Iraq is in line to take over as chairman of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in May, prompting one U.S. official Wednesday to say: "The irony is overwhelming." [Associated Press, 1/29/03]Just what is it going to take for people to wake up and throw the U.N. overboard?
"If [Saddam Hussein] were to leave the country, and take some of his family members with him, and others in the leading elite that have been responsible for so much trouble during the course of his regime, we would, I'm sure, try to find a place for them to go," [Colin] Powell said at the State Department.
Saddam Hussein must be killed--not imprisoned, and certainly not allowed to retire to some villa.
A British police force announced Friday it has come up with a new measure to combat crime--a polite letter asking persistent offenders to mend their ways.
"I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that, due to your criminal activity, your name appears on the above data and has highlighted you as a persistent offender," said the letters.
The letter helpfully suggests that the offender "make it a priority in any New Year's resolutions you make from 2003 onwards, to cease forthwith your criminal activities." [Associated Press, 1/24/03]
[Read about the usual government weapon against crime victims in England and Massachusetts!--Ed.]
Is there a murderous thug the French do not want to do business with? The day after an E.U. ban on travel by Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe, Chirac invites him to a summit. You can't make this stuff up. [1/24/03]
According to Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, who proposed the restrictions as part of an amendment to a spending bill, several Republicans saw the Pentagon's insidious plan as "about the most far-reaching government surveillance proposal we have ever heard about." Unfortunately, the restrictions left a few loopholes through which the Department of Defense will probably be able to smuggle enough White Out to cover most of the 4th Amendment--not that anyone reads the Constitution anymore.
But hey, maybe we'll all grow up to be big and strong some day, and Big Brother won't seem so big after all.