There is nothing useful on this web site.
Even though the internet is the source of all truth, the only truth here is that everything else is a lie.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.- Oscar Wilde
So the general concensus is that Conrad Black got off very lightly. He did indeed.
Poor Toronto Life writer Douglas Bell did far worse - he has to eat his own blog!
Though Mr. Black's prison sentence is a mere 6½ years, our beloved Conrad has been handed a life sentence excluding him from everything he holds dear.
As fellow convicted felon Martha Stewart might say, this is a good thing.
He's getting sued by so many now that any cash he has salted away will be consumed by the lawyers he will retain. It's a fitting end.
What is most amazing is that our Con managed to muster together 100 letters of support, including one from some dude at Opus Dei. Another Dan Brown thriller may be in the works.
More than 100 acquaintances and family members wrote to the court to urge leniency for Black, including former Telegraph editors Charles Moore and Dominic Lawson, the shadow foreign secretary William Hague, former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, the singer Elton John and Monsignor Fred Dolan, head of the Canadian chapter of Opus Dei.
There are serveral thousand articles on Google news and some delicious editorials.
From Robert Fulford of the National Post&hellip
He didn't understand that you stop swaggering like a prince when your army has been defeated and your castle is on fire.
Rosie Dimanno of the Toronto Star wrote this passage about Lord Black's address to the judge before sentencing…
Knuckles pressed against the table as he stood before St. Eve, shoulders slightly hunched, Black was restrained, dignified even. And there is something to be said for a person who can retain his dignity in these circumstances.
"We have the verdict we have and we can't retry the case," he began.
Then quickly segued into a denial of things just past - the media portrayal, which Black rejects, of first accused and later convicted felon spraying scorn on a persecuting prosecution.
"I have never once uttered one disrespectful word about this case, your honour, the jurors or the process."
That is a lie. And if Black objects to the characterization, he can sue us - not for the first time.
David Olive offered up a great if only series of events that our hero could have avoided to prevent all this. And he has a great Conrad Black quote page.
The lapse in news in between the end of the trial and the actual sentencing a few days ago was very good for the Conrad Black wikipedia page. There is now a wealth of new information on our villain.
I discovered that our subject is still Lord Black of Crossharbour and remains a member of both the Order of Canada and the British House of Lords.
He may leave yet another mark in history. Legislation is being prepared to prevent convicted criminals from sitting in the British House of Lords. Lord Black is accomplished what even Jefferey Archer failed to do. Good on him!
I also learned that a Conrad Black libel suit was responsible for the destruction of some 6,200 copies in Canada of "Whose Money Is It Anyways" by Ann Finlayson.
It was a study in part of the raiding of some of Canada's pension plans, including details ona very famous Supreme Court Case that forced Conrad Black to return $58 million to the Dominion Stores workers pension plan.
I ordered a used copy from Amazon yesterday. There are still copies available in the USA.
Mr Black's history is full of dodgy deals and self dealing. He has no remorse. He has no respect. He would do the same thing all over again. Make no mistake. This man is evil, maybe not a physical danger to anyone, but a thief of grand proportions who has dodged almost every bullet trying to stop him. Finally, he has been stopped.
It is unfortunate that he will not be in the same prison as Jeffery Skilling of Enron infamy. A sympathatic biography of the man who created the worlds greatest bankruptacy would be a possibility.
Instead we will have to content ourseleves with Mr. Black's prison memoirs. May I suggest a title?
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