Nice to know I am not the only down on the SEC

4. This is by far the most important part: The SEC is supposed to be watching for exactly these kinds of scams. Yet the SEC missed them, and they even brought in Madoff family members to monitor markets! That is how much they missed what was going on.

It gets a lot worse. A man named Harry Markopoulis repeatedly warned the SEC that this was a scam, that results such as what Madoff claimed were simply not possible. He sent detailed accusations about Madoff to the SEC. They were completely ignored.

Now, when do the people who ignored these vital communications go on trial? Madoff at least has the excuse that he wanted to be rich -- and, in a way, while it's a pitiful excuse, it's at least understandable.

What excuse do the regulators have? Why are they not being tried for criminal dereliction of duty? When they go on trial, we really will have a new day in securities law.

Read the full story here - with Ben Stein. The SEC was derelict. They need to be called to account also.

The advisors who shoveled the money Madoffs way - they need to be shaken down also.

His, Mine, Ours

I have been struggling with the concept that Ruth Madoff is forfeiting her single name accounts. I think if she knew, if she participated, if those funds had been stashed in her name, then she is rightly being asked or forced to give them up, those funds are in effect stolen property.

But if she brought those funds to the marriage, earned them thru legitimate business ventures, then they are hers.

It is not like I am torn up one way or the other, but what I am bristling against is the idea that as independent, successful married women, our single name assets can get mired in our partners business issues or criminal enterprise.

I know people all believe she knew and maybe she did, but there is knowing and then there is knowing and there is the fact some people lie and conceal things more successfully. Did the Governor of South Carolina's wife know about his Argentinian mistress? Did Elizabeth Edwards know?

I am not quibbling with who knew what. The fact is - until recently as married women, we could not own property and I think this is a slippery slope, I think this is a neat way for the Federal Courts, stacked with Bush appointees, to hack away at our rights. At my right as a woman to own my own, single name property. I think once it becomes part of the code, once there is precident, then sneaky lawyers, with an alternative agenda, can make hay.

Sometimes the punish may well fit the crime or presumed crime, until they bend the precident and twist it, to suit their own neferious purposes.

So that is the question that lingers for me... what is next, which little seemingly uninportmant right will they pick at next?

May he rot in torment...

I am heartened to see that finally - FINALLY - someone on Wall Street is getting what they so richly deserve. Bernie Madoff will spend the rest of his life in jail. He will die penniless and while I think it is sad that tax dollars will be spent to feed and cloth him, his loss of liberty is a lesson.

I am still deciding how I feel about the punishment meted out to his wife Ruth. I am struggling with the assets seized, which were in her name and her name alone. I hope that they truly were marital property, disguised, being placed in her name. I am sure her lawyers failed to offer proof, that they were solely hers.

Her biggest lose, is not the money however, her biggest lost will be living with the fact that her husband lied to thousands of people and to HER, for years and years.

The call of the wild is truly the call of the divine

I decided rather than rush tomorrow, I would go print my poem tonight. The lab is just up the road. I told my suite mate where I was heading and I headed out.

On the path, across the road near a huge oak tree, was a doe. She looked at me and I looked at here, eyes full of wonder and longing. She watched me, I watched her and this stretched between us for uncounted seconds. Then I looked away and she followed me, as I began to walk away, getting further and further away and then she bowed her head and again ate the sweet grass.

When I returned, a few minutes later, she was gone.

Sauce Phobia

Yes I have sauce phobia, if the sauce is brown it likely has soy sauce in it and that means wheat. If the sauce is brownish or thickish, then that means a rue, which is flour and butter - both bad or it is creamy and well, creamy is not catastrophic, but bad all the same.

Last night there was rice with the stir fry in a brown sauce. I ate the rice with the cooked turkey sausage I brought from home and some lovely roast plum tomatoes I also brought from home. Yum. (Whole Foods.)

Tonight I had brought the other half of the sausage and plum tomatoes, hoping for more rice. Nope, bread, bread, bread. I so did not want to walk back to my cottage, after my 40 minute hilly bike ride, to get said rice. My legs and ass felt like jelly. Enough already.

So I inquired if perhaps, they did not have left over rice. Nope no rice. So I said, well I am gluten free and the dinner tonight is not?

Gluten Free you say, hold on and let me get Chef Brian.

Chef Brian?

So Chef Brian appears,complete in traditional chef gear, offers me some rice pasta and says, pointing at my tupperware of sausage and tomatoes, want me to warm that up and toss it with the pasta.

Yeah buddy and could you kiss me while you are at it.

So he proceeds to take out a pan, one labeled - Gluten Free Only.

"Is vegetable oil, I mean canola oil ok?"

Yes I say.

He heats the oil tossed in the pasta, added my meat mixture, tosses it.

"How about some dry white wine?"

I nod. Thinking I should just jump the glass, open flame be damned and kiss him.

He hits it with the wine, deftly slides it on a plate. Smiles at me and says, "Wow, that is not bad."

I nod, he tells me he will bring me my container after he has it washed in the dishwasher.

Wow. That pasta was amazing and way better than the weird stuff my class mates had to choose from.

Kenyon is developing a plan to be able to offer a gluten and lactose free entree at every meal this fall. With dedicated cookware and appetizing and non stigmatizing menus. He was hired to do that and was somewhat excited to have four woman, this week, to work with. He wants to learn. He asked me many questions about what I liked, what worked. He has taken classes in cooking for those with allergies and this is his first chance to be an agent of change, to make it happen.

It felt so nice, to have someone take care of me that way. Certainly I had brought the components, but Brian had deftly and sweetly combined them and cooked them and asked me thoughtful questions.

No sneers or sighs. Just simple cooking and a great meal.