If only the world's bad news would take a cue from American public relations firms--and wait till late Friday afternoon to drop its bombs. Then, perhaps, nobody would notice. Alas, the kind of bad global news dropping lately defies spin.
In Thailand, a disgruntled former cop burst into a day care and went on a shooting spree before turning his gun on himself. Thirty-six are known to be dead, mostly kids under 3 who were taking their afternoon naps. Which might be the worst news we've ever heard, until the next news cycle ... .
In Mexico, drug gang violence erupted again, and 20 people in the conflict-ridden southern state of Guerrero are dead, including a mayor--the latest elected official to be assassinated south of the border.
In Iran, two French citizens were used as props, "confessing" on state TV to masterminding the anti-government protests that led to the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman at the hands of the theocracy's morality police. If all else fails, consult the playbook.
Whether these protests will divert Iranian rulers' attention from their progress toward achieving nuclear capability is unknown. And whether or not Americans are paying much attention, we know the Israelis are.
In North Korea, the totalitarian state's chief lunatic ordered 12 fighter pilots to buzz the South Korean border. In response, the South Koreans scrambled 30 jets. Tensions have been high in Korea for decades, but this latest episode isn't normal. The border buzzing came in the aftermath of the North firing more "test missiles" into the Sea of Japan.
Prompting this latest round of Russian roulette was North Korea's launch of a nuclear-capable missile over Japan, after which the U.S. Navy redeployed an aircraft carrier to the neighborhood. The world doesn't need a nuclear Quemoy-Matsu Islands crisis in 2022. But Lil Kim seems determined to give us just that. One day.
Meanwhile, war rages on in Ukraine with Putin now teasing nukes in the aftermath of battlefield losses, and genocide continues in Red China and east Africa.
These are just a few of the hottest of hot spots.
At this rate, we're due a visit from Klaatu, the alien ambassador from 1951's "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
Klaatu and his giant law-enforcement robot arrived in a flying saucer on the National Mall in D.C. with a warning for the Earthlings and their new nuclear weapons: The galactic neighborhood is weary of your violent ways, which now threaten more than just yourselves.
Even if they landed on a late Friday afternoon, that just might earn our collective attention.