Take the damn thing home

• To the Olympic Organising Committee in Beijing: Take the damn Olympic torch and go home with it. Its round-the-world tour was supposed to celebrate the Olympic spirit, but has already turned that spirit into farce. The torch has gone out several times already, and there are 20 or so cities to go. Can't you see what's going on?

• To Father Garfield Rochard, parish priest of the Assumption Church in Port of Spain: Last year you forbade your congregation to feed or support Harold Joseph, an indigent who had witnessed a murder. Your reason was that he would be executed to stop him giving evidence in court, and you didn't want any shooting on your church compound. Sure enough, on Saturday the man was executed by persons unknown. In your press interviews, published today, you sound as if you are almost gloating over a man's death since it seems to "vindicate" your decision. Is this what Christian "love" has come to in this pious Catholic country? All the resources of church and state can't protect one man against violent retribution, and he must be cast out of the church community lest your congregation suffer any risk on his behalf?

• So the violence has started in Zimbabwe, as expected. What will the "international community" do, that little group of western saints acting as the moral guardians of the world? In Kenya last December, they watched Mwai Kibaki steal an election from under their noses, with nothing more than a "Tut tut, now be good boys and try to get along". (There's new violence in Kenya today as people get exasperated with Kibaki's waiting game.) Now in Zimbabwe they watch Robert Mugabe stealing another election, again from right under their noses, and so far there's been nothing but "The results will surely be out soon and they really need to be fair ... please fellas!" To say nothing of Darfur in Sudan, or Somalia, or Rwanda. What on earth is the point of developing this doctrine of "pre-emptive intervention" to justify invading Iraq, while in eastern Africa it's "goodness me, we can't do anything about that, we cannot interfere in people's sovereign affairs". (Ooops, I forgot: oil-n'-gas. Silly me.)

• Mugabe has really excelled himself in this election. Having printed enough extra ballot papers to stuff every box in the land, it still wasn't enough, and he's had to frantically play for time to hatch Plans B, C and D. Fancy being such an idiot that you can't even rig your own election efficiently.

• Petraeus, Crocker, McCain: such a predictable chorus reporting to the Armed Services Committee in Washington today. No more troop withdrawals from Iraq! Victory is in sight! Stay the course! Don't risk reversing the successes of The Surge! Don't let Our Boys down! Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? Senator John McCain actually declared: "Our allies, Arab countries, the UN and the Iraqis themselves will not step up to their responsibilities if we recklessly retreat." (Talk about American hubris. How to insult the entire world in a single sentence. This is the guy who might be the next president?) So war equals peace. Defeat equals victory. Disagreement is undemocratic. The wonderful world of Lil' Bush.