In my latest National Post column I say controversies over things like high school dress codes show that we modern sophisticates can't even figure out why we're wandering about half-dressed.

"The king [Hrolf, to Bodvar] said, 'I knew when you came here that few would be your equal, but it seems to me that your finest achievement is that you have made Hott into another champion. He was previously thought to be a man in whom there was little probability of much luck.'"

The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki

Cardus' Faith in Canada 150 venture includes The Ross and Davis Mitchell Prize for Faith and Writing. There's a total of $25,000 in prize money, with $10,000 for first place in both the poetry and short story categories. So if it sounds like you, submit your entry or entries by June 30. (The rules and so forth are on this page and the link to submit is at the bottom.)

"Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or baboons; in an animal claiming to belong to the same species as Shakespeare it is simply disgraceful."

Aldous Huxley, quoted as "Thought du jour" in "Social Studies" in Globe and Mail July 8, 2004

"I have always felt myself to be a stranger here on earth, aware that our home is elsewhere."

Malcolm Muggeridge in 1988, quoted in Joseph Pearce Literary Converts

A putt "scurrying across the green like a rat on fire."

An announcer on TBS August 15 1992

In my latest National Post column I ask how Canadians are meant to understand their system of government when party leaders like Elizabeth May clearly don't.

"the one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God’s paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle – and not lose it."

G.K. Chesterton "Time’s Abstract and Brief Chronicle" according to Dale Ahlquist. It was paraphrased by Kara Kelley in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 8 #5 (March-April 2005) as "The most romantic thing in the world is to fight a losing battle, and not lose." Which is almost the only case I know of where somebody rephrased Chesterton and may have improved him.