Free Republic

Dane-Geld A.D. 980-1016 It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation To call upon a neighbour and to say: -- "We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight, Unless you pay us cash to go away." And that is called asking for Dane-geld, And the people who ask it explain That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld And then you'll get rid of the Dane! It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say: -- "Though we know we should defeat you, we have...

The Gods of the Copybook Headings AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place. Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all. We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn: But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind, So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed...

"...They promised perpetual peace. They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease. But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe..." As the British Empire declined so too did the reputation of Rudyard Kipling. A great story teller, he was, as George Orwell noted, the poet laureate of empire. Gradually Kipling came to be viewed as anachronistic and archaic. A more liberal and supposedly more tolerant view became the dominant one amongst English speaking wordsmith intellectuals, so that by the time Kipling died in 1936, socialism, communism...

Don't Trust Government The independent commission set up to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks is threatening to use subpoenas to get documents that the White House has so far refused to give up. This is stonewalling and a cover-up. The president, at his recent news conference, referred to his daily intelligence briefings and said, in his own muddled way, that if they were made public, the people who prepared them would somehow be inhibited in preparing future intelligence briefings. That is so illogical it beggars reply. These briefings are written in summary form. It's not as if they quote Serge,...

'Take up the White Man's burden," Rudyard Kipling implored the Americans in 1899 as they began ruling the Philippines, hoping that they would better the lot of the inhabitants, whom he characterised as "new-caught, sullen peoples,/ Half devil and half child". That poem has wrecked Kipling's standing with bien-pensant opinion ever since, but as the United States now bravely embarks on its much more modern form of empire-lite, his reinstatement as a serious political figure - as opposed to merely a pre-eminent phrase-coiner - has received a huge boost. The Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography prize has been awarded to David...

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: etc.

Film of the week: Disney's 'Jungle Book 2' By Steve Sailer UPI National Correspondent From the Life & Mind Desk Published 2/13/2003 11:39 AM LOS ANGELES, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Walt Disney lost faith in sequels after the failure of his 1934 follow-up to "The Three Little Pigs." He concluded, "You can't top pigs with pigs." So, when he started making long animated features, he never stooped to doing a sequel. Heretically, if understandably, Michael Eisner insists upon recycling the Disney Company's incomparable properties. For a decade, his lesser minions have been churning out highly profitable straight-to-video quickie sequels...

A Nest of Burglars A note of moral responsibility among all the self-congratulatory bombast. God of our fathers, known of old, Lord of our far-flung battle line, Beneath whose awful Hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine — Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget — lest we forget! In 1897, Britain celebrated Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee — the 60th anniversary of her accession. Britain was then at the height of her power, ruling over huge swathes of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the antipodes. The jubilee celebrations were suitably grand. On June 22,...

Arithmetic on the Frontier A great and glorious thing it is To learn, for seven years or so, The Lord knows what of that and this, Ere reckoned fit to face the foe -- The flying bullet down the Pass, That whistles clear: "All flesh is grass." Three hundred pounds per annum spent On making brain and body meeter For all the murderous intent Comprised in "villanous saltpetre!" And after -- ask the Yusufzaies What comes of all our 'ologies. A scrimmage in a Border Station -- A canter down some dark defile -- Two thousand pounds of education Drops...