A new Web site worth monitoring as the trial of Conrad Black approaches in Chicago’s federal court: supportlordblack.com. The members of the “Ad hoc Committee for Conrad Black” don’t identify themselves, but they wear their hearts on their sleeves: they stand by the former Sun-Times owner “in his current battle with grandstanding U.S. prosecutors and a hostile left-wing press.” Moreover, they’re admirers of “His Lordship’s life’s struggle to confront, with unflagging courage, the Brobdingnagian forces of Canadian small-mindedness, parochialism, mediocrity and failure.”
The site has some memorable quotes. Ayn Rand: “Great men can’t be ruled”; Napoleon Bonaparte: “Great men are meteors, consuming themselves to light the world”; Michael Sneed: “Lord Black of Crossharbour has chutzpah.” Mention is made of an “On-to-Chicago Caravan” from Toronto by chartered aircraft on March 13, the day before Black’s “show trial” begins on charges that range from racketeering to tax evasion. There is no appeal for contributions: “We are confident His Lordship would unhesitatingly wave off any offers of charity on his behalf.”
There’s a whiff of parody to supportlordblack.com, but it’s hard to say: there’s always been a whiff of parody to Black himself.