There is a wonderful country song by Joe Diffie called Third Rock From the Sun, which is the only popular song I know of on the subject of causation. The chorus includes these lines: “Cause and effect, chain of events, All of the chaos makes perfect sense.” It’s a cheerful tune entirely unsuited to today’s headlines, but it came to mind when I saw this headline: “Group Threatens to Behead 6 New Hostages”:
Militants took six foreign truck drivers hostage and threatened Wednesday to behead them unless their company ends its business in Iraq, and their countries
