It’s a random war without front lines. All of us are soldiers. At stake is liberal democracy and our way of life. What is it Mel Gibson said in Braveheart? “They can take our land but they cannot take our freedom”. Today it is the other way around, they cannot take our land, but they … More Manchester. United.
802 years ago in a field at Runnymede, near London, England, King John was forced by his barons to place his seal on the first document ever known to curb executive power, Magna Carta, or Great Charter. Given recent events in the country birthed from England but with a more developed governing document, the United … More Magna Carta and the Rule of Law, Part 1
Conflict is a constant. Here is a 20th century exhibit. At the end of the Munich Crisis in 1938, a last ditch effort to avoid the Second World War, after all the other concessions had been made in favor of Germany, Neville Chamberlain asked Adolf Hitler to sign a pledge not to go to war … More I have here, from Herr Hitler, a piece of paper.
The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: It is twice bless’d; It blesses him that gives and him that takes; ‘Tis the mightiest in the mightiest, It becomes The throned monarch better than his crown, His scepter shows the the force of … More When Mercy Seasons Justice
I took this snap on my way to the American Bar Association Magna Carta 800th year celebration in 2015. We remember the Magna Carta as the first curb on the power of the state in favor of ordinary men. After events in the past 24 hours however, I feel less free than ever. For most … More Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
Cuts from King Henry V, Act IV Scene III by William Shakespeare. The scene begins as the young, yet war like Henry has assumed the port of Mars, and invaded France to prove his mettle. It has been a good campaign but the English are exhausted. They must get past the French army at a … More Band of Brothers: Agincourt- October 25th 1415
Shall I compare thee to a Summers day? Thou art more louely and more temperate: Rough windes do ſhake the darling buds of Maie, And Sommers leaſe hath all too ſhorte a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heauen ſhines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d, And euery faire from faire ſome-time declines, … More Nor Shall Death Brag; Sonnet 18
Winston Churchill – then Prime Minister for less than a month, then gave a taste of his courageous leadership in the House of Commons, June 4th, 1940, following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk: We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas … More Fight on the Beaches
“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” John Adams April 15th, 1814. I awoke this morning to find the British have done just that. For a long time I have postulated the American Revolution was a mistake, we would have been … More Democratic Suicide
These words turned out to be wrong when uttered by Stanley Baldwin, as he was referring to the bomber that flies over a city intent on killing, maiming and terrorizing the civilian population. Today we have a different kind of bomber, the bomber who walks through a city, intent on killing, maiming and terrorizing the civilian population. … More “The Bomber Will Always Get Through” British Parliament, 1932
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