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Since at least the 1960s, the John Birch Society has been fighting a lonely battle to get the United States to pull out of the United Nations and kick the UN out of New York City. If you don’t know anything about the John Birchers, they’re an interesting bunch. They’ve always believed in a world of conspiracies and communists under every rock. When it comes to the UN, though, it just might be that the Birchers had it right from the start.

The United Nations is now calling for confiscating wealth from the “super rich” in relatively prosperous countries in order to send it to poor countries. It’s not an income tax. The proposal is to confiscate 1 percent of the wealth of billionaires. It’s simple theft of an estimated $400 billion in order to send it to corrupt and repressive governments that have run their people into the ground.

I’m not worried about alleged conspiracies for a “new world order” or a fictitious “North American Union.” But I am worried about the fact that more and more people want the UN to function as a world government. A UN agency has recently proposed that it take over the management of the Internet, and the agency chief admitted that part of the purpose is to make sure that small countries’ telecom monopolies are able to make money — by preventing other ways of getting data in and out of the country. Doesn’t that sound like a great excuse for repressive governments?

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There was once a sculptor named Pygmalion who lived on the island of Cyprus, according to a Greek myth. Pygmalion found the women of Cyprus to be quite flawed — and he couldn’t find one to accept as she really was.

So he sculpted the full-size figure of his perfect woman out of ivory. He shaped her carefully for months, making her everything that he wanted, but couldn’t find in other women. After months of work, she was finished.

Pygmalion quickly fell in love with his cold ivory figure, but no matter what he did, she remained dead stone. He had created the perfect woman, but she wasn’t alive. All he had done was to make himself miserable by falling for someone who couldn’t ever be real — while he was surrounded by flesh-and-blood women who could have loved him.

The story of Pygmalion has been through a number of versions. In Greek mythology, a Greek god brings the figure to life and Pygmalion was able marry her and have a child. But mythology always remains myth. Pygmalion’s love couldn’t really exist. We don’t have Greek gods to write impossibly happy endings to our efforts to do what he did.

Sadly, many of us — maybe most of us — have engaged in our own “Pygmalion project,” desperately trying to mold another person into a perfect person that he or she can’t be. It didn’t work for Pygmalion, and it doesn’t work for us.

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When I was growing up, I would have never applied the word “cop” to a police officer. It wasn’t respectful, and I was taught to respect police. They were there to protect me.

I don’t feel that way anymore. The police culture has changed so radically that “cop” seems too respectful for many of them. There are still some who are decent and worthy of respect, but their numbers seem to be dwindling.

I thought about that this week when I heard the news that Andy Griffith had died. As the iconic Sheriff Andy Taylor, above right, on the Andy Griffith Show, he epitomized what a small-town peace officer should be. And his attitude represented what any police officer should have. In a world where police officers are expected to act more like military storm troopers, his character still provides a stark contrast.

He cared about the people he served. He tried to do what was right for everyone, sometimes including ignoring infractions when it served justice better. And he did it all without regularly carrying a gun.

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