[Pokey78]

Pinging the Steyn list.

[LisaFab]

Another Steyn beauty. Thanks Pokey.

[facedown]

They have to write their names on the ballot, and in case they're tempted to put ''John al-Smith'' or ''Jane bin Doe,'' they have to fill them out in the presence of ''officials.''

Mark Hadiq Steyn.

BTTT

[Amelia]

One of those perfect Steyn articles where it's hard to find a FAVORITE line! But I really liked this one:

Anyway, I found Belafonte's slave comments so outrageous that I decided to throw out all my Belafonte CDs. Then I discovered I didn't have any.

I don't even have any Belafonte LPs...

[nicmarlo]

So the guy's out there on the stump pressing the flesh. I mean, as opposed to the flesh he presses with the hot pokers down in the basement. . .

We should send Blahblah Streisand, the singer, Alec Baldwin, the actor, Algore, the inventor, and David Bonior and Jim McDermott, the politicians, to Iraq. These masterminds could drum up the "help" Saddam needs to retain power and get the respect he "deserves."

[EternalVigilance]

So Saddam figures, ''OK, so we can't have secret ballots and a choice of candidates, but that's no reason not to have Great Satan-style theme songs." In adopting Whitney Houston, he's neatly distilled the illusion of what the left calls ''multilateralism.'' If by ''multilateralism'' you meant persuading a significant number of the world's democracies to support you, then Bush has already done that--he's got Britain, Australia, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Turkey, etc., etc., in his corner. But that's not enough for Barbra, Harry, Ted Kennedy and the Democratic leadership. They've contracted out their position on Iraq to the United Nations: We can only do anything through the UN, so we can only do whatever the UN wants to do. The Church of England's bishops argue that this is the ''moral'' position: a ''just war'' is a war the UN approves.

Well, if you happen to dig the UN, fine. Each to his own. What's absurd is the notion that it provides any kind of ''moral authority.'' The UN represents a dilution of moral authority, in which the voices of the 84 free nations in the world are merged with the remaining 107. Many of those 107 are, like Iraq, not nations in any meaningful sense but simply the personal expression of one man's will. Nevertheless, the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, like the Danish ambassador to the United Nations, is a guy in a well-tailored suit who lives in New York and gets chauffeured to work each day. And that's what matters: the suit, not the thug inside it; the veneer, not the reality. The world observes the polite fiction that the Syrian "foreign minister" is a functioning cabinet secretary in the way that the New Zealand foreign minister is. There may be a crude geopolitical necessity in this, but there is certainly no moral component.

As usual, Steyn's humor is razor sharp.

But putting joking aside, the two paragraphs above are a near-perfect summation of the current state of left-wing politics in America, globally and of the U.N.--a window on the big picture state of world affairs in October 2002.

Anyone who thinks the UN represents any kind of moral authority is delusional....even if you're an Anglican Bishop.

This is the best and most insightful line in the whole piece:

The UN represents a dilution of moral authority..

EV

[Imal]

Ouch! Reading about Saddam's campaign gave me a painful flashback to Clinton's "ownership" of the 1996 US Presidential Elections. Saddam is obviously taking cues from "The Master" (talk about the "Great Satan"!).

[joesnuffy]

Does Whitney sing in Iraqeese?

[xJones]

All over Baghdad, folks are switching on the radio and there's Whitney ululating ''I will always love you-oo-oooaahooeauooooeeeuoaaaoooo . . . '' And, all over Baghdad, folks in the next apartment are sighing, ''Terrific. Saddam's got those Shiites at No. 23 wired up to the cattle prods again.

LOL, we knew Saddam was into torture, but the UN really out to intervene to stop THAT song being played.

[FreetheSouth!]

bump

[Joan912]

The UN represents a dilution of moral authority, in which the voices of the 84 free nations in the world are merged with the remaining 107. Many of those 107 are, like Iraq, not nations in any meaningful sense but simply the personal expression of one man's will.

How many African countries fall under this definition?

[RobFromGa]

What's happening on Tuesday wouldn't pass the smell test in any functioning polity, even New Jersey.

Nice job again by the Man From NH.

[Neophyte]

Perhaps Dick Morris has some internal numbers showing Iraqi soccer moms want more spending on education and less on anthrax.

Iraqi soccer moms? This is marvelous!

[foreshadowed at waco]

Nevertheless, the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, like the Danish ambassador to the United Nations, is a guy in a well-tailored suit who lives in New York and gets chauffeured to work each day. And that's what matters: the suit, not the thug inside it; the veneer, not the reality

The real reason why most liberals hate Bush IMHO is because they don't want to give up the ridiculous fiction that organizations like the UN can handle world affairs through diplomacy. They talk themselves and everyone around them to death. They back down from direct confrontations when bullies push them around. They are dangerous because they put our country at risk. They chant that they don't want to die for Iraqi oil. Well I don't want to die for liberal naivete and cowardice.