ibyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi is "a lunatic who deserves an international cold shoulder," said Andrew Belonsky in Gawker. So it's not surprising that Englewood, N.J., turned him away, then the Pierre Hotel did the same thing, and then the leaders of Bedford, N.Y., made a last ditch attempt to stop the "Libyan dictator" from pitching his air-conditioned, Bedouin-style tent in their town, on the lawn of an estate owned by Donald Trump's company. (watch video footage of Qaddafi's tent) The trouble is, the hubbub is attracting attention to his visit, "and that's exactly what he wants."

If anyone should have turned away Muammar al-Qaddafi, said Mohamed Eljahmi in National Review, it was the United Nations. The U.S., too, has offered Libya undeserved accolades for giving up its weapons of mass destruction program, calling the country a model for other rogue states to follow. Qaddafi has solidified his rule thanks to six years of engagement with the world—and what have we received in return?

For one thing, said Geoffrey Robertson in The Daily Beast, we got a vile and rambling Qaddafi "rant" before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that was "arguably the lowest point in that organization’s history." This "was black humor at its zenith: the world’s worst international terrorist and mass murderer urging the United Nations to investigate all the atrocities with which he is not connected." When the worst criminals "can strut in triumph on the General Assembly stage," global justice has a long way to go.