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Is it ethically justifiable to set Lebanon on fire because four Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in Israel's invasion of the country? A senior Israeli official claims one Israeli death justifies killing 1000 Lebanese. What would Kant and Bentham say about such ethical reasoning? https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2026/06/israel-in-lebanon-on-hubris-of-hatred.html

The 2026 film, Iván & Hadoum, released just weeks ago, aligns xenophobic, homophobic, and anti-labor antagonists against a couple. Or is this all just an ideology? If not, can the distinct unethical comments be compared ethically? https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2026/06/ivan-hadoum.html

The European Council's budget proposal evinces a state-centric conflict of interest. The Parliament rejected the proposal as insufficient. Checks and balances! https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-european-parliament-rejecting.html

At the beginning of the G7 meeting in the E.U., should U.S. Prez Trump have held a joint news conference with E.U. Prez Von der Leyen? What would the visuals alone have implied? On the tyranny of the status quo: https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2026/06/europe-over-and-under-represented-in-g7.html

The medium of film has the potential to render the brass tacks of the human condition transparent--such depth is possible! Even romance (and gender!) can be transcended, as evinced in the father-son dialogue in "Call Me by Your Name." https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2026/06/call-me-by-your-name.html

The Kushner-based luxury resort planned in Albania dwarfs Kushner's role in turning Gaza into a resort-area devoid of Palestinians, yet the most vocal protests are oriented to the former! This itself is unethical. https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2026/06/on-politics-of-international-real.html

Imagine if Congress had left immigration enforcement, and thus ICE, up to the state governments? Some states would jump at the chance, while others would ignore the federal law and refuse to implement it. The EU may have such a law. https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-eus-immigration-ice-pros-and-cons.html

Proto-fascist police in school hallways body-slamming students for violating school policies in Texas even though the rationale for police there is to protect students from external threats. Policies as law? https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2026/05/police-enforcing-texas-school-policies.html

On the very day that California's Newsom announced a proposed 100% tax on payouts in California of Trump's "de-weaponization" fund, Florida's DeSantis announced a proposed increase in the exemption on property taxes. Two different countries within the U.S.: https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2026/05/california-and-florida-different.html

As Ukraine's Zelensky was looking to the E.U. for help, the E.U.'s Kallas was insisting that the E.U. could not mediate because the Union was on Ukraine's side. But the E.U. still needed a foreign policy to counter Russia in Ukraine. https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-eu-as-mediator-between-russia-and.html

Speaking on the ethical dangers of AI, Pope Leo risked reducing theology to ethics, and thus Augustine's heavenly city to the earthly city. Missing: What would a distinctly theological critique of AI look like? https://thewordenreport-religion.blogspot.com/2026/05/pope-leo-on-ethical-dangers-of-ai.html

Pope Leo the Lion-Hearted has pontificated on AI as a threat to humanity, but is such a threat, or any threat here in this earthly city, of soteriological, or salvific, significance (i.e., regarding a person's relation to God, as distinctly religio, binding a person back to a transcendent source)? https://thewordenreport-religion.blogspot.com/2026/05/magnifica-humanitas-on-leo-lion-hearted.html

Pope Leo recently spoke out against pollution (dumping) in southern Italy. Is the kingdom of God so easily put in terms of public policy? What then is distinct about the domain of religion? https://thewordenreport-religion.blogspot.com/2026/05/on-religion-and-public-policy-pope-leo.html

In the film, "Fifty Shades of Grey," a liturature student falls for a billionaire sadist even though the student is not a masochist. She willingly enters his sexual world so she can be his girlfriend. What would Nietzsche say of this? https://thewordenreport-film.blogspot.com/2026/05/fifty-shades-of-grey.html

Should the E.U. appoint an envoy to negotiate with Russia's President Putin? Would the appointment change much, given the veto-power of the E.U.'s states on E.U. foreign policy? https://thewordenreportinternationalrelations.blogspot.com/2026/05/an-eu-envoy-to-russia.html

Nietzsche wrote on free-will and moral responsibility in a way that shatters moral custom and yet excoriates promise-breakers and liars, including untrustworthy romantic partners. Can humans be trusted or is marriage ill-fitting and thus artificial to our nature? https://thewordenreport-businessandsociety.blogspot.com/2026/05/nietzsche-on-free-will-and-moral.html

That Pharma execs were right in getting FDA Com. Makary fired does not mean that the industry should capture the agency that regulates it. The interest of the part is not always aligned with that of the whole. https://thewordenreport-governmentandmarkets.blogspot.com/2026/05/regulatory-capture-and-public-interest.html