12/11/08 Never Forget

A couple of the Victim Impact Statements submitted for Bernard Madoff's sentencing, and excerpted in the August issue of Harper's Magazine:

I thought no day would ever be as bad as 9/11 until 12/11 at 3:03 p.m. My phone had been ringing nonstop, my instant messages going crazy. Finally I picked up, thinking there was something wrong with my family--possibly a death--and I was right!!! It was the beginning of a new kind of death: our family, including my dad, mom, aunt, uncle, cousins, were ALL dead--in one shot. THIEF, KILLER, DESTROYER, EVIL, DEVIL. Bernie deserves a longevity pill--not death--so he can watch each generation suffer and see what he did.

History shows us that there are monsters who think they are above the law. Laws of humanity and common decency don't apply to them because they have created their own world in which they are the Supreme Being. There are many examples: Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Bernard Madoff. Extreme? I don't think so.

There are a number of other instances where Godwin's Law is violated throughout the victim statements, but for the most part they're genuinely depressing as hell.