Once upon a time...

...there was a pretty clear demarcation between "good and evil"... consequently, most people could know exactly where they stood on any particular issue.

Hitler, Stalin and Tojo were unequivocally bad people. Criminals deserved to be punished. The Dalai Lama was a force for good. Capitalism made people's lives better.

The "watering down" of any sort of claim to moral authority, though... has changed the way the world works.

“The Security Council condemns the 5 April 2009 launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which is in contravention of Security Council resolution 1718,” the U.S.-drafted statement said.

“The Security Council demands that the DPRK not conduct any further launch.”

“We think this text sends a clear message,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters.

Yes, Ambassador... it does.

It sends exactly the same message... that my alcohol-soaked father shouted at my 17 year-old self when he was displeased with my behaviour... that he was totally powerless to affect my behaviour.

Instead of "being grounded" as he so desperately desired, I was able to simply walk out the door and go live with whichever of my friends was willing to take me in for the duration of his latest tantrum.

It's a crude analogy... but after years of ineffectual "statements" and "warnings" the fractious offspring of the United Nations do indeed have Daddy's number.

The deal on the final text of a so-called presidential statement was clinched at a two-hour meeting on Saturday that ended a weeklong deadlock on a Security Council response to North Korea's rocket launch last Sunday.

Presidential statements are formal statements of council positions read out by the president of the Security Council. They are generally considered to be weaker than resolutions.

And to top it all off... there's Mom... sitting there at the table, watering down whatever judgement ol' Dad finally manages to come up with.

Although the statement does not explicitly declare Pyongyang in “violation” of 1718, diplomats said the finding that it contravened the resolution, a compromise that was acceptable to Beijing, has the same legal meaning.

The United Nations, much like the bloated, pork-driven Canadian Senate... is simply a way to reward your friends and political backers for a job well done.

It's an anachronistic public-relations agency... that allows every tin-pot dictator in the world to sugarcoat his bloodsoaked image.

It's time for a change. It's time to get back to actually calling things by their proper names.

Yeah sure... that could happen.

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