In response to the unanimously apotheotic response to the death of economist Milton Friedman, I am hereby beginning an occasional series, the Rot In Hell awards, to note the reasons why, if there was a hell, certain famous newly dead individuals richly deserve to rot there, despite the public claptrap about their awards and honors.
The Roman maxim De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est (Let nothing but good be said of the dead) is the smokescreen for enshrining evil no matter what.
There's some catching up for this year, so let us begin, then.
Milton Friedman, who died of heart failure on Nov. 16, 2006, rot in hell, you bastard, for the millions of children, their parents, and the advocates who fought for them, who died of hunger, malnutrition, in sheer poverty, or tortured by the forces that idolized your maleficent ideas in Chile and other Third World countries.
Caspar Weinberger, died of pneumonia on March 28, 2006, not painfully enough, for a career of covering up for drug-dealing in the Reagan White House, lying to grand juries and war profiteering in such a way that resources that could have gone to heal and to build went to destroy and monger conflict. Rot in hell, you bastard!
Nominations for future RIH awards may be made at this e-mail.
