As if the UN did not already have a mountain of failures to live down, along comes the two of the worlds most P.T. Barnum like dictators complete with misinformation, ranting and name calling. Diplomacy and civilized discourse itself has been seriously affronted not to mention the office of the U.S. President.



Iran’s Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressing the UN said things that betray his ignorance of protocol, truthfulness and history. In one breath he said “I respect the Jews" but made no effort to explain his previous cry to wipe them off the map. In a typically uninformed world view he asked why the Palestinians were not allowed to determine their own fate as it pertains to their own ancient homeland. Prior to 1948 Palestinians never used the phrase “homeland" and were not looking for one even in the remotest sense of the word.

His contorted view of history ignores a 4000 year long history of Jewish ownership of Israel as do almost all Muslims around the world. This view gives new meaning to the cliché “don’t confuse me with the facts." But here is a dictator who doesn’t believe there was ever a holocaust. For all of the faults of the Third Reich poor record keeping was not one of them. The holocaust is without exception the most well documented slaughter in history. One could say it may be easier to document the holocaust than to document Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This dictator leaves credulity blowing in the wind and makes anyone wonder how he ever came to power. Perhaps ranting is all that’s needed to take power in Iran. The bottom line is that this is not the kind of man that needs to have a nuclear arsenal at his disposal by any stretch of the imagination.

Next is Hugo Chavez to the UN floor with name calling and metaphoric reference to odors of burning sulfur left behind by the recent visit of President George Bush. Chavez may see himself as the modern counterpart of South America’s most renowned statesmen Simon Bolivar but that comparison resides only in the mind of Mr. Chavez. Not even his own countrymen would dare to stretch things that far.

Venezuela may not see baseball the way Americans do but there is something in that game that seems all too well suited for Mr. Chavez, namely “three strikes and your out." What were those three strikes? Let’s examine each briefly.

The first strike against Mr. Chavez came as a result of his complete and utter abandonment of gentility, propriety, respect and protocol. To blast the leaders of a host country unashamedly while enjoying every courtesy and advantage available to him as a visiting statesman is pure unbridled indecency. That President Bush did not respond in kind or at all only gave greater honor to the presidency and Mr. Bush. The rest of us would have liked to give Mr. Chavez the bums rush, with the exception of Danny Glover. Perhaps for Glover and Chavez that liaison might be their version of “Dancing with the Stars."

The second strike came when Chavez decided to take to the neighborhood church and from a pulpit cover his lack of refinement with offers of help for America’s poor. Oh please.

Spreading around some cheap oil is only a cheap trick in disguise. Let’s not forget that spreading money and benevolence around the neighborhood is not a new idea in the quest for followers and adherents. Jim Jones paid peoples mortgages, rent and bills but in the end fed them poison cool aid. Hezbollah helps people all over Lebanon with the hope that this once proud and independent country will not bite the hand that feeds them even while the other hand is lobbing bombs at Lebanon’s neighbors. Al Capone and other mobsters were sure to give favors to the immigrants and neighborhoods in various cities at the same time they bred corruption and murder at will. Let’s throw in the drug cartels of Columbia who are well known for dumping multi millions of dollars around that nation to gain an army of silent but compatriot ally’s among the common people. Some have called it a political stunt but regardless of what its called…that’s strike two.

To see how Chavez made strike three requires a little knowledge of the Bible. Even as Chavez was blessing himself with the (catholic) sign of the cross he repeatedly called President Bush the devil. Perhaps Mr. Chavez could find an excuse in the fact that Catholicism depends more on ex-cathedra and patristic teachings rather than the Bible. Maybe it is the fault of those who taught Mr. Chavez his brand of Christianity. In any case even while he invoked God by the sign of the cross he was committing what the Bible calls the one and only unforgivable sin, blasphemy of the Spirit.

To say that the spirit that is in a man and from which he gets his inspiration and unction is the Devil when it is in fact Gods Spirit is blasphemy according to scripture. See Matthew 12: 31-32 If Mr. Chavez did this ignorantly or not is for God alone to judge but either way Mr. Chavez is stuck with either the guilt of blasphemy or the guilt of wholesale ignorance. Strike three, your out.

Volumes could be written on the two dancing dictators but suffice it to say less may be more. Taking a cue from President George Bush we won’t go any further than to say these boys may be able to dance to the applause of the UN but they couldn’t make it through the national anthem in a simple game of baseball.