In my latest Looniepolitics column I ask how we could so quickly have discarded the hard-won lessons of the 1990s about the dangers of government debt and deficits.

"Know Thyself"

The inscription on the temple at Delphi "ascribed to Apollo himself" according to Juvenal

“Feats were done, doubt it not, far-famed in Parish History; but to Universal History unknown.”

Thomas Carlyle The French Revolution

"You know, there is one thing you can trust everybody to do. You can trust everybody to put his interest above yours."

Armen Alchain, quoted by Milton Friedman

In my latest National Post column I say justified dismay at school shootings shouldn't prevent us from thinking clearly about what will or won't help stop them.

“He that is not handsome at 20, nor strong at 30, nor rich at 40, nor wise at 50, will never be handsome, strong, rich or wise."

George Herbert "three centuries ago" quoted by Terry O’Neill in British Columbia Report May 18, 1998

"an open mind, to be sure, should be open at both ends, like the foodpipe, and have a capacity for excretion as well as intake."

Northrop Frye The Great Code