Miscreant Manor

A few posts ago, I blogged about Bernie Madoff. I referred to him as a scumbag and I stand by that post. Since that post I've seen a lot of wacky stuff in the news. These wacky news stories range from people succumbing to unbridled greed to just plain lack of common sense.

Now, the truth of the matter is that I don't judge these people because they gave into temptation. I do that daily. I give into my anger and lash out at Angie or I give into my selfishness and act accordingly. I completely understand that we are human, flawed and sinful. I am not above that.

However, there really must be a special place in hell reserved for those that are just plain depraved. Madoff may be one of them. There is such a huge difference from defrauding a couple of wealthy investors of a couple of millions of dollars to ripping off a ton of people of $50 BILLION.

The question to me is one of scale. To me, there is a huge difference between a CEO of a company “cooking the books” to make his personal stock portfolio more valuable and Stewart Parnell. If you don't know who Stewart Parnell is, you will. He will be the focus of my first “Miscreant Manor” post. I will summarize the account of Mr. Parnell and how his greed has been responsible for the nine recent salmonella deaths in the United States. With that post, Mr. Parnell will join Bernie as the first two residents of the manor.

I feel compelled to spew off on these scumbags, er...miscreants. Whatever you want to call them, they are examples of what is worst in humanity. I have such a visceral (non-Christian) response to these people as I read their stories. I hope my posts help get you angry, too - angry at the unbridled greed that seems to be so pervasive in our society. I am all for corporations being successful and earning profits. I should be, I work for one. However, I truly believe that these corporations have a responsibility to the community and profits, although a primary objective should never be realized at the detriment of mankind.

Therefore, I present to you, “Miscreant Manor Mondays” (selected as the name of these entries instead of “Scumbag of the Week.”). Bernie Madoff already lives there and we’ll add a new occupant every week as warrants.

These people and their stories should get you really pissed off.

SL