"I guess I just wonder if Madoff is a true reflection of American Ideology? Because I don't believe he is unique and I also believe he is a product of American Society (although there are obvious scope and scale arguements)... Just throwing that out there."

He's not unique but I don't know if he is a good mirror. I think him a sociopath like so many of the people who have seized power in this country by having superior skills at investments and not a single shred of compassion.

People who stood up to it were ignored. People who reported it were ignored. People who are suffering from it are being ignored.

The trouble is, this goes deep into corruption we won't talk about because we won't accept that our government has become so bought by the coupling of personal freedom to the idea of free markets.

It's a little bit them; it's a little bit us.

http://lamammals.blogspot.com/2005/11/s ... house.html

If you want the long explanation, read into the comments. Sociopathy coupled to semiotics and information theory.

We're engaged in a struggle for control of our media. Media is bought in the center and the edges are coming to saw off their influence.

The times change because we change them. The people who understand this new media are here. Use it wisely but use it a lot. Otherwise, it's a way to do more of what we already do.

The web is just an amplifier. The trick is understanding the knobs but the magic is what it always is, humans talking, singing and making.

The web is a finder. Humans talking, singing and making have never had so many ways to share.

The web is a library. Humans talking, singing and making have never has so many ways to learn.

The web is a narcotic. Humans talking, singing and making have never had so many ways to waste themselves.

The web is a blessing. Humans talking, singing and making have never had so many ways to talk, sing and make love.

He was the example of what it means to be a success for many years!

Sooner or later, one way or another, everyone's got to pay their tab......

karma - unavoidable...

An example to whom? That's a broad brush. Some tribes don't see him that way and those that did are taking a hard second look. Some people have been making do and living sane. Some don't. Gordon Lightfoot is playing here next month. People pay $50 a seat and $75 for the meet and greet. I remember meeting the whole Nitty Gritty Dirt Band just by standing outside their tour bus at the back door.

Sociopathy is frequency dependent. To change that, we gotta change the song we sing in this country. Arlo has it right in "In Times Like These". We've been dragged along by refrains that don't mean nothing, that feel good but don't inform, don't make us think. That's America on a bender that has lasted from 1980 to just last year.

Next time you hear an AIG executive saying 'bonus', give him what he wants: bone 'im.

"Free-market" economic theory is inherently flawed because the capitalist economic model is in denial......it refuses to acknowledge that greed is inherently built into the system, and is time and time again encouraged and rewarded.

"Patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings
Steal a little and they throw you in jail
Steal a lot and they make you king"..............Bob Dylan

It's the classic free rider problem with healthy dose of 'what's mine is mine and suck to you'.

In mail lists, we get rid of these people by denying them reinforcement. The problem is it is tough to get a handle on the money oxygen hose valves without being either in government or in the bank. Note the little banks are still healthy. It is the big players who are sucking the oxygen from their seat and the baby in the seat next to them.

I think the biggest disease of people is : the more they have , the more they want . Whe have i nice word for that : HEBZUCHT .

I see today that Obama is going to great pains to see that
AIG ( Assholes International Group) does NOT pay out those bonuses!(with OUR money).

Gesundheit!

Thats German Larry , it must be ' GEZONDHEID ' . Next time better

He can express outrage but so can we all. These guys don't think we are part of their social class so we can't touch them. If they don't get away with it this time, they'll try elsewhere. Bonuses to retain people who perpetrated the biggest frauds since the Dutch bought Manhatten? Who would hire them? If they get away with this, we've told our kids that this sociopathic behavior is The Way as PSBeaty says. There is more at stake here than our money.

They need a soft touch... to their wallets or their right to move around freely in society.

Spread the URL for "In Times Like These" like a virus on every blog, maillist and radio call in show you can touch. Fight a pathogen with a pathogen. No violence. Soft power rules.

We can do it the old fashioned way: with a Hit. We do it the way Pete did; not an army of guns, but an army of box guitars, banjos and songs that stick. It's time for a new generation to get their picks out of their sound holes and strum.

It's not all but it's what we do well and like those two rabbits hiding in the log, if we do what we do well we can get out of that log alive.

"But we have to retain all our good and talented people or they we go somewhere else!"

Somebody care to hand me a trash can full of rotten vegatation that I can hurl at these assholes?

Len wrote:

"It's not all but it's what we do well and like those two rabbits hiding in the log, if we do what we do well we can get out of that log alive."


I'm with ya' Len......I've been playing and singing myself hoarse 2 mornings a week for kinder thru 3rd graders for some time now. Woody, Pete and Arlo stuff......I say get the message to 'em before their brains lose their sponge-like absorbitive qualities. I've also been working really hard to get my better half on board with the 2 rabbits in the log concept......!