Slow news day

Oh my God! They killed Kenny! YOU BASTARDS!
Kenneth “Kenny Boy” Lay died today at 64, in Aspen, Colorado, of an apparent massive coronary. Lay, the founder of former energy giant Enron, was, of course, sentenced for fraud and related crimes surrounding the massive collapse of Enron, and would have likely been sentenced to at least 25 years in prison, or an effective life sentence in any event. Lay, of course, will not serve that sentence.
Query whether the thousands upon thousands of people who watched their jobs disappear, pensions or stock portfolios evaporate, or who were, for example, grossly overcharged for electricity, so that Kenny Boy and a few other select insiders could buy yachts and numerous vacation homes (note the location of Mr. Lay’s death) and other big-ticket items while laughing as they cooked Enron’s books… will get any satisfaction from this. (OTOH, someone I can think of can breathe a sigh of relief about not having to wonder about whether he should issue a very, very suspicious pardon to an old friend, roughly 30 months from now…)
In an interesting coincidence, on the same day of Lay’s death (and likely exacerbated by the next item), oil closed at a record level, above $75/bbl.

Fred Kaplan, writing in Slate, gives us this piece suggesting that the North Korean missile test, particularly the failure of the Taepodong 2 longer range ballistic missile to last more than 35 seconds from launch, opens up a major diplomatic opportunity toward North Korea, given that Dear Leader’s regime should be chastened, in the face of a very public failure… this would be harder, of course, if the missile had, oh, come anywhere near American air space (or managed to escape North Korean air space).
Finally, Atlantic City’s casinos have to shut down, because New Jersey… is apparently out of business.
Well, hope springs eternal. Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting.