Thomas Sowell, Chris Muir, firing range humor

Friday's Day-by-Day cartoon -



- reminded me of some anecdotes from Thomas Sowell in Dr. Sowell's autobiography, "A Personal Odyssey." See Chapter 4 (particularly pages 102-104) for Sowell's personal stories from the firing range of the U.S. Marines during the Korean War. He includes stories of civilian employees and women handling military weapons. [Although the stories, being true, aren't quite as interesting as Muir's imaginative cartoons.]



I also enjoyed an interview with Dr. Sowell reported in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. The interview discussed education, Dr. Sowell's experiences with writing over the years and his objectives for new projects. Sowell's (approximately) 30th (and latest) book was recently published by Yale University:



I haven't read the book, but the interview provides fresh insight:

Free-market economics, a legacy of the classical school, is thought of as an old conservative doctrine. But Mr. Sowell explains that it was in fact one of the most revolutionary concepts to emerge in the history of ideas. Moreover, "the thinking of the classical economist was not only a radical break from landmark intellectual figures like Plato and Machiavelli but also from mainstream thinking to this day." The notion of a self-equilibrating system--the market economy--meant a reduced role for intellectuals and politicians, he says. "And even today many still haven't accepted that their superior wisdom might be superfluous, if not damaging."