Mapping Justice

I was driving to campus today, listening to my beloved National Public Radio. They reported on a dude who goes by the curious--almost humorous--name of E. Forbes Smiley. According to the story, he is one of "the nation's foremost experts on ancient maps."
Well, it turns out that he has been visiting libraries and stealing ancient maps and selling them on the black market. They caught him and gave him 10 years in prison.

When I heard about justice being served to this map thief, I thought of the "justice" that had been "served" to the mastermind of the Enron billion dollar rip off. I could not believe that Andrew Fastow got his 10-year plea bargain sentence reduced to just 6 years, with the possibility of being released in 4 years for good behavior.

He cooked the books and got boucoup bucks in personal kickbacks while regular old middle-class Enron employees got their entire pensions wiped out. You remember those tapes they played at his trial about "screwing over the grandmothers in California" with Enron price spikes for energy?

This scoundrel ruined the lives of hundred while lining his pockets, and he has to serve a MAX of 6 years in the slammer. The map thief will serve almost twice as long. I am not condoning map theft, but it does not seem nearly as serious as the massive Enron rip off. If I had stolen that much money from a bank, I'd be in for life. But if I were a rich white guy like Fastow, I'd be out before my kids graduate from high school.

Ugh . . .