It seems to me axiomatic that automatically making the maximum response to every small thing on the assumption that will become a big thing will result in wasting the maximum amount of mental resources and energy. That strategy only works if you have infinite resources, and with all due respect, you're only human, Tom. The human mind evolved naturally to ration its fixed resources by learning to discriminate between what is important and what is not, thereby getting the maximum bang for the bucket o'brain. All human brains are pretty much the same, but what distinguishes them in terms of what we call intelligence is the efficiency of processing.

Sometimes I suspect you of pullling my leg when you take positions like that, or, for example, when you adamantly insist that there's no such thing as psychological manipulation in advertising. Your brain couldn't be that different from the norm, or you couldn't function. And yet you do seem to function. B***z ergo cogitatum, QED.

Okay. Iran, building atomic bombs as I write this, is a harmless little puppy, and their calls for annihilation mean nothing. We'll go with that.

I read the editoral you linked. Quds Day has been celebrated every year since Ayatollah Khomeini created the "celebration". It's so not news it's background noise. The Iranian nuclear program of today is the signal that needs attention, and delving into the noise looking for a sinister signal is nothing but a distraction. And that's what I'm saying about maintaining a focus on what's important.