Another home run for Christopher Hitchens as he zeroes in on the O.J. Simpson mess:
And there are still people who write articles that refer to him just as "O.J." or "the Juice." Somewhere in these colloquial and jocular allusions, there may be a clue about the free pass that we seem to grant to celebrity crime. I don't happen to know Mr. Orenthal James Simpson, and I don't make a habit of using nicknames for psychopathic killers (I don't say "Osama" either) so call me pompous and old-fashioned if you will, but he's "Simpson" to me. And it's no news to anybody that he butchered two innocent people at close quarters, so there's no disclosure-value in this creepy business proposition. Nor is it news that he has escaped even the civil verdict in the case, by sheltering his assets under Florida's shady homestead law and by having his NFL pension considered inviolate. (Attach the assets of a former football "great" who has been ordered by a court to compensate his victims? How un-American can you get?) The only question is whether, having wholly devastated two families and part-orphaned two children, and having laughingly refused to pay a cent of the judgment against him, Simpson can find any new ways of inflicting pain and insult. I had previously thought that his cheery attendance at the "Slasher" convention might mark the low point, but there you go.
Read it all here.
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