“the humor of unleavened dough, the charm of a bag of cement, and the tact of a Mack Sennett rubber mallet.”
Frank Capra The Name Above the Title [the specific reference is to a Colonel in the Signal Corps that Capra was at one point obliged to deal with]
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say the reason public officials pivot ataxically from one certainty to another on SARS-CoV-2 (yes, that’s the virus) is that the public won’t accept that the government doesn’t have all the answers.
In my latest National Post column I say David Suzuki’s thinly veiled threat of violence if he and his sanctimonious ilk don’t get their way, in defiance of lawful authority and popular consent, reflects a persistent mentality on the left.
In my latest Epoch Times column I say a new Cardus/Angus Reid survey showing Canadian youth “leaders” want to tear civilization down and start again suggests that they are right to feel that they have been cheated though very wrong about how.
“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.”
William S. Burroughs (quoted for instance at https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/14116-a-paranoid-is-someone-who-knows-a-little-of-what-s)
“‘Look there, a garden!’ said my college friend,/ The Tory member’s elder son, ‘and there!/ God bless the narrow sea which keeps her off,/ And keeps our Britain, whole within herself,/ A nation yet, the rulers and the ruled--/ Some sense of duty, something of a faith,/ Some reverence for the laws ourselves have made,/ Some patient force to change them when we will,/ Some civic manhood firm against the crowd--/ But yonder, whiff! there comes a sudden heat,/ The gravest citizen seems to lose his head,/ The king is scared, the soldier will not fight,/ The little boys begin to shoot and stab,/ A kingdom topples over with a shriek/ Like an old woman, and down rolls the world/ In mock heroics stranger than our own;/ Revolts, republics, revolutions, most/ No graver than a schoolboys’ barring out;/ Too comic for the serious things they are,/ Too solemn for the comic touches in them,/ Like our wild Princess with as wise a dream/ As some of theirs--God bless the narrow seas!/ I wish they were a whole Atlantic broad.’”
Alfred Lord Tennyson “The Princess: Conclusion” in Alfred Tennyson: The Major Works
“I think you’re the opposite of a paranoid. I think you go around with the insane delusion that people like you.”
Woody Allen, quoted as “Thought du jour” in Globe & Mail June 2, 2003 [and yes, we’re all feeling squeamish about Allen now but it’s still a good line].
On “Counterpoint” with Tanya Granic Allen I discussed how to inspire future generations with the story of liberty.