MMMMmmm: Race, Religion, And Juicy As All Get Out

Don't forget:

I've always advocated fighting fraud to stop or slow the other ills of society.

I don't know why it shouldn't work for race problems, too,...

Jews And Money: It Just Seemed To Be A Little Too Cute

I have a hard time not considering government "in on it," otherwise they're merely clueless, toothless dogs, I tell ya, clueless, toothless dogs:

There is a political scandal here. Grand jury investigators were baffled: How did Gosnell's ["House of Horrors" abortion] clinic, an infamous place in the tri-state area, go un-inspected for so long? Basically, the regulators blew it.

The same answer we got for Bernie Madoff, running a classic ponzi scheme, and the mortgage crisis, and Enron, and on and on, right up to cultism and all the rest. It's criminal. We need to fire everybody and start clean with these "regulators" because, I figure, there's either so much fraud out there, the current crew can't keep up, or they don't consider fraud important, or they're stupid. Being generous, I lean toward the latter. 

 And, at the risk of making this blog a one-trick pony (Ha!) they're not alone,...

 

Suicidal Tendencies: I'm 100% Positive - This Country Needs Deprogramming More Than A Hole In The Head

Interesting. Everyone's pumping this study that says more Americans are committing suicide than dying in car crashes - as though this is news - when I have hinted, implied, and said directly, that what we're doing makes life less than worth living. The last time I did so, one week ago, I wrote this:

I'm not supposed to be doing this. "This" being whatever I'm doing now. I had a life and it got derailed by cultism, and now I'm stuck with this,…thing I cope with - that passes for my life - but I know better. 

My life will never be the same. 

This angst is what most don't talk about when talking about cultism. They're so concerned about the cult's freedom, always with the cult's concerns, but what it takes from the unwilling? 

If it comes up, I've never heard it.

As I said, contributing to my angst is the fact that, whether I look to the American Left or Right, I can't find many people who agree with me - on much of anything - but I can in Canada:

About 70% of the American deficit is “bought” directly or through the banking system by the Treasury’s 100% subsidiary, the Federal Reserve, and the minimal interest paid on it is recycled back through the Federal Reserve to the Treasury, so the cost of borrowing is zero. It is the ultimate Ponzi scheme, the fiscal nirvana of endless, mountainous debt, rendered easily bearable because it doesn’t cost anything. It is a fraud, a mirage. It all possesses the hypnotic allure of the Gotterdammerung — as the Gods ascend to a burning Valhalla. If this administration is re-elected, Canada, as it has for the entire mighty spectacle of the inexorable rise of the United States, will have the ring-side seat for a disaster. Prudent, hesitant Canada, ran 14 federal government surpluses in a row. We are the pigs in the brick house — it isn’t a heroic position, neither daring nor stylish, but Canadians are peering through the portals of their stout solid home, transfixed and astonished. 

The fact that Willard M. Romney is still running almost even in the polls despite his demiurgic implausibility as a candidate, afflicted by a one-person pandemic of foot-in-mouth disease, illustrates the concern of the American voters. Either Romney lucks through and numerate sanity starts to return to American public life, or the most self-destructively incompetent regime since James Buchanan brought on the Civil War, will come back and stoke up a truly spectacular inferno that will purify America in a mighty economic Jonestown. There will be no more tugging at a trouser leg from Canada — either a comradely pat on the back, or a neighbourly blast with a fire extinguisher, but this operatic crescendo can’t continue for one more full act.

Do you see the cultism? Here, let me yell it out for you:

"The ultimate Ponzi scheme." 

 "It is a fraud, a mirage." 

 "The hypnotic allure of the Gotterdammerung." 

 "The ring-side seat for a disaster." 

 "Willard M. Romney is still running almost even in the polls despite his demiurgic implausibility as a candidate." ("Demiurgic" is a word from Gnosticism.) 

 "Self-destructively incompetent." 

 "Jonestown."

Yes, I'd say our Neighbor to the North is pretty-much seeing what I see - just NewAge everywhere - and they know us pretty-fucking-well. As Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, "The Master," and all the other recent cult-themed movies are telling us, we are now a society using cult-derived thought processes, which are driving us to abandon our freedoms and collectively rain on our own parade.

And oh - that suicide study? I should mention I found it while looking at Instapundit:

    

 That, too, always makes me want to die a little,...

The Truth And Nothing But The Truth (So Help Me God)

‎"The man of fixed ingrained principles who has mapped out a straight course, and has the courage and self-control to adhere to it, does not find life complex. Complexities are all of our own making."

~ B. C. Forbes, the Scottish financial journalist and author who founded Forbes Magazine.

And, with that, here's a few stories FROM THE REAL WORLD you may have missed over the week:
 

YAY!

Final cult fugitive from 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway caught at comic-book cafe

THANK GOODNESS FOR "CHURCH": 

A look at some of the biggest Ponzi schemes:

Reed Slatkin, co-founder of Earthlink Inc. and once a Scientology minister, was sentenced in 2003 to 14 years in prison for swindling investors out of about $240 million over 15 years. Groups affiliated with the Church of Scientology agreed to return millions received from his scheme.

YES, YES, PLEASE PUT THE MORMONS IN POWER - THEY CARE

Utah's Telemarketing "Flop-Portunity" Industry Continues To Phone In Support From Utah Politicos

I SEE A FEW HINTS SOMETHING WAS WRONG IN HIS STORY

Bogus doctor who practiced in Pinner faces jail

A bogus doctor who practiced in Pinner faces jail for tricking patients into letting him carry out intimate examinations. 

Antonio Gobbato, a Portuguese national, was convicted at the Inner Crown Court yesterday for calling himself a gynaecologist and psychiatrist, despite having no qualifications. 

The Brazilian-born fraudster also claimed to have qualified in Portugal in homeopathy, iridology, acupuncture and herbal medicines.

I TRUST LINDSEY LOHAN AND NO ONE ELSE

10 celebrity fans of homeopathy

NO WONDER IT'S GOING IN THE CRAPPER

Obama to celebrities: “You’re the ultimate arbiter” of this country’s direction

WHO WOULDA THOUGHT BAHRAIN IS SMARTER THAN AMERICA?

Bahrain cracks down on alternative medicine

WRITE THIS DOWN: STICK WITH TWO-BUCK CHUCK

Does All Wine Taste The Same?

I'M GUESSING MAGIC MARKER

How Obama became black

DON'T HAVE A COW, MAN

EBL - The sense of self is an illusion...

OH, THEY WERE LOST BEFORE THAT,...

Jehovah's Witnesses lose big Fremont molest suit

#1 - DON'T PRACTICE A REAL RELIGION

How a Scientologist Loses Faith in His Church: A Case Study

THE REASON THIS BEING A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY IS SO IMPORTANT

Texas teacher forced 20 kindergarten students to line up and hit classmate accused of being a bully

MY DAD COULD BEAT UP YOUR DAD!!!

What We Learned From The Ultimate Con Man

There's an interview with Diana Henriques, who interviewed Bernie Madoff, that has so many important lessons for us I have to quote it multiple times. First up - the price of fraud:

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.

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.

Next up - what marriage really means:

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

Got that, people? Protect yourself. Protect your loved ones. Forget trying to seem nice:

Tell the truth.

And finally, here's a quote that captures how I see others looking at the world, not considering the real consequences of their actions, as they look out for their own desires in affairs, or money-making schemes, or any number of other endeavors:

[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.

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.

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.

Don't be the one.

Whatever You Think (It's Never All About You)

Well, at least one person out there has values - and the convictions to go with them:

The wife of convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff was banned from her son's funeral by his furious wife, it was claimed today.

Ruth Madoff flew from Florida to Greenwich, Connecticut to attend the memorial service of son Mark, who committed suicide last December.

But according to People magazine, she was turned away by his unforgiving widow Stephanie.

The magazine reported that instead Mrs Madoff spent the time privately mourning with a friend.

After her husband's Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2008 she was warned by her sons Mark and Andrew to leave 72-year-old Mr Madoff or lose contact with them.

At the time she chose her sons.

But after Mr Madoff was attacked in prison in 2009 she reneged, returning to his side.

Her furious sons then severed all ties with her.

The magazine quoted a friend as saying Mrs Madoff had considered suicide herself.

'She told me, 'At night, it gets to me - the shame, the disgrace, all the stuff that killed Mark",' the friend said.

This is as it should be, and may it last forever.

Our sincere condolences to Stephanie Madoff.

Steele: Running A Ponzi Scheme Of Stuuupiiid

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Steele Crazy After All These Years
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Fact: If He Took Your Money, You're Stupid

"Note to investors: If someone claims to be a prophet and promises to win you money by predicting changes in the stock market, don't walk away. Run.

But unfortunately over 100 investors did not run away when Sean David Morton -- who dubbed himself 'America's Prophet' -- asked for their money. In all, investors gave Morton more than $6 million in the hopes that he would use his alleged psychic abilities to win big money in the market.

Just last week Morton was charged with investor fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. He has not responded to the complaint yet. E-mails and calls to his company's office were not returned.

'Sean David Morton lured scores of investors with his lies and then stole their hard-earned money,' Sanjay Wadhwa, assistant director of the SEC's New York Regional Office, told ABC News. 'Our enforcement action ensures that his money manager days are over.'

Morton's case is just the latest example in a long line of Ponzi schemes, scams such as Bernie Madoff's that schemers use to pry money from unsuspecting investors.

After the financial crisis, federal regulators are now uncovering so many of these scams that last year one regulator said it was 'ponzimonium out there.'

Bart Chilton, commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said in a statement last year that ponzi schemes are now 'drying up like late summer cow pies' because investors are more vigilant about the scams and -- cash-strapped by the recession -- are requesting access to their investments.

'Redemptions are really a buzz kill for many ponzi scam operators,' Chilton said."

-- Matthew Jaffe, with the most obvious reason why the economy is bad - people are too stupid to recognize a good investment, or a scheme, when presented with one - which is also why, instead of getting rich quick, they regularly end up on ABC News.

Pyramids, Pyramids - Always With The Pyramids

"I stupidly had this jazz band advertised on my Web site."

-- James Trabulse - a Frenchman running a Bernie Madoff-type Pyramid scheme in the San Francisco Bay Area - explaining why he was being investigated by the SEC, in an article for The San Francisco Chronicle.

L. Ron Hubbard: Showing Them How It's Done

"Reed Slatkin, co-founder of Earthlink Inc. and once a Scientology minister, was sentenced in 2003 to 14 years in prison for swindling investors out of about $240 million over 15 years. Groups affiliated with the Church of Scientology agreed to return millions received from his scheme."

-- The Associated Press, with a list of the largest Ponzi, or pyramid, schemes in history.

A Picture Of Success

"I'm the biggest sucker who ever walked the face of the Earth."

-- Eric Roth, screenwriter, on losing all his retirement money (along with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg) in Bernard Madoff's $50-billion Ponzi scheme, in The Los Angeles Times.

Hey, NewAgers, see that quote? That's what you should've been saying a looonnngg time ago. And if you haven't yet, you will:

Trust me. (LOL)

UPDATE: I've got to add that, just like my Aunt Alice, I've been consistently telling you guys you're stupid. But you don't believe it. Meanwhile, everywhere you look, things are falling apart - and it sure ain't guys like me in charge.

My foster mother, Johnnie Mae Hubert (who I've quoted before - "The Devil talks pretty" - regarding following gurus) used to say "a hard head makes a soft behind" and, I'm telling you, the Baby Boomers (and the kids they raised) have the unfortunate luck to be, both, the largest generation - with the hardest damn heads - ever seen in the history of the entire world. It's long past time for them to grow up, and - if they don't want to completely destroy where they live - "grow up" means getting out of the way and letting the truly knowledgeable people you can trust, who actually know what they're doing, do what needs to be done. Just get out of the way. Sit down. Shut up. Practice being humble - as you Buddhist types are always arrogantly admonishing others to do.

I know, I know - you have no idea who those "truly knowledgeable people you can trust" are, right? Here's a hint:

They're the ones who have been telling you you're stupid.