Osler's Razor

I received an email from my Dad (painter of Day-After Santa, above), in response to my query as to what he wants for Christmas. Here is his list:

1) World Peace
2) Tennis Balls (Wilson or Penn)

I suppose this could be my fault, for not employing the World Peace Exception, which is often necessary with my family. On the other hand, it might be a multilayered comment on world peace. Remember that both (Woodrow) Wilson and (William) Penn strove for world peace in ways we don't see today. Could it be that my Dad is saying that instead of such heroes, today we treat the idea of peace like tennis balls, something simply to be batted around as a plaything?

Uh, probably not.

Meanwhile, there was an interesting reflection on last week's Serr/Osler debate over on the Bosque Boys blog, which is authored in part by one of my three favorite historians. He suggests that religious opposition to the death penalty shares some aspects with the abolition movement of the 1800's, which faced similar counter-arguments as they opposed slavery. There are good and bad sides to this comparison, of course, as those abolitionists were not as pure of heart as often portrayed.