Italy isn’t real.

(They’re about to restore the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies)

Olive branches are common in Rome.

I’d allow until Friday afternoon to specify a time. But I’d telephone the bride so that I was 100% sure she got the message.

There’s something grotesque there in how willing he is to swallow camels.

Our Lord must have met folk like that in His public ministry. It’s a shame the gospels don’t tell us about them.

I’m pretty sure you’re attributing a “stance” to me that I don’t hold.

If you’d rather I used the VERB “misuse” rather than “abuse”, then I’ll happily suggest you read it that way in order to understand me better.

My only “stance” is that the stats are handled badly & weaken the article.

No need for the ad hominem. The article is weakened by the lack of rigour. Claim about there being an actual decline needs a different approach to be rigorous. It would have been a lot more effective if he’d pointed to the horror of the raw numbers rather than going beyond the evidence.

I don’t think the data shows a clear reversal. The author certainly doesn’t demonstrate it. This article could have made the moral argument without the statistics. But the choice was made to abuse the numbers - and that weakens the article.

This is very poorly done. To make a rigorous argument to match the rhetoric we need a proper statistical analysis. Cherry-picking extreme years & comparing them doesn’t cut the mustard.

fire & it seemed like an utterly hellish event.

3. I recall the 1988 Piper Alpha oil rig fire & how the mechanics of fighting such a fire seemed to dominate the news for days.