“It must be remembered that, though concord is in itself better than discord, discord may indicate a better state of things than is indicated by concord. Calamity and peril often force men to combine. Prosperity and security often encourage them to separate.”
Thomas Babington Macaulay The History of England
In my latest Epoch Times column I parse modern efforts to hide what we celebrate on Dec. 25 behind “Season” and “Winter” greetings, lights and other obvious clues.
“Sir, Friends of the vanishing apostrophe should start with Westminster City Council, whose vans carry the message: ‘Were working for a cleaner City.’ Yours faithfully, PAMELA HUTCHINSON, 6 Cleveland Gardens, W2, March 12.”
Letter in the Times March 14, 1984 [sent to me by my father, a connoisseur of all things rhetorical including sloppy usage and its foes]
“‘Most people have never really been listened to. They live in a lonely silence – no one knowing what they feel, how they live or what they have done…. There are no words to adequately describe what it is like to be free with another person. It is most often a sensing that someone will let us be all of what we are at that moment. We can talk about whatever we wish, express in any way whatever feelings are in our hearts. We can take as much time as we need. We can sit, stand, pace, yell, cry, pound the floor, dance or weep for joy. Whatever and however we are at the moment is accepted and respected…’”
Dr. Carl Faber’s book On Listening, quoted in Valerie Geller Creating Powerful Radio
In my latest Mercatornet column I say the U.S. midterms show once again the fatuity of seeking salvation through elections.
In my latest Loonie Politics column I insist that the mainstream media didn’t do Canadians or themselves any favours during the truckers’ convoy crisis by failing to alert us that no adults were in charge of the government response.
In my latest Loonie Politics column I say it would actually be desirable for the CBC to drop its threadbare pretense at neutrality, provided it also gives up its subsidy and sees whether there’s a significant audience that actually wants full-bore wokeness.
“Job explosion stuns analysts/ The economy’s job-generating power – more than 100,000 new jobs last month – has stunned analysts, and even though they agree it can’t last, they cheered the unexpected surge in employment.”
Headline and first sentence in news story in Ottawa Citizen Dec. 5, 1998