On Forum Daily News with Hal Roberts I talk about how not to react to Alberta’s separatist movement.
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”
Lincoln's First Inaugural, quoted in Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals
“Leisure is not in any way identical with liberty. My dog has any amount of leisure. In fact, he has nothing else. But for all that he has no liberty.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News July 14, 1923, in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 4 #1 (September 2000)
“Apparently, I must give you a lecture. I grimaced neither at your impudence nor at your sentiment, but at your diction and style. I condemn clichés, especially those that have been corrupted by fascists and communists. Such phrases as ‘great and noble cause’ and ‘fruits of their labour’ have been given an ineradicable stink by Hitler and Stalin and all their vermin brood. Besides, in this century of the overwhelming triumph of science, the appeal of the cause of human freedom is no longer that it is great and noble; it is more or less than that; it is essential. It is no greater or nobler than the cause of edible food or the cause of effective shelter. Man must have freedom or he will cease to exist as man. The despot, whether fascist or communist, is no longer restricted to such puny tools as the heel or the sword or even the machine gun; science has provided him weapons that can give him the planet; and only men who are willing to die for freedom have any chance of living for it.’”
Nero Wolfe to his adopted daughter for being reckless and romantic not practical in fighting for liberty in Rex Stout The Black Mountain
“Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.”
“Doug Larson (English middle-distance runner who won gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games)”, emailed without further attribution by a friend
“When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.”
Charles Evans Hughes, as header quotation on Frontier Centre Weekly E-newsletter Update June 18, 2025 [https://mailchi.mp/fcpp/foreign-affairs-economy-education-military-leaders-on-the-frontier].
“The system is broken, and once these judges get into their position, they have this sense of entitlement.... Last time I checked, there hasn’t been any judges elected. Maybe that’s the problem. We should do what the U.S. does. Let’s start electing our judges, holding them accountable.”
Doug Ford in a rare moment of lucidity, quoted in National Post April 30, 2025
“In Britain, such openings [Throne Speeches] are preceded by a ceremonial inspection of Westminster Palace for explosives, a relic of the foiled 1605 Gunpowder Plot. A ceremonial hostage is taken by Buckingham Palace to ensure the safe return of the King. Perhaps most notably, before delivering the British speech from the throne, King Charles III is required to wait in a room that is specially decorated to warn him of the potentially fatal consequences of subverting Parliament. The official Robing Room in which the King dons his state crown before delivering the speech features a conspicuously framed copy of the death warrant of King Charles I. In the words of the BBC, ‘if ever there were a symbol to express the end of the divine right of kings and the limits of a constitutional monarchy, that document is it.’”
Tristin Hopper in National Post May 28, 2025 [and in my files under the heading “Say, Chuck, about your head…”