Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The Smartest Man in America

No, I am not blogging about Al Gore. In fact, I think Al Gore is the dumbest man in America, or in the running for it when you exclude the homeless, drug users, and poor black people.

The smartest man in America right now is Thomas Sowell. This isn't because he has a better IQ than everyone else (I doubt it, but it's definitely above average), nor is it because he is a very successful black man (although growing up in the Jim Crow era could have had to make him smarter by virtue of the human need to adapt and survive). No, I think he is the smartest man because while he is probably levels above me in terms of wisdom (and remember, wisdom does not equal knowledge), he is able to communicate his thoughts in a coherent manner.

I read through Basic Economics and it was an eye opener. Not only was he able to communicate something that most people find difficult to understand, he made it interesting. He defined economics (the study of the use of scarce resources that have alternative uses) and he gave me a basic understanding of the laws of economics.

Thomas Sowell also regularly writes columns at Townhall.com (he claims to read more than he writes, which is probably significant). Today, he's produced a list of random thoughts, something he does frequently, but not on a regular basis. I have to say, his second thought was hard hitting for me:

"Some people actually think that televising Congress gives us information. What it really does is give politicians millions of dollars worth of free advertising, while they play charades on camera to fool the rest of us."

I could not agree more with this insightful thought. Congress is nothing more than Hollywood for ugly people, at least with the advent of C-Span. I remember when I was touring the Capitol (I was getting a private tour from a Congressional staffer) and witnessed this charade first hand. We stopped for some reason, I can't remember why, but I noticed that there were several press officials standing there across the hall from me. After about 5 minutes of standing there, a man walked out and the press practically mobbed him. I didn't recognize him, heck, I wasn't sure if he was a House member or Senator, but he was beaming with pride. Well, it was Vanity, which is a form of pride. Apparently, some deal had just been struck or some bill just passed, or something significant to him that he had worked on. The man's smile and look was disgusting. He looked as though he was about to shout out, "Worship and bow before me all who are worthy!!" but he didn't and simply answered questions with a smile on his dumb face.

That left a lasting impression on me. I still couldn't recognize the man if I went through the Congressional record, but the look he had and the way he acted toward the press was what left me. He looked as though he had solved world hunger, but I was pretty sure that he had just made some insignificant deal that helped less than 1% of Americans.

That's the climate that Congress is made up of. It is nothing more than a bunch of old men and ugly old women who think they matter and will use government force to prove it. This is why the founding fathers saw fit to limit the powers of Congress (and the President and the Supreme Court). Because they knew that people like that man would get elected and use government force to make themselves feel better about their pathetic lives.

I've said for some time now that Congress is nothing more than life's failures. They are lawyers, businessmen, and veterans who could never make in the real world. I know this because the true achievers in our society wouldn't run for any public office because they could not accept the pay cut (another idea from Thomas Sowell).

So maybe it's time we made an amendment that created consequences for Congress should they pass unconstitutional laws (like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, PATRIOT Act, etc.). I'll have to contemplate this for a while. Too bad I'm not an attractive female, otherwise I'd probably get more people visiting my blog. Maybe then someone could help.