7-30-95. NYPaper: "His Terrible Swift Sword: Thomas Sowell takes the shortest way with left-liberal elites." [Book Review] His stated mission is to attack and destroy the dominant intellectual elites of modern America: those liberal and left-wing intellectuals whose disproportionate control over the American psyche he believes responsible for the drift, stagnation and disquiet of our times. The anointed, as he dubs them with ill-concealed derision, have the right degrees and clubby credentials, but tbeir false sense of noblesse oblige and their inordinate faith in their own intelligence and probity blind them to the cautious, decentralized and incremental logic of markets. In consequence, they unwisely embrace huge government interventions to end a set of social "crises" that never existed. They have expanded civil liability beyond recognition. They have led the civil rights movement away from equal opportunity and individual merit into the bottomless pit of affirmative action and minority set-asides. They have wrecked the criminal justice system and have licensed judges to stray from judicial restraint into the lawless world of judicial activism. NIF_pig "N.R.A. Criticized for Aggressive Tactics: Against the A.T.F." The National Rifle Association has entered an aggressive new phase in its long and contentious relationship with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Opponents of the N.R.A., as well as some of its longtime supporters, say some of the organization's tactics have crossed ethical boundaries and may well have backfired, reinforcing an image of the group as dominated by right-wing zealots. NAW_leg Duet: SIN_not