Blog In for Martha

Today at K-Marts across the country, supporters held a knit-in for Martha. I thought about learning to knit last night so that I could participate, but knitting is hard. So I went to K-Mart and did something I know how to do ... shop! I bought pink sheets for my bed and green gingham sheets for the guest room. Lots of people, just like me, shopping because they think the prosecution of Martha was crazy.

I'm not a lawyer, and have no yen to become one, but the legal arguments in this case make no sense.

Martha made the perfect defendant. If you want to prosecute someone on a dubious charge, make certain that they are sufficiently polarizing. Ideal defendants: Martha, Rush Limbaugh, Barry Bonds. For years I've heard people whine on about how Martha made them feel inadequate. Why? Who knows? There are plenty of cookbooks with harder recipes. If you don't want to make plum pudding no one is forcing you.

Martha is nasty. Proof of this is that she yelled at the assistant about the bad music on hold. Last week I had a customer tell me that he hates my company and that he is going to come to my office with a gun and shoot everyone. He also plan to beat up the sales rep that handled his account 2 years ago because he's a yuppie. Now that's nasty.

Martha's sale of imclone harmed the little guy. How? When she sold imclone someone bought it. If that person held onto their stock, it's worth more today then when they bought it. She thought it would go down, the buyer thought it would go up. Isn't that the same scenario that happens in every stock transaction every day? The seller thinks the price is as high as it's going to go, the buyer thinks it will go higher.

It was insider trading? How can you insider trade when you're not inside? If she did what the government said she did (which I think is likely), at worst, her stockbroker told her about a public transaction. Sam Waksal had already made a public sale. Anyone watching the market could have seen that there was a lot of selling going on. It wasn't an advance tip ... like "Three days from today we will announce that we've cornered the world market on chocolate and we think our stock will soar."

She lied to the government. Okay, will all the people who have ever padded their expenses on their tax return take a step back. How about anyone who's tried to get out of a speeding ticket. Have you ever lied to a public school teacher?

And what was her lie? She proclaimed her innocence. Is it now a crime to plead Not Guilty?

Please comment if you like. I'm going to make a chocolate cake with a mint mousse filling for St Patrick's Day.


Also posted at www.isupportmartha.blogspot.com