I guess this whole concept started with Woodrow Wilson and his League of Nations. You know the drill. All of us civilized folk would get around the table and reason together. There would be an end to war, global cooperation, and all that.

Wilson didn't live to see it, of course, but what we got instead was World War II.

Undaunted, the one-worlders came up with the ill-named United Nations. Actually, it is more like the United Governments, but these days it is really the Disunited Governments.

Fast forward to the present. Every day, we hear conservatives like Rush Limbaugh telling us how good free trade is. There's one problem: The public isn't buying it. They see the results. A plant moves to Mexico, and thousands of jobs are lost.

But goods are cheaper to buy, Rush assures us. Maybe so, if you have a job. By this line of reasoning, there was no problem with the Great Depression. True enough, if you had money then, there were bargains galore--especially in real estate. Just ask the Rockefellers. The problem was that the general economy was pulled way down. The fact that consumer goods might be cheaper is irrelevant, incompetent and immaterial!

Now for the good news. Maybe, just maybe, the people have had enough.

Despite backing from nearly every conceivable quarter--from ex-presidents to think tanks to the media, Clinton's Fast Track is dead.

With markets collapsing in Asia, our own stock markets have been affected. Expect an avalanche of more cheap goods coming in from Asia in a desperate attempt to prop up the failed economies over there. There will be loud voices calling for bailouts. In fact, it's already happened in Indonesia. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank, with the help of Uncle Sugar, will want to bail everybody out.

Actually, it's the American banks that would have to be saved. They have lots of money invested in Asia.

For all those who proclaim "Free Markets!" I say fine. You took your profits, now take your losses. To be sure, the people are against bailouts. If Congress has any backbone, it may support the will of the people, but I wouldn't bet the mortgage on it.

As far as global politics are concerned, why be surprised when nobody except the Brits line up with us against Iraq? Saddam is playing the world like a violin. All he's doing is stalling for more time, until he can deploy his weapons.

Sorry George, but there is no New World Order. The US has to take a stand all by itself.

Good Lord! Think about it. How can globablism ever work? There are so many competing agendas, that you can't really expect countries to agree on anything. That's reality, like it or not. I'm enough of a pessimist to think that even if we were attacked by aliens, instead of uniting, certain countries would be trying to work out their own deal with the invaders.

Leave it to a professor like Wilson to lead us down this absurd path.

Maybe we've finally seen the light.