Ken Lay Is Dead …

And that, of course, is too bad.

It’s too bad any time a human passes---unless his name is Al-Zarqawi---although we all gotta go sometime. It’s especially unfortunate in Lay’s case, in that he’ll never have to serve whatever sentence the judge would’ve handed him (you get the impression it would have been a stiff one).

We hope, however, that media will restrain itself from repeating (at least too often) the predictable flights of metaphorical fancy about Lay’s having died “of a broken heart,” etc., or God having finally called his humble servant home. It’s just as easy to imagine that God, who we understand works in mysterious ways, looked down on that Aspen vacation home and decided to send his humble servant straight to hell.

Mostly, we hope that mere death will not be occasion to remake Lay as a good guy, a misunderstand visionary and selfless philanthropist who was done in by cruel circumstances beyond his control.

Stranger things have happened.