Another reason why Atlanta should secede from Georgia

• Joeff Davis/CL File
• United Nations foot soldiers traveling on two wheels, seen here in surveillance photos, want to eat cars and ban freedom

The state's giving us bad press yet again. From The Economist's recent blog post about Georgia lawmakers' bizarre fascination with the United Nations non-plot to destroy suburbia with bike paths and transit:

... are Atlanta's Democratic mayor, Kasim Reed, and Republican attorney-general, Sam Olens, both agents of the United Nations determined to advance the cause of one-world government and outlaw private property? Before you laugh (well, okay, after you finish laughing), this is not a joke. Such concerns come not from the LaRouchey fringe, but from mainstream Georgia Republicans. Bill Heath, a Georgia state senator, warned earlier this month that advocates of Agenda 21 - a turgid, vapid, self-satisfied and of course non-binding statement of principles on development adopted 20 years ago at the Rio Conference - want to "essentially conquer the world through limiting everything we do, incrementally taking our liberties away from us." Agenda 21 was rousingly condemned at the state Republican conference last month as "an encroachment on our sovereignty" (which it might be if it were enforceable, binding, or actually did anything). And a former candidate for governor now running for commissioner of Cobb County, just north of Atlanta, condemned plans to build a jogging and biking trail alongside a highway because, "That's Agenda 21. Bicycles and pedestrian traffic as an alternative form of transportation to the automobile." Hear that, hippies? Every time you walk or bike somewhere instead of driving your car, U Thant wins.

Pray to God that the post doesn't make the print edition of the celebrated magazine of policy wonks and corporate titans around the world. Even fewer international visitors will set foot outside Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.