@Bottom Line....Dr. Sowell is an amazing man and an accomplished intellect. He's proof positive that the exceptional individuals will be able to overcome obstacles that frustrate lesser beings. He represents a long tradition of conservative and libertarian intellectuals, which these days are too few and far between. However, he counts his exceptionalism as a common trait held by all, which is clearly not the case. It is few that are able to counter Dr. Sowell's well written and spoken work, but I differ in my basic suppositions and the role that culture and society plays in the behavior and growth of individuals. An over reliance by lesser intellects on Dr. Sowell is a mistake made by those that unable to think critically. His writings on libertarianism is particularly thought provoking and there is much I agree with such as his decriminalization of drugs.

I don't know if asking people to read someone else's work really constitutes a blog piece.

Dr. Sowell has, in this speech, reviewed through the ages how various groups of people have overcome weakness to achieve success, and change the future for their culture. There are many models to choose from, but in each case he cites, those that did succeed did so by realizing and following other models that worked for other successful groups.

None of his proofs included "leveling the playing field". None of the successes included taking earnings from others to pacify those in need. In fact, just the opposite is true. It was an honest acknowledgement of the reasons they weren't succeeding, and a determination to arrest that condition by accepting the effort required for that change to occur.

Furthermore, the disadvantaged came from some very depressed people through the ages.

The fact that I cite a scholar, like Dr. Sowell, to start a discussion that refutes liberal ideologies is something you might dismiss as unworthy here. I believe the opposite is true. It is precisely what is needed, because I care about the plight of the disadvantaged, and I am tired of liberals preventing them from achieving the successes that people throughout the ages have attained when they were lead by those who were not confused about the realities history has proven ... again, and again.

BTW, I too lament we have laws regarding the legality of certain substances. As soon as we agree to hold people responsible for their choices, I will demand legislation that makes it so.

@ Lyle
He doesnt count on exceptionalism as much as the notion of this cosmic fairness liberals subscribe to only creates even more unequal outcomes. The fact that alot of valuable resources have been thrown down a REAL RAT HOLE of liberal thinking only leads to the deepening fiscal woes that can hurt ALL outcomes in a adverse way. Drive and effort and intelligence should be rewarded as it basically is not possible if the masses do not subscribe to those efforts. Thomas Sowell makes sense in the Real world as he knows the facts and the damage that make believe FAIRNESS does. When the war on poverty started ...Poverty was already on the decline . Now the Government pays people to stay there. Amazing!

That is so true.

What government was supposed to be was small and fiscally conservative, providing basic and vital services and maintaining a LEVEL playing field. Then came all sorts of additional rules that gave one group an advantage over another, various wealth transfer schemes, and government being allowed to take over functions and services that were previously in the realm of the private sector.

Liberals love their wealth transfer schemes!

The City of Racine Hustle.

http://racineexposed.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/the-hustle-do-it-racine/

I can tell you haven't read the speech, if you had you wouldn't overlook the fact that your concerns are addressed in the speech.

And how did the "haves" get what they have? You think it was handed to them or do you think they worked for it?

Assuming you are black, why don't you acknowledge that the liberal philosophy is the modern day slavery of black folk?

Not to mention that 'Written from a white male perspective' comment...

It doesn't seem that you are as familiar with his work as you claim, Aurelius.

The only inequality in this country are those that choose to be victims. That is the spot on problem with liberals. The only one standing in the way of you and success is you.

Exactly what access, and to whom is it being denied?

Thanks for proving my point.

Self imposed Victim- hood is so ingrained in you you can't even separate yourself from it.

Exactly whose blood? You keep throwing out rhetoric with no original thought or facts to back it up. You just keep parroting Liberal talking points trying to stir emotion.

This is a laughable statement. I am a "have". I grew up in one of the worst neighborhoods in the country. My parents didn't have a dime, but worked hard in factory jobs. I studied equally hard and took an interest in the sciences. As a young man, I worked 3 jobs and put myself through flight school. I spent the next 30 years working myself up through the ranks.

So just exactly with whose blood did I become successful?

Then please explain how a Black guy can be writing from a White guy's perspective.

Well, to start with the black guy would have to have a job.

Hershal, could you expand your thought. I'm not sure what you are getting at with your response.

BL,
I am someone that does not play into the concepts of things like "Written from a white male perspective". I would like to think that a perspective is valid regardless of the gender or race of the source. I was just playing into the Uncle Tom implications of Aurelius' comment.

Thanks for clarifying.

What was myopic? It's the honest truth but liberals can't accept it because it would destroy their agenda. They need victims.

Yes Aurelis, mortality rates are higher among minorities, but the question is why? We have Medicaid, BadgerCare, and now B.O.Care. For health issues there is no reason someone can't access a doctor or hospital. So what is different?

The answer, is the cultural attitude. Minorities disproportionally live in inner cities where violent crime is higher. And many blocks look like a garbage dump. When there is garbage all over the streets, it is that much harder to keep the rats, vermin and other disease carrying rodents away. And don't even get started on the co-sleeping deaths. What is up with that?

Like education, the opportunities are there, but people have to take advantage of them to better themselves, not just survive.

effect*

Or, we could acknowledge the truths that history provides, and apply them.

Link: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/1990/09/10/86090/index.htm

Bren ... "there is no call to improve the quality of education in the formative years" ... where have you been? You aren't unaware the efforts to improve education ... are you? Or, are you ready to join those of us that readily acknowledge that the liberal approach to "throw money" (and we've thrown plenty) at a problem is hardly the answer?

Dr. Sowell, if you read the speech, isn't offering theory. He provides proof by reviewing what has worked for various cultures through the ages. It requires the disadvantaged accept the challenge to apply the effort and responsibility others that have succeeded applied. His objective analysis cannot be dismissed, it is proven history.

Bren is so right. You can tell that Bren has put a lot of thought into this. Think about all those Asian kids that are flooding our institutions of higher education. They came home every day after school and their parents made them study. They had no advantages but those parents. Seems to me that we either need to pass laws that prohibit those parents from making their children study, or we need to require the government have the Asians raise us whites and blacks. After all, how can we say that the American dream is within reach if we don't have immigrant parents? Our brain capacity is no different, so let' lower the bar.

Oh wait, I didn't notice the part a out what Bren said about field trips. Yes, we should be allowed to go on free field trips if we can avoid studying. But it wouldn't be fair if the kids that are getting high scores because they study at home get to come on those trips, because they are cheating by studying.

Like the RUSH song eh Bren .. keep them equal by hatchet, Axe and saw

Bren wrote: "The other may have a parent who works multiple jobs and hasn't time to read with their child, or there might be a literary deficit."

MAY Bren? MAY? How many cases in MPS or Racine fall under this MAY category?

@Anti

Don't you get it? If people cheat by studying, then how are the rest of us going to keep up unless we also study? We need field trips and music lessons. After all most of us don't have time to memorize the capitals of all 47 states. Think of all the time we would save if we flew to each one, instead!

A Nobel cause trumps tolerance.

Really!! the right? well Paul Ryan voted for every bailout put in front of him .. but yet he wants the little guy to be responsible .. The Neocons have expanded government at every turn ... So raid the social security that people have paid into, devalue the dollar so your money isn't worth the paper it isn't printed on, spend countless money on war to protect the petro dollar ... I think everyone needs a wake up call!!

In my life, I have found that the easiest path is working hard. Avoiding work is harder than the work itself.

Use the government to steal from some to give to others, this will keep continuing, HAhaha ... Yeah keep trying to outlaw guns like all tyrannts have done ... We are 16 trillion in debt, how long in little tiny head can this keep going on and on.

People are awaking, the Orwellian propaganda will fail, only the ignorant believe in the Commie Tyrannt

Who likes testicles crouched over and dunked into their mouth Racine?

"the country will continue to skew more and more towards to the left"
Let's wait and see. Remember that the left makes predictions like this, or of doom and gloom, all of the time. Obama is transitioning from the "Free Stuff" mode to a less favorable having to pay for it mode. When the American people, and Pelosi, find out what is in Obamacare they are going to poop a brick. The unions are discovering this on a weekly basis. Everyone above the poverty level is going to have to pay. There are direct taxes and indirect taxes, in the way of massive cost increases, but either way everyone is going to have to pay. FYI, the "Affordable" in ACA is a joke, but when many Americans find out it is not "Free" they won't be laughing.
It is fun to be a great Santa Clause, and give the kids every present they could want, but when the credit card bills come in January the fun stops quick. You lockstep lefties will still be sitting around the Christmas tree, but the rest of the party will have gone.

Good points, Hershal. Most of the rest of the world cannot afford our luxuries, so they will not be suffering our delusion that money will solve all problems. Further, to continue ignoring the cost of extending everything to everybody only ensures we have a weaker foundation to recover from .... if we ever intend to do such a thing.

Racine Progressive...

No posts so as ignorant and hateful as yours.

I don't watch fox news you anti-freedom, hatefull progressive. Why shouldn't i be able to teach my kids what ever i want? Oh you get to decide what i teach my kids you tryannt. ... Go back to your ignorant existence

Racine Oppressive again proving who the tolerant and compassionate group is.

Who denies climate change? The extent of man made global warming is disputed but I think everyone agrees there are climate changes occurring.

Racine Progressive wrote: "But what can you expect from people that deny climate change..."

RP, there is no evidence to support man-made climate change. Not one. There are alot of theories, but nothing to support them.

(second post-first one is stuck in pending limbo)

But even with the rules, it comes down to individual training, God given talent and personal desire. You can't govern that, and that is what the left is trying to do. That is the part of the equation they forget.

@Brian I agree that God given talent (not something earned), personal desire (which is self motivation) and individual training (which use to be an excellent public school system, which in some part was damaged by the teachers and administrators and helicopter parents -- and which now is something we are diminishing in this state as rapidly as Walker can do it) all play a part.

How would you apply those principles in a way that makes a difference to the majority of the unemployed and underemployed within the Inner City.

Milwaukee has one of the worst poverty rates in the nation, and the Inner City's unemployment rate is beyond accurate counting. What would you do to give those people the ability to employ the elements you say are essential --- not just for one or two anecdotal success stories, but for the majority of those born into that situation?

@David

Born into the situation that THEY created. There is a reason Africa is poor, corrupt, and ignorant. Blame the people, not the area.

Here's a solution David...STOP GIVING EVERYTHING FOR NOTHING!!!

We need to get people back to work, not sitting at home talking on their ObamaPhone, watching their ObamaHDTV drinking beer bought with ObamaBucks. If we need to supplement the income that's fine, but everyone needs to put in their 40 hours.

The problem is getting people to work. With all the benefits we provide, many of them don't want to. We need to make staying on all the entitlement programs less desirable than working. If that means someone has to hang around the unemployment office waiting for work, that's fine.

It's not going to hurt them!!!

First of all Dave, I would start with locking up criminals for the true term of the sentence. Showing the inner city poor that selling drugs and other serious crimes will be punished to the maximum. Second, I would make prison unbearable. No tennis courts or basketball courts, TV, or any other luxury.

There has to be a desire to good. You won't get that by giving someone food stamps all there lives. Same with consequences in school. We use to have Ethan Allenand other prison like schools that forced bad kids to get an education. Get them out ofthe classroom where they are disruptive to those that want to learn.

And until you get the facts, stop blaming Walker for 40 years of union corruption. Explain to me how spending more and more each year on education for the past 40 years has produced poorer results. And before you blame poverty, we spent billions and billions on poverty and it hasn't gotten one iota better. Throwing money at problems so you can feel bettter about yourself has been the liberal mantra and has been, by all statistical accounts, an abject failure.

The willingness to inpire one's self or one's children can never be obtained by government hadouts and the reverse has happened. The liberal idea has enslaved several generations to thinking that the poverty is an acceptable lifestyle.

When the cost of labor rises it invites the expense of mechanisms to replace that labor. That hardly means we don't need people, it simply means that people must be able to offer value that the consumer chooses to afford ... or that the people reconsider what they are willing to accept for compensation.

Many countries are still labor intensive, in fact there are still many labor dominated opportunities in the United States.

What Dr. Sowell recommends is that people recognize the condition and apply the effort required to engage the consumer.

@David

Don't worry. Your body will be necessary to produce electricity for the robot overlords.

See David, I don't buy that for a minute because your liberal leaders are claiming that we don't have enough workers, that is why we need illegal immigrant workers. Again, enforce the laws on the books and most of society's problems will be taken care of. But the left can't do that. They need victims to win elections. plain and simple. That is why Obama is always preaching that it is someone's elses fault for your predicament. That is total bumpkiss. You are responsible for yourself, Until you take that responsibilty, nothing will ever change for you.

History is all you have to look at when it comes to climate change. There have been periods of global warming and periods of global cooling. One such warming event came shortly before the ice age, and I highly doubt that man had much to do about either.

Global warming is the biggest academic fraud ever. The liberal media wont even cover the massive rebuttal to the false science.

Did you see what Liberals did to the Capital ?

http://shorewood.patch.com/blog_posts/scott-walker-are-private-sector-unions-still-your-partner-in-economic-development

Kinda shoots down the brave lefty thing, doesn't it?

@Sinnydude; Oh, come on. Were you really scared and quivering with the Madison protests, with all your guns? Your hero, Walker, is the antithesis of why a company from Silicon Valley or Redmond would want to come here. Rubes like you scare the next generation of corportations away.

@ DIRK a doodle doo . Wake up. I dont want to blow anyones head clean off unless its absolutlely necessary .Liberal conduct is quite embarrassing by any standard , but self defense isnt about starting a needless or pointless conflict . That is a liberal concept .

Greg - I do not carry a weapon, and will not. That is more brave than all the cheap words you can type tonight.

Dirk, Don't confuse brave and stupid. Why do you think every post is about weapons? "we do not advocate violence, and do not carry weapons" who the hell is we?

C'mon Fran. You must be the only wealtht person in America to earn your wealth in what you deem a legitimate fashion. If not, then you feel guilty about how you earned your wealth. Again, liberals playing the victim card.

I agree Frances, companies should be required to exercise responsible behavior. I also agree that what you describe isn't "redistributing the wealth". Do you have information that helps us realize what the cost to "socialize the risk of an enterprise" has been? I would be interested in some examples, and I would join you in demanding accountability.

That said, I'm missing the connection to this blog. Could you clarify your concern?

What the hell? Where is so called Born Free going, toward a strict fundamentalism that keeps us much less than Free, even though we are Born in the U.S.A,? Commies went out a long time ago, since people like Born Free bought into buiyng
China crap at Wal-mart.

Exactly why they re branded GLOBAL WARMING to CLIMATE CHANGE....Climate change is a non disputed fact . The climate will change as it always has .Global Warming is a complete HOAX and even the term could not be defended by the facts of today.

@ Dirk .....go ahead and lie to us ......like you dont buy stuff from China..LOL

Dirk doesn't wipe because the Koch brothers make toilet paper. The rash contributes to his attitude problem.

Dirk wrote: "...Commies went out a long time ago,..."
The Communist Party is alive, but maybe not so well. They still have their basic goal of creating a Marxist Social state, they are just bidding their time until someone like B.O. completely destroys the economy and they can look like "savior of the masses".

I beg to differ. Since 1980 we have taxed the wealthy in their ability to pass on their wealth through inheritance and make money by means of 'investment', neither of which require much hard work on the part of the recipient, less than during the previous decades, and it has not been a success for the economy as a whole. So don't say that taxing the wealthy hasn't been met with success.

I'm not sure the playing field can be leveled, and I don't know the solutions for the increasingly poor results of education, but we haven't been taxing the wealthy anywhere like we did before it all started to slide into the toilet.

Randy- It will never be level until all parties give forth equal effort and desire. Unless that happens, it should never be engineered to be level by the gorvernment or anyone else.

Following his meeting with the president yesterday, Rev. Al Sharpton shared President Obama’s plans to increase revenue, particularly to address the upcoming sequester, on Morning Joe this morning. “He did not get all that he wanted from the rich,” Sharpton said. “James Brown had a song too, ‘The Big Payback.’ It’s time they paid back their share, all of it.” Obama told Sharpton and other civil-rights leaders that entitlement reform was on the table, “but he says that you got to start with revenue.”

@JMB. My mom considered naming me Dirk. Fortunately she got over it, figuring I'd be teased by other kids.

Once again morninmist only looking for articles that supposedly help her weak arguments. How about this article on how we have moved up again this year in business climate and 20 spots since 2008: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/149849585.html

hey chad...

What good is moving up in business climate when the move has NOT created jobs!!?????

Well first off we are battling against some of the worst economic policies in history from the federal govt. Beyond that it does take time to create jobs. We will get over the business climate Doyle and the lefties created and we will convince businesses to grow and move back.

oh chad

move on from Doyle. Best for the repugs to quit the lying also!

janbroni Caterpillar Exec says few new local jobs from mine bill. via @jer45 #wimine #nomine #wiunion #ows thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2013/02/milwau…
18 minutes ago ·

Milwaukee Exec Says Few New Local Jobs In Mine Bill

Remember the PR spin that the iron mine projected for Northern Wisconsin meant jobs at Milwaukee-based Caterpillar?

Unlikely, says a company's VP:

A proposed iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin is unlikely to create jobs at Caterpillar Global Mining near Milwaukee, and even if it did, those workers would likely come from out of state, a company executive said Tuesday.

John Disharoon, vice president of industry relations for Caterpillar, told the Milwaukee Rotary Club that mining is a vital industry that produces the minerals and fuels needed for the world's rapidly growing and increasingly urbanized population. He noted that the Caterpillar products being made right now in Wisconsin are destined to be exported....

From morninmist "to stop to stop being stupid!" oh that is classic

Pissy Misty having a bad day?
http://fox6now.com/2013/03/01/gov-walker-will-not-face-charges-in-john-doe-investigation/
How does it feel to be wrong about everything?

Will misty, keith, bren, john, etc be apologizing for lying about the governor for years?

Special Ed Schultz on MSNBC said it was "days" in which Walker would be wearing the orange suit. Wonder if Special Ed will apologize?

Poor Democrats, theya just are getting hits from everywhere. first they have to face significant spending in Washington and Chisolm closing the investigation. Good to be conservative today!!!!!

Kleenex is sold out in Milwaukee and Madison. Stock price of P&G skyrockets.

Graeme Zielinski

@gjzielinski
What do @GovWalker and Jeffrey Dahmer have in common?

I'll start:
They both have more moral fortitude than Gayram Zielinski.