Few people argue that it's OK for a woman, even an abused woman, to shoot a man in cold blood when she's not in danger at the time. There are shelters for battered women, and the staff know not to tell who's there. So why can't women just leave?

The Romans understood nation building, an art we and the British have forgotten.

"It is the duty of every officer of His Majesty's Navy, to discharge powder and shot in the general direction of the enemy."

The trouble is, the system was designed to keep a record of who was where, when.

It is better not to have a rule at all, than to have one which is not taken seriously, because disregarding the rules grows habitual.

Brazil serves as an object lesson in how government incompetence - not greed, not really bribery even, certainly not totalitarianism, just simple incompetence - can make life difficult on an otherwise free and vibrant economy.