"Step 1. Get committed…. Step 2. Involve your spouse…. Step 3. Act as if the depression has already begun…. Step 4. Gather knowledge…. Step 5. Master compound interest…. Step 6. Stop shopping…. Step 7. Turn off the television…. Step 8. Connect more closely to family and neighbors…. Step 9. Do not be a victim…. Step 10. Watch the calendar, not the clock…. Step 11. Treasure your health…. Step 12. Don’t boast…. Step 13. Help others…. Step 14. Defend the open society…. Step 15. Tell your children."

Advice on being prepared for the long run and possible hard times, in James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg The Great Reckoning

"Winston Churchill once described the Balkans as a region that produced more history than it could consume."

Carol Off The Ghosts of Medak Pocket

Ask the Professor - Dealing with Bad Regimes - February 21, 2018

John Robson

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"The effect of boredom on a large scale in history is underestimated"

Dean Inge, quoted in Russell Kirk The Conservative Mind

In my latest National Post column I say high-profile cries of racism over the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the tragic Colten Boushie shooting are divisive and mean-spirited.

180214_CommonLawRape_audio

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"'Don’t you swelter all day in the sun?’ Epictetus asked rhetorically [comparing watching the logistically nightmarish ancient Olympic games to life generally]. 'Aren’t you jammed in with the crowds? Isn’t it hard to get a bath? Aren’t you soaked to the bone whenever it rains? Don’t the din and the shouting and the petty annoyances drive you completely mad? But of course you put up with it all because it’s an unforgettable spectacle.'"

Tony Perrottet, author of The Naked Olympics, in Ottawa Citizen July 17, 2004

In my latest National Post column I say the Prime Minister's insistence on the Newspeak term "peoplekind" was neither a joke nor innocent.