Spectator

Denied: Posner’s wry prose more or less sends Black to jail until 2013

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Douglas Bell


Yesterday, in 16 pages of tightly woven legal reasoning, Richard Posner more or less put paid to whatever faint hope remained that Conrad Black will see a free day anytime before 2013. Moreover, he ensures that, barring a judicial miracle, Black’s co-conspirators Jack Boultbee and Peter Atkinson will join him as guests of the United States on or about July 10. Posner is among the most estimable minds on the American bench, and his decision reflects its author’s eclectic, sometimes eccentric, but always razor sharp intellect. The prose possessed a sniffily dismissive and wry air. In explaining the nub of Black’s fraudulent endeavours Posner writes:

Hollinger had a subsidiary called APC, which owned a number of newspapers that it was in the process of selling. When it had only one left—a weekly community newspaper in Mammoth Lake, California (population 7,093 in 2000, the year before the fraud)—defendant Kipnis, Hollinger’s general counsel, prepared and signed on behalf of APC an agreement to pay the other defendants, plus David Radler, another Hollinger executive and a major shareholder in Ravelston, a total of $5.5 million in exchange for their promising not to compete with APC for three years after they stopped working for Hollinger. The money was paid… That Black and the others would start a newspaper in Mammoth Lake to compete with APC’s tiny newspaper there was ridiculous.

Later, in shooting down the defendants’ argument that the crime was essentially victimless (because the non-competes were management fees re-characterized to take advantage of a Canadian tax holiday), Posner writes that:

They are making a no harm–no foul argument, and such arguments usually fare badly in criminal cases. Suppose your employer owes you $100 but balks at paying, so you help yourself to the money from the cash register. That is theft…even though if the employer really owes you the money you have not harmed him. You are punishable because you are not entitled to take the law into your own hands.

Harmlessness is rarely a defence to a criminal charge; if you embezzle money from your employer and replace it (with interest!) before the embezzlement is detected, you still are guilty of embezzlement.

Later still, giving free rein to what Posner himself terms his undomesticated attitude to judicial propriety, he prefaced his dismissal of the defendants’ arguments concerning the so-called “ostrich instruction” with a whimsical defence of the bird’s honour in the face of certain legends concerning its instinctive behaviour.

The reference of course is to the legend that ostriches when frightened bury their head in the sand. It is pure legend and a canard on a very distinguished bird. Zoological Society of San Diego... (“When an ostrich senses danger and cannot run away, it flops to the ground and remains still, with its head and neck flat on the ground in front of it. Because the head and neck are lightly colored, they blend in with the color of the soil. From a distance, it just looks like the ostrich has buried its head in the sand, because only the body is visible”). It is too late, however, to correct this injustice.

This last line is classic Posner arch, and is full of portent. You can almost hear the judge’s high-pitched wheeze pushing it out with a smidgen of derisive laughter for good measure. Its intended audience might well fail to see the humour.

One odd footnote: former prosecutor Eric Sussman—whose relationship with certain members of the press corps during the trial was, how to say, collegial—was all over several stories yesterday, cheerleading the decision. At one point, he personally chastised Black himself, telling The Globe and Mail:

I think at some point in time Mr. Black needs to take a hard look in the mirror and ask who it is that really doesn’t understand the conduct that took place in this case…You’ve got 16 people who have taken a look at the facts and the law in a very detailed and time-consuming way, and they have all reached the same conclusion, which is that he stole money from this company and he tried to obstruct the investigation.

All of which is fair comment—after all, his Lordship took liberties with Sussman et al., calling them “pygmies” and “Nazis.” Thing is, in the months since Black’s conviction, sentencing and incarceration, Sussman crossed the street. He now heads up the white-collar litigation sector at Chicago firm Kaye Scholer. All that righteousness on behalf of the government might lead some to question his loyalties.

• 07-4080: USA v. Black, Conrad [Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals]
• Conrad Black fraud conviction is upheld [The Independent]
• Appeal court says Black must remain in US jail [The Guardian]
• Black’s Conviction for Theft From Hollinger Affirmed [Bloomberg]
• Appeal court rejects all arguments for Black [Globe and Mail]
• Parental Warning: Obscene David Broder video follows [Harper's]
• Black has one card left to play [Toronto Star]
• Black loses appeals court ‘long shot’ [National Post]
• Conrad Black’s Sentence Upheld; 7th Circuit OKs Ostrich Instruction [Wall Street Journal]

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GravityLevity2 June 26, 2008 at 2:36 p.m.

Saw Steve Skurka talking about this decision, on CTV last night; he could not bring himself to dis the decision in any way. Perhaps it opened his eyes as to why indeed Black was justly charged and justly convicted of committing crimes.

Fintan June 26, 2008 at 4:15 p.m.

GL2:

"Black was justly charged and justly convicted of committing crimes"

What more is there to say when someone puts it in a nutshell with such exquisite perfection?

Karma be praised.

dr June 26, 2008 at 5:03 p.m.

And so ends the story of Conrad Black...

Casey June 26, 2008 at 5:20 p.m.

Conrad Black will never admit that he is guilty of crimes for which he was imprisoned for the simple reason that to admit guilt would place him in the same category as all the riff raff he is forced to mingle with for the next 6 years and actually, forever. By maintaining his undying innocence, he views himself as better than the plebes whose ranks he has now joined. And this is unthinkable and unacceptable to a Lord with a grandiose sense of superiority and gross and digusting entitlement.
I hope and expect that he will soon be kicked out of the House of Lords and stripped of the title and ditto for his OBE, MBE, Privy Council membership, etc. and all the other pompous irrelevant / obsolete groups to which he clamored for membership. I also hope all those donations he made with Hollinger moola but with the Black Family name attached to same are returned pronto. No self respecting organization wishes to be associate itself with a lowlife scammer, fraudster and convicted felon and soon to be an ex con, kicked out of the United States forever. We don't want him OR the pathetic witch he is married to.

leaf June 26, 2008 at 6:58 p.m.

"We don't want him OR the pathetic witch he is married to."

- we just want to talk, read and write about them all the time. all black, all the time ---> is what casey means, as evidenced by her blog.

by the way, are you a part-time tranny casey or you just fantasize being a woman? or is this a clever trick to deceive? whatever it is, you are one dumb broad.

Casey June 26, 2008 at 8:51 p.m.

leaf June 26, 2008 at 6:58 p.m.

Meh.....blech

leaf June 26, 2008 at 9:47 p.m.

one dumb articulate broad

Casey June 26, 2008 at 9:52 p.m.

Further to my comments above, for Black to compare himself or his situation to that of Martha Stewart's or Alfred Taubman is simply one more example of how Black perceives himself - it is an insult to both Stewart and Taubman ( not that I am suggesting that they are innocent or decent, etc ) for CB to think that he shall " rise again ". This is laughable in the extreme and completely ridiculous.
Incidentally, where did Lit200 disappear to?...lol. Hiding in err shame?

Casey June 26, 2008 at 10:23 p.m.

dr June 26, 2008 at 5:03 p.m.

" And so ends the story of Conrad Black..."

I agree - nothing about him worth posting any longer so I shall, as they say, head off into the sunset....lol. Thanks for your always informative posts, dr and especially for the actual decisions by Posner, et. al.
However, an attempted jail break, perhaps aided by the wifely witch, might indeed be newsworthy....lol.

leaf June 26, 2008 at 11:34 p.m.

casey is heading off into the sunset and will be back before sunrise.

... to chat about black, all black, all the time.

Fintan June 27, 2008 at 1:21 a.m.

Casey: "However, an attempted jail break, perhaps aided by the wifely witch, might indeed be newsworthy..." LOL

The wifely witch will be long gone in the not too distant future. Out there somewhere is some old geezer with lots of moola, poor eyesight, ditto taste and not much sense. She might, jut might get her hooks into someone like that and then His Lardship will join the lengthening litany of exes....

As for newsworthy events, perhaps a "shanking" ...

Daddy's little plaything writes: "casey is heading off into the sunset and will be back before sunrise.

... to chat about black, all black, all the time."

That's rich coming from an obsessive nutbar, unrecovered family sexual abuse victim who has read, saved and cross-analysed every word I wrote on this blog in over a year. ROFL

Incientally, I now know that the horny daddy is of Hispanic origin, which explains leaf's occasional lapses of grammar and other literary fingerprints.

Dirty old daddy! Tut-tut

☺ ☺ ☺

leaf June 27, 2008 at 1:59 a.m.

"this drivel, worse than even some of the stuff Morticia has written"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

you got that right!

fickton can recognize drivel when he reads it. he just can't remember writing it.

"this drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel, drivel.....WORSE than even some of the stuff Morticia has written"

help me, i'm dying.....laughing!

Casey June 27, 2008 at 2:38 a.m.

leaf June 27, 2008 at 1:59 a.m.
" help me, i'm dying.....laughing! "

OK - Fintan and I will help you - we shall find a toilet with a sufficiently large enough drain to flush you down said toilet....lmao. Then you will find yourself in familiar turf you call home and you will reunite with all your buddies - the rats, bats, mice and well all the other err stuff too unmentionable for this civilized blog.

Casey June 27, 2008 at 2:45 a.m.

And if you can swim, so much the better - think of the fun you can enjoy doing the backstroke or crawl and having races with the rats to see who gets to win the coveted trophy for most disgusting inhabitant in the toilet universe.

leaf June 27, 2008 at 2:58 a.m.

more than one person is masquerading behind casey/sandy/donna etc.
it isn't just doug bell.

Fintan June 27, 2008 at 4:15 a.m.

"
leaf June 27, 2008 at 2:58 a.m.

more than one person is masquerading behind casey/sandy/donna etc.
it isn't just doug bell."

Let leaf be a warning to everyone of what can happen to victims of family sexual abuse who do not seek or receive professional treatment.

LOL

P.S. Any luck finding out what my number has been changed to? Just add two digits and try. One at the beginning and one at the end, or maybe two at the beginning, or maybe ...

Poor little leafie, she should ask the advice of her pals in that organisation of limp dicks who hang swastikas on the wall and imagine that gives them balls. Those of them stupid enough to go public as on the Internet are extremely "compromised" by our extremely effective security police, who probably know when they fart and wank. All grist to my mill if poor little leafie gets involved with people like them - her own kind, actually, just as malicious as they are ineffectual - and ends up on lists that are passed around between anti-terrorism organisations all over the world. ☹

jade_lee June 27, 2008 at 9:22 a.m.

jade_lee June 25, 2008 at 1:27 p.m.

conrad black sat on the wall (surrounding himself with kissinger and thatcher types)

conrad black had a great fall (the national post and maclean's appear to be using denial as their coping strategy)

All the kings horses and all the kings men (that would be thatcherman and kissassinger translated) couldn't put conrad black together again (he lost his appeal and all that cash to lawyers who never stood a chance of getting that crook off)

Would it be appropriate at this juncture to say that conrad black's ass is bacon, that the price of greed is high? oink! oink! The man has expressed not one bit of remorse, shame on him and he gets what he promotes for others finally. How's it going in jail for him we all wonder? Jail sucks. We the general public want that punitive element no?

Will the national post and other mainstream rags including religious magazines used to target captivated audiences, still publish his opinions about everything? Nice double standard the public appears to ignore, lets hope these same people don't exercise their votes.

Cheers to the American prosecution of conrad black. Well done.

jade_lee June 27, 2008 at 9:27 a.m.

leaf is so paranoid it's frightening!

jade_lee June 27, 2008 at 9:29 a.m.

Everyone here should re-read the vanity fair article about the black's.......those americans sure dislike pushy opinionated foreigners. Sorry I don't have a link to it.

jade_lee June 27, 2008 at 9:33 a.m.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/featu...

here is one though.....

Lit_200 June 27, 2008 at 10:22 a.m.

Hail the conquering bloggers.

To the winners go crowing rights and I humbly and sadly doff my hat and wish you the joy of your victory and the right, as victors, to write history.

But then, I read somewhere that all victories are temporary, n'est pas?

kjopc June 27, 2008 at 10:36 a.m.

>And so ends the story of Conrad Black...

Nope. His Lardship will be in our faces with lots of jailhouse missives over the months and years to come.

Let's see, there's lots of potential news about Black:

1. Getting injured in a prison scuffle.
2. Slamming the dozens of civil judgements against him.
3. Appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court
4. Suing his lawyers for incompetence.
5. Receiving his divorce papers.
6. Getting a pardon from Bush.
7. Publishing his eighth book.
8. Refusing to leave his Palm Beach mansion that's being seized to cover his debts.
9. Signing on as editor in chief of Macleans magazine.
10. Having his Canadian citizenship restored by Stephen Harper.

See... we'll have lots of CB news to enjoy!

dr June 27, 2008 at 11 a.m.

Philosophy question:

If a convicted felon continues to sound off but nobody cares, does the felon make a sound?

I'll be tuning back in 2013.

leaf June 27, 2008 at 11:30 a.m.

as expressed by kpoc at 10:36 a.m., the victors will do the time with conrad, living vicariously through conrad to get closer to barbara.

damn that sounds like the creep, don't it?

Gerard June 27, 2008 at 12:18 p.m.

Time wounds all heels.

GravityLevity2 June 27, 2008 at 12:29 p.m.

"But then, I read somewhere that all victories are temporary, n'est pas?"
What bilingual newspaper proprietor (self proclaimed) once said, while trashing a union contract, "I read somewhere that all temps are victories, n'est pas?"

Fintan June 27, 2008 at 1:33 p.m.

Lit 200: "Hail the conquering bloggers."

Gracious of you to say so, Lit, but we bloggers who oppose His Lardship and what he and Morticia stand for have not conquered or won anything.

The winner is the American world of investments, where the fate of His Lardship just may make it less tempting for fat cats with greedy wives addicted to grossly extravagant lifestyles to steal from shareholders, many of whom do not have a particularly sophisticated understanding of the world of finance and have to be able to trust that those they pay to look after their interests are not going to shaft them - in other words, will faithfully perform their fiduciary duty.

Gerard:

"Time wounds all heels." LOL

Brilliant, worthy of Oscar Wilde, who also had a great ability to turn cliches upside down, like "Work is the curse of the drinking classes."

Casey June 27, 2008 at 2:27 p.m.

Lit_200 June 27, 2008 at 10:22 a.m.

I congratulate you for having the class to admit defeat and I admire this quality in your character...:-). You are a decent person after all and I hope that you will stick around - your posts are almost always interesting and informative and knowledgeable.

Casey June 27, 2008 at 2:31 p.m.

leaf June 27, 2008 at 11:30 a.m.

Ohhh just shut the hell up - you are a waste of a life, a scumbag and most here despise you. Buzz off, loser / moron / disturbed psycho.

Casey June 27, 2008 at 2:45 p.m.

jade_lee June 27, 2008 at 9:33 a.m.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/featu......

here is one though.....

Just printed it out but I seem to recall reading it back in 2004. Got anything more recent as in post trial, etc.? Thanks, anyway for posting link.

Casey June 27, 2008 at 2:55 p.m.

dr June 27, 2008 at 11 a.m.

Philosophy question:

If a convicted felon continues to sound off but nobody cares, does the felon make a sound?

I'll be tuning back in 2013.

LMAO - great post, dr, and I would guess that whatever sounds Black makes will be ignored anyway. All 2 of his various doorstoppers have made the trash heap, possible lecture tours when he gets out and columns and emails to irrelevant media ( ie. NP or Macleans ) will be laughed at and taken about as seriously as what The Donald has to pontificate about.....lol. Man, would I love to see what lies beneath that ridiculous combover.....

leaf June 27, 2008 at 3:55 p.m.

"I would guess that whatever sounds Black makes will be ignored anyway. " - casey from planet blind

hahaha that's a good one.

this whole blog is entirely based on CB's sound bites. every move he makes, every word he writes are dissected, put back together and dissected differently and endlessly.

in a way, CB has won over you, obsessed losers. i'm sure this knowledge will give him great satisfaction.
i'll email him.

Fintan June 27, 2008 at 4:19 p.m.

leafie: "i'll email him."

Ha-ha-ha, what a fillip to his battered spirit it will be to get an email from a parental sexual abuse victim who is quite a few cans short of a six-pack. LOL

By the way, what if someone has been sending feedback to His Lardship via the Nazional Post link http://www.nationalpost.com/contact/lett... and using ur addy (leaf.deblogger@yahoo.com) for months now? Won't it confuse him? Not that anyone we know would do that - just a thought - ROFLMAO @ daddy's little abused and confused girl.

Casey, I love it when you talk dirty to the fluttering-in-the breeze thing: "you are a waste of a life, a scumbag and most here despise you. Buzz off, loser / moron / disturbed psycho."

LOL
☹ ☹ ☹

leaf June 27, 2008 at 4:44 p.m.

just one question fickton:

who but myself could possibly use my addy?

Fintan June 27, 2008 at 4:59 p.m.

[This comment has been removed.]

leaf June 27, 2008 at 6:05 p.m.

stupid criminal 101:

admitting to identity theft in a forum, providing recipient's addy, message subject, name, date and approximate time.

what should i do? what oh what should i do?

i think i'll forward fickton's 4:59pm post to the NP.

thanks fickton. you fell right for it. i KNEW the idiot could not resist but brag about his latest con. what a dork!

Casey June 27, 2008 at 6:23 p.m.

leaf June 27, 2008 at 6:05 p.m.

stupid criminal 101:

Talking about yourself again, Scuzzbucket? aka leaf da sleazoid, yadda, yadda, yadda. It's time for Fintan and I to flush you down that toilet again - apparently you were able to swim up through the drain just like a rat does, lift the lid and pop yourself out. Man, you must have a horrible odour after spending all night down in the sewers. Blech....
Look, you " 5 cans short of a six pack " as Fintan stated, find the nearest and tallest tree, climb up it and make like a dumb squirrel - you just might get lucky, sleazebucket, and find some of your porn freak buddies hiding up there amongst the branches with their mini web cams and Blackberries getting rather sore palms from all that darn err work, for a more civilized term.......LOL. I'm sure you must have heard of Rosy Palm and her 5 amigos.....no? yes?

leaf June 28, 2008 at 1:21 a.m.

the only palm i know is 29 palms.

Fintan June 28, 2008 at 1:30 a.m.

"just one question fickton:

who but myself could possibly use my addy?"

Ha-ha-ha

Answer: anyone can with the Nazional Post system. As daddy's little plaything herself has so often written SO_LI_DA_RI_TY!

Her addy is leaf.deblogger@yahoo.com

Purely for research purposes and as a test, I've just posted a little message from leafie (they demand a name, so I chose A. Green - LOL) with a bit of good advice for His Lardship - don't drop the soap!

Hee-hee-hee - pity the poor little broken rag doll can't figure out how to make a nuisance call, because I'm hitting the sack in a few minutes.

Fintan June 28, 2008 at 1:36 a.m.

"admitting to identity theft in a forum, providing recipient's addy, message subject, name, date and approximate time.

"what should i do? what oh what should i do?

"i think i'll forward fickton's 4:59pm post to the NP."
Yes, leafie, do that, there's a good girl!

I'm certain the Nazional post will immediately call in the RCMP, the FBI, Interpol, Europol, Mossad and maybe even the Fijian Boy Scouts and Girl Guides to find out who has committed such a grievous crime as use the alias "leaf", which is the exclusive property of a nutbar.

ROFLMAO @ the little rag doll plaything.

leaf June 28, 2008 at 1:38 a.m.

TL.... why exactly was fickton's 4:59 post removed?

In order for anyone to fully appreciate my 6:05 pm, it is important that you don't remove such post.

That’s called tampering with proof, TL!!!

--------

Fintan June 27, 2008 at 4:19 p.m.

leafie: "i'll email him."

Ha-ha-ha, what a fillip to his battered spirit it will be to get an email from a parental sexual abuse victim who is quite a few cans short of a six-pack. LOL

By the way, what if someone has been sending feedback to His Lardship via the Nazional Post link http://www.nationalpost.com/contact/lett...... and using ur addy (leaf.deblogger@yahoo.com) for months now? Won't it confuse him? Not that anyone we know would do that - just a thought - ROFLMAO @ daddy's little abused and confused girl.

Casey, I love it when you talk dirty to the fluttering-in-the breeze thing: "you are a waste of a life, a scumbag and most here despise you. Buzz off, loser / moron / disturbed psycho."
LOL
☹ ☹ ☹

leaf June 28, 2008 at 1:50 a.m.

thanks fickton for reposting your removed post. i think someone is playing judge and jury here.

leaf June 28, 2008 at 2:09 a.m.

oops, i just noticed you left out a couple interesting parts when you reposted your 4:59

we can't even count on you for c/p.....!!!

we can count on me though ☺

Fintan June 28, 2008 at 2:59 a.m.

ha-ha-ha. leafie, get a life!

Fintan June 28, 2008 at 3:32 a.m.

"thanks fickton for reposting your removed post. i think someone is playing judge and jury here" - the resident nutbar

Hoo-hoo-hoo - I would have thought "judge and jury" is a bit of a sore point in some quarters. They were the ones who put His Lardship where he belongs. I can't wait to read Morticia's next column when and if she regains her composure enough to write one - especially if she gets onto the subject of the judge and the jury. LOL

☺ ☺ ☺

leaf June 29, 2008 at 2:09 a.m.

“I still have two phone numbers here, plus two mobile and, of course, the line for my computer”

-----

Isn’t fickton a caricature for the know-it-all-has-it-all-done-it-all that most of us have encountered at some point?

He has more phones than a pimp, he has spare computers, he has a couple degrees and a resume filled with unrelated jobs.
He has friends in high places, judges, politicians, the pope!
He travels for a good portion of the year, if we are to believe him. He goes to the opera, the elite restaurant, the movies, the beach, the Baltic sea.

Why do I know all this?!!!

He makes less than $20,000/year but “inherited wealth, accumulated assets and benefits (like paid-for phone lines and computer equipment) that do not count as income” allow him to live as the ghetto Conrad black.

Why does fickton feel the need to talk so much about himself on a Conrad black forum?

More importantly, why does fickton feel the need to better himself, to lie to impress a bunch of strangers he will never meet?

Fintan June 29, 2008 at 2:16 a.m.

Ha-ha-ha, I see I'm annoying the poor little parental sex abuse victim again. daddy must have been up to his tricks again.

ROFLMAO

And His Lardship is still in the hoosegow!

☺ ☺ ☺

leaf June 29, 2008 at 2:56 a.m.

“I'm annoying the poor little parental sex abuse victim again”

you think you’re funny? Clever? inspiring?
What if I were a parental sex abuse victim?
Regardless, you are letting us know that bashing, laughing at, tormenting sex abuse victims is ok.

“Ha-ha-ha, I see I'm annoying the poor little parental sex abuse victim again. daddy must have been up to his tricks again.”

Fintan June 29, 2008 at 9:50 a.m.

leaf:

"I'm annoying the poor little parental sex abuse victim again

"you think you’re funny? Clever? inspiring?

"Regardless, you are letting us know that bashing, laughing at, tormenting sex abuse victims is ok."

Ha-ha-ha. leaf the nutbar, bully and general whacko doesn't like it when someone makes fun of her.

But at least leafie has finally revealed something about herself in this sentence "Regardless, you are letting us know that bashing, laughing at, tormenting sex abuse victims is ok." So, she admits she is a sex abuse victim.

Actually, it's not at all funny to mock, laugh at or torment ANY victim of ANYTHING, but leaf has gone beyond the victim role and become a tormentor herself. She has ignored mine and others' advice to seek help, counselling and go to the authorities about her abusers and have them brought to justice. Instead, she plucks accusations from the confused thickets of her own sick mind and tries, real hard. to make trouble for people that she must know are not guilty of what she claims.

She has twice boasted of sending reports to the Finnish police accusing me of paedophile crimes. Yet I am still going strong. I suppose leafie concludes therefore that the Finnish police are stupid.

Yeah, our jails are full of people who thought the same thing, just as His Lardship was wrong when he thought he would get away with his crimes.

Back to Wente, a lady who seems to be suffering from a massive dick deficit, I only found out when I watched the late night TV news yesterday that the Helsinki Gay Pride parade had been a great success. Very colourful, no trouble according to the police, and lots of people turned out to enjoy the spectacle.

One of the banners I saw on TV read "homofobia on sairaus", which means "Homophobia is a disease".

I've been very busy and didn't realise it was taking place, otherwise I'd have put a pink scarf on my dog and gone along. Out of solidarity with people who have never done me any harm.

I'm as straight as anyone who drools at the very sight of Scarlett Johansson can be, but I also subscribe to the principles of "live and let live" and "whatever gets y'off".

Who knows, by the time he gets out of the hoosegow, His Lardship may well have been tempted to try another way, and it might even be he finds it an improvement on Morticia.

ROFL

Note: Not only am I guilty of identity theft by using the unique moniker "leaf", but I have also stolen our resident abuse victim's idea or using smilies.

☺ ☺ ☺

Up yours, leafie! Why don't you call me tonight and maybe we can discuss our differences. ROFLMAO

P.S. Here's a link to where you can try, again, to make the police here do something to stop a "dangerous paedophile" like me. http://www.poliisi.fi/poliisi/home.nsf/p... time give them your name and address an they may, just may take you more seriously than the obvious nutbar you are.

Hee-hee-hee

Jeanne June 29, 2008 at 11:10 p.m.

So ends the career and public life of Conrad Black. For my part, I'll be grateful not to pick up news reports that he has, once again, hectored Canada for trying to be a kind, gentle, caring country. Sure, Lord Crosstalker will continue to try to sound off, but his credibility and his power are gone.

I will never forgive him and his horrible wife for making it seem foolish to try to make things a little bit better for the people who have it bad. And I can't feel any sympathy for either of them - I am joyful they got their just desserts.

It's been very interesting communicating with everyone on this blog during this dramatic end to the career and precedence of a man who was born with it all, and who has shown he deserved to have none of it.

Over and out, Jeanne

Fintan June 30, 2008 at 1:15 a.m.

"I will never forgive him and his horrible wife for making it seem foolish to try to make things a little bit better for the people who have it bad. And I can't feel any sympathy for either of them - I am joyful they got their just desserts." - Jeanne

Perfect summation. Good luck to you Jeanne. It's good to know people like you are teaching kids.

Casey June 30, 2008 at 9:34 a.m.

Good luck, Jeanne and just wanted you to know that I have always enjoyed reading your posts. I, too, am now over and out - Black will never again be taken seriously and Amiel, well SHE's better off remaining in hiding - her weekkly or bimonthly Maclean's articles have ceased as far as I know and it is good riddance to them both - Black and the woman who married him because he was her meal ticket.

Fintan June 30, 2008 at 12:03 p.m.

Good luck to you too, Casey. I think I'll slowly fade away as well, but look in every now and then to see if there is news about the dubious duo. There will be less and less of it, I should imagine, unless His Lardship attempts a jailbreak, gets shanked or something like that. I wonder when will the Nazional Post update its bio of him?

You are right about Morticia having disappeared from Toothpaste magazine - her last "column" was in April.

If she does write a new one, she ought to forget about butterflies and BS like that and maybe write some well-deserved praise about a Canadian woman that you should all be proud of: Louise Arbour, who today retires from her post as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

What a contrast with shabby people like His Lardship and Morticia!

P.s. leaf - up yours!

jade_lee June 30, 2008 at 4:55 p.m.

Yes Louise Arbour has served her country well and this current Harper government shames us all in their disrespect towards this great Canadian Woman.

Casey June 30, 2008 at 8:04 p.m.

I have a few more remarks or opinions on Black and Amiel. It is almost unimaginable the profound descent to basically nothingness that both Blacks have found themselves. From such great heights to such absolute disgrace and ostracism. It must be horrible to be them at this point. To never again be respected; to never again be taken seriously; to never again have any credibility. Such a huge and sad loss - mostly for Black's children whose last name will be remembered for what might have been and what is now. My heart goes out to Black's kids. What a profound loss - even their father's books do not sell - so much for credibility. At least Nixon died having left a ( debateable ) statesmanlike legacy. The entire sad Black saga was written many years ago when he stole all those exam papers - and never ever admitted true guilt. If anyone here has seen the recent excellent movie " Until The Devil Knows You're Dead ", the parents, especially the father ( Albert Finney ) ignited the entire sorry and tragic outcomes and set the course of life for his 2 sons. In similar fashion, I blame Black's parents, particularly his father, George Black.

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