Schadenfreude

I love that word ;) It's not as though I get to use it very often, but it has been on my mind a lot lately.

There's Tom DeLay. I don't know enough about the details of his indictments to have an opinion, although I certainly have a first guess as to what my opinion would become. But the man who brought you this pearl of wisdom:"A woman can't take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure."... well, I'm not terribly sorry he's having a bad few weeks. He also apparently believes that there is no such thing as the working poor. "Fortunately such familes do not exist." So, in your world view, Tom, did they suddenly become financially secure or did they just disappear from the universe? No, I'm not sorry he's having a bad time of it just now.

Bill Frist -not my favorite Princeton graduate- helped defeat the patient bill of rights and sold stock in his family company, making a huge profit, by the by. But he had no insider information and the money was in a blind trust, of course (?). How "blind" is it, if you can direct the trustees when to sell it? He's currently being investigated by the SEC, and I'm not sorry he's squirming.

And William Bennett, who brought us "you could abort every black baby in the country and your crime rate would go down". I know. I know. He wasn't advocating doing that; he was making a point about crime. But his point wouldn't have changed if he'd said "you could abort every baby" or "you could abort every white baby". He chose to add black, when he didn't have to. So far he's just being made to squirm in the press, with no small amount of public hilarity that this is the man who offered us a book on virtues. But a boatload of public shame is the least you can expect for making such a morally bizarre statement.

I'm not terribly impressed with myself this morning. I don't want to take delight in the suffering of other people. Just mean people, I guess.