Peoria Pundit

This story is hilarious. For reasons I won’t go into, workers at the five cafeterias inside the United Nation’s building staged an impromptu wildcat strike Friday. Remember, the U.N. claims the moral authority to govern the behavior of the United States. This is the organization that claims to bring civility and the rule to law to international affairs. So, how did these civilized, law-abiding diplomats handle the situation?

[W]hat ensued was nothing short of Baghdad style chaos.

Kofi Annan, who had a private lunch previously scheduled with the members of the Security Council in the Delegates Dining Room, found they were only served the main course. After that, they were on their own ? no desserts, no cleanup, no coffee for Kofi. And the service was no better for anyone else at the U.N. But as tensions grew and stomachs growled, a high-ranking U.N. official boldly ordered that all the cafeterias open their doors for business even without staff. The restaurants had been locked shut by security until about 1:00 p.m. when the doors flung open.

The decision to make the cafeterias into “no pay zones” spread through the 40-acre complex like wildfire. Soon, the hungry patrons came running. “It was chaos, wild, something out of a war scene,” said one Aramark executive who was present. “They took everything, even the silverware,” she said. Another witness from U.N. security said the cafeteria was “stripped bare.” And another told TIME that the cafeteria raid was “unbelievable, crowds of people just taking everything in sight; they stripped the place bare.” And yet another astonished witness said that “chickens, turkeys, souffles, casseroles all went out the door (unpaid).”

The mob then moved on to the Viennese Café, a popular snack bar in the U.N.’s conference room facility. It was also stripped bare. The takers included some well-known diplomats who finished off the raid with free drinks at the lounge for delegates. When asked how much liquor was lifted from the U.N. bar, one U.S. diplomat responded: “I stopped counting the bottles.” He then excused himself and headed towards the men’s room.

An Aramark executive estimated the food “removed” from the U.N.’s main cafeteria at between $7,000 and $9,000 not including the staff restaurant, the Viennese Café or the Delegate’s Bar. The value of the missing silverware has yet to be estimated.

Read the whole story. It sounds like it happened in some banana republic, not the capital of World Government. But, this comes as no surprise. The United Nations runs its affairs like the majority of its members run their economies: By command, the rule of law be damned.

Yet these are the people to whom some in the the anti-war crowd would defer the United State’s sovereign right to defend itself. These are the people to whom some environmentalists would defer the right of the United States government to determine our own use of natural resources.

Remember how the liberals castigated Jesse Helms for holding up U.S. funding for the United Nations? This is why he did it. This is why we should walk away from this U.N. It claims to equalize nations, when all it does it create the fantasy that nations ruled by robber barons are equal to those governed by its own people.

My complaint with this story is that the names of the guilty parties were withheld.

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The Deseret News writes about the resignation of Jay Shelledy, the editor who mishandled the National Enquirer scandal.

[Michael] Vigh — one of the fired reporters [the other is Kevin Cantera] — said he had mixed feelings about the editor’s resignation. Vigh said he had worked for Shelledy for five years, having been hired in as a police reporter from the Tooele Transcript Bulletin.

“I love the guy,” he said. “He’s always been good to me, and he’s been fair with with me. He’s always been a person that I could go to and talk to about different things in my life,” said Vigh. “I called him ‘Uncle Jay.’ So from that perspective, I don’t want him to go through this, but I feel like he did the wrong thing when, two weeks ago, I went to him and said, ‘I’ve done something wrong, let me resign.’ ”

Vigh said he and Cantera “literally begged” Shelledy and other editors to assign a Tribune reporter to the story. Vigh said he and Cantera felt that through a story they could express their regret for having dealt with the Enquirer and that it might have have “stopped some of the embarrassment.”

“(Shelledy) said we weren’t as big as we thought, and it wasn’t going to be that big of a story,” said Vigh.

Vigh said he didn’t necessarily agree that the paper needs new leadership in order to recover.

“If that’s (Shelledy’s) opinion, that’s fine, but there are a lot of people who wanted (Shelledy) gone, and they are using this as the opportunity to push him out the door,” Vigh said.

He wouldn’t let you resign? Crap. Vigh, you are an honorless piece of scum. Had you really felt shame at your shameful behavior, you would have handed in your letter of resignation and walked out. Period. There is no doubt in my mind that Shelledy’s refusal to accept your resignation made you feel relieved that you had gotten away with it. Had you had any sense of shame to begin with, you would never have taken $10,000 to confirm a lurid story that a decent newspaper like the Salt Lake Tribune would not print.

Good luck finding another job in journalism, you asshat, because your reputation is so trashed no one will hire you. Hold on to that $10,000. I have a feeling the Smart family is going to want to take it away from you. You did, after all, libel them for money.

Don’t bother trying to get a job with your friends at the Enquirer. You don’t pass their credibility standards, either. I cannot imagine a sadder condition for a newsman.

Tell you what, next time I’m in Utah, maybe you’ll be taking my order at the drive-thru while your buddy Cantera is picking up trash in the parking lot.

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