“It is needless to say that the journalists do not always tell the truth about the politicians. What surprises me is that so very often, it would seem, they do not even know the truth about them.”
G. K. Chesterton in New Witness Jan. 28, 1920 quoted in “Chesterton For Today” in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 25 #2 (November-December 2021)
“There is a straight road which runs from Runnymede to Philadelphia. We did not ‘borrow’ provisions from the British Constitution, which had come from the people; those provisions were ours, paid for with the lives of our ancestors on many a battlefield. I have examined the matter. I tell you our Constitution came up from the body of a self-governing people. But we can lose our capacity to govern by its nonexercise.”
Congressman Hatton Sumners of Texas in 1937, quoted in Daniel Hannan, Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World
In my latest Epoch Times column I ponder uneasily what George Washington, or indeed Sir John A. Macdonald or the Duke of Wellington, would make of modern politics.
“Aron Ralson, 27, of Aspen…. climbing Saturday in Blue John Canyon… in far southwestern Utah… a 500-kilogram boulder fell on him, pinning his right arm, authorities said. He ran out of water on Tuesday and yesterday morning... Using his pocketknife, he amputated his arm below the elbow and applied a tourniquet and administered first aid. He then rigged anchors, fixed a rope and rappelled to the canyon floor. He hiked downstream and was spotted at about 3 p.m. by a searchers in a Utah Public Safety helicopter.”
Ottawa Citizen May 2, 2003
“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
Oscar Wilde, quoted as standalone “WORDS OF WISDOM” in email teaser from Epoch Times January 1, 2023.
“‘It’s corn!,’ ‘Dark Brandon’ and ‘girl explaining’: A look at the most notable memes of 2022”
Subject line/hed on email teaser from “NBC News Stop Stories” 23/12/22 [and noteworthy to me because I totally missed all three and wasn’t sorry]
“Why no singer has replaced Lady Gaga... early Gaga blew out the circuits of what pop once was. No superstar singer since her has been as thrillingly, commandingly meaningless.”
Email teaser from The Atlantic December 18, 2022
In my latest Epoch Times column I say we should get back to the values that made Canada great starting by celebrating them with gratitude on July 1.