Why people hate lawyers: I'm not big into the self-loathing that some lawyers like to emote; we're as necessary as anything in our world. Even deposed dictators should have them, in order that we as a civilized people not endorse and further a system which countless lives have been sacrificed to overthrow.

However, Pinochet's lawyer takes the cake (and believe me, I whole-heartedly support the notion that any lawyer has a duty to zealously defend his/her client within the bounds of the law). In commenting on a recent decision by a Chilean judge holding that Pinochet is mentally competent to stand for trial, his lawyer objected to the ruling, stating that the decision "overruled human rights."

Right. Pinochet...on trial...for his various and sundry crimes against humanity, violates human rights. Good one.