Bernie Madoff With A Whole Buncha Money

Bernie Madoff pled guilty in federal court last week to all counts against him.  Bernie’s legacy will be that the Ponzi scheme should now be called the Madoff scheme.  Ponzi only wished he could have pulled of what Madoff pulled off.

Madoff did a very bad thing and he should be held 100 percent accountable for his actions and misdeeds.  He probably has accomplices who will be found out and will be finding their way from penthouses into big houses as well.  And so they should.

But…BUT…I think there’s plenty of other blame and responsibility to go around.

Like the SEC.  They should have been paying closer attention.  Madoff’s portfolio “made” big money, steadily, year after year.  It didn’t seem to be following the same ups and downs that other funds were experiencing.  This should have put a blip on the SECs radar.

And the investors need to admit that they are complicit to a certain degree as well.  Madoff’s fund was too good to be true.  You had to have a lot of money to even qualify to buy into it.  It was a status symbol to be able to get into his fund.  And it guaranteed double digit annual returns.  One has to look just a little bit askancely at that sort of promise.  Buyer beware, right?

Plenty of greed here to go around.

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You Should Have To Take a Test…

…to be able to prove you know enough to be voting!

I’m not a fan of Howard Stern’s, but this bit is a good bit.  It’s clean, don’t worry! 

While this is just a couple of everyday people on the street who unabashedly claim support of (both) presidential candidates, they clearly are uninformed on the most basic issues.  By extension, one must draw the conclusion that when it comes to the details and nuances of what the candidates believe and plan to do, they are completely ignorant of any facts.  My guess is it didn’t take too long to find enough uninformed voters for this piece.  I believe that uninformed voters will be voting en masse for both candidates in this election.  I can only hope that there is an uninformed voter on each side to cancel each other’s votes out!

I have to tell you that the “get out the vote” movements bother me.  If an American isn’t interested enough in the electoral process and in voting to get themselves registered and get out and vote on their own, I’m not sure I trust that they will then do the work necessary to vote as an informed voter.  If the only information they are basing their vote on is gleaned from TV commercials or MySpace ads, I think they should best stay home.  If you don’t even know who the running mate of your candidate is…well then, that’s just unacceptable.

Voting is a right.  Voting and knowing who and what you are voting for is a responsibility.

And when it comes to voter registration and voter fraud, why can’t we dunk our thumbs in purple ink so that you get one vote, one time?  It’ll be obvious if you’ve already voted.  I’ve seen this work quite well somewhere else….

I close by saying, on Tuesday go and vote, but please do so responsibly.

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