The Arms Trader

Yesterday my very exciting Excel-related tasks were accompanied by this repeat of a This American Life episode, spruced up with a few new voices. The story, about an incompetent but eager-to- please shady character who gets mixed up in an arms sting, isn't a thriller- the main character is so bumbling that the U.S. government has to supply him with decoy customers, vendors, and even a fake missle. So did he actually committ a crime if none of it was real? A jury in Newark thought so. When I first heard it, my knee-jerk reaction is that while he's not Santa Claus, this guy clearly was too dysfunctional, at times comically so, to cross the line between wanting to do something and making it happen. Back at Our Lady of Hope, thinking bad thoughts just got you five Hail Marys and six Our Fathers. But the new additions to the piece brought on an even more troubling conclusion this time I heard the episode- who's going after people who are actually dangerous while the government goes after the low-hanging fruit?

This American Life: The Arms Trader