“The common theme of the essays that make up this book is that the proper design of public policies requires a clear and sober understanding of the nature of man and, in particular, of the extent to which that nature can be changed by plan.”
1st sentence of author’s Introduction to James Q. Wilson Thinking About Crime Revised Edition
In my latest Loonie Politics column, I explain why whoever wins the American election it will be so bad that both parties should be ashamed.
In my latest Epoch Times column I say puzzling polls suggesting the federal Liberals would win a snap election easily, despite a record as disappointing to friends as infuriating to foes, indicate that there’s something wrong with the Opposition and just possibly the electorate as well.
“For parents who would take a scorched-earth approach to religion...”
Janet Scott Barlow in Chronicles magazine September 1991
In my latest Epoch Times column I ask Erin O’Toole to consider just how far Canada has moved left politically and indeed culturally and intellectually in recent years, and whether he thinks this massive swing is good, bad or mixed, before deciding what he’d like to do about it.
“If all decorum, discipline, and subordination are to be destroyed, and universal Pyrrhonism, anarchy, and insecurity of property are to be introduced, nations will soon wish their books in ashes, seek for darkness and ignorance, superstition and fanaticism, as blessings, and follow the standard of the first mad despot, who, with the enthusiasm of another Mahomet, will endeavor to obtain them.”
John Adams, quoted in Russell Kirk The Conservative Mind
In my latest National Post column I express the desire that Erin O’Toole base policy on principles and explain it in terms of them.