To change gears a bit, the attorney for disgraced ex-priest Gary Mercure, while asking the judge to send him to county jail instead of state prison, said his client will be at the "bottom of the social order" and subjected to physical harm by the inmate population.

Gee, that's too bad.

Mercure is the priest recently convicted of raping two alter boys he coerced into trusting him and suspected of doing the same to others.

Ya gotta give Pittsfield Judge John Agostini credit for laying it on the line: "You're not a priest. You're no more than a common thug." And then sending him to hard time in state prison.

Let's see if Mercure has that smug look on his face while he's enjoying life at "the bottom of the social order" doing hard time.

I don't know if it's justice or not considering what he did to those two boys, now men, but it's as close as our system allows. On the surface anyway.

I'm sure there is some irony in how the real justice, the eye for an eye justice, will come from convicts locked up for things like murder and assault.