As I watched O.J. Simpson being sentenced to at least 15 years behind bars today, I noticed a delicious irony.

In 1995, when Simpson was acquitted with the help of a legal dream team led by the late Johnnie Cochran, America was riding high. It was the middle of the Clinton years, and the nation was more prosperous than many had seen in their lifetimes.

Unemployment was low, crime was beginning to drop, a new, technologically savvy generation was coming of age. War? What war? The Iraq question was answered four years earlier, banks were handing out mortgages like doughnuts on Fat Tuesday, and the auto industry kept putting our fat butts in the drivers seats of less and less efficient SUVs.

Then along comes Simpson, and the murders of his ex-wife and her friend. Since everything else in the country was perfect, we had nothing better to worry about and the media spent millions upon millions of dollars that it had in surplus covering the trial, while at the same time ignoring the human tragedy in places like Rwanda. ...


Simpson goes free, and the American lust for his blood began. Oooh, what an outrage! It was as if Simpson was the first rich guy to be exonerated. People prayed for the day they'd see him get his comeuppance.

Fast forward 13 years and that has seemingly happened, both to Simpson and to America as well.

Now that Simpson is likely going to spend no less than nine years in the clink, if paroles work in his favor, the nation is basically up *#$#$ Creek. Just last month we lost half a million jobs, the recession that we'd known we were in for some time has become official; and violent crime increases seem to coincide with the beginning of the economic downturn.

What's more, if you're actually still in your house and paying your mortgage while reading this blog, consider yourself damn lucky; as for the auto biz, they are on Capitol Hill as I write this with Congress asking which arm they should chop off first.

Rwanda, still largely ignored by the western public has now turned into Zimbabwe, Congo and Darfur. And the media that blew the original trial way, way out of proportion is hemorrhaging like a stuck pig.

Somewhere in the madness of today's news cycle, O.J. returns, sullen, defeated, and wondering how his life came to this. And also probably wondering if anyone cares. Well Juice, America used to want your head on a platter, and that's all they could think about in their culture of Caligula-like lasciviousness.

But now times are changed, the same lust they had at seeing you burn is the same lust that has gotten them at the threshold of a prolonged, severe global recession. So even though I never felt there was any evidence to convict you in your first trial, and that your second trial was the result of people wanting lustful vengeance for the first, you can take solace that the hatred that eventually sent you up the river is the same hatred that will sink everybody else in it.

Now there's a good chance, O.J. will be locked up for a long time, and Nevada Judge Jackie Glass could have thrown the book at him, but didn't. There will also be an appeals process, and the aforementioned chance at parole. If there's a ray of hope for him, this is it.

But for the America that wailed in the street when he was acquitted in 1995, there's no reason for them to celebrate now. Maybe if we had paid attention to what was important, like world events, our credit, ridiculous home loans maybe this would be a time we could pay better attention to an O.J. trial.

Still honestly, after reading some of this week's news, O.J. seems like the lucky one.