Italian police busted a rank-climbing Mafia chieftain this week. According to an AP article by Alessandra Rizzo, the police managed to confiscate Mob documents including papers giving an insight to mob workings that listed a Mob code of ethics. The Mob has ethics? Well they are limited and only significant when dealing with each other. I suppose in a weird distorted reality there is some honor among thieves. But I also wouldn’t expect to see them allow honor getting in the way of their performing business when no one is around to tell tales. Out of sight out of mind. Courtesy of the BBC News here are the listed the “Ten Commandments” of the Mob:
1. No-one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don’t go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty – even if your wife’s about to give birth.
6. Appointments must absolutely be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can’t be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn’t hold to moral values.
Well, it just goes to show that although all families have values, not all families have the same values. When a politician starts talking about family values you need to ask, “which family’s values?”
Dang! You beat me to it Scoundrel!
I was going to blog about this, but instead, I’ll just blather here.
#5 and #7 seem mutually exclusive to me. How is it “respecting” your wife when you leave her during childbirth in order to answer the call of Cosa Nostra?
As for #10—Cosa Nostra must be a pretty exclusive club since those excluded are people who have two-timing relatives, those who “behave badly” and those who don’t hold to “moral values”.
That covers just about every one I know!
Dave you have read enough of my posts by now to know I think all politicians are jaded, some more than others. There is a quote from the movie “Hero” that expresses my philosophy about politicians and their politics, it translates something like this except I replaced the word life with Politics: Politics is one layer of BS layered on top of another. And what you do with your political life is pick the layer of BS that you want to live in and that is your political strategy.” Pardon my vulgarities! Hey watch it them are $100 pair of shoes!
Well QCEx, my recommendation to you is drink (Mt. Dew) heavily! All that caffeine will help you not sleep. I don’t know how exclusive 5 & 7 are because I have worked for companies that have had unofficial policy that is not so dissimilar. My guess is that if one planned on climbing high in the mafia family they would probably have to follow the script fairly close. But you can bet that the not interested in ladder climbing lower echelon probably looks as them as guidance only, all the way to the strip clubs and night clubs. I was going to write more in the original post but my vision took a break.