There’s a scene in the Simpsons where Bart complains about the heat to his father, Homer Simpson, saying: “This is the hottest summer of my life.” Homer wags a finger at Bart and corrects him: “This is the coldest summer of the rest of your life.”

If a gangster shoots a rocket launcher in the forest and no one is around to see it, did it really happen?

Symbolism is as important to terrorists as the body count resulting from their attacks, and in the devastating bombing of the police lines mosque in Peshawar this week, an atrocity that has claimed close to 100 lives thus far, the terrorists have drawn blood on both counts.

The friendship of princes – of potentates and powers that be — is a fickle thing indeed.