This diary is cross-posted to my blog, where I've included a Time magazine cover from the 1950s of Cohn.

For those who might have missed it, there is a scene from the 2003 HBO film version of Tony Kushner's AIDS epic play,  Angels in America. In this scene, right wing lawyer and closeted gay man, Roy Cohn, is diagnosed by his doctor (played by James Cromwell) with AIDS. As you watch both actors' powerful performance, so much is going on and is embodied in this amazing scene, not the least of which is the nature of self-loathing and the pretenses of so many of those in power. For those displaying the hubris of Cohn, they generally are ill prepared for those eventual moments when they experience a hard fall.

I am middle aged and have thrown off the fantasies of my childhood religion.  But as a student of culture -- particularly Western culture -- there is one thing that I cannot shake... my undying belief in the Creator's sense of drama.  Call it my version of Intelligent Design.

Am I insane?  11 million people had to die in WWII, before Hitler faced the comeuppance for his hubris.  How many millions died in Stalin's Soviet Union, and he died in his sleep wondering who was plotting to kill him.

Nevertheless, Nixon and Clinton met the fates that their own idiocyncratic tragic flaws prophesied.  And I fully expect - polyanish as it may be - that Darth Cheney and Annikan Bush will meet their foretold fates.

For the answer to why I believe this, see below the fold...