Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Blogging Project Post #5

Dante is now entering the Eighth Circle of Hell. This is the level for Frauds, which spans a wide variety of fraudulent behavior. What kinds of modern-day people would you consider frauds and why? Personally, I always remember Ashlee Simpson on Saturday Night Live, when she was caught lip-syncing and had to run offstage.

46 comments:

Kevin Gorman said...

I think that a David Blaine is a modern day fraud. His latest trick of staying upside down 60 hours is garbage because every hour he was let down to walk around for 10 minutes. I would be impressed if he only took a break once or twice during the 60 hours. But every hour he was let down which I dont find impressive for an illusionist/endurance artist.

Leroy B.III NFL32 said...

People using counterfeit money to buy things is a fraud because counterfeit money causes business to increase prices because they were cheated out some much money and this will make the people with there everyday hard earn money piss!!

Mike Childs said...

I think that Paris Hilton is a fraud. Back when her sex tape was a hot topic in the media, she pretended like all the bad things said about her bothered her. I mean am I giving her too much credit in thinking that she wasnt dumb enough to think that the guys that were taping her having sex wouldnt show it to people? I mean she knows that what she did was wrong, so why did she act like it was bothering her?

IMPERATOR said...

I think that Politicians are frauds. THey will always cheat you but when it comes to 4 or 2 or 6 years later they wanna kiss up to you. They can ruin our lives. A person I have seen is a fraud is celebrities. I don't want to know about what goes on in their lives or what kind of house they live in they are like politicians, annoying, and incredibly rich. I also see that both the candidates are frauds they both have secret agendas all politicians do. I may be a republican, i'm not a biased one. I know that they all hide something. All those well-known politicians are filthy rich, Obama included. I think they are the real frauds including those high top guys of Wall street.

zach ackerman said...

A modern day fraud I think of would be people who write bad checks or the people on well fare who cannot afford to feed there kids but yet have nice cars. People writting bad checks is just a pain. If you don't have the money don't buy it. The people who feel it is more important to buy material things and waste every penny they earn on things not needed are rediculous. Your job as a parent is to provide for your children. Your children should come before you.

ttk said...

terry shuman

I think people who are seemingly poor and who live in the city and dress up in nice clothes and drive expensive cars yet come home to to empty bank accounts and rowhomes are frauds , if people think they need to look nice to impress I think they should of gone to college and got a real job these are the people that are hurting the economy when they default on leases and foreclose houses

Zuri Thorpe said...

I believe Dr. Phil is a modern day fraud, few years ago he was put in the spotlight because he is always giving this Pyshicalogical advice to people and have no degree in the psychology or anything like that said that he was taught all the things. And that he was able to diagnose people, technical he wasn’t even a Doctor he was just this random guy giving his personal opinion of people’s problems. He had no educational insight at all he was as much of a Doctor as the people he was working with. He made money off of a lie, because his whole television personality was fake.

iThRoWdAhEaDoVv said...

In response to Zuri's post Doctor Phil doesnt have a degree your right but why would that be considered fraud. I do the same thing on a much samller scale i remember convo's that we have had in the past why should trying to help other people even though he is getting hella bank be considered fraud?

floridaboycraig said...

A person who I think is a fraud in todays society is barry bonds. I say this because he use enhancement drugs to make bigger, and by doing this he wanted to be a better baseball player.

Anonymous said...

In today's world people who use somebody identity to acquire money from somebody else using that persons identity.

sep said...

fortune tellers are modern dat frauds. they say what people want to hear, and they make money off false information.

Cameron said...

I think that people that sell items and clothing at flea markets are frauds. Many of them steal the items they are selling. They also cheat people with the cost. They try to convince the people that it is the real thing, but they really know it isn’t real. They cheat people by being dishonest and with greed.

Mike Sipes said...

I agree with Gorman I didn't like David Blaine's illusion. if was going to hang upside down he should have taken one break and not a break every hour it ruins the illusion.

M.S said...

I think that vendors out side of Raven games and Oriole games are frauds. They rip people off all the time. I remember one time my friend wanted a pair of sunglasses and the guy grabbed his money and said take a pair but he didn’t want that particular kind and wouldn’t give him his money back so he took a pair of glasses so he wouldn’t of bought nothing.

Joey Barrick said...

In my opinion, a good example of a modern day frauds are corrupt police officers. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that there are a bunch of good police officers out there, but it makes me angry that so many cops will go above the law just for their own gain, such as turning on their lights and speeding through an intersection and then turning their lights off and slowing down, just so they don't have to wait at a stop light. I have had too many encounters with corrupt cops for me to respect them any longer. They are supposed to be a model of justice and "doing the right thing," but instead they sit around and eat donuts.

Jake Hulsey said...

Fraud is a complicated section of hell. There are many different types of fraud. In todays society it may not be as recognized as before, but it is very prevelant. Many people today cheat on their taxes, make stupid excuses for their actions, and lie about many things. I can't judge any one person and say they are a modern day fraud, but I know that there are many people out in the modern society that are cheating and lying in many different ways and places.

Kwells09 said...

Someone that comes to my mind is Martha Stewart. She committed fraud and then lied about it. I think she would be down there for her actions. Also the man who owned Enron would be down there with her

tymetrius said...

I think George W. Bush is a fruad because he put our nation into a position that many of us did not want to be in and now our troops and many families are suffering, by fighting in a war that we do not need to be in and people are struggling economically.

Stefan said...

I think that Tim Donaghy is a modern-day fraud. He is a ref in the NBA that engaged in wire fraud. This means that there was some fraudulent activity through some type of electronic communication. He is a fraud because he bet on certain NBA games that he was officiating. He influenced the results of game by making questionable calls. He made the game of basketball seem as if the NBA was a fraud as a whole.

jakob marshall said...

i think that white haired, white suit wearing evangelical preacher that "heals" people and comes on tv every sunday morning at five am is a fraud. he is a talented actor that fools stupid peopole into believing he can cure thier sicknesses, just by pushing them down. It is so dumb, i cannot even begin to wonder why people belive him. i think he is somehow getting money out of this and he definatley deserves to go to hell.

ryankwasnik said...

A modern day fraud in my eyes would have to be the same as stepan, and say Tim Donaghy. He was being payed money to officiate NBA basketball, and accepted money to alter the games. When I first heard about this I couldnt believe it. Not only was he a fraud, he betrayed the NBA.

st.joe#9Artis holt said...

Modern day fraud that I recall is when now days people will steal someonelse social security number for a different identity.

James Raymond said...

In the eighth circle I would put child molesters. One that hits me the most is priest who disguises themselves as this holy figure, but really wants to get closer to children (sexually). Not all priest of course, however, but only the ones who conceal themselves as these humble figures in order not to get caught as easily, and who become corrupt hypocrites and ruin the church and the followers who have trusted these certain individuals.

rob nicholl said...

Some modern day people who I would consider frauds are baseball players, especially Rodger Clemens. I looked up to Rodger Clemens when I was little and now that he was in the news about steroids, he has disappointed me. Although he has not been found guilty for using steroids I still believe he did and it is hard to believe that a childhood hero could ever disappoint someone.

I also agree with Barrick about how the cops think they can be above the law and not have the rules apply to them. If you go on to youtube and look up “jimmy justice” you can see his videos of cops breaking the law.

Vincent Peck said...

Someone who i think is a modren day fraud is someone like Roger Clements. The reason is preety obvious because everyone knows he was using steroids. And the reason taking steroids made Roger a fraud is because it made him a better baseball player by cheating.

Brian Petroski said...

I think that the ref for the South Carolina is a fruad. He did not want them to score and he throw his elbow out to try and stop him. If your a ref you move out of the way of the play your dont just stand there and like the guy just happen to run into you.

Babdo said...

In today’s world I think that the one person who is a fraud in this world would be Michael Buble. To me he has made his living off of singing dead peoples music who sang it better than he did. Singers like, Dean Martin, Blue eyes, Nat King Cole and so on. He has barley any original songs of his own and people today now believe that he is the original composers of those songs.

Drew B. said...

I think that the word fraud is open to interpertation. For example, someone like Chris Angel. You could claim that he is a fraud, because he is not really sawing someone in half or levitating on the tip of the Luxor. You could say he is a fraud because he isn't really a magician. Chris Angel never claims to be a magician however. He only claims to be an illusionist. This does not mean that what he is doing isn't dangerous however. He is at the tip of the Luxor, he just isn't necessarilly levitating. This doesn't mean he is using trick strings either. Being an illusionist is the same as being a master of deception.

Julian Jimenez said...

I think a modern day fraud was Miss Cleo. She was a complete fraud because she lied to the people and was making things up as she went along. She just used people's money to use fake props and just seem like she knows what she's doing.

Kevin Curley said...

Martha Stewart was convicted of securities fraud which carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a 1 million dollar fine. She was found guilty of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale. But because she was Martha Stewart she only received a 5 month light sentence.

Cody Steward said...

Joeseph McCarthy would be a good example of a modern day fraudulent person. He had very little truth to accusations he made of certain people being communists. After the first couple of trials, he noticed that he could say anybody was a communist and people would believe him. So he started accusing people for the stupidest things. For example, McCarthy accused J. Robert Oppenheimer of being a communist because Oppenheimer said that America should not go to the extremes of building a hydrogen bomb. (Oppenheimer was a central figure in the building of the atomic bomb, so he knew what he was saying).

RJ Schmitz said...

I think that the most blatent fraud in the modern world today was by the companies who leant out money to people who couldn't afford the payment for the loan. If they had just denied them the loan, we wouldn't be in the economic crucnh we're in right now.

Kirby Riehl said...

A modern day fraud to me is Rafeal Palmerio. He point to the judge and said that he does not take steroids. Then a year later he tested positive for them it was ridiculous. Especially since he was a Baltimore Oriole at the time, he shamed our great team.

Anonymous said...

Miss. Cleo with her fake Jamaican accent telling people there future i think shemade alot of money off of telling lies to people. And in Dr.phil and Oprah are fraud like people then we all are the same way because they are just bassically counselor bring for a situation that people strongly agree with or strongly disagree with.

zach schwartzman said...

I think that an example of a modern day fraud would be anyone who uses steriods to enhance their performance. I think this because well obviously you are cheating and you have an unfair advantage against the rest of your competators, but if you are someone of professional athletic status there are so many people who look up to you! I think that people who use performance enhancing drugs to make them a better athlete should be ashamed of themselves becasue not only are they hurting themselves, but they are hurting the people who look up to and beleive in them!

Andrew Cosgrove said...

There are many similarities in the film What Dreams May Come and Dante’s Inferno. One is that there is a river to get to hell in Dante’s Inferno and in What Dreams May Come there is a sea, seems that there is water in hell in both of the books. In Dante’s Inferno there were punishments that fit the crime and in What Dreams May Come there were a lot of punishments that fit the crimes of the people.

Todd Ferguson said...

When I think of modern day frauds I think of the women who marry rich men for their money. All the younger women just marry rich, older men so that when the die they get the money. This is fraud because they are faking that they love their husband just to get money later in the future.

Corey Landon-09 said...

My version of a modern day fraud that goes perfect with the fraud's in the book hell. I would put Micheal Vick . he tryed to say that he didnt do anything to them dogs. but he finally confessed that he was involved. He felt like an idiot for not just standing up like a man.

tabbannister8 said...

I think that a modern-day fraud is the tell-e-marketers. They will call you and get your phone number and address and then give it to other people who will call you about things that they want to sell you. This is a fraud because they find you out and then wont leave you alone because they know that they can get you to buy something. It is a big scam and is not worth the time and money it has gotten!

kicker said...

I thin frauds are people that try to scam you over the phone and stuff like that. People who inside trade on the stockmarket and such are also frauds. And of course what Mr. Dutrow said is true, all the singers who fake there voices or lip ling is one of the worst frauds i think.

Joe Dingle-EL said...

Well I would have to say a modern day fraud would have to say these people that call there selfs preachers but all they talk about is money. Also people that go to church and think by goin every sunday gives them the right to do what they want. These pastor now days in some community just collect all this money by big cars but don't come out in the community and give back. that is my modern day fraud

RyanSmith said...

I think Oprah Winfrey is a fraud. She is always givin out gifts and praising so many people and celebrities of all races and ethnicities. A few years back she neglected to invite rapper Ice Cube to the show while the rest of the cast of Barbershop 2 was there and she considers herself to be a good person the same happened with Ludacris and the cast of Crash.

Anonymous said...

modern day people who I would consider frauds are baseball players, especially Rodger Clemens. I looked up to Rodger Clemens when I was little and now that he was in the news about steroids, he has disappointed me. Although he has not been found guilty for using steroids I still believe he did because when he was with the Red Sox then when he was traded to the Yankees he somehow all of the sudden he throws like know ones business. It is just to hard to believe that a childhood hero could ever disappoint someone.

Dirty Pete said...

The man off of the BET gospel infomercials is definatly a fraud. He hold these big events with hundreds of desperate people and claims to perform miracles. He is able to call out someone in the crowd and uses his divine powers to automaticaly know what sickness the person has. But a couple of years ago he got busted. They intercepted his wife telling him all the information through a mic, which he could hear from an ear-peice he had on. So he was a fake. And on top of that he's recently been back on TV selling "miracle cream" that helps heal anything.

Owen Doane said...

To me athletes that have used steroids and other performance enhancing drugs are some of the worst frauds that my generation has encountered. These men are ones that we as kids grew up idolizing, we as a generation were lied to by our so called sports heroes. To me this is more then just a lie for their personal gain, but could even be considered betrayal of our trust. In my opinion this is the biggest fraud that I have witnessed in my lifetime.

Chris Bodan said...

I think if you were to really take from The Inferno and how God is so quick to punish that many teens, if not nearly all, would be put in the eighth circle if we were to die today. How many students at our school have you seen put on a second face as soon as the people around them change? Even I have to admit I would be sent straight to it if I was judged by Dante's version of God. Many of us are so similar to the frauds we see in circle eight. I could name at least 20 people that I know that flatter simply to receive what they want.