Larry Was King of Deadbeats

[kskiska]

December 4, 2006 -- CNN anchor Larry King may have put his days of gambling and drinking behind him, but "Miami Beach Memories" by Joann Biondi is dredging up the bad old days.

(snip)

One Miami Beach hotelier, Irving Cowan, has trouble believing King ever made it to the big leagues. "There are a lot of people in Miami Beach who are still angry with Larry, a lot of people he still owes money to. He makes enough . . . to pay them back."

(snip)

"He borrowed money from my father and never paid it back," recalls banker Jack Courson. "He called me once and said, 'Hey Jack, how much did I owe your father?' I told him it was $5,000. I thought he was planning to pay it back. But no, he was filing for bankruptcy and wanted to tally up his debts."

(snip)

Hope Pomerance, a cop's widow, said, "Not too long ago Larry King was nominated to be on the Miami Beach Walk of Stars, but the board voted him down. That tells you what people think of him around here."

more…
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12042006/gossip/pagesix/pagesix.htm

[Scurrilous]

1. Mugshot:

<snip>

"CNN personality Larry King was arrested in December 1971 in Miami, Florida and charged with grand larceny. King, 38 at the time, was unable to pay back money he owed a financier he was doing some work for. While a judge threw out the larceny charge because the statute of limitations had run out, King pled no contest to one count of passing bad checks."

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/larrykingmug1.html

[Selatius]

2. Yet he can get a major gig on CNN. GWB was a fuck-up, too, but he's in the White House now

Either this nation is forgiving, or somebody fucked and screwed their way to the top leaving everybody else who dotted their "I"s and crossed their "T"s to work for them.

Personally, I don't think this nation is that forgiving. I do think, however, that a person can rise to the top in our society and is rewarded with fabulous wealth even if he doesn't deserve it. Just talk to Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney or Jr. Bush.

And there are those who have worked hard their entire lives and have never known a life beyond living paycheck to paycheck. Is this what we want as a society? Is this what we call "civilization"?