In 1914 “Germany threatened not only Britain’s military and economic position in the world but the whole moral basis of the Pax Britannia, which, as the British argued, had given the world a century of peace, and respite from general European war not enjoyed since the Rome of the Antonines. The British mission, whether in the wider world, the empire, or at home among her own populace, was principally one of extending the sense of civic virtue, of teaching both the foreigner and the uneducated Britain the rules of civilized social conduct, the rules for ‘playing the game.’ The British mission was to introduce ‘lesser breeds,’ to use Kipling’s words, to ‘the law.’ Civilization and law, then, were virtually synonymous. Civilization was possible only if one played the game according to rules laid down by time, history, precedent, all of which amounted to the law. Civilization was a question of objective values, of external form, of behavior rather than sentiment, of duty rather than whim. ‘It is only civilized beings who can combine,’ wrote J.S. Mill in his essay ‘Civilization.’ ‘All combination is compromise: it is the sacrifice of some portion of individual will for a common purpose. The savage cannot bear to sacrifice, for any purpose, the satisfaction of his individual will.’”

Modris Eksteins Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Era

“Business is taboo at the dinner table, but crime and criminals aren’t, and the Rosenberg case hogged the conversation all through the anchovy fritters, partridge in casserole with no olives in the sauce, cucumber mousse, and Creole curds and cream. Of course it was academic, since the Rosenbergs had been dead for years, but the young princes had been dead for five centuries, and [Nero] Wolfe had once spent a week investigating that case, after which he removed More’s Utopia from his bookshelves because More had framed Richard III.”

Archie Goodwin’s internal monologue in Rex Stout Death of a Doxy; Wolfe had been reading Invitation to an Inquest and had ordered a transcript of the trial.

In my latest Loonie Politics column, and just in time for him to become the butt of endless memes over his absurdly inflated biographical claims, I ask how Mark Carney could be seen as the Liberal party’s saviour then turn out to be so preposterously awful a candidate.

In my latest Loonie Politics column I deplored the fact that the uniform Canadian response to Trump’s tariff threats has been to plunge with bellicose stupidity to his intellectual and policy level and embrace the very protectionism we claim to despise.

In my latest Epoch Times column I say the persistent interest of federal authorities in requiring us to show identity papers on demand reveals that whatever it is that our politicians claim to love out Canada it certainly isn’t our true legacy of liberty.

In my latest Loonie Politics column I complain that provincial conservative first minister Doug Ford is just as contemptuous of the legislature as federal liberal first minister Justin Trudeau… and legislators and we citizens let him get away with it.

In my latest Loonie Politics column I say the Governor General was very wrong to prorogue Parliament on behalf of a First Minister who had clearly lost the confidence of the House of Commons, and that the House should reconvene itself and fire Justin Trudeau.

C.S. “Lewis grew more outspoken in his criticism of the government in his letters to his American benefactors as the Argentine crisis grew and meat became even more scarce. He chaffed against government interference of the most paternalistic style. In the face of severe food for shortages, one government minister insisted that things were much better under government rationing. Whereas families once bought the kinds of foods they liked, under rationing they were forced to eat ‘a properly balanced diet’ by government standards. He commented to [Vera] Matthews that it might do the country good to see a few government ministers ‘dangling from a lamppost in Whitehall’. When the government realized that people were ordering groceries from Ireland, the Customs officials stopped the practice.”

Harry Lee Poe The Completion of C.S. Lewis [showing that there’s nothing like actual experience of living under patronizing big government to turn someone vaguely leftist by cultural disposition into a raging libertarian]