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Oh - and by the way - Charlie says to stop global warming.
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When I first met him in prison, my first impression was how polished he had become since I had known him 15 years earlier, even in his prison uniform. Every crease is crisp, every button is buttoned. His belt is shiny, his shoes gleam. Very much the dandy, even in prison. And very much in control of our conversation. He had a very engaging, low-key style. Never took his eyes off of me. [He] leaned forward and was very interested in everything I had to say. A few little jokes, a little bit of flattery. But very much on-message.Next up - what marriage really means:
When I saw him the second time, after his son’s suicide, I was stunned at the change in him. From across the room, I would not have recognized him as the same man. So much thinner. In fact, the uniform involves one of the those web belts and he had the belt pulled so tight that the end of it was folded under to keep it from flopping. One of his buttons on his shirt was undone and he didn’t notice it until about halfway through. He buttoned it up. This had been an immaculately groomed, crisp, confident man back in August. In February, he seemed to holding on to his control with both hands. Fiercely. No jokes. No humor. Barely a smile. And this was two months after his son’s suicide. He was clearly devastated by that.
Madoff’s sons were deeply upset that Ruth did not walk out on him. I worked very hard to try to understand, through as many confidential sources as I could, why she didn’t go. And I asked Madoff himself why she stayed. That’s the one point in the first interview where he broke down and cried. And I do think it was genuine. He didn’t even have a Kleenex with him. His lawyer had to find some little paper napkins in the snack bar area. But he said all her friends told her she should leave, which I knew to be true. He told her she should leave, that she didn’t have to stay. As the firestorm of criticism and vitriol was growing, he could see that it was hurting her to stay with him. But she would not walk out on him. And, as I understand it, how she has explained it, is that she had a love affair with this man for 50 years and she just felt she couldn’t abandon him at this time of his near destruction.Let's follow that up with the reason integrity is so important, and why - in a world filled with so many lacking in it - there's so much fraud:
You know Larry and I have been married for 42 years and I can sort of understand it. I don’t think younger couples can. She met and fell in love with Bernie when she was 13 years old. He was a lifeguard, she wasn’t even in high school yet. Pretty girl. And he was handsome, sun-bleached hair. She fell in love the first time she met him and married him at 18. You have to keep that in mind when you weigh the decisions she made after his arrest. It was a lifelong love affair. Everybody who knew them agreed that they were still like sweethearts. One person said that the only person who thought more of Bernie than Ruth was Bernie. She really worshipped him.
I can guarantee you that there is another Ponzi scheme out there that we haven’t heard about yet. Ponzi schemes are, to me, one of the most fascinating crimes on Wall Street, one of the most fascinating financial crimes that there is.Got that, people? Protect yourself. Protect your loved ones. Forget trying to seem nice:
The air they breathe is trust. A Ponzi scheme cannot grow in an environment that’s devoid of trust. Nothing else can either, so in order to eliminate Ponzi schemes, you’d have to create a world completely devoid of trust. And when you’ve got a world like that, number one, none of us wants to live in it. And, number two: You can’t run a modern economy without a minimal level of trust. But that level of trust is exactly the level of trust a Ponzi schemer needs to get away with it. Now, Ponzi schemes are a peculiar crime in that you don’t feel any pain until the very end.
I think the Madoff story introduces a new species of Ponzi scheme. Traditionally, we’ve thought of Ponzi schemes as the classic, too-good-to-be-true fraud. Fifty percent returns a month. Double your money in 10 days. The classic Ponzi scheme, all the way back to the first one in the 1920s, appealed to our greed. The get-rich-quick itch. The Madoff scheme did not appeal to people’s greed; it appealed to their fear. Through most of the Madoff scam, you could’ve made more money somewhere else. There were years when the Magellan Fund at Fidelity was producing much better results that Madoff’s investors were getting. It wasn’t that they were greedy: He was so consistent. He was so safe. They felt safe with Bernie in an increasingly volatile, scary, complicated market. If a Ponzi scheme appeals to your greed, a Madoff scheme appeals to your fears. I can’t tell you how many people told me, “He made me feel safe.”
Those are the kinds of frauds I worry we’re going to see more of.
[Bernie Madoff doesn't think about his clients] who committed suicide and their families. Not the ones who’ve had to uproot their entire lives and sell their beloved homes. The human cost of the crime is part of the equation that he just doesn’t see. He’s utterly in denial about that.I think about all of that - every day - which makes me weird to others, but also makes them very weird to me. People innocently defend evil nowadays, and it's costs are something they never consider until too late. And usually to someone else's detriment.
Self-deception is an extremely dangerous practice. Lying to ourselves is how we get in the most trouble. If there is a lesson, it is the oldest human lesson. To thine own self be true.
If people take nothing else away from the book, I hope they take that. Lying to yourself is a luxury that you just can’t afford.
Her life was filled with more drama than a Hollywood movie and now, a month after her death, there has been yet another plot twist.Did Elizabeth Taylor have a secret love child?
Elizabeth Taylor was forced to give up a secret love child, it has been claimed today.
The late Hollywood legend gave birth to a baby girl called Norah, according to psychic and self-proclaimed Taylor confidant John Cohan.
Cohan claims that Taylor had been a client of his since the 1960s and told him he could not reveal the secret until after her death.
President Obama told Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday that he was driven to release his long-form birth certificate so that the nation could move on and focus on a "serious conversation" about solving its problems.Obama birth certificate: Oprah asks, 'Why did you wait so long?'
Obama, joined by his wife, discussed the issue at Winfrey's Chicago studios hours after he took to the White House briefing room to chide the "sideshows and carnival barkers" propagating conspiracies about his roots.
Marin County has agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who accused sheriff's deputies of shocking him with a Taser when he refused to go to the hospital after he fell.Marin settles Taser-shock suit for $1.9 million
The University of Wisconsin has decided to act against doctors in their system that provided fraudulent medical excuses for demonstrators in Madison earlier this year. The medical school reviewed allegations against 22 of its faculty/staff and will remove them from “leadership positions” and dock their pay,...Wisconsin doctors face disciplinary action for writing fake notes for protesters.
PRINCE DISSES FANS, CANCELS L.A. SHOWS?He - they - can't be trusted, folks.
The reason charlatans get away with it is because the insistence of many of the world's major religions on the reality of divine intervention gives them boundaries to blur and hope to exploit. And to claim that no one profits from the miraculous in "proper religion" is patently wrong. The whole economy of the town of Lourdes would collapse with out it.The poor buggers. Somebody ought to tell them to get a real job,...all of them, actually. Below is the killer queen from that visit to Lourdes, oh so long ago. Karine Anne Brunck just had to go to Lourdes, don't you know, because her ass was so fucking pious and pure:
The Babaster is one of the biggest. BBC News produced an excellent documentary exposé, yet he still has millions of sadly deluded devotees. He also has a cadre of internet attack specialists, a number of whom have gone to substantial lengths to discredit yours truly.--jodyr, Guruphiliac Forum
Miracle-faking and twink-diddling, along with rumors of massive government corruption and a few murders, are only a few of this man's sins. But all that said, I'm still entirely convinced that the man functions as a perfectly adequate image upon which to project the idea of God, making him more a stand in than incarnation, something that is true of every guru who has millions of followers.
The BBC could be part of a ‘propaganda media network’ for al-Qeada, according to U.S. files published by WikiLeaks.WikiLeaks accuses BBC of being part of 'possible propaganda media network' for Al Qaeda
A phone number of someone at the BBC was found in phone books and programmed into the mobile phones of a number of militants seized by the Americans.
The number is believed to be based at Bush House, the headquarters of the BBC World Service.
I have been debt free since early 2010, and am supporting two households.Michael Fairman, Familiar TV and Film Actor, Makes Public His Expulsion from Scientology
I make car and insurance payments on my Mercedes...So what 'financial irregularities and out-exchange' are they fucking talking about?
Negative reactions to the president’s deceitful and hyper-partisan deficit speech continue to filter in from the left. The latest attack comes from the doyenne of the Huffington Post herself, Arianna Huffington, ...Arianna Huffington Develops Case of Obama Disillusionment Syndrome
The first tip-off that Greg Mortenson's memoir "Three Cups of Tea" has some credibility issues comes in the book's introduction. Co-author David Oliver Relin writes that as Mortenson is flying over Pakistan, the helicopter pilot marvels to Mortenson, "I've been flying in northern Pakistan for 40 years. How is it you know the terrain better than me?"Cult of 'Three Cups of Tea' Should Have Known Better
The pilot also confides, "Flying with President Musharraf, I've become acquainted with many world leaders, many outstanding gentlemen and ladies. But I think Greg Mortenson is the most remarkable person I've ever met."
People don't talk like that. Books don't lead with that level of self-aggrandizement. Unless they want to induct you into a cult.