you describe him exactly as he was
'Was'? Is he dead? Or do we say 'was' when someone goes to prison for a long time?
Or do we say 'was' because we assume that he will never return to the scene here? Is that why all the brave hyena-packs of posters have come out of the woodwork to beat Tony's carcass with a baseball bat?
Wow, am I ever impressed by their courage! Reminds me of the old lynch-mobs - "you saw the way he looked at my daughter!! String him up!!"
If we assume that he goes to prison, is it because we assume he is guilty and that justice will prevail?
Or do we assume that the prevalent attitude of 'guilty as charged' as fomented by the prosecutors and the press, will prevail, regardless of the evidence?
Wouldn't it be a total freak out if he were found innocent of trumped up charges by a jury of reasonable, fairminded citizens? And that he then sued the Feds and won!!!
Would he still be a 'was', then?
I've known the man for 3 1/2 years, via SI, on his private site, and in person. I am not yet ready to give him up for dead.
I realize he is not well-liked person, that he is brash, he can be selfish, he can be manipulative and untruthful.
I have always seen him as conflicted: a cursed and evil, selfish Tony inhabiting the same body with one who despises injustice and hypocrisy, protects the vulnerable to atone for the sins of his body-mate.
I've also seen him as a genius with incredible insights, charisma, funny as hell, super-rationality and super-emotion. No one has his talent for perceiving dishonesty in the stock market - no one. The guy is very, very unusual and extreme, a very special case. Guilty or not, it is a loss of genius and great value if he is gone.
It is not fair to give him up for dead, for imprisonment, for gone. The evidence I have seen is sparse indeed.
Please leave open in your minds the possibility that this thing is a huge witch-hunt, propogated by his many unsavory stock fraud enemies in a post-9/11 soil rich with paranoia, FBI cover-ups and jingoism.
I'm not ready to give him up for 65 years in the slammer.
65 years for doing what? For accessing info he's not supposed to have (if guilty), from a database that 500,000 law enforcement people have access to but miraculously never leaks?
65 years for buying a residence in Lebanon? For being Egyptian? For being loud and brash? For being chintzy?
For what exactly? For ripping off (if guilty) known disgusting repeat offender stock scammers who rip off innocent people daily for millions of dollars and never, ever go to jail?
Please leave your mind open to the possibility - however remote you estimate it - that Tony is being dealt an outrageous injustice and is suffering alone and abandoned right now - given up for dead.
Thanks, Peter |
