Schadenfreude - courtesy of Basket of Puppies

(Photo of Judge Robert Somma)

"Schadenfreude is a German word meaning 'pleasure taken from someone else's mistortune.' The American equivalent is the sarcastic, 'Aw, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.'"

There is a "humorous" and very important article at the blog, Basket of Puppies, titled "American Schadenfreude, The real #1 pasttime."

It is humorous in the sense it portrays a pocketful of mostly Repugnican poohbahs stupidly revealing their hypocrisy. It is also important (if a bit sad) to realize that these poor fools are, or have been holding down important public positions, making decisions that directly affect a number of people.

"Obviously," the article begins, "the most delicious schadenfreude is homegrown from the finest in superior ultra-conservative piety and self-righteousness, but not all the best schadenfreud comes from the front page and not all stories are buried in the past."

Here are the first two examples:

"Fifty years ago a judge wearing a dress was a hangin' offense. Today, it's just another new cycle. On Feb. 6th, when 63 year-old Judge Robert Somma was arrested for DWI after he hit a pickup truck ... Highway patrol found him wearing a black women's cocktail dress, fishnet stockings and high heels. ...

"On April 3rd, Cumberland County Commissioner, Bruce Barclay was arrested for the male rape of a prostitute he found on Harisburg Frat Boys dot.com. And then came the revelation that Bruce was innocent. How do we know? Conservative Republican Barclay secretly videotaped all of his sexual encounters with male prostitutes. Hundreds of them. For some reason, gourmet schadenfreude always tastes better with secret videos."

There's much more and I'd guess many of these stories never did make the front page of your local paper.

Read the entire article here.