You can't make this stuff up. The United Nations, bereft of both ideas and dignity, has enlisted "celebrity ambassadors" and "messengers of peace" as is reported in WSJ.com's Opinion Journal. Some low lights:

Take actress Angelina Jolie, whose duties, like those of most goodwill ambassadors, consist mostly of touring some U.N. project while the TV cameras are on. An official U.N. press release describes the "Tomb Raider" star as having "said that despite the fact that she had not learned much in school about what was going on in the world, she had always thought the United Nations was a good institution." So much for the age of cynicism.

Singer Harry Belafonte, now serving in Unicef's ranks, thanked the U.N. for not allowing the world to be turned into a "great carbon mass" and spoke darkly of "immoral" forces "who would oppose us in what we do." In case that wasn't clear, Mr. Belafonte lamented how the "most powerful nation in the world" had yet to ratify the U.N.'s convention on children's rights.

Mr. Belafonte appears to be supported by an Irish politician named Mary Banotti, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Population Fund. She complained that her agency was under attack from a "bizarre international coalition" headed by (of course!) the Bush administration. Mercifully no one pressed Ms. Banotti to describe the coalition of goodwill ambassadors of which she is a part, a collection that includes a Jordanian princess, three former Miss Universes, an ex-Spice Girl, American actors and actresses, an Indian tennis star and Mr. Armani.

I'm thinking of establishing a BIC (Bizarre International Coalition) outpost here at the store. We'll all wear feed caps and talk about fishing. 'Course we mostly do that anyhow.