AND NOW FOR SOME GOOD QUOTES - AT 8:13 P.M. ET:  We published a bad, bizarre quote from the academic world at 6:12 p.m., but do not fear.  Academics can say some very wise things.  Consider Tom Sowell, one of our favorite academics and columnists.  Reader Jacqueline Reckseit sends us some recent quotes from Sowell, which show the man's intelligence and common sense:

In response to news of President Obama receiving the Nobel Prize for peace, an e-mail from a reader recalled a black classmate's comments upon graduating from high school many years ago. When asked to list the advantages and disadvantages of being black, the black student facetiously listed as an advantage "being praised for infinitesimal accomplishments."

President George W. Bush called this the "soft bigotry of low expectations."  It is insulting and ultimately racist to hold blacks to a lower intellectual standard than whites. 

No one likes to admit having been played for a fool. So it will probably take a mushroom cloud over some American city before some Obama supporters wake up. Even so, the true believers among the survivors will probably say that this was all George Bush's fault.

No doubt.  Blame Bush.  And the centrifuges in Iran, under the control of a crazed government, continue to spin.

There has probably never before been as drastic a decline in the quality of vice presidents as there has been when Dick Cheney was replaced by Joe Biden.

Amen, amen.

People who are urging us to do things to win the approval of other countries seem to put such an excessive value on other countries' approval, as distinguished from their respect, that we can lose by such bowing to "world opinion." Do the world champion New York Yankees try to curry favor with teams that are also-rans?

Tom Sowell.  Savor.

December 8, 2009