Books, Arts & Manners: Scourge of Deep Thinkers

Compassion versus Guilt and Other Essays, by Thomas Sowell (Morrow, 246 pp., $15.95)

Compassion versus Guilt is a collection of Thomas Sowell’s syndicated columns. He’s a grouch. That’s the first thing to be said about him. His lip curls at the mention of “compassion.” He sneers relentlessly at “deep thinkers.” He complains that “bums” have been sanctified as “the homeless.”