What is With All the Shameless Brown Nosing of Conrad Black?

I’m really starting to get nauseous. More and more the message gets clear. The rich are free to stomp all over whomever they please, bilk them of their money (hard earned or otherwise), hurt them, perhaps even murder them? They will not only get away with it, but they get a hero’s treatment. Hell, the reversal of Conrad Black’s court decision in Chicago.  If he were not so rich, there would be a lynch mob at the courthouse.

We have folks like the Rancid Dr Jabba the Roy who still call him Lord Black, even though he was tossed out of the British House of Lords.  He calls Chretien a ‘nasty spiteful man’ for not letting him back in the country. Well hell, Black was the one who denounced his own citizenship so he could have the prestige of sitting in the British House of Lords. He was no longer a Canadian Citizen.   Chretien was within his rights to not allow a non-citizen into Canada.  Stevie is far more spiteful and nasty for refusing Canadian citizen Omar Khadr back into Canada. Should Stevie allow Black back into the country (Probably not anytime soon; I don’t think bail conditions will allow him to leave the US), I hope there will be lots of talk as to how a non citizen is easily allowed back in the country but not a citizen.

I had always known since youth that there were two types of justice: one for the uber rich and one for the mere mortals such as the working class and the other mere mortals, but I find that it is more prevalent. I also find that the mere mortals category supports this model and I can’t get why.

I guess I’ve developped a passive aggressive attitude when it comes to that rich justice/poor justice dynamic, but what really pisses me off and where I will get nasty is the gushing over him. I mean, take Jabba the Roy’s latest brown nosing outrage:

I am totally thrilled that Lord Black has been granted bail. His persecution by American authorities has led me to harbour serious doubts about the American justice system. All of the charges brought against him should have been addressed in civil court. Lord Black’s accusers have lost billions of dollars in assets, and what has this accomplished? I urge the government to reverse former prime minister Jean Chretien’s petty spite and restore Lord Black’s citizenship, in the hopes that Canada will welcome home this great man in the very near future.

What the hell is so great about him? He embezzled from his own company. Bilked his shareholders. He’s a tax evader; what’s his tax bill up to  about now? 70 million? Chump change to him. Probably spends more than that on lawyers and bean counters to find legal ways to keep him from paying that tax bill.

Well, Tasha “every Conservative male is an alpha male” Kheirriddin takes a shameless crack at this in her column, but not before she starts her, ahem, pity party for him (Bold retorts are mine):

He lost great amounts of wealth- Big Deal! He lost a zero to his net worth on paper; no longer does he possess homes in several countries-oh my heart bleeds! Many don’t have a home in their home in their own country, or a life of luxury and privilege–Really? What do you call having your guilty verdict reversed & getting treated like some unsung hero?. He lost many friends; probably not real friends to begin with, and, as he himself has noted, his “foul-weather” friends always stuck by him–Many never had any friends or family to begin with to even share good times.  He lost influence; shunned by those who formerly embraced him, he and his wife, the writer Barbara Amiel, no longer garnered invitations to A-list social events, or seats on corporate boards–I should hope so, the corporate world is corrupt enough and polite society really should be called impolite, snooty society.

Tasha, he still leads that obscene life that Robin Leach would have portrayed on his show and thusfar, I don’t see ol’ Robin knocking at your door. Why do you pity him and worse yet, why do you try to get others to do so via your column? It’s really obscene.

Now, here’s where she goes into her shameless resume of his. I can see her blushing beet red as I read it. I also felt the heat coming off the computer screen and no, it ain’t pre-menopausal hot flashes and I’m in an air conditioned room.

Canada itself has gained immeasurably from Mr. Black’s legacy.  Whether at the helm of a newspaper empire, publishing biographies of great historical figures, or simply sharing his own thoughts, he singlehandedly changed the nature of public debate, paving the way for more robust conversation and clashes of ideas.  And though he is no longer a citizen of our nation, we hope that state of affairs will also be reversed, should he desire to return.

So those are his great accomplishments.  Is this what constitutes for greatness in Canada these days or anywhere else in the world these days? Have we really become that shallow?

What about people who actually save lives everyday like health care professionals? Or even those who do it for more altruistic reasons, like Doctors Without Borders? What about people in history like Dr Jonah Salk, who thanks to him, we no longer have to worry about contracting polio? Salk, by the by, never sought a patent for his vaccine. He distributed it because he truly wanted to erradicate a terrible disease.  Yet, we forget about such unsung heroes like them.

What about those who work tirelessly to attempt to help alleviate (or even hopefully, someday, eliminate) poverty, homelessness and every other miserable by product of these conditions?

What about those who did make it big, from humble beginnings but never forgetting where they came from, like Second Cup co-founder Frank O’Dea; a man who never forgot his humble roots and is now a humanitarian and philanthropist amongst his other activities?

Organizations like Habitat for humanity, building affordable homes for those who can’t otherwise afford them, no matter how hard they work.  

Has Conrad Black done any of those things or anything remotely similar that I haven’t mentioned? I don’t think so.  So, I put to you the question again, what has he done that was so great that we must beg and lobby our government to take this sorry excuse for human being back to Canada? Why are we celebrating his release?  You’re goin’ to stick up for him and defend his right to not pay his 70 million $ (?) tax bill? Better still, you’re that much of starry eyed brown noses that you’re willing to pay his share of the tax bill but squawk at paying one cent more to help someone less fortunate but more than likely would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it much faster than the likes of Conrad Black.  Hell, I can’t find anything of him being involved with any charitable endeavours (and no, The National Post, nor Asper counts).

One little tidbit of comfort my old history professor,  Graeme Decarie offered me last night; Black is being sued; he still has to fight this tax bill and more than likely, Babs won’t stick around as she seems to be every bit the ice queen who doesn’t care all that much, nor does she seem capable of love.

Hey Tasha, I really must ask (hey, I’m sure your other readers must be thinking it; I’m the one who dares to ask) do you dream of Black to be your sugar daddy? After reading that column, or should I say, gush fest, one must really wonder.

Sidenote: I wonder if folks like Jabba the Roy , Tasha Kheirriddin and the rest of the conservative brown nosers would still be cheering for Black’s release and begging for his return to Canada if he were a left winged columnist?