"We do know where this train is going; what we don't know is how many people are prepared to lie across the track."

Personally, I didn't think the AIDS speech at the Liberal Party convention (PDF here) was one of Bono's standout efforts on the topic. I found it a little too self-indulgent, although commentators seem to be falling all over themselves to say how "powerful" it was and so on.

But we're also getting, as we do every single time Bono does something high-profile about AIDS in Africa and debt relief, a new round of shoot-from-the-hip broadsides: either "what on earth does a rock star know about international development?" or "why doesn't he just shut up and spend some of his own money on the cause?" or more frequently both at once.

You know, if you disagree with the guy's position, fine. Not everyone shares his politics; jump right in and start refuting, if you want to. But "what on earth does a rock star know about international development"?! "Why doesn't he just shut up and spend some of his own money on the cause"?! Have these people been living under a rock for the past three years?