Sometimes, Roger, I think the whole world has gone bananas. The level of nonsense is amazing.

Of course, a more accurate analysis would be that the …hmmm… can’t find a good word… rulers? mandarins? elites? have gone nuts. Actually, a good word is needed there. These people are in undemocratic positions of power – sometimes substantial power. And from our point of view they are flippin’ nuts. In reality, I think they are merely behaving as elites do: they are ruling. They are not constrained by democracy, by majorities, or frankly, by anything at all. So they are ruling. And they are ruling as they see fit. This time its the judges. Next time it will be the weasel Chirac, or the terrorist Fischer.

Darfur was a big topic here. The French have major oil interests in Darfur. Expect security council help there?

It would seem that the Europeans and their institutions are enough for one or two outrages per day, and yet they are not even that significant a part of the modern world.

The Democratic party appears to be the US part of this ruling elite, except they aren’t ruling (yet).