In my latest Loonie Politics column I say Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg’s Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinse Communist Party is Reshaping the World is a badly needed wakeup call, especially in Canada.
“[I]t is the mark of an educated man to look for precision to each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs.”
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics quoted in Walter H. Beale A Pragmatic Theory of Rhetoric
“the immortal phrase ‘a comprehensive background of ignorance,’ a condition I suppose I exemplified at the time.”
This quotation comes from somebody named Zimmerman and the quoted phrase is from George Edison, his tutor at Trinity College, University of Toronto; alas my note to myself on its origin is otherwise incomplete.
If you’re concerned about good government and Western alienation, please consider joining us in Calgary this Friday and Saturday for the Economic Education Association of Alberta’s 2020 Freedom Conference “Firewall Plus: Alberta’s Options To Get A Fair Deal.”
We know a lot of people aren’t in Alberta or are concerned about traveling and gathering because of COVID-19. If you’re in either category, stay tuned for a virtual registration option. We hope to see you there, in person or on screen.
“The measurement of outcomes in higher education is still in the dark ages. There’s still a very strong sense that universities are ultimately measured by the quality of their professoriate and their scholarly output, with relatively less attention paid to the quality of the student experience and the calibre of the learning that goes on. We profile creative and illustrious alumni, and we rub the latest prestigious report or ranking in our hair, but I worry that the actual serious measure of what we’re about is still in its early stages.”
University of Toronto president David Nayor in a Q&A with Kate Fillion in Maclean’s November 13, 2006
In my latest National Post column I lament Forbes’ characteristic attempt to stuff Michael Shellenberger’s brave apology for excessive climate alarmism down the memory hole