Jacques Chirac, that paragon of honesty, who is only narrowly avoiding trial for corruption until he leaves office, wants an international tax on airline fuel and tickets to "end epidemics in Africa" with promise of more international taxes to come. Naturally, one supposes the funds would be kept in, ah, French banks, carefully overseen by, yeah, the U.N. and audited by, ummmmm, deaf and dumb Austrian bureaucrats. The Liberals in Canada, no pikers at corruption themselves, would, no doubt, be called upon to deliver the funds to Africa.

The French may be stupid or indifferent to his checkered past and the 47 associates now on trial for corruption, but the Japanese were not keen on his plan. Presumably the U.S. laughed outloud.