Thought

Joseph Conrad

The real significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the community of mankind.
Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900).

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Voters Beware
The ballot title of Colorado’s Initiative 55 should refer to …
Electing a Better Way
SharingFor the seventh time in the last 22 years, the Metro …
The People Are Restless
SharingScott Rasmussen’s polling company, Rasmussen Reports, asks questions the establishment …
Amendment 2 … In Plain English
SharingNOTE: This is a revised, updated episode, as played on radio stations. …
Real Change at the Ballot Box
SharingIt’s time to face the fact: We don’t have much …

Measures for Measures
November 23, 2024
This year was an interesting one for initiatives.Read More »
Denial Is a River in Argentina?
November 22, 2024
Paul Jacob on one country’s retreat from self-imposed poverty.Read More »
Watch Out!
November 21, 2024
Paul Jacob on strange edits in the Lone Star State.Read More »
The Hill as Hallucinogen
November 19, 2024
Paul Jacob on a false news story, gone but not …Read More »
Elon & Vivek to Cut Government?
November 18, 2024
Paul Jacob on who could help whom do what is …Read More »

Seventh Time’s the Charm?
Sharing“You have to give the public something,” explained termed-out former …
Term Limits for Cuba?
SharingYou can’t cheer some victories — they just don’t seem real. I mean, …
Meet the Personal Interest
“Poll after poll finds American voters believing the country is …
Term Limits, Good
SharingDuring the last few weeks of Egyptian unrest, a phrase got …
The Other Maine Thing
SharingTuesday’s biggest election news was the victory for Ranked Choice …

Abolishing You
SharingIn a recent Washington Post essay — “Is the individual obsolete?” — syndicated columnist George …
Gloating Time?
Sharing“The freak-out was something to behold,” I wrote two years ago. Newly …
The Cost of Reparations
SharingNearly 180 years ago, the Jesuits who ran Georgetown University sold …
Cuban Slave Doctors
SharingDid Cuba and Brazil just prove Sen. Rand Paul right …
Christmas Is Coming
SharingWhen I was a kid, every December day was like a rocket-launch countdown …

On November 23, 1644, British poet John Milton published Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.

Revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse.
John Milton, Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England (1644).

The name “Areopagitica” references a speech by Isocrates, the “Areopagitikós” that itself referenced a hill in Athens, Greece, the Areopagus, which had been the site of an important tribunal that the Greek orator had hoped to restore. It may also refer to the defense that St. Paul made before the Areopagus against charges of promulgating alien gods and outré teachings (see Acts 17:18 – 34).