“There is more than one kind of intelligence, and I am a fool if I dismiss the kinds I don’t have as unintelligent.”
J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” May 8, 2023 [https://www.undergroundthomist.org/things-i-had-to-learn]
“There never was a bad man that had ability for good service.”
Edmund Burke, quoted in Federalist Patriot No. 04-28 12 July 2004 from Federalist.com
“One man, John Hampton, refused to pay [the “ship money”], and his case went to court. The question was how far the king’s ‘discretionary power to act for the common good’ extended. The lawyer for Mr. Hampton argued that ‘If the king alone was the judge of whether an emergency existed, and also the sole judge of the scope of his prerogative in that situation, then no English subject had any rights.’ But the king said, in effect, ‘I get to say if there’s an emergency, I get to say what is necessary to address the emergency, and I get to keep secret how I act and spend during the emergency. And no one gets to challenge or question my prerogative.’ Sir Edward Crawley, the king’s lawyer, argued that ‘necessity, as assessed by the king, was always superior to the law of the land.’ How did the court respond? Lord Justice Berkley, writing for a majority of the court, said that if Mr. Hampton’s arguments were accepted, the result would be a ‘king-yoking policy.’ He then declared he ‘never heard that lex was rex but rather the reverse, for the king was lex loquens, a living, speaking, acting law.’ As legal historian Ryan Alford notes, following the Court’s logic in this case, ‘Parliament could never bind the king, since he could operate above the statutes whenever he declared an emergency, even in peacetime. On this logic, [the king] was not even bound by Magna Carta.’ Parliament was furious.”
André Schutten and Michael Wagner, A Christian Citizenship Guide 2nd edition
In my latest Epoch Times column I say chronic overuse of pharmaceuticals, including on kids, proves that our modern materialistic approach to human fulfilment has failed not that it has succeeded.
“the ardent haste of the Midnight People, who drink and dance and rattle and are ever afraid to be silent...”
Sinclair Lewis Babbitt
“Think! Thought is man’s prerogative.”
Nayland Smith to narrator Shan Greville, about to do something rash, in Sax Rohmer The Mask of Fu Manchu
“Sins are not ‘mistakes.’ Mistakes are things we didn’t mean to do.”
J. Budziszewski “The Underground Thomist” May 8, 2023 [https://www.undergroundthomist.org/things-i-had-to-learn]
“’Earl looks like he’s deep in thought. Is that right? Are you deep in thought, dear?’ ‘Huh? Oh, I was just thinking about those little red things in fruitcakes and wondering what the heck they’re made of.’ ‘No, apparently he’s shallow in thought, as usual.’”
Opal (mostly to a friend) and Earl in “Pickles” cartoon in Ottawa Citizen December 18, 2004