Today there two big news stories.
Firstly, the US Supreme Court has upheld a fundamental right to marriage for all citizens, including those that wish to marry others of the same gender.
Secondly there have been a spate of attacks claimed by IS, in Syria, in Kuwait, Tunisia and France. In Yemen. A ring of blood around the Mediterranean.
While the West (right wing social conservatives not withstanding) drifts to ever more liberal stances, the East sinks further into fundamentalism.
There are minorities on both sides, but the polarisation is clear. IS watching openly gay people in the US celebrate a victory will be yet more convinced they are right, and their enemies are evil.
Devout waverers who disapprove of the more extreme IS violence may well look at the decadence of the Western alternative and decide IS to be the lesser of two evils.
All around the world, ordinary people will be aware that while the Arab world drowns in blood, the west immerses itself in a philosophical argument about the nature of marriage.
Outside our bubble this looks like self indulgence.
The horrors visited on the Middle East, in part having grown out of Western interventions, are old news even before they are yesterday's news.
I have no strong feelings on this supreme court judgement, other than its irrelevance to real life.
If the biggest problem you have is the state's refusal to issue a certificate recognising your relationship, you don't have a problem.
On the other hand, if your biggest problem is the state does issue certificates recognising relationships you don't like, you really don't have a problem.
We collectively do have a problem in engaging with a region which we cannot begin to comprehend. Russia is authoritarian and increasingly homophobic.
It appears they understand the Middle East a bit better than we do.
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