Thou shalt not break thy cousin's kneecaps, either

Maybe Kentucky’s soon-to-be-ex-Gov. Ernie Fletcher had the right idea after all when he pushed last week to have the Ten Commandments installed at the state Capitol as part of an historical display. He just picked the wrong Ten Commandments. Had Fletcher waited a few days, he would have had access to another set of Commandments that not only would have avoided religious controversy but might have seemed oddly appropriate in Frankfort: the Mafia’s Ten Commandments.

Really. This typewritten list of 10 rules for the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate's associates to live by was among the documents seized by Italian police after their arrest Monday of Salvatore Lo Piccolo, believed to be the new head of the Sicilian Mafia. The Cosa Nostra’s reputed capo di tutti i capi was captured after a shootout at a villa outside Palermo in which the police outnumbered the mobsters 10 to 1. According to news reports, the cops celebrated with champagne at the stationhouse after they brought him in. Nice touch.

The 10 rules form a set of strict guidelines for younger Mafia members to follow. Most of them actually fit in quite nicely with the traditional Judaeo-Christian commandments, and offer guidance that Fletcher & Co. – or Patton & Co., or any other scandal-plagued Kentucky Gov. & Co. since 1971, for that matter – might have benefited from. Like Commandment No. 8: “When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.” Wow. Wouldn’t it be something if government officials anywhere actually lived by that rule?

Here, for the record, are the "Ten Commandments of the Mafia," imported directly from Sicily:
1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don’t go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty – even if your wife’s about to give birth.
6. Appointments must absolutely be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can’t be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn’t hold to moral values.