A Political Refugee From The Global Village

 “Social democracy may be defined as an arrangement under which we all largely cease to be responsible for our own behaviour and in return...

Happy Thanksgiving to All My American Friends, Commemorating The Opening Shots of Their Triumphant War Against The Red Indian Menace. I ...

‎"Cand esti mort, nu stii ca esti mort. E greu doar pentru ceilalti... La fel si cand esti prost." (Oana Pelea)

Less than f ive years after  the (Byzantine) Roman Empire had won back Palestine from the Iranians ,  on 4 February 634, Muslim Arabs defea...

I just came across this famous joke, in situ , in the description of the very short reign of the Emperor Gordian II (what a short average l...

When I was a fifteen year old, bookish and friendless, The Augustan History was one of the books I intended to read (in the Penguin tran...

I finally visited the Cotroceni Palace after 14 years in Bucharest. I cannot imagine why I did not do so before or rather I do understand -...

I didn't watch the hugely successful TV series of The Saint, which all my contemporaries loved, aetat 5, (I hope I wasn't even...

I am reading Gibbon at last.   I should be reading Gibbon in an 18th century edition in tooled leather in an armchair in a London club whil...

I am at last reading Robin Lane Fox's Pagans and Christians and finding it interesting and informative but   less of a joy than I expe...

Cartoon in today's Guardian greeting the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury The Bishop of Durham, it was announced y...

Apparently John Wayne said: Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid. My first reaction was n ot true - the reverse is th...

I regard women as superior and I don’t like to see them trying to become men’s equal. Violet Markham, speaking in October 1910. I am s...

The only lesson history teaches is that history teaches no lessons. A.J.P. Taylor AJP Taylor  was very Shavian and strove to speak...

Please to remember Fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot. Tonight is Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night in England. It is t...

"The country is holding its breath today," read  The   Times . “Tension and nerves will be felt by millions who know that th...

What is Jacobinism?  It is an attempt . . . to eradicate prejudice out of the minds of men, for the purpose of putting all power and au...