Runelight

PJ O’Rourke, writer, 64;

Don’t Vote: It only encourages the bastards

THE American auto industry as we knew it – even just 12 short months ago – is officially dead and as nobody yet knows what will emerge from the ashes of automotive behemoths such as General Motors and Chrysler (Ford are still clinging to the wreckage of gross corporate mismanagement), PJ O’Rourke’s paean to this once-great and all powerful manufacturing phenomenon is timely.

Optimistic analysts hope the appalling suffering in Burma will inevitably lead to the collapse of the junta and its replacement by a government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. It’s a forlorn hope: the Burmese army is willing to kill civilians in large numbers. So long as the army stays united, nothing will change