the streaming audio makes a pretty good ‘listen’, as well.

Like Xristopher Colombus, who is now denigrated, derided and even condemned in academia simply because he vanquished barbaric “civilizations” in the Americas, Sir Winston Churchill is looked askance by the same crowd simply because he smoked.

Yet his “Sinews of Peace” speech is a masterpiece of English rhetoric and delivery, which means most contemporary Americans and Brits would find it too difficult to comprehend (given the flea-like attention span and limited vocabulary of most “readers”).

Here is the full “special relationship” quote:

“Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of world organization will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States. ”

(British Commonwealth and Empire, eh? Tsk tsk)

For me, the most remarkable aspect of this triumphant and eloquent address is how readily it lends itself to the modern world. It could easily be delivered today, mutatis mutandi, with full applicability.

He even uses the word “compute”(verb) and “accountability” (noun) in it (!!) [but not "transparent" (adjective)]

The full text (and audio) of this speech can be found at:

http://www.hpol.org/churchill/

It really is worth reading in its entirety.

some of the peoples of the world are always bragging about how smart they are. we Americans are more likely to brag about how dumb we are — sort of a yin-yang thing.

if you look at our 230 years of history, and compare it with theirs, a pattern emerges.

by contrast, Indonesia gave as Barry Sotero, the most powerful writer since Emily Dickenson.

Finally, someone who knows what RK is really talking about!

According to what passes for logic in such a world, we cannot have a special relation with Great Britain.