[headsonpikes]

Great essay, even if a trifle rosy-hued.

Once again, I urge people to Google Mithridates, an Asian enemy of Rome comparable to Saddam, Osama, or the Mahdi.

The various responses to his bloody threat highlighted the Constitutional crisis developing in Rome, which led within a generation to the downfall of the Republic.

[Carry_Okie]

Here I part with Mr. Hansen,

turned the president of Malaysia into an international laughingstock,

Malathir pulled one of the smartest coups against the international criminal order of any president in the developing world by putting velocity limits on currency trades that would have bankrupted his country. There was no meltdown as predicted, Soros lost two billion bucks as he richly deserved (a real victory for freedom loving people everywhere), and most important, his country stayed in the hands of its own people. For any person who respects private property rights, that is a heartwarming development.