Chutzpah

Unbelievable:

David Belniak had alcohol, Xanax and evidence of cocaine in his system and never braked when he slammed into the back of a family's car stopped at a red light on Christmas Day 2007. Three people died. In August, Belniak pleaded guilty to three counts of DUI manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He never said a word in court, not even when the victims' children begged him for an apology.

But he is voicing his opinion now. He's saying he's not responsible for the crash. And he wants to be paid for his suffering.

Last month, Belniak's attorney filed a lawsuit against the now-deceased driver of the other car, alleging the crash was the victim's fault. The suit asks for the victims' relatives to pay Belniak, 38, for his "pain and suffering … mental anguish … loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life" and the medical bills he got as a result of a crash he pleaded guilty to causing.

A phrase comes to mind; I am unsure where I first heard or read it: "Such moral depravity has the world never seen." Well, we're seeing it now, in 21st century America.

Let me take you on a quick trip. We'll hop in Doc Brown's shiny creation and set the dial for January 01, 2100. We arrive in streets choked with trash and diseased beggars. The freeways are crumbling under the few privately-owned cars still driving on them. The shattered, empty shells of once bustling restaurants and shopping malls squat like gnawed skeletons on the grey, filthy landscape. Our once beautiful Republic, formerly held up as the shining beacon of human progress for all the world to imitate, now hangs in rags. The greedy glutton in the sharkskin suit, law degree prominent behind his thousand-dollar desk, has robbed her, raped her and dumped her nearly lifeless body in a ditch for the jackals to feed upon. Empire? No, we never even got that far. Like ancient Greece, we go out with a whimper, our greed and hedonism consuming our bodies and minds, while the self-appointed patricians roll in gold and watch the buildings crumble. America staggers into the 22nd century, her last gasp before joining the ghosts of history and resigning herself to the status of anthropological curiosity. No one weeps, because no one cares any more. Most just wish the old hag would shut up and die, sparing them yet another tale about the glorious days of her youth...

Most people are joking when they mutter Shakespeare's famous turn of phrase, "The first thing we do, let us kill all the lawyers." I am not.