamacare getting in line for Obamacare waivers.
21) My name’s Ronnie Bryant, and I’m a mine operator…. I’ve been issued a [state] permit in the recent past for [waste water] discharge, and after standing in this room today listening to the comments being made by the people…. [pause] Nearly every day without fail — I have a different perspective — men stream to these [mining] operations looking for work in Walker County. They can’t pay their mortgage. They can’t pay their car note. They can’t feed their families. They don’t have health insurance. And as I stand here today, I just … you know … what’s the use? I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I don’t know. I mean, I see these guys — I see them with tears in their eyes — looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you. — Ronnie Bryant as he goes Galt.
18) My next door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than this administration. — Gary Johnson And guess what, boys and girls, friends and neighbors? Gary Johnson has declared his intention to run for President as a Libertarian. This is gonna be GREAT !!
16) Let’s pass a bill to cover the moon with yogurt that will cost $5 trillion today. And then let’s pass a bill the next day to cancel that bill. We could save $5 trillion. — Paul Ryan That's a reference to the Dems proposal that we pay for some bullshit think with savings from the ending of the Iraq war. One problem....the Iraq war was never paid for either.
15) Life has many good things. The problem is that most of these good things can be gotten only by sacrificing other good things. We all recognize this in our daily lives. It is only in politics that this simple, common sense fact is routinely ignored. — Thomas Sowell
13) With a few exceptions, foremost among them the New York Post, the coverage of OWS protests compared to the coverage of tea-party protests is the worst media double standard in recent history. Nothing compares, because nothing else involves this much distortion on both ends of the coverage. It’s not just that most press outlets (like the protesters themselves) look the other way at depravity happening inside Obamaville, it’s that for years they treated the tea-party movement as some sort of feral mob that was forever on the brink of rampaging through the streets — like, say, Occupy Oakland just did. If you missed it when I posted it last week, go watch the ad the DNC ran in August 2009 when tea partiers first started showing up to town halls on ObamaCare. That set the tone. We began the year with tea-party pols being smeared as killers over a shooting they had nothing to do with and we end it with actual rapes being shrugged off by the press because they’re bad PR for a movement they support. Disgrace. — Allahpundit
9) We are living in a bizarre moment in history. Our establishment–the press, the academy, all unions, most politicians, many in business who have skin in the Ponzi game–assure us that borrowing trillions of dollars to finance wasteful spending, while sticking our children with the tab plus interest, is perfectly sensible. On the other hand, believing that we should live within our means is? Crazy! — John Hinderaker
8) Those who can do. Those who can’t form a supercommittee. — Mark Steyn
7) Medicare in particular will run out of money, and we will not be able to sustain that program no matter how much taxes go up. — Barack Obama
This next one isn't relative to any Free Minds/Free Markets position at all, but I like the way Mayor Nutter expresses himself here. I know that if I have to interview one more kid with a visible ass crack, I'm going to give my HR lady some suspenders to issue to every gangsta who enters my office.
6) Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer. Pull your pants up and buy a belt ‘cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt. If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t hire you ‘cause you look like you’re crazy. You have damaged your own race. — Mayor Michael A. Nutter
5) With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses. — Rand Paul
4) This deal is a sugar-coated Satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see. — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver on the debt ceiling increase deal
3) This one, #3, was pretty good, but it was uttered by Newt Gingrich. I try not to quote Newt in a positive context. You'll have to hit the link at the top to read it.
2) The total present value of payments expected under Social Security and Medicare beyond what is expected to be collected under current tax laws is about $100 trillion. One way to put that amount of money in context is to note that it is about twice the amount of all the net private assets that exist in America today. To answer cw’s question directly, the best back-of-envelope estimate is that meeting this unfunded portion of our Social Security and Medicare commitments would require roughly an immediate 80 percent increase in federal income taxes, sustained forever. — Jim Manzi
1) #1 was some macho Alpha Geronimo Tango Foxtrot radio transmissions from the Navy Seal who shot Bin Laden.
I like this one, from Joe Biden, much better. Please, please, please watch the whole thing, and revel in the boundless glory of Biden giving the (now-disgraced) Jon Corzine full credit for helping write the Porkulus Act. If you're wondering why the woman in the back is wearing a hard hat, it's to protect her from the bullshit falling from the heavens.
Here's Corzine a few years later, admitting that he has no idea what happened to 1.2 billion dollars of other people's money entrusted to his investment firm. Hell, if you can legally blow 3/4 of a trillion in Porkulus on turtle tunnels, union giveaways, African Genital-Washing programs and other junk, what's 1.2 billion?
These aren't necessarily the quotes I would've nominated, but I didn't think to save them all year. Many thanks to John Hawkins for pulling this list together.
I seldom quote Saint Thomas directly, out of fear that I will be struck dead from on high for publishing a typo. I truly am not worthy of this task. But I'll try....
What we are talking about is a golden political opportunity for politicians to use the current financial crisis to fundamentally change an economy that has been successful for more than two centuries, so that politicians can henceforth micro-manage all sorts of businesses and play Robin Hood, taking from those who are not likely to vote for them and transferring part of their earnings to those who will vote for them.
Children, these are our memory verses for next Sunday morning. Please be prepared to recite them during Bible drill. Do you want more? Of course you do....
Whatever the merits of trying to shore up some financial institutions, in order to prevent a major disruption of the credit flows that keep the whole economy going, what has in fact been done has been to create a huge pot of money-- hundreds of billions of dollars-- that politicians can use to give out goodies hither and yon, to whomever they please for whatever reason they please.
And here's the most curious verse in the entire epistle that Saint Thomas has given us....
Much as we may deplore partisanship in Washington, bipartisan disasters are often twice as bad as partisan disasters-- and this is a bipartisan disaster in the making.
We don't deplore partisanship in Washington, do we? No. We love it. But Saint Thomas's ways are not our ways. We must trust him and his word, and rest assured that this is not a mistake in Holy Scripture.
There is no reason for our government to be transferring all this wealth from the poor to the rich. None whatsoever.
The man has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
The primary issue is whether or not a politician should have power and control over what you can purchase, or at what price:
At first blush, the mercantilists’ call for “free trade but fair trade” sounds reasonable. After all, who can be against fairness? Giving the idea just a bit of thought suggests that fairness as a guide for public policy lays the groundwork for tyranny. …Last summer, I purchased a 2010 LS 460 Lexus, through a U.S. intermediary, from a Japanese producer for $70,000. Here’s my question to you: Was that a fair or unfair trade? I was free to keep my $70,000 or purchase the car. The Japanese producer was free to keep his Lexus or sell me the car. …The exchange occurred because I saw myself as being better off and so did the Japanese producer. I think it was both free and fair trade, and I’d like an American mercantilist to explain to me how it wasn’t. Mercantilists have absolutely no argument when we recognize that trade is mostly between individuals. Mercantilists pretend that trade occurs between nations such as U.S. trading with England or Japan to appeal to our jingoism. …That’s nonsense. Trade occurs between individuals in one country, through intermediaries, with individuals in another country. Who might protest that my trade with the Lexus manufacturer was unfair? If you said an American car manufacturer and their union workers, go to the head of the class. …it’s never American consumers who complain about cheaper prices. It’s always American producers and their unions who do the complaining. That ought to tell us something.
I think Williams once said that he goes to his mailbox every morning to see if he's gotten a government check for not raising pigs. He never has gotten one. But lots of millionaire farmers get them every year, millionaire farmers who are no better at not raising pigs than Williams is. Even if you're a vehement supporter of corporate welfare, you've got to admit that is funny.
On a (slightly) related note, "Basic Economics" by Dr. Thomas Sowell has now gone into a 4th edition.
I have quoted, mis-quoted, mangled, highlighted, posted, and fallen asleep with this book so many times that I'm not going to burden this post with an excerpt. Just hit the Thomas Sowell label down below. The man is brilliant AND readable. My new copy of the 4th edition (on my truck seat at all times) is already starting to look like it's been owned by 3 different students with too many highlighters.
This gets me to Glenn Loury, now comfortably situated in Brown University's economics department. Loury started his career as a conservative but now calls himself a progressive. Loury once had a domestic violence problem, and a Bolivian Marching Powder problem. (I think he's a libertarian, but hey, Brown U. doesn't hire many of those. There are some things that an academic just can't admit.)
Go here to read what Loury had to say about Obama's race speech, the one Obama had to compose after the Revered Wright incident. Like most of my blog topics, I came across this one while looking online for something else. I don't agree with a lot of it, but it is readable. There is a structure to the sentences. It flows. You can see a pattern from paragraph to paragraph.
So here's my point. Or my question.... Why are the most readable (and therefore best) living economists all black?
Brothers and Sisters, we will begin our services today with a brief reading from National Socialist Radio , and a few words from Henry Waxman about the Wall Street Bailout legislation.
"I wish we would have made the language tighter. I was aware at the time that it wasn't as clear and direct as I would have liked it," says Rep. Henry Waxman (Mommy Party - CA). "And to find now that it might be used for extravagant pensions or bonuses or dividends or any other purpose is inconsistent with what Congress intended."
Please add Brother Henry Waxman to your prayer lists, as we all wish him a speedy recovery.
Now please stand for this month's reading from the Gospel According to Saint Thomas, in which we gather here to read words by, or about economist Thomas Sowell, who is the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead:
"Economics is a study of incentives and their consequences, not intentions and their goals."
"What counts in assessing a social or economic policy is not the stated intentions of promoters, but the incentives created and the actual end results produced"
"Economics is a study of cause and effect, not intentions and hopes."
I invite the congregation, during our moment of quiet time, to compare and contrast the statements of Brother Waxman and Saint Thomas.
You may be seated.
At the close of our services, after you have repented of your addiction to bailouts, subsidies, quotas, and giveaways, after you have dropped your opposition to NAFTA and stopped supporting rent control, and basically gotten right with God, I invite you to cautiously visit this site, at http://tsowellusa.ytmnd.com/ . If you have speakers on your computer, turn them up.
Please remember that Saint Thomas is not divine. He is, of course, saintly but not godlike. We violate the First and Second Commandments when we set up online shrines and altars to someone who is, according to rumors, human.
Next week our guest speakers will be a group of missionaries who are trying to put a copy of Saint Thomas's "Basic Economics-3rd edition" on the nightstand of every room in every Motel 6 in the United States.
Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas....
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has given us an assortment of new scriptures to ponder. This month, Saint Thomas gives us a variety of new observations to ponder, mostly on the perverse desires of those who would gain control over every aspect of our lives:
No statement is more unnecessary than the statement that the government should "do something" about some issue. Politicians are going to "do something," whether or not something needs to be done, and regardless of whether what they do makes matters better or worse. All their incentives are to keep themselves in the public eye.
Let us continue with a later next verse:
One of the few advantages to the country in having Congress overwhelmingly in the hands of one party is that the lack of need to compromise lets the leaders of that party reveal themselves for what they are-- in this case, people with unbounded arrogance and utter contempt for the right of ordinary people to live their lives as they see fit, much less the right to know as citizens what laws are going to be passed by their government. The question is whether voters will remember on election day in 2010.
The man has spoken. Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas. You may be seated. Those of you interested in other lessons from this sermon series from the writings of Saint Thomas may go here.
Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas....
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has proclaimed that rising fuel prices are due to supply and demand, mostly increased demand from China and India.
Therefore, there is no need to create a complex melodrama complete with heroic congressional investigators and villainous oil company executives.
In his latest epistle, Saint Thomas also accuses Senators Obama and McCain of straying too far from The Church Of Free Market Orthodoxy, but he did not appear to be speaking Ex Cathedra on that particular issue.
As future ministers of The Church Of FMO develop an internally consistent theology, the Obama/McCain mistake will perhaps be known as The Pelosian Heresy.
The Church Of FMO will soon visit both the Obama and McCain campaigns, and both candidates will be shown the Tools of The Inquisition. Obama will probably recant. McCain has seen worse.
High fuel prices will be with us for a long time.
The man has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
Please stand for this month's reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas....
Economist Thomas Sowell, the smartest man in the world now that Milton Friedman is dead, has given us an assortment of new scriptures to ponder. As Saint Thomas has grown old, his offerings to his disciples have become shorter, but no less pithy. We should treasure them, ponder them, and hold them in our hearts. I'll begin with his observations on the weather:
New York and Chicago have both recently had their coldest June in generations. If they had had their hottest month, it would have been trumpeted from the media 24/7 by global warming zealots. But the average surface temperature of the earth has not changed in more than a decade, according to the Cato Institute.
This, of course, is true. But as we have often said from this very pulpit, "What profiteth a man from cooling, when the fear of warming hath been shouted from the rooftops?" Let us continue with the next verse:
Different people have very different reactions to President Barack Obama. Those who listen to his rhetoric are often inspired, while those who follow what he actually does are often appalled.
And yet The False Prophet Of Change still has the support of those who would close the abomination of Gitmo, those who would have us beat our swords into plowshares, and those who would preach marriage to the sodomites (not that there's anything wrong with that). Saint Thomas continues with another verse:
With Velcro and other modern adhesives available, can't someone design a boxing glove that doesn't require fights to be stopped in the middle of a round so that loose tape can be repaired? Often the break in the action changes the whole tempo of the fight and can affect the outcome.
We must remember that Saint Thomas's ways are not our ways. If he says we need Velcro inside boxing gloves, let us develop Velcro boxing gloves. He's been right about everything else.
The man has spoken.
Thus endeth the reading from The Gospel According To Saint Thomas.
You may be seated.
Those of you interested in other lessons from this sermon series from the writings of Saint Thomas may go here.
