What to do with dead people. PS: presidential pets!

While listening to/reading this story about being buried by burying beetles, I ended up at the website for Obit Magazine, an online magazine about dying. They have an advice column, which I assumed was meant to offer condolences and/or coping advice to people in mourning, called Ask Judy:

Dear Judy,

I'm writing from the Midwest. We have a local politician, a friend of the family, who upped and died. I won't say what his title was, but he was pretty important in our city.

He was also, and I know this for a fact, a child-molester. Or really a teen-molester. I used to babysit for his two kids, and I happen to know.

Everyone acts like the worst tragedy in the world just happened. I say Justice has been done. Can I tell people about it now? I never have before, for reasons having to do with fear, his importance in our city, and the fact that nobody would believe me even if I did.

Caroline

Judy-the-soother-of-grievances' advice:

I am probably alone in the world in believing that being dead is no excuse. You don't get to have your sins wiped clean just because you stopped breathing! And I also have nothing against trashing the dead, except to their relatives and spouses. If the dead pol was a creep, so be it.

Somehow in the same sitting I was also directed to the presidential pet museum. James Buchanan had a pet herd of elephants -- imagine if Sasha and Malia had one of those!! Also, what do you think it means that Ronald Reagan's dog Lucky had "natural ears"?