There's little question for whom that was intended, but Obama was off the mark when he said that "we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders."

Say what one will about Bush, he was not indifferent to the suffering of others. In fact, he is credited with saving millions of lives by allocating billions to fight AIDS and malaria in Africa. He also has been instrumental in helping bring an end to civil war in Sudan and was among the first to declare the atrocities in Darfur as genocide.

By those acts, surely, Bush has accrued a store of good karma, if little public acclamation, to balance whatever justice is his due.

On a lighter note in the annals of karmic history, 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.

Somewhere, Tony Blair is smiling.

And now for our turn.

Obama didn't use the precise words, but he implied in his inaugural address that our current crises are karmic justice for decades of self-indulgence, greed and irresponsibility. It's not that we necessarily deserve a collapsed economy, two wars and a warming planet, but we can't place all the blame elsewhere.

Urging a new era of responsibility -- long the rallying cry of conservatives -- Obama was essentially invoking ancient scripture: "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

As presidential mantras go, we could do worse. May good karma be with him.