Best posts on Finlay ON Governance from May 2009

The American justice system, which Conrad M. Black disparaged before, during and after his conviction on fraud and obstruction of justice charges in 2007, has taken a surprising turn today -surprising to Mr. Black, especially.  The U.S. Supreme Court announced this morning that it will hear his appeal.A few years ago, there were not many who would have refused to listen to whatever Mr.

He was a man of principle, but not to the extent of forgetting that others have principles too.   He was a politician, but always showed he understood life outside Washington and among those who still have to struggle to get by.  And when he grabbed the ball in politics, just as he did when he was the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, he did it with style, grace and civility.

The tendency of politicians to exaggerate the prospects of success, to flee the taking of tough stands, and to downplay the dangers of the dark clouds into which they insist upon steering is as much with us today as it was a century ago.North Korea’s testing of a nuclear bomb, the second in just over two years, and its companion firing of a test missile, illustrates with convincing evidence just show how inept the West has been in the handling of the nuclear genie.

Emerson once observed that “Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.”  Some details in reporting are a tad too crucial to leave out, as when the author of an opinion piece is penning the missive from a federal prison because of two little character defects called fraud and obstruction of justice.  This is what occurred in Time’s online edition, which ran a piece by Conrad Black, known widely as Lord Black of Crossharbour, formerly of the Bridle Path in Toronto, Palm Beach, and London, but more recently as inmate number 18330-424 of the Coleman Correction Facility in Florida, and a regular subject of commentary on these pages.