People You Hate to Love

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

This man is a nasty piece of work, but you have to admire the shear ballziness that he has exhibited in the past few weeks by appointing Burris to the Senate.

It's kind of like watching the villains in pro-wrestling, which I did when I was rooming with a wrestling fan. You hate them, but you love them, because they are so much more engaging than the heroes.

Of course, the adult in me realizes that pro-wrestling is really primarily theater, and pro-wrestlers don't have the power of life and death, as governors do with pardons, or just through the vicissitudes of budget process, which frequently determine who shall live and who shall die.

The Illinois legislature should dump him as soon as possible, and rationally he should never be allowed near the public sphere again, but my yetzer hara^* will miss him.

^*Yetzer hara is Hebrew for one's evil inclination, and yetzer hatov is the inclination to do good. Imagine if you will, going to a store, and paying with a $10 bill, and getting change for a $20. When you correct the cashier, it is your yetzer hatov, and when you walk out of the store calling yourself a moron for not keeping the money, that's your yetzer hara.