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December 22, 2008 | 6:14 pm

Comparing Madoff to the killer in ‘No Country for Old Men’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme had violent, or at least life-changing, consequences. Richard B. Woodward, writing for the Huffington Post, compares Madoff to Anton Chigurh, the assassin in “No Country for Old Men,” played on screen by the terrifying Javier Bardem:

A symbol of the terrifying randomness that in the author’s view governs the universe, Chigurh in one scene decides if a man will live or die on the flip of a coin. To meet him is to chance a quick and violent end.

It may sound hyperbolic to link Madoff with a serial killer. But in their relative swathes of destruction, Chirugh was just a local hit man. (“Some will rob you with a six-gun/Some with a fountain pen,“go the words to Woody Guthrie’s ballad “Pretty Boy Floyd.”) Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, would probably have no trouble with the analogy. He told the “Wall St. Journal” that hearing about Madoff’s alleged crimes was “like finding out your brother is a murderer.”

Barbara S. Fox, president of the Fox Residential Group, is one who felt the wings of death from Madoff brush her cheek. She begged him to take her money; it didn’t vanish only because, for unknown reasons, he turned her down. (This seems to have essential to his poisonous charm; only a select few had access to his financial acumen.)

Like Chigurh, he had the profound ability to alter the fate of lives by the simplest of means. Those he met and wished to ruin, he could allow to invest with him. On the other side of the coin, those he chose to pardon he turned away. It was a curse of intoxicating power, the Midas touch, except in reverse.

When I spoke with Tobin, he actually likened the Madoff revelations to “finding out that somebody who is very important in the family is a felon.” Murderer definitely sounds worse. By his own admission, he’s certainly ruined plenty of lives.

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Brad:
You know the way to my heart. The best movie ever made imho. Chigurh is Amalek. The coin date of 1958 is Osama’s birth year. The wrapper symbolizes a snake (a sign of Amalek). Don’t put it in your pocket is from Mohammed Atta’s will.
The whole point of the coin toss is forcing a “ritual” on someone else, and having their life depend on it, as in a forced conversion. “It’s finally here” is of course Islamic terror. 

If we become the lynch mob against anyone, especially a Jew, we gotta wonder if Amalek is leading the pack.

Comment by Martini "Kike" Leaf on 12/23/08 at 12:08 am

You know I’d like to put my finger on that trigger once again,
And point that gun at all the prideful men.
All the voyeurs and the lawyers who can pull a fountain pen,
And put you where they choose,
With the language that they use,
And enslave you till you work your youth away,
Oh god how I worked my youth away.

~ Don McLean - Bronco Bill’s Lament ~

Comment by Ben Plonie on 12/23/08 at 12:09 am

Pretty deep, Martini. I didn’t catch on right away but I see it now. (On the other hand I didn’t see the movie. But I did now watch the clip)

A murderer is “a symbol of the terrifying randomness that in the author’s view governs the universe”. Nicely put. Most people would not label it as such, but murder is a statement of a philosophy, a belief system. So is theft and fraud. They say - “... nothing really matters, life is meaningless, might makes right and the ends justify the means”.  They really do. They are the final destination of atheism, in spite of the blustering protestations of the atheists on this blog and others of the independant existence of some poorly-thought out ethics and morals. It is the same process as the gay marriage advocates insisting that gay relations have nothing in common with incest and bestiality. What they have in common is the rejection of Godly authority in social relations, the assumption of God-like authority on the part of the criminals, and attempts to back off from the Biblically worst implications of it by pretending to some component of Biblical values. Maybe more later.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 12/23/08 at 4:40 pm

Here I am about to logoff, and I run across:

[url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_on_bi_ge/madoff_investor_suicide]
Madoff investor found dead of possible suicide[/url]

Comment by Ben Plonie on 12/23/08 at 4:42 pm

Abraham Avinu had multiple wives, as did other Patriarchs, King David, etc.

The prohibition against polygamy comes from backwards ghetto-dwelling Middle Age rabbis who didn’t want to offend the goyyim.

Bestiality, on the other hand, has never been condoned.

To conflate gay marriage, polygamy and bestality is ignorant and hateful.

Comment by The Web Guy on 12/23/08 at 5:20 pm

Actually the whole movie is a treatise on the Kabbalah. It actually refers to Bernie Madoff in the movie. Can anyone figure out where ?

Also, Amalek is actually working for G-D according to Kabbalah. He is part of retribution and the left side of the tree of life.

The movie is much deeper than Matrix.

Comment by Martini "Kike" Leaf on 12/23/08 at 10:54 pm

I know you are mighty proud of your catch with polygamy. Too bad it didn’t exist. Try CNTL-F for polyg and the only one here is you. Straw man technique? Only you know.

I absolutely do conflate gay marriage, incest and bestiality, not me of course but the Torah. Personally I couldn’t care less. Of course there are alternatives to taking it literally like ... There is no God. Or, there is a god but not the Jewish god. Or, God never gave us the Torah. Or, he did but it was not exactly the Torah we have. Or, it is the right Torah but it doesn’t mean what it says. Or, it does but we don’t understand it properly. Or, we do but that was then, this is now. Or, ever since Jesus it’s every man for himself. Maybe you can come up with a couple more.

Just for fun, why has bestiality never been condoned, except in the Torah? Not talking about abuse or anything; from everything we know horses enjoy their orgasms. Especially gay horses, hehe.

So let’s expand on ‘ignorant’ and ‘hateful’. Let’s pretend I don’t want to be ignorant, and be your humble disciple. What truth and knowledge would you impart?

And if I wasn’t hateful (bearing in mind that I personally couldn’t care less) what is the loving attitude, something that does not contradict our best information about the loving God.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 12/24/08 at 12:17 am

You’re so vain, you actually thought that post was about you. 

And here I was talking about the statements of Rabbi Rick Warren.

You see, you’re not even in my comment. 

And there’s no Control F here. 

It’s Hollywood, baby. We’re a Mac shop.

Comment by The Web Guy on 12/24/08 at 12:25 am

Command-F? Cloverleaf-F?
Perhaps my vanity comes from the fact that the first and only reference to conflation of gay marriage, incest and bestiality was my “It is the same process as the gay marriage advocates insisting that gay relations have nothing in common with incest and bestiality.” Silly me. I stand aside for the response of Indrid Cold.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 12/24/08 at 1:20 am

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