photobucket

Let me say this about that.

Question: What’s the difference between a young man and an old man?  Answer: a young man still expects some justice in this world.  OK, OK, some of you are going to call me a cynical old goat, but sometimes I get the same pleasure when bad things happen to bad people as I do when good things happen to good people.  Both occasions, although rare, keep even the crustiest curmudgeon from losing all hope.

I was watching CNN in a bar in the Atlanta airport in the late eighties when it was announced that the Iran – Iraq war had entered it’s eighth year.  If you can find anything redeeming in a war, it was that this one was waged between two groups of demented, religious, terrorist-loving societies.  No one in the West gave a rodent’s keister who won, because it was…    just two groups of bad guys duking it out.  I got to thinking that this war proved that sometimes bad things really do happen to bad people.

I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.  The bad news is that there were hundreds of thousands of Iranian and Iraqi casualties in this war.  The good news is that  twenty years later, we didn’t have to build more capacity at Guantanamo base.  You see, I can really find the pony in a pile of horse manure.

If you really pay attention, you can find examples of justice that can take the edge off even the most acrimonious old codger.  Good news and bad news was broken by the Associated Press last year…….. the bad news was that a young Hollywood starlette was put into jail for drunk driving.   The good news was that it was Paris Hilton.  I don’t know why, but that headline just made my day.

The local newspaper carried a story this morning that one of the city’s most prestigeous companies was experiencing record layoffs.  Bad news indeed, until you learn that the company was a law firm.  Unemployed lawyers…..it just don’t get any better than that!

The big news the last couple of days has been the discovery of  major corruption in  New Jersey political circles.  Seems several city mayors, and other elected officials were caught accepting over $600,000 in bribes from a real estate developer acting as an informant for the FBI.  In an odd development in the case, the FBI sting also uncovered a number of Rabbis using their synogogues in a multi-million dollar money laundering scheme to transfer money to Israel that was the proceeds from an illegal human organ trafficking operation ………..Jeeeeez!!   ‘You can’t make this stuff up.  You hate to see people go to jail, but when it happens because of criminal activity on the part of the very people (in the government and the church) that are supposed to be our examples of high character, it proves that justice can still prevail, and puts a smile on my face.

And finally, at the end of last year, came the pre-eminent good news – bad news headline of all time.  “OJ Simpson’s appeal for new trial denied”.   I have good news and bad news.   The good news is that OJ Simpson is finally in jail and the bad news is…….nah, there really isn’t any bad news here.

And, that’s all I have to say about that.

Shambo