Many of you will be too young to remember LiveAid, the music industries mega-concert designed to raise funds for starving Ethopians. Geldof's own forgettable music career has long been overshadowed by his role as principle organizer, and while the concert was declared an unqualified success, it is also an object lesson on how well-intentioned, but stupid lefties can kill more people that the entire U.S. army has in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Between the BBC documentary, other news stories, and the Live Aid concerts, nearly a billion dollars flowed into Ethiopia during the '80s. Most of it came from various foreign governments; Geldof's efforts represented nearly a quarter of total.

Along with the cash, thousands of western workers and journalists began to enter Ethiopia. Mengistu knew a good thing when he saw it and used the combined tidal wave of money and sympathy to prop up his regime. He required that relief workers convert their western tender to the local currency at a rate favorable to his junta, which tripled its foreign currency reserves, allowing it to buy arms and materiel. Mengistu's troops also commandeered aid vehicles and fed themselves on the incoming foodstuffs. As Wolf notes, "it became clear that a significant proportion of the relief food in Tigray--the epicenter of the famine--was consigned to the militia. The militias were known locally as 'wheat militias'."

The money allowed Mengistu to string out his war efforts for six more years. Between starvation and outright murder, the war cost more than 100,000 Ethiopian lives.

What do you want to bet that the global warming gig ends in similar fashion?