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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Buckey who wrote (89575)	1/24/2005 8:00:51 PM
From: rrufff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

Generalizations are not good. All who warn about bad things in stocks are not "bashers." All people who post positively about stocks are not "touts." What happens is that human nature takes over. If someone firmly thinks he is right, then one starts to believe that anyone who posts in opposition is considered "wrong." The A/P crew followed their leader here and often chased posters as if they were following a cult hero, a superstar, who was infallible and that anyone who disagreed should be hounded. The message of the trial is that ego and the desire to get that easy advantage can lead one to throw a life away and cross the line to criminality. Crime does not pay even if the guru and his followers feel that they are doing something for the greater good. We can't have a society of vigilantes. I remember the posts about those who got in trouble who were on the "enemies" list. There was this Tokyo Joe guy and even the CEO's of criminal outfits. There was no sympathy. People with families and lives, who made mistakes, were hounded, even to this day. They were laughed at, ridiculed, despite being imprisoneed for their acts, despite being punished, some, with the ultimate punishment. I feel badly for Tony and his family. But I also felt badly for a couple of CEO's who lost their lives and who had nasty posts written about them afterwards. People who were imprisoned for securities fraud are still human beings with families and lives. Those who lost money on scams, whether the scams were caused by or the result of acts of touts or of shorting vigilantes, also sufferred. There are no real winners. Perhaps, this type of thing will lead to less scams and fairer markets. Prevention and deterrence is often the underlying reason for punishment. Someone here posted that the US Attorney seemed obsessed. That's not a bad thing. It's rare in government that you find people who do much but just get by in their jobs, trying not to attract much attention. Anything that levels the playing field in the investment world may ultimately be considered a good thing.