Need an actual answer to a question?

Then maybe you'd best not ask an expatriate academic... FLIP, FLIP, FLIP...

During the French-language leaders’ debate, the Liberal chief was adamant that he’d let the United Nations Security Council make the ultimate call on whether to send Canadian troops abroad.

“The Canadian army must NEVER be used outside the country without the authorization of the UN,” Ignatieff told his debate partners.

...but just wait a day and... FLOP...

Then he dialed back his debate rhetoric and admitted there could be exceptions.

“Well, the UN screwed up in Rwanda, it screwed up in Bosnia — it screws up most of the time,” Ignatieff is quoted as saying in a Maclean’s magazine article in June, 2003. “The United Nations is a messy, wasteful, log-rolling organization.”

Say what you will about Michael Ignatieff... he's flexible...

"It was right for me to support the Iraq war when I was an academic, because academics live in outer space on Planet Zinfandel, and play with ideas all day."

"But now, as a politician in a country that opposed the war, I'll admit I screwed up, because politicians must deign to harness the wild mares of whimsy to the ox-cart of cold, calculated reality."

Or, hells bells... maybe you could ask a "community advisor"...

"Their vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America," he said, supposedly pitting "children with autism or Down's syndrome" against "every millionaire and billionaire in our society."

Of course, Barry... it's just that simple.