“For Fools Admire, but Men of Sense Approve”
Alexander Pope “An Essay on Criticism” in Essay on Man and Other Poems
In my latest Loonie Politics column I welcome the crowded field of contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, because somewhere in the field they might be able to find a candidate whose policies are not berserk and who actually seems to like America.
In my latest National Post column I ask, regarding the Liberals’ SNC-Lavalin mess, how so many people go into politics with such good intentions and high ideals and so quickly become typical mindless partisan swamp-dwellers.
Today I’m really excited to announce the launch of a new project, the Climate Discussion Nexus, to promote a polite, intelligent discussion of climate policy and the science behind it. We’re producing a weekly newsletter, videos, a blog and other media, and offering a forum for debate, analysis and data.
I’m the Executive Director and you can find more information at the CDN website, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube, get our weekly newsletter (on climatediscussionnexus.com, lower right corner), share the initiative with your friends, colleagues and family, and consider donating to support this venture going forward.
At the Climate Discussion Nexus there are no sacred cows and no taboos except rudeness and ignorance.
Nobody’s happy with the current state of our national conversation on climate change. It’s time to open up the discussion for real.
So please join us and help spread the word.
“You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.”
Eric Hoffer, quoted on “Preacher’s Illustrative Nuggets” (www.hound-dog-media.com/2014/01/gamblers-fools-and-egotists-59-still_31.html)
“The idea that church and state should never mix has always been popular among those who think churches should not exist…. To a faithful Christian mind, or Jewish, or Muslim, or Hindu, or Sikh … the issue can’t be as simple as that. The elector votes with his whole heart…. Moreover, the state does not exist in a moral and spiritual vacuum… Government and electorate are alike bound, even when they deny it, to standards deeper and older than themselves…. even in our present rather sunken condition of public life, the vast majority of people are prepared to distinguish right from wrong under earnest cross-examination. And so powerful is the hold of nature, and nature's law upon them, that they will more or less agree on the moral inadvisability of murder, extortion, theft, perversion, fraud, perjury and so forth. This hardly means they are free of temptation to crime themselves, in their private lives. Nor am I denying the existence of a growing vanguard who in the absence of real social pressure are prepared to argue that fair is foul and foul is fair.”
David Warren in Ottawa Citizen Nov. 20, 2005