I bless the rains down in Africa

With all the Live-8 prattling about poverty in Africa*, people would do well to understand that poverty is caused by the constructs which allow it: thuggish dictators, socialist systems, lack of free trade, etc. We can hand over a fat blank check, but unless the politics change in these backwaters, in another 10, 20 and 30 years they'll be wheeling out Geldof's bones to solicit for more and more cash.

And it's expensive to keep performers in Hugo Boss.

*Calling for aid for "Africa" is just plain silly. Africa is a continent, not a country. I wonder how many of these dim bulbs even realize that. Some of those countries do quite a bit better than others, for the reasons I mentioned above.