It's become a tradition for the US and other western countries to walk out on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once he starts speaking at the UN. The man who once confided to a journalist that the first time he spoke at the UN, a heavenly glow surrounded him, has been getting loonier and loonier as the years pass.

This year, he didn't disappoint:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flayed the West on Thursday for a catalog of misdeeds, but his address to the United Nations passed over Tehran's nuclear program and the Palestinian statehood issue.

In his 30-minute speech, the Iranian leader also failed to mention the pro-democracy uprisings that have swept the Arab world this year, including Syria, Iran's closest Arab ally.

U.S. delegates walked out when Ahmadinejad said "arrogant powers" threatened anyone who questioned the Holocaust and the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States with sanctions and military action. Other Western delegates also left, in what has become an annual feature of Ahmadinejad's U.N. appearances.

Ahmadinejad struck out at Zionism, but did not comment on the issue that has dominated this year's General Assembly -- the Palestinian plan to ask the Security Council to admit their nascent state as a full U.N. member.

He accused Washington of using the "mysterious" September 11 attacks as a pretext for wars on Iraq and Afghanistan and said Western powers "view Zionism as a sacred notion and ideology."

The White House dismissed Ahmadinejad's attack and accused Iran's government of "vile mistreatment" of its own citizens.

This is a fine tradition and I hope it continues as long as this maniac shows up to spout his conspiracy theories and hate.