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Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling's The Lesson, first appeared in The Five Nations (1903), a book of verse focused mostly on his reactions to the Boer War of 1899-1902.) I wandered the beach at midnight by the hamlet of Oyster Bay, A fugitive from the fell report that would come on Election Day. And upon a hill in the distance I espied a flickering light Where the shade of Rudyard Kipling kept its vigil through the night. And the shade of Kipling chortled through the dank November chill To the ghost of Theodore Roosevelt there on the porch at Sagamore Hill:...

[IF] 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: If you can dream--and not make dreams your master, If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat...

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 don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph...

Discrimination against British soldiers in uniform to become a criminal offenceby MATTHEW HICKLEY - More by this author » Last updated at 16:35pm on 19th May 2008New laws will make it a criminal offence to discriminate against Britain's soldiers, sailors and airmen wearing uniform in public, under Government proposals outlined yesterday. Courts will also hand out tougher punishments to anyone who assaults or threatens a serviceman wearing the Queen's uniform - which will become an 'aggravating factor' during sentencing. Other measures designed to boost recognition and respect for the UK armed forces include a drive to encourage thousands more...

In the Neolithic Age savage warfare did I wage For food and fame and woolly horses' pelt. I was singer to my clan in that dim, red Dawn of Man, And I sang of all we fought and feared and felt. Yea, I sang as now I sing, when the Prehistoric spring Made the piled Biscayan ice-pack split and shove; And the troll and gnome and dwerg, and the Gods of Cliff and Berg Were about me and beneath me and above. But a rival, of Solutre, told the tribe my style was outre-- 'Neath a tomahawk, of diorite, he...

We need to remember the lessons of Gethsemane David Warren, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 Bear up, gentle reader. Lent has begun, and now you are going to be served my annual Ash Wednesday sermon. There are still a lot of Roman Catholics in this town, and other Christians observing Lent, at least nominally: and my other readers are well-accustomed to looking over shoulders at our strange pre-modern rites. This is perhaps the oddest for them. The place of the penitential has been forcefully removed from Canadian public life, but some day may return. Meanwhile it remains...

Soldiers turned away from bar after funeral Last updated at 16:05pm on 24th November 2006 Two Royal Marines were refused entry to a bar just hours after a colleague's funeral because they were in uniform. The two servicemen went for a drink at the Walkabout bar in Liverpool city centre following the funeral of Corporal Ben Nowak at the city's Anglican cathedral. Cpl Nowak, 27, who served with 45 Commando, was one of four people killed in a bomb attack on a patrol boat in southern Iraq on Remembrance Sunday. His two colleagues, who were among 1,000 mourners at yesterday's...

If 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: If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master; If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph...

The 'eathen The 'eathen in 'is blindness bows down to wood an' stone; 'E don't obey no orders unless they is 'is own; 'E keeps 'is side-arms awful: 'e leaves 'em all about, An' then comes up the Regiment an' pokes the 'eathen out. All along o' dirtiness, all along o' mess, All along o' doin' things rather-more-or-less, All along of abby-nay, kul, an' hazar-ho, Mind you keep your rifle an' yourself jus' so! The young recruit is 'aughty -- 'e draf's from Gawd knows where; They bid 'im show 'is stockin's an' lay 'is mattress square; 'E calls it...

August 08, 2006, 3:11 p.m. If— (you want to be a true jihadi) By John Derbyshire For some reason my imagination was caught by the news last week that Osama bin Laden has sent his son Saad off to fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Having Mozart-ized this little snippet in last week’s Radio Derb, I thought I might as well Kipling-ize it, too. Perhaps Rudyard Kipling’s best-known poem, and surely the best-known hortatory poem in the English language, is “If—”  which appeared in a 1910 volume of historical stories for children.  The two children who are principal characters in...

"For All We Have And Are" 1914 For all we have and are, For all our children's fate, Stand up and take the war. The Hun is at the gate! Our world has passed away, In wantonness o'erthrown. There is nothing left to-day But steel and fire and stone! Though all we knew depart, The old Commandments stand: -- "In courage keep your heart, In strength lift up your hand." Once more we hear the word That sickened earth of old: -- "No law except the Sword Unsheathed and uncontrolled." Once more it knits mankind, Once more the nations go...

[IF] 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: If you can dream--and not make dreams your master, If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat...

[IF] 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: If you can dream--and not make dreams your master, If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat...

Blame throwing There's plenty wrong with America, since you asked. (Everybody's asking.) I'm tempted to say, the only difference from Canada, is that they have a few things right. That would be unfair, of course -- I am often pleased to discover things we still get right. But one of them would not be disaster preparation. If something happened up here, on the scale of Katrina, we wouldn't even have the resources to arrive late. We would be waiting for the Americans to come save us, the same way the government in Louisiana just waved and pointed at Washington, D.C....

The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part; But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart. And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest, Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest. It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock. It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock. It is their care that the wheels run truly;...

Road-Song of the Bandar-Log Here we go in a flung festoon, Half-way up to the jealous moon! Don't you envy our pranceful bands? Don't you wish you had extra hands? Wouldn't you like if your tails were--so-- Curved in the shape of a Cupid's bow? Now you're angry, but--never mind, Brother, thy tail hangs down behind! Here we sit in a branchy row, Thinking of beautiful things we know; Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, All complete, in a minute or two-- Something noble and wise and good, Done by merely wishing we could. We've forgotten, but--never...

NOW this is the Law of the Blogger - as old and as true as the sky; And the blogger that keeps it may prosper, but the blogger that breaks it must die. As the visits that pump up the hit count, the Law runneth forward and back -- For the strength of the Blogs is the Blogger that never cuts anyone slack. Blog daily from news-tip and hat-tip; blog long, but blog not too deep; And remember the Pundit's for linking, and forget not that he has to sleep. The new blog may free flame the Jordan, but, Cub,...

In February 1899, British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled “The White Man’s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands.” In this poem, Kipling urged the U.S. to take up the “burden” of empire, as had Britain and other European nations. Published in the February, 1899 issue of McClure’s Magazine, the poem coincided with the beginning of the Philippine-American War and U.S. Senate ratification of the treaty that placed Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines under American control. Theodore Roosevelt, soon to become vice-president and then president, copied the poem and sent it to his...

"For All We Have and Are" For all we have and are, For all our children's fate, Stand up and meet the war. The Hun is at the gate! Our world has passed away In wantonness o'erthrown. There is nothing left to-day But steel and fire and stone. Though all we knew depart, The old commandments stand: "In courage keep your heart, In strength lift up your hand." Once more we hear the word That sickened earth of old: "No law except the sword Unsheathed and uncontrolled," Once more it knits mankind, Once more the nations go To meet and...