If I Did It.

What the hell is going on with the world? OJ Simpson, who should be sitting on Death Row right now, wrote a book on how he might have killed his wife and her friend if he had done it. Moreover, he will make money off it -- through a complex third-party arrangement -- as will a despicable publisher and bookstores that can't be bothered to display a little common decency when there's money to be made.

Yes, I know the publisher, one Judith Regan, claims she brought the book out as an act of vengeance. Some guy popped her in the snoot years ago, so her revenge is to make a boatload of money from a killer who walked away because his attorneys were bright enough to point out (to a jury composed largely of black people) that Simpson is a black man, and therefore could only have been the target of a racist police department.

As if that isn't stupid enough, the local head of some bogus civil rights organization took to the airwaves to rant that the survivors of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were being racist by trying to get the proceeds from Simpson's book. After all, they've been awarded something like $30 million from Simpson's earnings already, so why should they want more? Never mind that they haven't seen a dime from the killer who walked away.

There are three things that bug me here: First, Simpson himself. He's walking around free, has a $400,000 annual NFL pension and a nice house and is, apparently, still looked up to by certain misguided people. Never mind the theatrics of his trial; the evidence was clear, and the only reasons he walked were racism in reverse and the antics of his lawyers.

Then there's Judith Regan. You can't fault her for knowing that stirring celebrity shit is a sure way to riches. I am less offended that she bought and is publishing the book than I am by her pathetic attempts to justify it. This is not what you'd call important literature. It is a cheesy attempt by an unprincipled man (actually, he does not deserve to be called a man considering the crimes he has committed) to make a buck off the Constitution's double-jeopardy clause.

Finally, it makes my blood boil to see the race card played again and again with no possible justification. People -- myself included -- want to see Simpson punished because he is a freekin' killer, not because he's black. The desire to see criminals pay for their crimes is not racist.

The OJ Simpson story -- at least as it began the night he murdered his wife and her friend -- illustrates the worst of humanity. Don't tell me a jury acquitted him; anyone who saw the trial and has even minimal cognitive abilities knows the trial was phony as the proverbial three-dollar bill.

Granted, Simpson is not the only celeb to get away with murder. He seems, however, to be the only one who will profit from an ex-post-facto confession.

Judith Regan is almost as disgusting, followed closely by the bookstores that will carry the book. And then there are those who will buy it....

A lot of authors would kill to get a $3.5 million advance for their books. OJ actually did it.