Posted on 07/06/2006 7:35:39 AM PDT by SmithL
It's not nice to speak ill of the dead, but Kenneth Lay's passing elicited little sympathy from average Americans on Wednesday.
I spent much of the day trolling Internet message boards and blogs, polling Chronicle readers and talking to legal and other sources, trying to get a sense of how the public feels about Lay's death and how it will affect the legal proceedings against him.
Lay was the former chairman and CEO of Enron, a name that became synonymous with corporate greed and wrongdoing, sparking a major reform movement in Congress. Enron also played a lead role ripping off California electricity users during the energy crisis, according to several investigations.
I'll spare you the crudest jokes and try to summarize how people were reacting.
-- Lay got what he deserved. "That Karma stuff works!!!!!!!!!!!! CEOs that are cooking the books take heed," wrote a poster on MSNBC.com, obviously a fan of NBC's "My Name Is Earl."
-- Lay got off easy. "I don't fully understand the mechanics of this man's crimes. But I do understand that he died without paying the full and true price for them. It's too bad he didn't fittingly die alone in jail, but now he isn't our problem anymore. And it won't cost our psyches or tax-payer pocket books any more time or money," wrote Dan Ryan of Brisbane, a participant in The Chronicle's Two Cents reader response program.
"We as a culture want desperately to punish those who transgress our laws. We want criminals to suffer. It's why we have suicide watches in prisons. It's why we feel cheated at Kenneth Lay's death. You have to wonder why the death penalty is then the ultimate punishment. Because it's not the 'death' that is the punishment. It's the terror in anticipation of execution
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Wow..kill my next door neightbor, I'd like you rehabilitated...steal my pension...FRY, SUCKER!
Where are all the supporters of Tookie Williams ?
"We as a culture want desperately to punish those who transgress our laws. We want criminals to suffer."
Except if you're a pedophile, murderer, rapist or especially a child killer we consider you a victim.
and it's gonna run drier now that it is circualting something about him dying early(gets off clean on the charges) and the family gets to keep the millions of dollars he acquired from robbing pensions
Have the DU dummies started saying that "He is not really dead, but that, Bush helped fake his death so he won't have to go to jail" yet?
Actually I think they're around here somewhere, near the "Clinton had him killed" theories.
Sometimes things are what they are. Lay had a bum ticker and died in Aspen rather than Leavenworth. Can't have everything.
"He is not really dead..."
That is true.
My accounting firm hired him as our practice development manager. He starts this morning.
Carl arranged everything.
I know, the irony of the "compassionate" Left strikes again. Lay may have a committed a grievious crime, but the reactions I've read to his death are just sickening.
I got an email yesterday from a friend who was at Enron, is started DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD!!!!! It went down hill from there.
I got an email yesterday from a friend who was at Enron, is started DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD!!!!! It went down hill from there.
How much money was your friend taken for? I mean I guess to blame Lay might not be fair, but he was in charge. Doesn't the Captain go down with the ship? I feel sorry for the family of Ken Lay, but I also feel sorry for the people who lost their entire financial future. Can you understand that as well?
>the family gets to keep the millions of dollars he acquired from robbing pensions<
Can't the people who lost their money sue Lay's estate in civil court?
Oh, come on. That's not true. The dems are crying a river. Kicking Lay and framing him with the Republicans was one of their few chances for votes. There is much sadness in liberal-land...
Unless the transgressor is the NY Times. Lay didn't get anyone killed.
Yes, because the concept of "karma" didn't exist before 2005.
Meanwhile, our gov't rips off Social Security to the tune of billions per year. Where is the outrage?
My stock at Compaq floundered under lies too.
And there were other Houston companies that went bankrupt around the same time. None of them got the press that Enron did.
Yes there was crooked action behind the scenes. I'll say what all investors say, don't put all your eggs in one basket and certainly don't invest all of your money where you are working.
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