Conrad Black on looting, rioting

This from Conrad Black’s latest column in the National Post:

The recent British mobs and the so-called hockey rioters in Vancouver are just morally impoverished malcontents taking an opportunity to exploit the altruism and indulgence of decent societies. The same is true of the rioters in Paris and Athens — who are objecting to rather modest efforts by the governments in those places to take a minimal first step toward the avoidance of bankruptcy, a fate that would inflict a good deal more and deeper hardship than the claimed cause of the disturbances.

Conrad Black may be a convicted felon, but that does not diminish his status as the most perspicuous social commentator working today. He is also a gifted writer. Although some people dismiss his prose as gratuitous, self-indulgent, and unnecessarily flamboyant, there can be no doubt that Black is a rare talent. He welds unimpeachable analysis with sparkling prose. His columns are always a pleasure to read, even if I disagree with his conclusions. (Not incidentally, I couldn’t agree more with his current offering.) His books, particularly his expansive biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, are incandescent. Those who look down on Black for his criminal record should seek a better pretext for ignoring the work of a master.