[BRIEF NOTE] Schadenfreude
Mar. 11th, 2007 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldWriting in The Telegraph, Jeff Randall's "Lord Black's Downfall" provides an excellent overview of the history and impending downfall of Conrad Black, a Canadian-born press baron best known for his hard-right politics (Thatcher was appalled by his support for the idea of torturing criminals, at least according to Tom Bower's biography) and his looting of his company's finances to pay for a billionaire's lifestyle. Black is a piece of work: Explaining his existence Thursday night to Americans ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lemurbuoy and schizmatic, I was taken by the latter's observation that Black is Canada's version of Lex Luthor. This is true, though myself I think that he bears closer comparison to some decadent eastern European aristocrat of the belle époque, perhaps a Hungarian magnate who liked boozing it up with his friends in the sauna and writing stern letters to the press condemning the development of evil ideologies--minority nationalisms, say, and socialism--among his peasantry. Fortunately, the United States has a functioning legal system quite capable of dealing with people of his ilk.
lemurbuoy and schizmatic, I was taken by the latter's observation that Black is Canada's version of Lex Luthor. This is true, though myself I think that he bears closer comparison to some decadent eastern European aristocrat of the belle époque, perhaps a Hungarian magnate who liked boozing it up with his friends in the sauna and writing stern letters to the press condemning the development of evil ideologies--minority nationalisms, say, and socialism--among his peasantry. Fortunately, the United States has a functioning legal system quite capable of dealing with people of his ilk.
