Dear Reader BFD columnist Terry Dunleavy passed away this week. The article that he had planned to write for today was going to tell us “why Luxon’s speech was NOT ‘State of the Nation’ but was welcome as reaffirmation of the State of the National Party”. In the years
The word for today is… yaw (noun, verb): noun 1 : the action of yawing, especially a side-to-side movement 2 : the extent of the movement in yawing verb a: of a ship – to deviate erratically from a course (as when struck by a heavy sea) especially to move from side to
It’s been a decade since Andrew Breitbart shufffled off this mortal coil, but he left behind an enormous legacy on the right side of politics. As one of his former colleagues, David Cole, argues, while there is still much of Breitbart’s legacy that’s a positive, there’s
Tarryn Basden particle.scitech.org.au Tarryn Basden is a biologist and science communicator from Western Australia. While she has had the privilege of working with lions and tigers and bears, oh my! She really enjoys teaching people about weird animals and making terrible puns as part of her science
The word for today is… euphemism (noun): : the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Euphemism comes from Greek euphemos, which means “uttering sounds of good omen,” “fair-sounding,” or “auspicious.” The first part of that root is
As I’ve discussed before, much of the evils of the present can be laid to the fact that a great many people have just stopped listening to one another. Instead of discourse (let alone “civil”), on almost every issue, we’ve become divided into two warring echo-chambers. This is
The word for today is… meritorious (adjective): : deserving of honor or esteem Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : People who demonstrate meritorious behavior certainly “earn” our respect, and you can use that fact to remember that meritorious comes from the Latin verb merere, which means “to earn.” Nowadays, the rewards earned for
Ole Hartling mercatornet.com Dr Ole Hartling is a Danish nuclear medicine specialist. For five years he was the chair of Denmark’s Council of Ethics. Recently he wrote a book (in Danish and English) on euthanasia, “Euthanasia and the Ethics of a Doctor’s Decisions”. MercatorNet asked him to
Andrew Mahon mercatornet.com Andrew Mahon is a Canadian-British writer based in London who has written for the Spectator, the Daily Wire, Conservative Woman, New English Review, Brexit Central, Catholic Journal and others. George Orwell invented the term “groupthink” for his dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four, first published in 1949. A
Lewis Andrew sojournal.co.nz A quote from That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis arrived in my inbox yesterday. If you haven’t read it or the rest of the trilogy, I highly recommend you get a hold of them. But back to the quote. One of the protagonists,
Our planners and bureaucrats and politicians are using safety as a reason, rationale or excuse to help implement many of their changes. These changes to the way we live, drive and work together, may in fact have very little if anything to do with safety. Safety seems to be the
The word for today is… stir-crazy (adjective): slang : distraught because of prolonged confinement Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Stir-crazy originated as a word to describe a prisoner who became distraught after prolonged confinement. Stir is a 19th-century slang word for “prison” that some word historians have suspected to be from Romani
Julian Adorney Geoff Laughton fee.org Julian is a former political op-ed writer and current nonprofit marketer. His work has been featured in FEE, National Review, Playboy, and Lawrence Reed’s economics anthology Excuse Me, Professor. Geoff is a relationship counselor with 25 years of experience helping couples. He wrote
The word for today is… tome (noun): 1 : book especially : a large or scholarly book 2 : a volume forming part of a larger work -tome (noun combining form) 1 : part, segment – e.g. myotome 2 : cutting instrument – e.g. microtome Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Tome comes from Greek tomos, meaning
David Thunder mercatornet.com David Thunder is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Navarra’s Institute for Culture and Society. Just as we thought we were on the other side of the pandemic, with all the harms that inflicted, both natural and political, we were confronted with another
The word for today is… finesse (noun,verb): noun : skill and cleverness that is shown in the way someone deals with a situation, problem, etc. verb : to make a finesse in playing cards Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Finesse originally referred to refinement or delicacy of workmanship, structure, or texture; that
