Friday's news and links

First day of school went well. The fifth grader came home and declared he had the best teacher. We'll see how he feels once homework starts.

Last week Andrew Young had to resign his position as an advocate for Walmart after making some stupid racist comments. Many have condemned Young's comments. Thomas Sowell goes a step further and examines how Young's remarks reveal an ignorance of basic economics which is all too common.

For decades, one of the biggest blind spots of most civil rights "leaders" and "spokesmen" for the black community has been their utter lack of knowledge of economics.

As a purely factual matter, prices do tend to be higher -- and the quality of service and products lower -- in stores in low-income neighborhoods. But the knee-jerk assumption that this represents "exploitation" or "racism" ignores the economics of the situation. Many of the ghetto stores charging high prices are struggling to survive, while supermarkets in other neighborhoods are very profitable charging lower prices. There are many reasons for this.

Read the rest, Sowell explains things clearly enough even Young should be able to understand.

Larry Elder has an important question for you: Do we really want democrats in charge? Make up your own mind, but I'd say no for many reasons.

Sometimes the headline doesn't match reality. Here is an example: Schmidt runs into trouble. When you read the article it turns out some write-in candidate is accusing Rep. Schmidt of not running in a marathon back in 1993 that her website says she ran. I understand that we want politicians to be truthful, but there is no doubt that Schmidt is a big runner and in great shape. Now, if I were running for dog catcher and claimed to have run a marathon I could understand someone double checking whether I did or didn't (I haven't). Noy might do better by explaining to voters why they should vote for him rather than filing complaints about whether his opponent ran a race 13 years ago.

President Bush is in Maine this weekend to attend a family wedding. At the end of the article there is a short blurb which irritated me.

Antiwar groups affiliated with Sheehan plan to rally as close as they can get to the wedding at St. Ann's Episcopal Church, near Walker's Point. "Join with people of conscience to call for an end to the war in Iraq and say NO! to the Bush Agenda," reads an online recruitment pitch for the demonstration.

This is almost as bad as that idiot who travels to protest military funerals. Regardless of political differences some people have with their cousin, these people should be able to exchange their vows without disruption.

High school football gets started in Ohio tonight. I'll be watching the Clyde Fliers this season where Coach Marc Gibson (my wife's nephew!!!) set the bar awfully high last year in his first season by taking the team deep into the playoffs. It won't be easy to repeat.

He'll have to replace four All-Ohio players, including Division III defensive player of the year Matt Guhn, gone on to wrestle at the University of Michigan. Gone too are First Team All-Ohio linebacker Eric Schwartz and All-Ohio Honorable Mention linebacker Robbie Michaels and lineman Seth Roach.

The Fliers also placed 12 offensive or defensive players on the All-SBC teams and all but one of them graduated. The only returnee to this year's team is Thomas Schwartz who was Second Team All-SBC.

Yet the Fliers were still picked by coaches and writers to win the conference this year.