Thomas Sowell

The capture of Saddam Hussein is good news to virtually everyone, except those who have been looking for a quagmire in Iraq from day one. Back when the war was just getting under way last spring, a dust storm that temporarily stopped the American troops advancing...

When the joy of Christmas starts turning to the desperation of trying to find the right gift, that is the time to turn to that old standby — books. You don’t have to know someone’s measurements to buy a book, nor does it have to match their current...

One of the greatest inventions of the 20th century — indeed, one of the landmark inventions in the history of the human race — was the work of a couple of young men who had never gone to college and were just a couple of bicycle mechanics in Dayton, Ohio....

“Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” That is the headline on a New York Times story about the country’s largest retailer. The very idea that third parties should be deciding whether a particular business is good for the whole country shows incredible...

A reader wrote recently about his father, who has been a farmer, but is now ready to retire. His father figured on selling his land to get some money for his golden retirement years. But he found that he cannot get anywhere near the land’s market value because...

It was gratifying news when fans around the country volunteered to donate their kidneys to basketball star Alonzo Mourning, who would otherwise have to cut short his career because of life-threatening medical problems with his own kidneys. However, the head of the New...

Many people are incensed that other countries pay less for American medications than Americans pay because that is “unfair.” Of course it is unfair — and all of us like fairness. But there are many other things we also like, and often in life one...

Random thoughts on the passing scene: Impractical men especially need to get married. The problem is that practical women may have better sense than to marry them. I hate old has-been hotels, stuffy over their former glory and usually inefficient. A careful definition...

Many years ago, someone did a study of the IQs of municipal transit drivers and their accident rates. Those with below-average IQs had higher rates of accidents, as you might expect. What was unexpected was the discovery that drivers with IQs above a certain level...

Reader responses to the discussion of government-controlled medical care in this column raised questions that need answering. The most frequently raised question was why American pharmaceutical drugs sell for less in other countries. Some readers considered this proof...

One of the reasons given by California’s liberal Senator Dianne Feinstein for opposing the confirmation of state Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the federal judiciary is that Justice Brown has refused to put property rights on a lower plane than...

Give credit where credit is due. The political left is great with words. Conservatives have never been able to come up with such seductive phrases as the left mass produces. While conservatives may talk about a need for “judicial restraint,” liberals cry...

In this age of specialization, experts are said to know more and more about less and less. There are undoubtedly specialists who can tell you more than you ever wanted to know about toenails or toads. However, the grand study of sweeping events has not died out...

Many Americans are concerned because millions of illegal immigrants enter this country and little seems to be done to stop them. But California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, is upset because now something is being...

You want to know what liberal bias and media spin are? Try a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle of October 25th: “California School Rankings Improve.” According to education officials quoted in the story, an “unprecedented rise” in test...

A racist cartoon, linking Janice Rogers Brown with Justice Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, was on display at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings on Justice Brown’s nomination to the federal Court of Appeals in...

Senator Charles Schumer went on television on October 22nd to announce that he was prepared to urge his fellow Democrats to filibuster, in order to prevent a Senate vote on the nomination of California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to become a federal...

“The preservation of a viable constitutional government is not a task for wimps.” So said California’s state Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown. If there is any doubt about that, those doubts are sure to be erased during Justice Brown’s...

The nomination of Justice Janice Rogers Brown of the California Supreme Court to become a federal Court of Appeals judge has brought out vicious special interest groups with their long knives — and a long record of smears and character-assassination, going back...

During a recent visit to Washington, I was told by a high official there that he had posed this question to Democrats: “Why are you so opposed to vouchers?” The reply: “We aren’t going to give you guys a victory.” If you stop and think...

Name some of the things that make us so much better off than Americans of just a couple of generations ago. One of the most important things are new medicines that not only prolong life but leave us vigorous at ages when old folks used to sit around in rocking chairs....