I originally thought that I would spend no more than two reading Animals in Translation : Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson. It has now been over two weeks and Iím still learning new stuff regarding the animal kingdom. I strongly urge everyone to purchase a copy.

ìPersonally, I’ve lost all patience with the U.N.; at a gut level I’d like to see the place shut down. If we’re to have ‘international institutions’ and an ‘international community,’ let’s start over again and create an organization of democracies, or of regional organizations as Walter Russell Mead discusses . . .î

The UN will not be shut down. It should be merely marginalized. The real work will occur outside its walls. Starting a new organization immediately would result in too many hard feelings and ruffled egos. We should not be overly concerned with dotting all the ìiîs and crossing all the ìtîs. Tacit and informal understandings are often good enough.

Now, going only slightly OT, I’m finding that to be a fun and provocative little treasure trove. Get it, you’ll like it!

I’m with Less Nessman. But, I’m not optomistic. If it’s anything like CBS’s “investigation”, we’re in for a rude awakening.

Two, I’ll have to see if the report has any affect at all.

John Moore- The Congolese have their own problems; let’s not inflict the U.N. on them too. Although, I hope you are right about the imminent collapse of the U.N.

BTW, I say that being neither a Clinton hater nor a Republican. Sane politics just dictates you don’t give such an independent “voice” to a member of the opposition.

I didn’t get a chance to open the paper today until dinnertime, and then I just about jumped out of my chair!

(Actually, I pretty much did jump out of my chair, so I could get to my computer, pull the story, and get it to Roger.)

The headline was huge.

Basically, the entire point of the article was that it’s not just the ‘right-wing’ criticizing the U.N. anymore. It’s everyone. This point was repeated in at least 3 paragraphs.

It’s possible we’ve reached a tipping point.

Let’s hope.

Personally, I’ve lost all patience with the U.N.; at a gut level I’d like to see the place shut down. If we’re to have ‘international institutions’ and an ‘international community,’ let’s start over again and create an organization of democracies, or of regional organizations as Walter Russell Mead discusses . . .

I have no idea whether that’s what should be done. It’s what I feel.

The one thing I do know is that if the U.N. is going to stay in business, which no doubt it will, then it has got to be radically reformed. It has got to adhere to basic rules of transparency and accountability.

This passage is incredible:

At the end of January, Mr Volcker will issue his preliminary findings. “That may be a transition point,” Mr Malloch Brown said, “where people realise that banging [on about] the need for management reform is not [just] responding to Republicans in shoe-boxes on the belt-way.

“It should be a mainstream preoccupation of every government shareholder of the UN.” Mr Malloch Brown, who was formerly head of the UN Development Programme, also warned of sweeping changes at the world body.

We should also move UN headquarters there and refuse to pay for any conferences held anywhere else.

I predict the UN would collapse in a year.