There is considerable dispute over who coined the phrase: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” What is indisputable, is that anyone who ignores or manipulates statistics to diminish violence and human suffering, is a liar of unforgiveable proportion.… Read the rest
The New York-set movie to which the headline of this post owes a nod, romped its way to a predictable happy ending. The Middle East-based horror show to which the headline refers is relentlessly lurching its way towards unhappiness that shows no sign of ending.… Read the rest
Compared to how today’s equivalents of emperors are dealing with crises and catastrophes, Nero being synonymous with “fiddling while Rome burns” is a bum wrap.… Read the rest
Type “stupid” into Roget’s Thesaurus and more than 50 nouns and adjectives pop up. In varying degrees, all of them are applicable to the remorseless list of tragedies that plague the world. The tragedy of that is how acceptable willful and blind stupidity have become.… Read the rest
The outrage over President Donald Trump’s “plan” to ethnically cleanse Gaza in all but name and turn it into a resort strip mall, is almost quaint. Did anyone expect rationality or humanity from someone demonstrably unable to differentiate between price, profit and value, and who surrounds himself with soulless moguls of his ilk?… Read the rest
A few weeks before the Gaza peace deal was agreed, the father of a hostage held by Hamas flew to Qatar to meet the negotiators. It’s stretching a point and then some to infer he nudged the talks over the final line, but what he did is a salient lesson for the next stages of the deal.… Read the rest
New Year’s resolutions being notoriously unkept, 2025 can be better than the unlamented year we just lurched through if the media harkens back to what its job is, or at least ought to be, and peacemakers take on board the lesson of a 13th century papal conclave.… Read the rest
In the unlikely event the optimistically-designated “Cessation of Hostilities and Related Commitments on Enhanced Security Arrangements…” between Israel and Lebanon ever becomes an actual peace treaty, the preamble should include19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s admonition: “Beware of all those in whom the urge to punish is strong.”… Read the rest
The subtle ways Nature signals the inexorable reality of change, are useful lessons for anyone trying to sort out, or at least cope with the messy world of humanity before it’s too late.… Read the rest
The adage “You can kill the messenger, but not the message” purportedly traces its roots to somewhere in the Middle Ages. Its 21st century application is to do the literal killing blatantly, and disprove the second half of the admonition furtively.… Read the rest