Quotes of the Day: Random Sowell Is Better Than Just About Anyone Else Who’s Focused

And when he’s focused, Thomas Sowell is untouchable.

But every once in a while, America’s foremost intellectual dedicates a column to a series of short and random, yet brilliant, thoughts. Here’s a healthy sampling from his March 22 Townhall column:

It is fascinating to hear subprime lenders being accused of “exploitation” while they are losing millions of dollars and some of them are going bankrupt.

One of the many fashionable excuses of our time is that some words or actions were “taken out of context.” Those who say this seldom, if ever, bother to say what these words or actions mean when taken in context.

Amid all the media hysteria over the price of gasoline and the profits of “Big Oil,” one simple fact has been repeatedly overlooked: The oil companies’ earnings are just under 10 percent of the price of a gallon of gas, while taxes take 17 percent. Yet who ever accuses the government of “greed”?

After President Bush fired a handful of U.S. attorneys, it has become a big scandal in the media. But when President Clinton fired all the U.S. attorneys in the country — including those who were investigating him for corruption in Arkansas — it was no big deal. Yet many in the media still claim that there is no bias.

When the Constitution’s protection of private property was disregarded, so that politicians could rob from the rich to give to the poor, that also gave politicians the power to rob from the poor and give to the rich — such as seizing homes in low-income neighborhoods and turning that property over to developers.

Whenever I see the kinds of expressions on the faces of people in high-fashion ads, I feel lucky that I never met them.

At a recent debate over global warming sponsored by National Public Radio, the audience was polled beforehand and was solidly on the side of the hysterical predictions. Afterwards, they switched to a slight plurality against those predictions. Don’t look for the global warming crusaders to risk doing any more debates.