Tag: James Madison

Justice Thomas on Antonin Scalia

Justice Thomas on Antonin Scalia

Comments 2 Comments

He spoke to us about Win­ston Churchill in San Fran­cis­co in 2009. Ever since, I have sought out the uncom­mon speech­es of Jus­tice Clarence Thomas. Invari­ably I find them mov­ing, elo­quent, and instruc­tive on things I haven’t con­sid­ered suf­fi­cient­ly.

Jus­tice Clarence Thomas at the Fed­er­al­ist Soci­ety, 17 Novem­ber 2016. (C-span)

Such was his Novem­ber 2016 trib­ute to Antonin Scalia, giv­en to the Fed­er­al­ist Soci­ety. He began with exam­ples of the late Justice’s wit (beloved alike by Jus­tice Thomas and Jus­tice Ruth Bad­er Gins­burg. Respec­tive­ly, they agreed with Scalia most of the time—and lit­tle of the time.):

In PGA Tour vs.…

Read More Read More

Churchill on Socialism

Churchill on Socialism

Comments 3 Comments
“The Recruit­ing Parade,” David Low in The Star, 7 Octo­ber 1924. Fig­ures are labeled “Plot Press,” “Monop­o­list,” “Defeats” (Churchill), “Hard­face Employ­er,” “Cracked Pro­tec­tion,” “Ideals are Tom­my Rot” and “Plot Press” (Lord Beaver­brook), Churchill was mak­ing his third bid to regain a seat in Par­lia­ment, which he won. He was “so tick­led” by Low’s car­toon that he offered to pur­chase it, and the Labour news­pa­per sent it to him as a gift. He ran it with his essay “Car­toons and Car­toon­ists,” in Thoughts and Adven­tures (1932).

This quo­ta­tion is now going around the web, broad­ly attrib­uted to Churchill.…

Read More Read More

Was Churchill a Closet Socialist?

Was Churchill a Closet Socialist?

Comments 0 Comments

After I post­ed “Churchill on the Stim­u­lus Pack­age” last Spring, I was asked if Churchill, who said he opposed social­ism, was in fact more of a social­ist than he cared to admit. For exam­ple, he was one of the archi­tects of the British Wel­fare State ear­ly in the 20th cen­tu­ry.

To the many appre­ci­a­tions of Churchill’s career let us add that he was (which is not often rec­og­nized) a seri­ous polit­i­cal the­o­rist, who learned from expe­ri­ence and, as William Man­ches­ter wrote, “usu­al­ly improved as he went along.” I asked Pres­i­dent Lar­ry Arnn of Hills­dale Col­lege to respond to this ques­tion:

Churchill was a polit­i­cal thinker.…

Read More Read More