Beam Her Up, Scotty

Leave it to me to head for the hills...the Hollywood Hills to learn of the passing of Majel Barrett Roddenberry. Majel (nee Hudec) Barrett, the actress known as Nurse Chapel on the original "Star Trek" TV series of the 1960s was also the widow of series creator Gene Roddenberry. Many of my friends there will note that she was a native Clevelander. True devotees of the series will also recall that Roddenberry cast her as "Number One" on the original pilot for "Star Trek." That pilot starring the late Jeffery Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike of the starship Enterprise was scrapped by network executives who were intrigued enough to order another pilot with another male lead: William Shatner in the immortal role of Captain James Tiberius Kirk. The original pilot was cleverly used in the two-part season two opener titled "The Cage." While playing Nurse Chapel on the TV series, she struggled as a health officer infatuated with Vulcan First Officer and Science Officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) while working alongside Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy (Deforest Kelly). Barrett Roddenberry wed her husband in Japan in 1969 following the cancellation of the series. She began to attend Star Trek conventions around the country and I recall meeting her at one of the first such events held in New Orleans. Following the death of her husband, Barrett Roddenberry became one of the standard bearers of the Star Trek legacy. She appeared in all of the series that followed and was noted as the voice of the computer in all films that were released bearing the Star Trek logo. She just completed the voice of the computer in the upcoming release that is based on the original series and is to be simply titled "Star Trek." Science fiction fans will note that she also appeared in "Babylon V" and was cast in Roddenberry's "Genesis II," which was his last TV project. Fans including me will miss "The First Lady of Star Trek" whose death from complications of leukemia was December 18. She was 76.

Meanwhile, several years following the death of Linda Lovelace, Mark Felt, the real "Deep Throat," also died the same day. Felt, an Associate Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was revealed as Woodward and Bernstein's secret source three years ago, who insisted the reporters follow the money trail that eventually brought the Nixon White House down. Felt, 95, passed peacefully in a hospice in Santa Rosa, California.

Madoff's muck

Yeshiva University lost an estimated $110 million. Hadassah, according to a relative that quoted a report from the national president, reportedly lost an estimated $90 million. The Washington D.C. Jewish Federation lost its entire endowment. The American Jewish Congress reportedly lost millions. The Robert I. Lappine Foundation in Massachusetts closed its doors. Major Hollywood players like Steven Spielberg and Jeffery Katzenberg were victims. Real estate tycoons like Mort Zuckerman were taken in by Madoff. There are countless other Jewish organizations and other firms that trusted Bernard Madoff with their investments and are now penniless because of this misplaced trust. The ripples of distrust and unbelief are still radiating throughout the entire Jewish philanthropic world. How one man could be so destructive seems to boggle the mind. Remember that the Enron scandal involved $63.5 billion and Madoff is alleged to have bilked investors out of $50 billion in a Ponzi scheme that very few understand could have lasted for 25 years. But Madoff counted on Jews trusting Jews. A confidence man requires this trust while he practices his particular form of legerdemain. For those who are counting their blessings that they got out of their association with Madoff years ago before it was revealed that he was unscrupulous and downright crooked, there remains the looming possibility that they may not be so lucky. It is increasingly possible they may be forced to repay their funds back to the firm now that Madoff has agreed to a freeze of the assets of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC and that everything in that account is turned over to a receiver, Irving Picard. Andrew Calamari, the SEC enforcement official in charge, announced that Picard will act as Receiver under the Securities Investment Protector Act (SIPA). The potential for this so-called clawback action has lots of former investors especially nervous. Imagine investing with Madoff years ago, getting a payoff, investing with another firm and then taking a huge hit with the decline of the market this past year. It is possible that all of those funds could be forced to be repaid to Picard as Receiver. Picard supersedes the previous Receiver, Lee Richards of Richards Kibbe and Orbe LLP, who continues to act as the Receiver for Madoff Securities International, Ltd. It is all part of the intricately woven web of deceit that is only now coming to light. Many people were surprised to learn that major banks and hedge funds had assigned part of their portfolios to Madoff, based on his performance and promised 8% return to investors. Feeder brokers for financial institutions would regularly send Madoff business, some of which he accepted. At other times, he apparently rejected other customers. For example, a well-known financial institution like Oppenheimer Funds, through its Tremont Funds Group, used Madoff for investment purposes. The amount of litigation that will ensue these actions will clog court dockets for the next decade. Far more badly than the loss to the banking institutions are those heartbreaking cases of couples who invested all of their life savings with Madoff and retired to places like Boca Raton, figuring their nest eggs would last them in their golden years. Now they are all at risk of losing everything they scrimped and saved for over decades. Frantic calls to children and relatives have been reported through the news media. That Madoff took away their life savings is a shame and a tragedy. But his greater crime was that he took away their hope and their independence. Madoff remains under house arrest in his tony $10 million New York City apartment now that the magistrate judge in his case took away his right to leave during the day. Except for court appearances that's where he will stay for the foreseeable future.

Time to switch browsers

This blog was titled Kosher Computing for a reason. With a goodly number of certifications to my credit, it is my intention to broadcast to cyberspace suggestions on best practices and, when the occasion warrants, to warn of potential problems. If you are using Internet Explorer to read this blog, you are in very serious trouble as of today. As a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, it is not in my interest to make Microsoft look foolish or imply that their products are in any way less than sterling. However, over the course of the last few days, a serious security vulnerability has been identified by hackers that will allow websites and hackers which know how to manipulate Internet Explorer browsers to learn of passwords. In effect this could allow devious parties to gain access to sensitive information or in a worst case scenario could empty one's financial resources in seconds. The problem was reported on the ABC, Huffington Post and BBC sites among others. Estimates state the problem is mostly confined to websites hosted in the Far East and that only .02% of the world's websites are affected at present. However, that number at present translates to about 10,000 websites and could rise exponentially as soon as hackers get to work trying to take advantage of the vulnerability. For those of you who are looking for a solution, Mozilla's Firefox is probably the best alternative. This open source browser has been a favorite of many Internet surfers for a variety of reasons, chief among them is security and an almost vigilant determination to prevent hackers from doing just what Microsoft's Internet Explorer could be permitting at this juncture. Here's the site to download Firefox 3.0. Other web browsers that are good temporary choices are Safari, Opera or Chrome. It is highly recommended that you switch to one of these until a patch for the problem is announced and available from Microsoft. If you insist on using Internet Explorer, I have a few suggestions. First, if you are using your Administrator account (or an account that has full Computer Administrator privileges), switch to a profile that has limited abilities. You can easily create one under the Users icon found in the Control Panel. Just remember to give the owner or Administrator account a password and don't forget it. I don't recommend ever writing a password down or saving it to a plainly titled file like "Passwords." However, if you switch to a limited user account, the vulnerability probably won't have access to your original account files. You can, of course, share files with yourself, but that defeats the reason for creating the limited access. If there are files you need to use, I recommend copying them to a flash drive and keeping the flash drive plugged in while using the limited access account. Also, if you still insist on using Internet Explorer 7 or the Beta edition Internet Explorer 8, turn Protected Mode on. Make sure to have the latest updates available from the Microsoft.com site, which can be located through Tools and the sub-menu Windows Update at the top of the browser. Aware of the problem, Microsoft has just released an emergency patch. You can find the link for the patch here. However, in the meantime, I would still be cautious and use an alternative browser for another day or two until reports are in that suggest the problem has been nipped in the bud. Or, you can do like I do when writing my blog: use a Mac.

Greed and the Madoff mess

According to the most learned of our early rabbis, as expressed in the Talmud (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbos 31a), when we die and are to be judged by the Almighty for how we lived on Earth, we are not checked for how well we prayed, how many mitzvot (commandments) we kept or even how observant we were. Nay, the sages say we are first asked "Were you honest in your business dealings?" It may seem odd, but on closer examination, it makes sense. Whether we are fair with our business clients and come across as ethical and equitable qualifies us as better human beings. If we treat strangers as we would family, then we set the level of ethical behavior in our business dealings as very high, indeed. This, naturally, leads us to consider how a Jew could be so unethical and greedy in his business dealings that he would bring disfavor, disgrace and ruin to so many hundreds of thousands of Jews and Gentiles as Bernard Madoff. For those who have been researching the fallout from the Madoff melee, the figures have been rising daily. There are some Jewish philanthropies like the Robert I. Lappin Foundation that have simply shuttered their doors. The Lappin Foundation's admitted goals were to reverse assimilation and fight interfaith marriage. They did this through teen travel programs to Israel and other programs aimed at heightening Jewish interest. The money to carry on their program has vanished and the foundation felt it had nothing more it could do than terminate its seven employees. Meanwhile other robust, diversified interests hit by the scandal like Yeshiva University and New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon's Sterling Equities are continuing to operate as before the scandal, but all sustained heavy hits. Hollywood mogul Steven Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation took a big hit and his Dreamworks Animation SKG partner Jeffrey Katzenberg also reportedly lost millions. Even Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel was reported as one of the victims of the $50 billion fraud. Weisel's Foundation for Humanity was noted as having suffered millions of dollars in losses, perhaps the greatest ignominy to one of the most inspirational voices of the Jewish people. Real estate developer and media tycoon Mort Zuckerman was one of the single investors who reportedly suffered the most. Many Jewish philanthropies headquartered in and around the New York City area are trying to deal with what is clearly a painful prospect at a time when money is especially short and gift-giving is at an all-time low due to the economy. Several Israeli insurance companies such as Clal, Heral, and the Phoenix lost millions, as did Israel's Technion University, which pegged its losses at $25 million. Madoff was a major donor to the UJA-New York Federation, but also was the Chairman of the Board of the Sy Sims School of Business and treasurer of the Board of Trustees at Yeshiva University. Madoff endowed a chair there in he and his wife's name. Madoff, the former president of NASDAQ, bankrolled his name and reputation into a multi-billion dollar concern for almost 25 years. How he got away with this huge Ponzi scheme while wearing the mantle of respectability and veneration as a trusted financial figure remains to be seen. The S.E.C. launched an investigation as early as 1992 on Madoff, but nothing came of it. Even as recently as just a few years ago, investigators could not point to any irregularities in Madoff's books. He managed to keep one step ahead of prosecution, while putting on a grand show and giving everyone the impression that he was a financial wizard. Well, the other shoe has dropped now and the financial fallout may continue to be felt for decades by Jewish philanthropic interests, Israeli corporations and the small investors who were taken in by Madoff's shady business practices. There are many Jews who retired to Boca Raton or in California who have been wiped out by Madoff. Many of them are hoping the 70-year-old Madoff will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but they all recognize that nothing the government can do will bring back their funds. Madoff is out on $10 million bail, a figure he was able to post with little or no problem. Some, reeling from the stigma of going from millionaire to pauper are thinking they hope Madoff faces financial ruin too. Still others are hoping he has to answer the question about how fair he was in his business dealings very soon.

Guilty verdict in Lake Charles

I had not felt compelled to discuss the Mary Elizaberth "Liz" Marinello murder case until the guilty verdict was rendered yesterday against her estranged husband and local sportscaster Vince Marinello. Much of the circumstantial case centered on Marinello's alibi and a checklist he admits he composed which prosecutors used to show his premeditation in the shooting death of the 45-year-old woman in front of the sleepy Old Metairie neighborhood apartment complex where Vince Marinello had been living under house arrest for much of the last two years. The story captured everyone's attention in New Orleans because of the celebrity involved, reverberations even being felt in Cleveland, where I was living at the time of the murder. Because of enormous pre-trial publicity surrounding the case, the venue was changed from Metairie to Lake Charles, a three-hour drive from New Orleans. The case took place over a two week period with prosecutors putting a number of witnesses to the actual shooting on the stand. In addition, jurors heard from a local arms dealer who testified that Marinello came into his now-closed gun shop to purchase a weapon for protection. According to the gun dealer, he recognized Marinello right away due to his celebrity status from TV and radio stints over the course of the last four decades. According to his testimony, he remembered selling special armor-piercing teflon-tipped 38-caliber bullets that detectives said were used to kill Liz Marinello. Witnesses described seeing a scruffy looking man in shabby clothing with a moustache and beard pacing the area before the two shots that rang out in broad daylight. One witness claimed that she recalled seeing the assailant's eyes and that they were wild-looking. She identified Marinello as having the same eyes. Witnesses reported they saw the same shabbily-attired man quickly pedaling away on a bicycle just after the attack. Prosecutors gave an interesting motive to the crime. They said that Liz Marinello had found out that her husband had not legally divorced his previous wife before marrying her. That meant that Liz Marinello could have leveled a charge of bigamy at the radio sportscaster. A vain and self-centered Marinello surprisingly took the stand to defend himself over the last two days of the trial, a move that must have delighted prosecutors. He tried to explain away his purchasing the faux facial hair from a costume shop as well as his purchase of the gun so close to the murder. His take on the check list detectives discovered in the FEMA trailer he was living in at the time of the murder? According to Marinello, the list was simply notes he had taken regarding his being considered a suspect in the murder and his attempt to counter each one of them. He suggested that he was going to contact Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee, now deceased, to discuss the list and explain how the perpetrator could not possibly be him. Lee's phone number as well as two others and a detailed map of the crime scene were allegedly on the list. Several of the checked items also contained information not known to the public, according to Sheriff's deputies. Such items as "Gun - river on way to mama" didn't seem to gel well with jurors as something that could be easily explained away. He also claimed he had never fired a weapon in his life, then admitted to prosecutors that he had lied and had discharged a weapon on the ground of his property around the time of the murder. That was the reason, he claimed, that gunpowder residue was found inside his car. Marinello's alibi that he left New Orleans at a specific time and was on his way the Byram, Mississippi to watch a Saints game with friends at the time of the murder was challenged by prosecutors who used his cell phone records and tower transmission reports to indiciate that he left New Orleans much later than he claimed. Jurors took only an hour and a half to unanimously find the 71-year-old Marinello guility of second degree murder. The mandatory life sentence carries with it a condition of no possibility of parole or commutation of sentence and the judge in the case says that the sentence will be handed down in two weeks. Marinello's 94-year-old mother met with her son briefly after the verdict was announced in a room adjacent to the courtroom. It will probably be the last time they will see each other without thick glass or iron bars between them or him wearing manacles and chains. In the meantime, Liz Marinello's relatives and friends are considering the verdict as an early Christmas present. Prosecutors state the murder was calculated, premeditated and particularly gruesome. They need only point out that Liz Marinello perished as a result of two shots directed to her face. My feeling is that justice has been served, but that all of those involved in the murder case -- with the possible exception of the now gleeful prosecutors -- have all been put through a great deal of unnecessary torment and pain. Perhaps, the healing process can move forward as still-grieving family members hope to gain closure and move on and Marinello is sent to prison for the rest of his life.

Snow in the Crescent City

Pictured above: a palm tree, my home and the historic St. Charles Streetcar in the New Orleans snow

The last time I recall a snowfall in New Orleans was on December 25, 2004; like everything else we use to gauge time here, it was pre-Katrina. Truly, it was a White Christmas. At that time it snowed for a little over an hour in the This morning the snowfall has been falling steadily for well over an hour and the grass has begun to be covered by a thin layer of the white stuff. People in my former abode in Cleveland are used to dealing with much larger accumulations than we will see today, but the fact that it is snowing is a big deal and probably a lot more dangerous, since most people here don't know how to drive on snow or ice. Also, there are virtually no contingencies prepared to deal with snow or ice on the roads or highways here and, given the lack of abilities of drivers to navigate through snow, there is potential for a good number of accidents. Some bridges have been closed due to icing, but most major roadways, including those with elevated portions, were kept open. All of that notwithstanding, it is a very pretty, albeit a very rare sight in New Orleans.

The right of return and Rubashkin

A fairly dangerous precedent that could have ramifications for all Jews was just set in an Iowa courtroom on December 5. In a story filed by JTA recently, lawyers for Sholom Rubashkin, the former supervisor of the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking facility in Postville, Iowa, asked a judge to reconsider his decision to deny bail in the case. In Rubashkin's case, prosecutors have stressed the possibility that Rubashkin could avoid jurisdictional prosecution for hiring illegal workers and bank fraud by fleeing the country and seeking sanctuary in Israel. They cite Israel's Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to every Jew, as their primary concern. Apparently, the judge agreed, particularly when it was pointed out that two former Agriprocessors employees also suspected for illegal acts did, in fact, flee and are presumed to be living now in the Jewish State. To his defense, Rubashkin's attorneys have offered to provide additional measures, such as 24-hour monitoring and any other security measures as determined by the court. They argue that Rubashkin has deep roots and connections to his family and the Postville community and that he is unlikely to be a flight risk. Several of Rubashkin's family members also agreed to post bonds with the equity built up in their homes in order to guarantee his appearance in court. Where the arguments may seem plausible, the thin veneer behind the prosecution suggests that any high-placed Jew under suspicion or facing indictment for alleged criminal acts could be denied bail due to the Law of Return and the possibility of flight to Israel to avoid prosecution. "That means that 5,300,000 Americans would be viewed as heightened bail risks simply because they are Jews" wrote Rubashkin's attorneys in their pleadings before the judge. Ironically, they point out, the Law of Return, intended to be used to provide sanctuary for persecuted Jews, is now being used as the basis for detaining a Jew, who were he not Jewish, would probably be freed on bail. As Rubashkin's attorneys pointed out, two Supreme Court Justices and the current Attorney General of the United States could, likewise, be considered Israeli flight risks. This is a very dangerous precedent and smacks of unequal application of the law and a possible deprivation of Rubashkin's civil rights. Whether Rubashkin is innocent or guilty is of no import here. He should have his day in court to determine that. However, an Israeli law should not be used to keep him confined while preparing for his defense in a court of American justice.