Lessons In Objectivity Vol. 457

Israeli concessions boost peace hopes

The Guardian headline, now. How, precisely, is a freeze on building illegal settlements a ‘concession’?

National Hero Bono in ‘Talking Guff’ Shocker

The word ‘innovation’, under current circumstances, seldom connotes anything other than positive developments. Basically, it means coming up with something new. Since we live in an age of neophilia, innovation is prized. You have come up with a new way of fleecing senior citizens of their remaining savings, and whilst we deplore your objectives, we marvel at your innovative spirit.

But innovation can also mean shaping things that already exist to an apparently new form: turning the sow’s ear into a silk purse. An innovator, then, can be a sort of artist. And Bono is a sort of artist, and it is therefore natural that he should seek to innovate:

Bono also defended the decision by U2 to move part of the band’s business from Ireland to the Netherlands to reduce his tax bill and that of the other band members.

He said this country’s prosperity had been achieved through tax innovation and it would be churlish to criticise U2 for being innovative in relation to their tax affairs when that is what people were encouraged to do and that is what made the country prosperous.

What ‘tax innovation’ means in Bono’s case is ‘not paying tax’. With Bono’s concept of innovation, doing some mutanding with our mutatis, health care innovation might mean giving people the freedom to die as painfully as possible.