Wake me when the Middle Ages are over.

Here is a nifty quote by Senator John Kerry (as part of an answer to a question related to Iraq) on Meet the Press last Sunday:

I will immediately reach out to other nations in a very different way from this administration. Within weeks of being inaugurated, I will return to the U.N. and I will literally, formally rejoin the community of nations and turn over a proud new chapter in America's relationship with the world, which will do a number of things.

When, exactly, did the United States get literally, formally barred from the community of nations?

Somehow this quote makes me wonder if our world isn't just playing out the Middle Ages all over again. Instead of the Catholic Church, we have the United Nations. Instead of the Holy Roman Empire, we have the United States. Unilateralism is now one of the seven deadly sins. And I'm sure that Jacques Chirac would agree that any country that joins in a coalition of the willing with the "excommunicated" United States is also in peril of "excommunication" from the "community of nations".

Perhaps President Bush might just have to stand outside of the gate at Canossa, so to speak, to get back into the good graces of "Pope" Kofi Annan.