Everybody knows that Rob Ford is a dick, but it\u2019s entirely possible that non-Canadians have yet to learn that Conrad Black is also a dick.<\/p>\n
Black was once a Canadian media tycoon. Nauseatingly epicurean, he employs the most ornate, complex vocabulary available. He does this as if it was the side effect of some medication, like a spasm he can\u2019t control. It drives most people crazy, but Black seems unable to temper it, always hopeful that his erudition and verbal mastery will intimidate and dazzle anybody caught in its bright glare. Really, every time he speaks, you just want to start swinging a lead pipe.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n Further, back in 2001 Black got in a spat with the Canadian government over whether he could accept a UK peerage in the British House of Lords that would confer upon him the title Baron Black. He renounced his citizenship over this. Canada was simply too small-minded and parochial for his talents and ambitions so he would leave, soon after getting convicted of fraud in the US where he served nearly four years in prison. Now, at 69, he\u2019s back in Canada co-hosting a TV show on a network called the Zoomer.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Anyway, on Monday he interviewed Rob Ford on the show. It turns out that as they both hate big government and the law, they got on like a publicity hungry house on fire. They were practically combing one another\u2019s hair by the time it was done. The union has been made, and from now on Conrad Black has pledged to serve as Rob Ford\u2019s official mouthpiece, translating whatever our multi-tasking mayor happens to spit out.<\/p>\n