I find myself strangely tired today, so rather than a stringent critique I'll confine myself to some reformist pleasantries and prove that even bitter Marxists can be happy.

This is a quote from Conrad Black:

While few judges or prosecutors would be afraid to exercise their perfectly legitimate discretion in favour of an ordinary man, not to mention a minority group member, most would be terrified to exercise the same discretion for someone politically, financially or socially powerful.

Most... but not all. Monday's papers were splashed with the frontpage news that ex-media mogul Conrad Black has been indicted on fraud charges. It's alleged that he and his top executives siphoned millions of dollars from the sale of Hollinger newspapers into their private pockets, including a $60,000 surprise birthday party for wife Barbara Amiel.

Contemplating his future as prison currency

The media's been full of gleeful reports on his decline and fall, how he hasn't been seen publicly since he did the rounds of Toronto ruling class get-togethers in September. It's so easy to kick someone when they're down. Too easy. So let's take a couple of seconds to reflect on Black's legacy. He's

- anti-union. Black bought the Calgary Herald in 1996. He began pressuring employees to change their news content. Employees unionized in response to the changes and sought a first contract for a year. When Black's management team refused basic contract provisions, workers went on strike. Black accused them of intimidation and vandalism. When asked about why he launches personal attacks on his staff, "Black said, 'We're not. We're amputating gangrenous limbs'."
- anti-communist. Often to be found quoting Lenin's "useful idiots" phrase about anyone who compromises with the left, implying that the left will use you if you let them. Oh wait, he's probably right about that. (BTW, did Lenin actually call anyone a 'useful idiot'? I've never found the quote.)
anti-gay. He blames homosexual teachers for abusing him in his salad days at Upper Canada College.
- neo-conservative. OK, that's a no-brainer. But apparently he's part of the crowd that funds the neo-con establishment, including the American Enterprise Institute and the Project for a New American Century. (I won't provide a link for this source; the article I read spends much of its time caricaturing Alan Wald's history of the neo-cons, and their trajectory from Trotskyism to the corridors of power. For example, the author claims that the neo-cons learnt public letter-writing from Trotskyists - because no one wrote a public letter before Trotsky, right? Don't blame us for this mess.)
- Zionist. Well, actually his wife, who is an 'ardent' supporter of the Likud Party and once lamented the fact that no one had assassinated Yasser Arafat. Arafat was a soft-shelled misruler of the Palestinian people who led them into the disastrous Oslo process, giving legal cover to the continuing Israeli colonial occupation. To assassinate him because he went too far? That's the purvue of the radical right, whom Amiel & Black fund and represent.

So, all prejudices aside, let's be clear: the man is evil and is finally getting the kicking he deserves. I wish the public prosecutor the best of luck in applying the firm foot of American justice to his pasty white ass. Of course, he won't get deported to Syria for torturing; and even though he's failed to appear in court, prosecutors are being lenient and won't demand his extradition yet. But hope remains. I've read that American prisons don't have the 'right type' of people (again no link, damn subscription newspapers), but that Black can't get transferred to Canada since he gave up his citizenship. So he'll have to suffer along with all the other working class people. See? The system works.