In my latest Epoch Times column I say the Caisse de dépôt plunging into the urban light rail quagmire in a desperate hunt for profits is an ominous sign of the real state of Canadian public pensions.
In my latest National Post column I say what should be solid in Canadian government, like our Charter rights, is generally blown away while what is vapid, like the Liberal-NDP deal, lands with a thud.
“Of all political ideals, that of making people happy is perhaps the most dangerous one. It leads invariably to the attempt to impose our scale of ‘higher’ values upon others, in order to make them realize what seems to us of greatest importance for their happiness; in order, as it were, to save their souls.”
Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, Vol. 2
“Idleness… is the holiday of fools.”
From a fortune cookie I got c. 1993 - the Internet says it’s actually from Philip Dormer Shanhope, Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773). I originally had it without the elision but while that version circulates, I’m credibly informed that the proper full quotation is “Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools.” (Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/299455-idleness-is-only-the-refuge-of-weak-minds-and-the)
“Liberty underlies the entire enterprise; it’s not just one more vector in an indifference curve.”
Walter Block in Michael A. Walker, ed. Freedom Democracy and Economic Welfare: Proceedings of an International Symposium
“Variety is the spice of life – but monotony buys the groceries.”
D.P. Diffiné, “The 1993 American Incentive System Almanac”
In my latest National Post column I say it’s important to stand up for ourselves and our values over Ukraine without blundering, or sauntering, into a nuclear war… and if you think it’s hard, congratulations, you’re a grownup who realizes reality is tricky.
“Time is money? Got it ‘A U.S. inventor has created an alarm clock that shreds your money if you fail to get up to turn it off,’ says Orange Co. U.K. ‘Rich Olson combined a Sparkfun Clockit and a USB paper shredder to create the bizarre machine. He programmed the device to tear up a $1 bill if the user doesn’t turn it off within a few seconds.’”
“Social Studies” in Globe & Mail June 19, 2013