There's going to be a minute's silence in the UK, which seems way over the top to me, bearing in mind the many horrors that have afflicted the world without ever warranting such a gesture.

Anyone like me who's tired of the over-reaction could use that minute remembering Chile's (elected) President Allende and (this being Mudcat) the folksinger Victor Jara. They were murdered at the behest of the CIA on September 11 1973.

Kissinger's comment on that episode was: "We do not have to accept a country going Marxist because of the irresponsibility of its people."

I was going to say "How does the US get away with it?" But of course on one famous day last year it didn't.