NORTH KOREA, SOUTH KOREA, MARILYN MONROE: Over the weekend former President Jimmy Carter, who did more negotiating with terrorists than any other U.S. president, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, in a move that was seen both as a rebuke to President Bush and his plans for a pre-emptive war against Iraq and as a reward for Carter's various acts of "freelance diplomacy" since leaving office. One such act was the 1994 agreement, brokered by Carter, between the U.S. and North Korea in which the U.S. agreed to concessions that amounted to bribery if the North Koreans agreed to suspend its nuclear weapons program. But, as totalitarian and/or Communist dictatorships are wont to do, Pyongyang failed to live up to their end of the deal, and admitted today that they now have nuclear capability. This news comes as a rebuke to both the Nobel Committee and to opponents of Bush's Iraq war; it just proves once again that if appeasement didn't work in '94 (or in '38, or any other time in history) why on Earth would it work for Saddam now? I'm not sure how this crisis will be solved, but let's agree to not let Jimmy Carter anywhere near it. Nor near that other Axis of Evil country, Iran.
(And yes, since the upcoming World Series is indeed "California Baseball," this has been a very topical week for "We Didn't Start the Fire." My pick? Angels in six.)