In my latest National Post column I say the strong showing of the allegedly "far right" Alternative für Deutschland in the German election means you must either call one in eight German voters a neo-Nazi or concede that many normal people are deeply dissatisfied with politics as usual nowadays.
“I can assure you that no person would be better for the job.”
Ralph C. Maddocks (this from my "he's an extraordinary man" file of hidden insults - the original is Inspector Dreyfus re Clouseau in A Shot In The Dark)
In my latest National Post column I argue that the quantity of antidepressants we now take, with shockingly little understanding of their direct or indirect effects, is not cause for complacency about progress.
"But, when infection is about, an open mind is about as safe as an open sewer."
Nicholas Murray in The Sunday Times April 7, 2002 (specifically re Aldous Huxley succumbing to so many cranky notions before and after moving to California)
In my latest National Post column I take on the concept that a new phone, or new anything, can revolutionize our lives every few years.
"A common error, however, is to regard the civilizing process and the humanizing process as synonymous. A correlation between the two has yet to be demonstrated. (The first glance was enough to let you see the flabby devil was running that show.)"
Mark Slade in Mosaic magazine (re Conrad’s Heart of Darkness), quoted in Marshall McLuhan “Man and Media” in McLuhan Understanding Me 295.
"Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened."
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his 1983 Templeton Address re the disastrous history of Russia in the 20th century, quoted in Philip Yancey Soul Survivor
In my latest National Post column I say the debate on niqabs ultimately hinges on what human beings are, that they should have rights... or not.