'I never referred to Canada disparagingly' -- Conrad Black in his written response to Tom Bowers's tell-all book

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/190335
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so him canceling his Cdn. citizenship is his way of saying he loves Canada?

what an a$$hole, i hope he get 50 years

Michael, I feel that, semantically speaking, he might not have overtly "referred to Canada disparagingly", but I feel he did so covertly through his actions. My wife feels he will do jail time, and I say he will not spend a day in jail, regardless of the verdict. I hope I am wrong. We shall see.

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Chretien was being just as big an ass when he forced the issue.

Chretien was being just as big an ass when he forced the issue.


chretien is a jerk, but he has a big mountain to climb to be just as big an ass a lordy tubby

plus i'll take ellene chretien over barbara amiel any day

pompous

adjective
1. puffed up with vanity; "a grandiloquent and boastful manner"; "overblown oratory"; "a pompous speech"; "pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey"- Newsweek [syn: grandiloquent]
2. Characterized by excessive self-esteem or exaggerated dignity; pretentious: pompous officials who enjoy giving orders.
3. Example: Conrad Black

:cool:

will lord tubby take the stand in his own defence or not?
if he does, they'll have to turn up the air conditioning in the courtroom for all the hot air that will come spewing from his orifices

I've been following the Lord Black saga for some time, and I don't care for the man's public persona. I really couldn't be in a room that contained Black's bombast. His run-on sentences alone would push me to alcoholism.
But it still remains to be seen whether he did anything illegal in his business dealings, or if he is just a cunning if unscrupulous businessman, acting within the law.
Conrad Black; On avarice, interview with Canadian journalist Peter C. Newman in his 1982 Black biography, The Establishment Man:
“Greed has been severely underestimated and denigrated – unfairly so, in my opinion. There is nothing wrong with avarice as a motive, as long as it doesn’t lead to dishonest or anti-social conduct.”

Did Black disparage? :
On Canada, a few days after his induction into the British House of Lords and new permanent residence in London, at a November 2001 speech to the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute:
“[Leaving Canada has been] my gesture against the condition Irving Layton described 35 years ago as the Canadian political and intellectual communities’ tendency to regard ‘cowardice as wisdom, philistinism as Olympian serenity and the spitefulness of the weak as moral indignation. Surely we, or as I must now say, with some regret, you, can do better than this.”
http://www.thestar.com/Special/article/190677

And finally, here is a passage that I find best illustrates many facets of Black's present situation:
In his book, Bower quotes a conversation he claims Black had with a billionaire friend last year, after the charges were laid. Black wondered if the friend could "get me some funds secured against my property?" Bower quotes him as saying.
Bower then quotes this conversation:

"How much do you want from everyone, Conrad?" the businessman asked.
"About $1m each," said Black.
There was a pause. "You're my best friend," continued Black. "Surely you can lend me $1m?"
"Well, Conrad," said the man, "what's my private telephone number?"
"I don't know," replied Black. "Why?"
"Well, if I were your best friend, you'd have it."
Bower writes that he has known Black since the 1980s and has interviewed "well over 200 people" for the book.
Among those cited are Canadian businessmen Peter Munk, the gold magnate, and Hal Jackman, described by Bower as a "rich investor and a disillusioned old friend."
Jackman, writes Bower, labelled Black "a parvenu drifting away from reality. I can't understand his priorities. He does too much entertaining and not enough business."
In 2001, Black showed Munk his Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, refurbished with purple leather, "just like the Queen's."
"How can you afford it?" asked Munk. Black smiled.
Please see: http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/153496

I honestly don't know why people hate this guy enough to start a topic about him. Could it be the "...spitefulness of the weak as moral indignation?"

Not understand?? why am I not surprised.

Two monkeys faced each other in adjoining cages, each equipped with a lever that would release a marshmallow into the other monkey's cage. The only way for one monkey to get a marshmallow was for the other monkey to pull its lever. So pulling the lever was to some degree an act of altruism, or at least of strategic cooperation.

The tamarins were fairly cooperative but still showed a healthy amount of self-interest: over repeated encounters with fellow monkeys, the typical tamarin pulled the lever about 40 percent of the time. Then Hauser and Chen heightened the drama. They conditioned one tamarin to always pull the lever (thus creating an altruistic stooge) and another to never pull the lever (thus creating a selfish jerk). The stooge and the jerk were then sent to play the game with the other tamarins. The stooge blithely pulled her lever over and over, never failing to dump a marshmallow into the other monkey's cage. Initially, the other monkeys responded in kind, pulling their own levers 50 percent of the time. But once they figured out that their partner was a pushover (like a parent who buys her kid a toy on every outing whether the kid is a saint or a devil), their rate of reciprocation dropped to 30 percent -- lower than the original average rate. The selfish jerk, meanwhile, was punished even worse. Once her reputation was established whenever she was led into the experimenting chamber, the other tamarins ''would just go nuts,,'' Chen recalls. ''They'd throw their feces at the wall, walk into the corner and sit on their hands, kind of sulk.''

It seems nature has equipped MOST primates with the inclination to deal with perceived scoundrels in a rather outspoken manner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/magazine/05FREAK.html?ei=5089&en=6bcb661222c32ba6&ex=1275624000&pagewanted=all

: When taught to use money, a group of capuchin monkeys responded quite rationally to simple incentives; responded irrationally to risky gambles; failed to save; stole when they could; used money for food and, on occasion, sex. In other words, they behaved a good bit like the creature that most of Chen's more traditional colleagues study: Homo sapiens.

Black got caught with his hand in the cookie jar........that didn't belong to him....hence the outrage....and he attracted the attention of the 900 lb gorilla in the US. We'll see how wily a monkey he is.
Step right up folks.........

MacDoc: Many have gotten stuck with their hands in the cookie jar. Black attracts far more attention than they do. I suppose the "little people" out there who are big fans of American Idol may see as a sort of salve to hold their attention between episodes.

Black got caught with his hand in the cookie jar........that didn't belong to him....hence the outrage....
You are making an assumption that the man is guilty. For a guy who constantly pushes for equal rights for all, it would appear to be out of character. Why do you think he is guilty and judge him before he has had his day in court?

And for the record, I am no Black fan, but fair is fair.

I honestly don't know why people hate this guy enough to start a topic about him. Could it be the "...spitefulness of the weak as moral indignation?"
Can't speak for anyone else but for me I confess to enjoying a bit of schadenfreude seeing him brought down simply because he's a pompous and bombastic blowhard saddled with anoying class pretentions. And then there's his money-grubbing, equally pretentious wife.

But he started off as a capable magnate and I think many forget this about him. Only in his declining years (what, the last decade or so?) did he seem to lose it. Sounds like he had acquired some pretty expensive habits and he had the temerity to expect his plebian shareholders to keep shovelling cash in his direction no matter what misfortunes the company suffered. Holy Leona Helmsley, Batman.

I don't hate him. But I do find him a rather repugnant oddity. He had so much and went off the rails so completely.

His Lordship shall be vindicated. Luckily for him, in the United States judicial system, one must be tried before "a jury of one's peers". Thus, the potential jury cannot be made up of just ordinary people. Only the elite of Chicago society may be considered in that they are his Lordships peers. Certainly, one who is not worth at least a million dollars will not be allowed on the jury. We shall see.

Leona Helmsley one of your heroes I guess eh MF. Fitting.

•••

The "perception" of Black and public reaction is what I'm referring to.
Black got caught raiding the cookie jar....the 900 lb gorilla will determine who the cookies belonged to.
The public has concluded he's a greedy pompous ass regardless - hence the outrage.
Nobody claims the response is "rational" - only that it's a built in primate response to perception of over the top behaviour.

Even if he gets off - I doubt the perception - or the response, will change much.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/03/13/conradblack.html

"Black, 62, is accused of 17 criminal charges ranging from racketeering, to mail fraud and tax evasion. Conviction could land him in a U.S. jail for the rest of his life."

The CBC makes his Lordship sound like a common criminal ........... or even Al Capone. Luckily, justice and common sense shall prevail, and his Lordship shall be cleared on all charges. Then, we shall give him back his Canadian citizenship and welcome him back with loving arms. We shall see.

"The main allegation against Black revolves around the U.S. government's assertion that he defrauded Hollinger's minority shareholders of millions of dollars by illegally diverting money from the sale of newspapers to himself, rather than to all of the shareholders of Hollinger."

Minor charges. Diverting money from one pocket to the other is not fraud.

Big cookie jar - big gorilla - wily monkey - primate drama at it's best. :clap:

must be sex in there somewhere.........

Nobody claims the response is "rational"

I see. Just the great unwashed on slow boil. Thanks for the clarification.

Please, Macfury! It's the planet earth on slow boil. Get the script right or we're going to have to re-cast.

Please, Macfury! It's the planet earth on slow boil. Get the script right or we're going to have to re-cast.

Gahhh! Sorry ,Max!

That too.....compounding factor....water cannons should solve the mob. Wonder if anyone will knit.

"Wonder if anyone will knit." Maybe, for "it was the best of times; it was the worst of times." Still, in the end, his Lordship will be vindicated.