a wolf angel is not a good angel

Like every Canadian, I gloated a bit when Conrad Black was found guilty, even not all on the charges. (I’m also amused that they’re considering revoking the Order of Canada. And that he actually is probably not allowed into Canada at all anymore, what with being a convicted felon.) This rather ruins his social superiority schtick, I should think.

Now, I’m not a fan of his wife, Barbara Amiel — I quite clearly remember the last editorial she had in our paper, where she explained that women rather liked being hit, so why all the fuss about spousal abuse? But still, I don’t think she coerced some poor, innocent, foolish man into using company funds for personal expenses, unlike Christopher Hitchens.

By all accounts, the great real-life tycoon was the merest putty in this dragon lady’s hands; a factor that—for me, at any rate—paradoxically weighs in his favor. He would have been happy enough writing his history books (the one on FDR is by all reports pretty good) and convincing himself that he was advising and influencing those in power. But always the incessant demands, always the cry for newer and better baubles. Who cares about the shareholders when there is a lovely woman’s whim to be gratified? Bourgeois values be damned!

Uh huh. Sure. He ran scads of newspapers with an iron fist, owned large companies, but just couldn’t resist his wife. Poor him! How terrible, to have been forced to break the law! What a horrible woman she is, to an innocent husband like him.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Canadia, Complainty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.