---The United States financial crisis is being hailed as the death of market capitalism and has resurrected enthusiasm for socialism, notably as practiced in various parts of Asia. Choose that route, and Asian governments can yet manage to heap misery on their unsuspecting populations for years to come.---

A truly horrible joke from the days when vivisection was still permitted has it that a scientist took to the lab a trained frog that could jump whenever it heard the command "jump". In that respect, the amphibian was quite similar to communist party members around the world, but anyway let's carry on with the story.

In the lab, the scientist placed the frog on a table and swiftly sundered one limb. He then said "jump" and the frog complied with some difficulty. He then proceeded to do the same to the limb on the opposite side and said the same thing - and the frog miraculously managed to jump again. Then the third limb and the frog defied all odds by still jumping with just one limb. Finally, the last limb was split and of course this time the frog could not jump.
The scientist wrote his conclusion in the journal, "When it lost all four limbs, the frog became DEAF."