Wouldn’t it be great if Michael Lewis had an op-ed column in the New York Times rather than Paul Krugman? We’d even get to laugh twice a week or so. Still, Michael has a newish column at Bloomberg.com, and the latest is the usual corker. (Full disclosure: Michael is a good friend and probably my favorite contemporary journalist). Here’s a snippet:
[E]verything we know so far about Enron suggests that many, many employees were, at the very least, willing accomplices to the schemes dreamed up by their bosses. And now they want their money back! They are like accessories to a failed bank heist who demand restitution because the police confiscated their share of the take.
You can enjoy the rest here.
DEAR MUM AND DAD: London’s Daily Express just published the first letters sent by prisoners from Camp X-Ray. They’re from British al Qaeda members and, whatever else they show, they seem to me to indicate perfectly decent treatment. The Express is not online but here’s the relevant excerpt:
Iqbal’s letter is badly-spelled – with capital and lower-case letters scattered at random.
He begins: “Just a few lines to say that I’m well and doing fine. I’m now in
Cuba and it very hot.”
“How is everyone at home. Is Mum and Dad okay?
“Tell them not to worry. I’m fine. Tell my friends AJ and Haddam that I’m alright.
“I’ve got a Koran and prayer from the Red Cross.
“I’m getting three meals a day and have to shit in a bucket in my cell.
“Tell Mum and Dad I love them and to make Dua – pray – for me and to forgive me for my mistakes.”
The former factory worker then asks about Nasreen – the bride whom he
travelled to Pakistan to wed in an arranged marriage last October.
Both Iqbal and former student Rasul, 24, demand to know how their football teams – Manchester United and Liverpool respectively – are doing.
The letters also reveal that prisoners at the camp are able to talk to each
other. Iqbal writes: “Shafiq and Ruhal are fine tell their family, but I do not know what happened to Munir.”
Munir Ali, 21, is the younger brother of Syeda Khatun, 33, the second woman Bangladeshi councillor in Britain.
Rasul’s letters is less positive.
He writes: “It’s very hot here and I can’t take the heat. The food they give us is terrible.
”I have lost three stone in weight since I left home.”
But Rasul jokes in one letter: “I bet Asif’s Dad is still waiting in Pakistan for the wedding.”
ILLEGAL DEPORTATIONS?: If anything in this story from the Times of London is true, it’s deeply disturbing.
The Dish 