By Staff
Worldwide, deadly conflicts with 1,000 or more battle deaths a year have fallen off 80 percent since 1992, I read on page 4 of the Friday the 13th Detroit Free Press.
Not that Americans would notice, with the United States fighting 16 armed conflicts since 1946.
But peaceful elections in Burundi ended 20 years of civil war.
Rebels in Sumatra disarmed after 29 years to participate in elections.
Shi'ite Muslim rebels in northern Yemen gave up in 2005.
Ditto for Islamic extremists in Algeria.
Hope India and Pakistan read this account, which appeared next to a report on North Korea and Iran resisting “carrot-and-stick diplomacy” intended to reduce their status as nuclear threats.
I take my good news where I can find it, even if a global decline in warfare is likely a temporary lull and not worthy of front-page news with the North American International Auto Show in the Motor City and the Super Bowl on deck with Aaron Neville and Dr. John of New Orleans presenting the national anthem.
War historian John Mueller of Ohio State University said in developed countries war is as obsolete as slavery or dueling - a shift that constitutes “one of the most important developments in the history of the world.”
Terrorism is up, but it kills far fewer people than clashes between industrialized nations.
Did you know that only in 2001 did terrorism kill more people in a year than World War II did every hour, on average - 1,200 combatants and civilians.
The 60 years since WWII represents the longest peaceful period in Europe since Romans ruled.
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: “Liberal Democrats are about as far from the American mainstream on (domestic spying) issues as Republicans were when they invaded the privacy of Terri Schiavo's family in the right-to-die case last year. But there is a difference. National security is a far more important issue, and until the Democrats make clear that they will err on the side of aggressiveness in the war against al-Qaeda, they will probably not regain the majority in Congress or the country.”
in Time magazine
Obits: Cowsills bassist Barry Cowsill, 51, disappeared after Hurricane Katrina. His body was found Dec. 28 on a wharf in New Orleans. He and his brothers Bill, Bob and John, sister Susan and mom Barbara inspired TV's “The Partridge Family” with their hits such as “Hair,” “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” and that local favorite, “Indian Lake.”
Michael Vale, 83, Dunkin' Donuts' sleepy “time to make the doughnuts” Fred the Baker, died Dec. 24 in New York City of diabetes complications.
Droopy-eyed Vincent Schiavelli, 57, died of lung cancer Dec. 26 in Sicily, Italy. He played a teacher in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and Frederickson, an asylum inmate in the Oscar-winning 1975 film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.”
Lou Rawls, 72, the Grammy-winning singer of “You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine),” died in Los Angeles of lung and brain cancer. Did you know he and Sam Cooke were high school buddies?
Reality check: Tom Selleck is 60.
Second job: Ted Koppel quit ABC's “Nightline” and landed at the Discovery Channel to work on documentaries and “Town Hall” presentations. Jan. 12 NPR announced he'll also join its news department in June as senior news analyst.
Which “Grey's Anatomy” surgical intern would you pick as your surgeon?: Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), 50 percent; George O'Malley (T.R. Knight), 18 percent; Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), 16 percent; Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl), 13 percent; and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), 3 percent, according to a tvguide.com poll.
It's a boy: Melissa Joan Hart, TV's “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” and her musician husband, Mark Wilkerson, had their first child Jan. 11. Mason Walter Wilkerson was born in Los Angeles.