“Men have no right to complain that they are naturally feeble and short-lived, or that it is chance and not merit that decides their destiny. On the contrary, reflection will show that nothing exceeds or surpasses the powers with which nature has endowed mankind, and that it is rather energy they lack than strength or length of days.”
Sallust, The Jugurthine War
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say the ongoing Canadian faith in government despite its incompetence on everything from navy caps to inflation brings its own punishment.
In my latest Epoch Times column I denounce the enduring capacity of politicians to be surprised by predictable developments and then unable to cope with them.
“As to fighting, keep out of it if you can, by all means. When the time comes, if it ever should, that you have to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to a challenge to fight, say ‘No’ if you can – only take care you make it clear to yourselves why you say ‘No.’ It’s a proof of the highest courage, if done from true Christian motives. It’s quite right and justifiable, if done from a simple aversion to physical pain and danger. But don’t say ‘No’ because you fear a licking, and say or think it’s because you fear God, for that’s neither Christian nor honest. And if you do fight, fight it out; and don’t give in while you can stand and see.”
Thomas Hughes Tom Brown’s Schooldays
In my latest National Post column I explain how anyone who actually wants to have a sensible conversation on guns not a shouting match, or a virtue-signalling festival, could go about it.
In my latest National Post column I say that whether American President Joe Biden broke the taboo on saying explicitly that the U.S. would defend Taiwan as a calculated geopolitical measure, or because he’s losing it, it makes the world a safer place that he blurted it out.
In my latest Epoch Times column I explain why I didn’t berate a guy over Ukraine just because he had a Russian accent.
“He was not only a bore, he bored for England.”
Malcolm Muggeridge, quoted by Ian Hunter in National Post August 11, 2003 (it was during the Suez Crisis and, Hunter adds, “This article pretty much finished Eden’s political career. Earlier, he had similarly dispatched U.S. Foreign Secretary John Foster Dulles: ‘Dull. Duller. Dulles.’”)