"What beats me is how any body of men can delude themselves into thinking that they can abolish war as an instrument for settling international disputes. No sane person wants wars; that is a recognized fact, but we have them just the same. No one wants jails, hospitals, insane asylums, murders, robberies, etc.; but we have them just the same. Why? Well, in my opinion it can be given in just two words – human nature, a condition which is the same today as it was when Noah built the Ark, as it was when Julius Caesar enlarged the Roman Empire, and as it was when the Princess Pats marched down Bank street, many years ago, on their way overseas."

Letter from a G.H. Giles of Ottawa in Ottawa Citizen Sept. 4, 1931, reprinted in Ottawa Citizen Oct. 19, 1999

"Greed is usually just the other guy’s self-interest. Or else it is the desire to keep more of your own money instead of turning it over to liberal politicians."

Charles C. Heath, The Blessings of Liberty

In my latest Mercatornet piece I argue that Australians, too, owe their firmly grounded self-government to the long and often violent struggle for liberty throughout the English-speaking world. (On which see also, of course, my documentaries on Magna Carta and the Right to Arms.)

An excellent Mercatornet piece by Margaret Harper McCarthy on how religious freedom must mean far more than the right to indulge certain opinions in private, reprinted from Humanum Review.

In my latest National Post column I say the proliferation of political "fake news" is party due to a proliferation of fake news everywhere. 

In my latest National Post column I say the Canadian Prime Minister's inability to see the People's Republic of China clearly is not harmless naiveté.

"the real difference between man and other animals is that humans alone have perception of good and evil, just and unjust, etc. It is the sharing of a common view in these matters that makes a household and a state."

Aristotle, The Politics p. 60

If you're in Ottawa on Tuesday Nov. 21, I'll be speaking at a "Tories on Tap" event on taxation that evening. It's organized by the Ottawa Centre Conservatives and you can register here though as always I'm not appearing in a partisan capacity.

For the record, I'm a Whig. But I'll speak to anyone looking for good ideas in public policy.