“You should never try to teach a pig to sing: it can’t be done, and it annoys the pig.”
Letter from Matthew Horan of Fort Smith, Arkansas in National Review Dec. 30, 1991, quoting the opinion of H. Franklin Waters, Chief Judge of the Western District of Arkansas in Robertson v White, 633 F. Supp. 954, 959 (W.D. Ark 1986). [How’s that for a detailed, even pedantic reference?]
On The News Forum with Tanya Granic Allen I discussed why we remember on November 11 and what we should remember. (You can also watch it on Facebook here.)
“human beings, that is... psychotic apes who want to kill so much that they could not even understand an unconditional prohibition against killing, much less obey it.”
Northrop Frye The Great Code
“I argue for a sober view of man and his institutions that would permit reasonable things to be accomplished, foolish things abandoned, and utopian things forgotten. A sober view of man requires a modest definition of progress.”
James Q. Wilson Thinking About Crime
“The criminologist and sociologists are right, then, when they tell us that man is a ‘cooperating animal.’ But what they rarely realize is that cooperation only works if someone is willing to punish infractions. It must be done as a purely neutral phenomenon, with the punishment fitting the crime, not the criminal. Ideally, every individual should carry with him the remorseless sense that somewhere someone cares whether they break the law.”
William Tucker Vigilante: The Backlash Against Crime in America
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say one major reason the US Presidential race is closer than you might expect is that most of the unrest over race and police misconduct is in cities controlled by the Democrats, in states controlled by the Democrats, suggesting their approach to social harmony is not working.
In my latest National Post column I say people who want a government strategy for every problem lack faith in the creativity and decency of human beings especially including Canadians.
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say those who sweep aside the rule of law through vandalism, personal violence and other forms of “direct action”, regardless of their cause and its legitimacy, have succumbed to the deadly sin of pride.