Schadenfreude for the day

I love that word, schadenfreude. Sounds foreign enough to give it a false air of erudition while describing one of the most common of human emotions: malicious joy at some one's bad fortune. Here are two good examples from Peggy Noonan in The Washington Post (she calls it karma) in a rather sweet column today.

Illinois first lady Patricia Blagojevich has been fired from her $100,000 job as a fundraiser for the homeless.

And former French President Jacques Chirac was taken to the hospital after being bitten by his pet Maltese poodle. The pup was being treated for depression, apparently unsuccessfully.

Mauled by a depressed poodle. How ignominious.

I shouldn't be smug. If schadenfreude is a sin I am so in trouble.