Winding It Down By Getting It Up

And finally, a look at the lighter side of the weekend's news.

As usual with our painfully altruistic 42nd president, it's never about the money:

Volunteer groups in Ireland are criticizing ex-President Bill Clinton for charging a suicide prevention charity $125,000 for a 40-minute speech Monday night."

Any initiative that contributes to the prevention of suicide is very welcome," said Pat Buckley, spokesman for a group of Irish suicide support groups, in an interview with the Irish Examiner.

"But the money it will cost for Bill Clinton to make this keynote speech would fund a lot of counseling for the bereaved and those at risk of suicide in places like Cork, Limerick or Kerry."

Clinton's fee, Buckley added, could also cover the costs of "voluntary [suicide prevention] activities of groups North and South."

Meanwhile, back home....

Scores of convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in New York have been getting Viagra paid by Medicaid for the last five years, the state's comptroller said Sunday.

Audits by Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office showed that between January 2000 and March 2005, 198 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Those included crimes against children as young as 2 years old, he said.

Hevesi asked Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in a letter Sunday to "take immediate action to ensure that sex offenders do not receive erectile dysfunction medication paid for by taxpayers."

I'd wager that that particular combination of words has never before been uttered in the history of this planet. A sign of the impending Apocalypse, perhaps?

There's no word yet on whether some of that erectile dysfunction medication will be diverted to pay Mr. Bill's honorarium for his upcoming speech to an Irish AIDS charity. It'd be a shame if they had to deplete their condom supply instead.