“Strong people have strong weaknesses.”
“Peter Drucker (1909-2005), management consultant” quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail June 1, 2012
“It bears repeating over and over that, when we talk about freedom, we are not talking about the right to do whatever we want, when we want, where we want, how we want, with whomever we want. And that's not the freedom that the original author of our national anthem, writing in 1880, would have had in mind either. Unfortunately, this is what many in our culture understand freedom to mean. But the ‘I get to do whatever I want’ type of freedom is no freedom at all, but rather slavery to our passions. (John 8:34-36 Rom. 6, 1 Peter 2:16 2 Peter 2:19). It describes radical personal autonomy, which isn't at all what the Bible describes. Look at the 10 commandments, for example. Does God say, ‘I am the LORD your God, who set you free from slavery. Now live as you please! Let every man do as he sees fit!’ Certainly not. If God said that, the nation of Israel would descend into chaos. But neither does God say, ‘I am the LORD your God, who set you free from slavery. Now, live under the crushing weight and drudgery of my law.’ No, God has set us free, and then He gives us the code by which freed people can live together and flourish!”
André Schutten and Michael Wagner, A Christian Citizenship Guide 2nd edition
“if we don’t know where we are sailing, every wind will take us there.”
Fred Iklé in National Review March 7, 1994
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say the secretive bungling of basic security at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg is a case study in complacent bad government in Canada.
“as was said concerning Augustus Cesar, and after of Septimius Severus, ‘that either they should never have been born, or else they should never have died,’ they did so much mischief in the pursuit and ascent of their greatness, and so much good when they were established”
Francis Bacon The Advancement of Learning
On the Richard Syrett show on Sauga 960 AM I discussed my Aristotle Foundation column in the Western Standard on the strange-looking decision to devote an entire issue of the official Canadian Military Journal to a denunciation of our crumbling armed forces as a bastion of patriarchal settler oppression.
In my latest Epoch Times column I argue that the main governmental problem in Canada isn’t who we entrust with power, it’s the amount of power we entrust them with.
“This is what ordered liberty gives us: a game with rules, making it understandable, playable, and enjoyable, but also infinitely complex, filled with endless variation and diversity. But without rules governing the play and interactions on or off the board, it would be meaningless. Likewise, when talking about freedom in a biblical sense, we are talking about the freedom to do as we are called to do. There are rules for our good, to give us the freedom to carry out our responsibilities, the duties of our offices and callings, willingly and faithfully. Lord Acton was correct: ‘Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do as we ought.’ And even more than that, freedom is living the way we were created to live, as image bearers of God.”
André Schutten and Michael Wagner, A Christian Citizenship Guide 2nd edition [following a surprisingly sensible chess analogy].