http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/12/news/newsmakers/lay.reut/index.htm?section=cnn_topstories
I hope the Right Reverend and all the people who agree with him get their life savings wiped out by a “Jesus” like Kenny Boy. Since history apparently carries out justice now, maybe I can beseech it to fuck these people up.
Funny, all the accounts I’ve seen indicate that the right time was about 60 years ago.
“I have a dream, that someday, I can screw a lot of people out of their own hardworked earnings, and live like a king off of stolen goods.”
The bizarre born-again rehabilitation of Ken Lay reminds me of Charles Keating, who was a big Moral Majority, Christian, anti-porn crusader. Apparently, through all that Bible study he had managed to miss the Eighth Commandment.
Did they remember to drive the stake home before they screwed down the lid?
Yep. The jerk even had Mother Theresa kissing his butt.
“The wise shepherd tends to his flock, and fleeces them regularly.”
Maybe we should put Lay’s image up on Mount Rushmore, right next to Bush.
What in the holy fuck was that reverend thinking? The meek shall inherit the Earth, but they’ll lose it all to Lay.
Well, Mother Theresa was a bit of a monster herself, while we’re at it. Potentially millions of dollars in donations to help people… that certainly didn’t end up buying medicine or doctors or anything like that. But her nun order certianly got a lot of gilded and gold-plated furnishings!
Agree. ken lay was nothing but a selfish, greedhead who didn’t give a crap about anyone but himself. His firm did NOT create wealth 9as most enterprises do), instead, it destroyed wealth-ask the lectricity rate payers in California. ENRON was a firm that made money by manipulatiing markets-it was in no sense a firm that facilitated anything but theft.
Rot in hell, Ken.
Ken Lay did a lot of bad things in and through Enron. He also was a very generous philanthropist. While I don’t think much of him, am offended by his religious indignation and view the Reverand’s comments as nothing short of nutty, there are some people who were only exposed to Lay’s good side and they apparently feel the need to defend his honor. The real shame is that Ken didn’t give EVERYONE due cause to feel that way.
<Crosses monstro off the list of people to give my eulogy>
It was a memorial service, and as such, it’s traditional to give fulsome praises to the dead, even if you have to lie like hell to do so.
Fulsome praise would be “He didn’t completely suck.”
It’s easy to be generous with other people’s money.
How did the good Reverend expect history to exnerate Mr. Lay when a court already found him guilty?
Arguable, but there’s contrary evidence, in that he seems to have genuinely not understood what an utter bastard he truly was. Seems to me more like your run-of-the-mill sociopath, who’s as good to others as flattering his self-image and currying favor requires.
Whatever happened to the whole Christian “He was a sinner, but we’re all sinners, so let’s forgive our brother Kenneth and surrender judgement to the Almighty Father” spiel? Why the outrageously distorted hagiography?
Well, a court found Jesus and MLK guilty, too. So there! 
It just occurred to me that if Kenny is like Jesus, then he’ll rise in three days. Then we can throw his ass in prison. Yay!
With his time as well.
I’m no fan of Lay but I do think I see him in a just light. He was no angel but neither was he the devil incarnate. You want scum? Look to Andy Fastow and, to an only slightly lesser degree Jeff Skilling and a couple dozen other corrupt Enron insiders.
Seriously, as far as I can tell Fastow has no redeeming characteristic whatsoever.
My understanding of the sad story of Enron was that Lay was not so much a sociopath as he was a guy who was willing to continually go a little too far past ethical, and the situation just kind of snowballed. It wasn’t that he woke up one day and said “I think I’ll strip this company of its money and run away,” it was one little thing after another - a little dishonesty here, a little fudging the numbers there. As Enron started getting into trouble, he and his cronies kept at it, never intending to destroy the company but just trying to hide the severity of its problems a little while longer, hoping they could turn it around.
Lay was the corporate version of poor Jerry Lundegaard, the bumbing car salesman from “Fargo” who’s been stealing a little bit of money at a time from his dealership for so long that he has to come up with a scheme to steal even more money, and just gets in over his head, getting people hurt along the way, as he tries to lie and cheat his way out.
I respectfully disagree. OnI believe it’s better to focus on the deceased’s positive deeds. By making dubious claims, it calls your own integrity into question and diminishes the validity of truthful accolades you’ve shared.