Egg on face. The Orwell quote I passed on from a reader — “People sleep

peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do

violence on their behalf” — is bogus. See full details here.

In my defense:

(a) I was only passing it on from a reader. Can’t stop to check everything.

Not my chob.

(b) Orwell — in the Kipling essay I started with — passes very similar

opinions, and would undoubtedly have agreed with the remark.

(c) True quote or not, the proposition ITSELF is true!