Super Short Story (190): Grenade Having served his obligatory stint in the army, it still amazes him how the only live grenade he had ever thrown in his life remains the most throwable thing ever. Its weight, shape and grip was designed so well for hurling that he had never and will...

Super Short Story (182): Laser He had an interesting pro gun-control idea. If you cannot even aim a gun well, you should never handle a gun. But if you can aim a gun well, and would like to have one for defence, you might as well aim only a relatively harmless laser pointer at the eyes of the...

Ten always meet in a bar. One day, one came with a gun. There were six chances (for a six-shooter) of being shot. Fearing this, the next day, all came with guns. There are now 60 chances of being shot… when it could had been no chance. Insecurity breeds insecurity. The real security...

‘If slaughterhouses have glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.’ (Paul Mc Cartney) Loudspeakers too please! If slaughterhouses have no walls, have live feeds for all to see and hear everywhere, who could still eat animals? For hundreds of thousands of years, the stew in the...

True that shark fin is quite tasteless and lacking in nutrition. 1. Every animal that is killed needlessly was in its last moments an endangered one - even if not in terms of the species. (Applies to humans too.) 2. Every animal killed for any other parts or all of its parts is still a victim...

L: Steven Levitt said, ‘‎If you own a gun and have a swimming pool in the yard, the swimming pool is almost 100 times more likely to kill a child than the gun is.’ S: Freakonomics: freaky economics of the real world? C: Why does such an intelligent guy seem to be speaking on...

In ‘Saya (Scabbards’) by Stan Sakai (of Usagi Yojimbo), a folk singer is first heard singing, The rain will rust its edge, and the sheen will fade away! The keenest blades are sheathed, and that’s where they should stay. So please, Mr. Samurai, don’t draw your sword...

In the first ‘Gantz’ movie (see trailer below at around 46 seconds), a Vajrakumara (Dharma Protector guardian diety), a thousand arm Guanyin Bodhisattva and a Buddha statue in a museum were revealed to be aliens in disguise, who were disturbed by the Gantz corps, leading to a...

Every good attack move is also a good defence move. Better to attack while better defending. Every poor attack move is also a poor defence move. Better not to attack if it loses defence. (Any attack purely for antagonising another is senseless violence.)...

What happens if a religion insists that it is the only true religion? How is inter-religious harmony to be upheld between this religion and others? (Yes, some still practise such religions.) Agree to disagree, yes. But what if this itself is disagreeable to that religion, that even endorses...

A friend sent an old news link about how a girl killed and cut her parents into pieces due to both frustration and fear. The news reported on investigation into whether she was mentally ill or not. But of course she was ill! Even if she was proven not ill in the conventional medical...

‘Outrage’ is a recent flick, destined to be another classic, that portrays the convoluted nature of organised crime, of the chaotic scheming and violence that lies beneath the cool black suits and shades. Some honour is expected among the crime lords, who check and keep one...

Someone attending an interfaith event on violence emailed to as about the Buddhist perspective of the subject. This was my reply: There is much to say on this… which can be googled online. Some short thoughts on violence… Violence does not bring peace but keeps it at bay. To...

Jehu [King of Israel] assembled all the people and said to them, “Ahab worshiped Baal a little; Jehu will worship him with great devotion. So now, bring to me all the prophets of Baal, as well as all his servants and priests. None of them must be absent, for I am offering a great...

The most enlightening part of ‘The Losers’ was when the cornered Jensen uttered something ‘true to bluff’ those pointing guns at him… (Yes, it’s paradoxical) - ‘In the words of Ancient Tibetan [Buddhist] masters, “Don’t start none…...

Vegetarians are sometimes seen as aggressive in advocating their cause towards animal-eaters, though this false perception is often there only in contrast with animal-eaters’ great apathy to animal welfare. Animal-eating is easily ‘passive aggression’, that continually endorses active...

I don’t really understand what the film ‘The Warrior and the Wolf’ is trying to say. (I think the only thing that makes the film worth watching are the handful of picturesque stills of the wilderness. Trust me… the rest is actually quite a bore – even if this...

From ‘The Amazing Spider-man: Family Ties’: Uncle Ben: Peter… you’ve never been in a fight in your entire life. Peter: So. Have you? Uncle Ben: A few times. Peter: Bet you were a regular Bruce Willis, huh? Kicking butt and taking names. Uncle Ben: I was a young idiot...

Lawrence: [Seeing gun and bullets] I didn’t know you hunted monsters. Singh: Sometimes monsters hunt you. ‘The Wolfman’, like all good monster movies, be they remakes or not, remains a cautionary tale. If we take the wolf half of a wolfman (aka. werewolf) to represent the...

There is a view that horrible scenes from films which get imprinted onto human minds will be fleshed out accordingly if one goes to hell. Because of this, such films should not be seen. However, here are some alternative views: 1. If one watches horror films to rejoice or relish in suffering...