Over the past few weeks we've been hearing a new term in interviews and statements from government ministers and the heads of national security agencies - "lone wolf terrorism". I've been trying for a little while to come to terms with this concept and what it means. I think it's helpful to think about the deliberate killing of human beings as taking place along a continuum, as shown below. I'm not suggesting this is a moral continuum. All these forms of killing are awful. The continuum is related to the public or political nature of the act. Murder is essentially a private act. When Brett Cowan killed Daniel Morcombe he was indulging his own twisted enjoyment of seeing someone else suffer. When Carl Williams killed or arranged the killing of various members and associates of the Moran family he was protecting and extending his family's control of Melbourne's illicit drug trade. When Adam Lanza shot 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary Sch
'Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that lies just beyond our grasp.' - Rachel Carson