There are many opinions about this question, but I think I might be the expert on this one. For those who would like to know I write to you.
At 13 years of age I was arrested by Jesus the Christ. I was already on my way to hell and like most oblivious. God took an interest in me and led me to some great preachers of the word. I grew quickly but was also unaware of a dangerous companion coming along for the ride. Pride was its name. I went off to Bible College at 17 naively thinking this is where the cream surfaced. The opposite was true. Pride had driven me there but God was going to make the best of it. It was not long and I fell into sin. I was crushed and suffered from guilt. Instead of repenting I withdrew in shame. For about 18 months I didn't serve the Lord. My way back was feeble and tentative. The cost was high but it also was a perfect cure for pride. The result was seeing God as my source of strength. This truth literally renewed me. You have heard me repeat this over and over again. It is a perpetual lesson for me. In every shadow of my heart this light must come to bear.
My life grafted again into the church. I fell into the normal manly things a good career, wife and kids. God still showed favor upon me but pride was no longer an option. Instead a certain zeal for God's house and His people overtook me. In an honest reflection of my history I can easily say this zeal has caused more trouble in my life than any other single event. I challenged pastors, friends, and deacons as a malcontent. The church was not attentive or alert concerning the word of God. They were sloppy, lazy, and apathetic. They had programs, psychology, music, drama and formulas but no life. Finally after 25 years I had to divorce. I went to the only voice I saw true and committed to his ministry; Dr. Gene Scott. I read intelligent men and remained vigilant in study. God again showed me favor and was faithful.
Dorean was birthed out of my Bible study. I had that personal prophecy about finance and marriage so I was always exposed to insights in these areas. As I looked at the word of God and overlaid it with our current economy and the banker's plans I saw a conflict. God's plans and man's plans were in opposition. Experience had taught me to bet on God. This is what I call a faith opportunity. When a man of faith comes across this he is to join with God and enter the frey of battle. Scotty was brave enough to join. Though I'm not certain with the same understanding. Again zeal has caused me trouble. I know God's ways always prevail upon man. A brave man will risk everything to prove this again but not vainly. Those who foolishly oppose God in this matter have had their day in court so to speak. All their testimony has been collected and every heart has been measured. Now God testifies. This is where I am in prayer and I hope you faithful are in concert with this prayer. Nothing will have to be said only let God speak and truth will shut the mouth of all the liar. I continue to wager my life on this outcome. Even this week I was put in a position to offend the Ninth Circuit, which many believe my hope, or offend God. The choice was easy and now there are men furious with Kurt Johnson. Oh that I could offend this world in pleasing God. Many of you know me because you know the same God who chastises and loves His children. Bastards will never understand us. Let them bet on man and glory as they appear to have the upper hand. Oh but we have been there many times with God and have countless victories to show for it. In the end I describe myself and my importance in pleasing God. I learned long ago in that futile 18 months that pleasing myself was death. So if you are not pleased with me neither am I. The one opinion that matters is who I consult with.
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Thanks Kurt, Good word for me to hear as I have never heard your testimony. One question.. What did you mean by "I had that personal prophecy about finance and marriage" ?
Lehman Bros, brokerage next giant to go belly up?
Isn't looking good at this point:
http://news.yahoo.com/
s/ap/20080913/ap_on_bi_ge/
lehman_meeting
bYa'll need to pray that the black guy is not elected or we are all in deep shit.
bYa'll need to pray that the black guy is not elected or we are all in deep shit.
....or we are all in deep shit.
sounds like something jug beans likes....deep and s**t....right 'in da end'
No deeper than if the brain damaged guy and Annie Oakley get elected.
At least they have done something and ran something in there life.
September 13, 2008 4:33 p.m. PDT
Hello Dear Friends and White Knights,
This is the hidden truth behind the FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC issues. YOU are NOT getting the TRUTH from mainstream media because the media is not getting the truth from the Bush government.
One of my sources spoke with an “official” of one of the organizations about what happened when the government took over control of FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC. The official said the government walked in and told all the employees and officers to leave immediately or they would be arrested and jailed. The government had brought its own financial analysts who immediately sat down at the companies’ computer stations to get into the computer systems showing the inside picture of the two companies’ assets.
My source said that even though the Bush government is saying the US Treasury is leading the takeovers – these are not “bailouts” – it is actually the Illuminati Federal Reserve which is heading up all the manipulated press reports and government actions to takeover FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC.
This is part of the Federal Reserve’s plot to STEAL the wealth of America by falsely reporting that certain banks and FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC are in trouble. In fact, there are NOT any major problems with any of the banks being reported as having problems with mortgage failures or “bad” investments. Everyone who is saying these things is getting their information from Illuminati sources.
What has been happening regarding “bank failures” has been a COMPLETE MANIPULATION by the Federal Reserve. Today, it is a more sophisticated process of the Illuminati ROBBING the wealth of America than what the Illuminati did by causing the 1929 economic crash.
You need to remember the Illuminati-owned Federal Reserve is the organization which is the top banking authority in the USA. The Federal Reserve can “cook the books” and provide totally false data and information about any bank or financial institution. Most people do not realize the Federal Reserve has always been owned by European and American banking families who are ALL Illuminati and are part of the “one world government” Illuminati plot against the people of the world. The Federal Reserve is NOT part of the US federal government; it is a subcontractor under contract to manage the US monetary system.
The officials of the banks which have been “bailed out” are also mainly Illuminati and have cooperated with the Federal Reserve in the false reporting of the banks’ financial situations. IT IS ALL LIES.
Do not be fooled by these false “bank failures”. If you want to keep your money safe, keep only up to $100,000 in one bank so you are covered by the FDIC. People who had more than $100,000 in a bank which “failed”, according to my research, received 50 cents on the dollar for their balance over $100,000. All balances under $100,000 were safe and no money was lost.
The Federal Reserve and the Bush government are trying to SCARE YOU and PROVOKE people into acting irresponsibly. The Bush government would like to cause enough problems somewhere so they could order “martial law” before the November, 2008 elections. Do NOT let them provoke you into causing problems.
The government has a plan to use undercover government provocateurs to try to get Americans riled up and angry and try to get them to riot in the streets – then Bush would try to order martial law. One area the government is watching is the folks in the Southeast US who may be PROVOKED by undercover government provocateurs into causing problems. DO NOT LET THE GOVERNMENT PROVOKE YOU.
The Bush government is also planning to try to crash the stock market late in the day on a Friday in October 2008 as a way to try to PROVOKE people into causing riots so Bush can declare martial law. DO NOT LET BUSH FOOL YOU!
If Bush gets this crash going and you have stock in the stock market, just let your stock sit there. If you don’t panic, Bush cannot crash the stock market; Bush needs to fool you and you don’t need to let yourself be fooled. NESARA will be providing major financial benefits to all Americans including people who own stock.
In 1929, the Illuminati who own the Federal Reserve and the Illuminati who owned the major stock brokerages WORKED TOGETHER TO STAGE the 1929 stock market crash. They cause the markets to go down and then they BOUGHT UP the stocks being sold at low prices and in this way, the Illuminati made themselves richer at the expense of everyone else.
The Illuminati are doing the same thing RIGHT NOW with banks and FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC.
This is a stage play the Illuminati are putting on to try to get the masses to believe the banks are failing. Our US intel sources tell us the US government has plenty of money but is lying about it and saying the government does not have enough money.
Also, I spoke with another source today in Texas who said there have been no reports of any major damage to oil platforms or oil refineries around Galveston and Houston, Texas. Hurricane Ike was caused by weather control technology to try to cause major problems and also drive up the price of gas in the USA. I’m hearing they were not successful in damaging oil platforms or refineries. There are widespread power outages which high winds always cause and flooding and wind damage. The oil platforms or refineries have back-up power systems so they should be fine.
Also, the current banks being reported as having problems are headed by Illuminati who are cooperating with Bush to cause problems. Washington Mutual Bank and Lehman Brothers are and have been headed by Illuminati who are playing the game to fool Americans into thinking there are problems. Do NOT let the Illuminati fool you into acting crazy.
I (Dove) AM STILL HERE, NOT GONE. I just heard today that some people are saying I (Dove) was killed two years ago. That is not true. I made a 3-hour video of which thousands of people purchased a DVD copy and thousands of copies were mailed out to purchasers for $5 cash in 2006. When we get NESARA announced, I will be talking to you on television so you will see that I was not killed. I am still working on NESARA every day. I do not have the time and energy to do radio interviews any more, however, I have never quit working on NESARA.
NESARA is continuing to move forward to rescue America from the Illuminati. NESARA Now!
Blessings and Love,
Dove of Oneness
Executive Director
International NESARA Take Action Teams
dat dam guy....
I. LOU MINARDI
....or is it...
I. LOU MINOTTI ??
September 14, 2008 posting ... many years ago ... in early November of 1991 to be exact ... 3 hurricanes formed over the USA to eventually meet in the north atlantic ... a place with frigid cold water and certainly a place where hurricanes should not form according to the "standard" warm water theory of hurricane development that is still mindlessly repeated on the weather channel and weather.com by the pin heads that bring you the phony weather news ... yes ... the greatest hurricane of modern times ... in the frigid waters of the north atlantic in november and created from 3 storms that produced the greatest blizzards of modern time to boot while they etched their paths over the north american continent ... but i digress ... these 3 storms met in the north atlantic to form one massive hurricane with 100 foot waves etc etc etc and today is know as "The Perfect Storm" by the name of a book and later hollywood feature film production ... but today we could well call hurricane Ike "another perfect storm" ... Ike did a lot of things ... it helped to keep residents of new orleans from coming back to their houses after manipulated storm Gustav sent them on mass evacuations ... it weather bombed Cuba with the final blow after 3 prior manipulated hurricanes "hit" that now devastated island ... it took a sharp left turn after plowing right down the central cordillera mountain range the entire length of cuba to enter the caribbean long enough to gather steam and then took a hard right to plow full force over the west end of cuba ... a place that the other 3 hurricanes missed ... and then the immediate path "prediction" as i noted was to new orleans where reports i have received make it more like a military state than a state of our decaying union ... this kept FEMA and homeland security in charge and keeping residents from moving back as i already noted ... BUT WAIT FOLKS ... this was just the beginning ... slowly the "predicted path" put it into Galveston texas ... of the 3 prior hurrinanes - Fay - Gustav and Hanna ... none of them affected oil prices ... this of course must have sent shock waves and phone calls to the white house to get some oil money price raising hurricanes going on here .... and that is just what Ike did ... within hours gas prices soared to record prices of over $5.00 per gallon in spite of the statement of our little monkey pres that such "price gouging" would be watched and prevented by his office ... ya ... sure ... you betcha !!!! so as i said ... with all the major "accomplishments" of Ike ... one could surely call it another "perfect storm" ... jim mccanney
if somenone is a chrirstian, does that make the flowing untrue???
In my CC Summary,last night, I forgot to mention Mother Sekhmet's comments on the test of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) conducted yesterday. They completed a clockwise run and a counterclockwise run. This is as far as they can go without creating a smashing of particles through high energy collisions. They will turn over the process to the physicists for bombardment tests in October, according to news releases yesterday.
Mother said that they may find "ghosts in their machine" and that Vywamos{Gaia's Twin Flame} may step in and shut it down. Smashing protons is the same as exploding bombs. Out In the Universe, protons voluntarily come together in a Fusion Fire Dance of complementary CLOCKWISE spin...Just as we do in the higher dimensions. LHC is still an attempt--that will fail--to FORCE divine elements to do what they do not wish to do. This will not be permitted by higher spiritual levels. The particles have consciousness and will receive requests from higher consciousness levels to 'not cooperate' with these ones in this way...according to Mother Sekhmet.
During the night, Rama went OOB aboard a shuttle craft over Abydos, Egypt, overflying President Hosni Mubarak's house{One of Bush's buddies who condones torture}. At that time he flipped a switch on the console and sent a stream of 'golden pixie particles' down into the house to uplift the atmosphere.
Rama and his Sirian Pilot Lt. (looked a bit like Wolfman with a very hairy face and brilliant smiling eyes) who told Rama to just call him "Leroy Black"--a humorous play on lycantropic:wolfman--who was getting very amused at Rama's furtive glances to see if Leroy had any interest in biting his throat! Everything raised to that higher level of consciousness has attained a fully heart-opened spiritual status. Many wonderous experiences await us in the coming cycles.
Anyway, they then flew in circles over the Giza pyramid at a pretty low altitude. As they did Lt. Leroy pushed a button and it activated a sensor in one of the stones and it slid to the side and a beam came up out of the pyramid. That was a coded transmission and a series of writeouts appeared on their viewing screen, first in ancient Annunaki script and then decoded into symbols like you see in StarGate-1 portals. The indicators of stepped up activity in the underground sub-etheric generators became visible. This was a confirmation of what Mother Sekhmet and Ashtar shared about these activations which may result in the pyramids beginning to radiate a glow very soon. When they reach an operational level they will create a coordinated forcefield that will end combat as weapons will not work. The very-large WingMaker ships over each of the poles and equator are also monitoring and increasing the intensity levels of these ancient devices.
As they completed their away mission, Lt Leroy got a message and turned to Rama to say, time for you to go back, I'll see you again in the future. With that Rama was returned to his earthbody lying in his bed reviewing the events he had just participated in. Similar flights and maneuvers were conducted in other areas overnight, all in preparation for massive decloakings of many millions of craft in the near future.
Overnight we received many enquiries about the statements made that NO ELECTIONS will take place as now scheduled. Everything we are receiving affirms that all such activities will be superseded by actions now underway exposing the Administration planning and ordering the 911 atrocity. Revelations will require removals of all such ones. An interim caretaker team{headed by Nancy Pelosi} will be appointed to supervise restructurings so that an honest election can be assured. That will take place within 90-120 days after NESARA's Announcement. Regime change, Announcement and massive decloakings are affirmed as happening in concert with 911 exposure.
Today, on 94Rock radio station in Albuquerque, NM, Ron Suskind, Vincent Bugliosi and the group: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young all were very excited and demanding that the House of Representatives take immediate action on Dennis Kucinich's Impeachment resolution so that these criminals can be arrested, sent to the Hague for War Crimes trials. We are being told that this is the highest priority in conjunction with pending actions on the overwhelming evidence showing that 911 was an inside job planned and ordered by P/VP.
NEVER BEEFO IN HISTORY!!!!
thins are soooooooooooo BAD that fo the first times, the markets TRADED ON S-U-N-D-A-Y!!!
dats rite fokes!!! soonday!
get yo 25lb. sack of rice ready!!! an sum fresh water too!!! yo gonna nedd it!
Sept. 14, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major players in the $455 trillion global derivatives market rushed Sunday to scale back exposure to a potential bankruptcy filing by investment bank Lehman Brothers in a rare emergency trading session.
Trading took place as U.S. regulators and bankers were making last-ditch efforts to prevent toxic assets from ailing Lehman Brothers (LEH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) spilling into global markets and rupturing investor faith in the international financial system.
"This is an extremely, and I stress extremely, rare event. It also speaks to the more general notion that, in today's highly disrupted financial markets, the unthinkable is thinkable," said Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of Pimco, the world's biggest bond fund, based in Newport Beach, California.
The session opened at 2 p.m. New York time and was due to run until 4 p.m. (1800 to 2000 GMT), according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. ISDA later extended it for another two hours and some banks continued to offset their Lehman exposure even after the official session ended, according to a market source.
Trading involved credit, equity, rates, foreign exchange and commodity derivatives. ISDA estimates the OTC derivatives market excluding commodities has a value of $455 trillion.
Market sources said the special session was initiated by the Federal Reserve.
The aim is to reduce risk associated with a potential bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
"Trades are contingent on a bankruptcy filing at or before 11:59 p.m. New York time Sunday (0359 GMT)," said the statement. "If there is no filing, the trades cease to exist."
LEHMAN DEAL HOPES FADE
Britain's Barclays Plc (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which had appeared to be the frontrunner to take over Lehman -- excluding its bad mortgage-related assets -- pulled out of the bidding early in the afternoon, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Bank of America, which had also been named as a potential acquirer, was in advanced talks to buy Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for at least $38.25 billion in stock, the New York Times said on Sunday, citing people briefed on the negotiations.
Merrill Chief Executive John Thain and Bank of America (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis were present at weekend talks on the future of Lehman.
Fading hopes for a Lehman deal raised the risk the firm may file for bankruptcy. Lehman hired law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges to prepare a potential bankruptcy filing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday in its online edition, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The head of bond fund Pimco, Bill Gross, said a Lehman bankruptcy risks an "immediate tsunami" because of the unwinding of derivative and credit swap-related positions worldwide in the dealer, hedge fund and buyside universe.
The trading session "saw very little trading -- perhaps $1 billion total -- but at much wider spread levels for corporate bonds," he said.
Mark Grant, managing director of structured finance at Southwest Securities, based in Dallas, said the lack of transparency in the credit derivatives market is a problem.
"No one has any idea about the credit quality of the assets in Lehman's portfolio and no one has a handle about the size of the CDS contracts," he said.
"The market is going to be spooked. People will be fearful and no one outside a very small group of people knows what Lehman going into liquidation will mean."
If there is a forced sale or liquidation, "this could set off another round of writedowns globally."
COUNTERPARTY RISK
If Lehman were to file for bankruptcy, credit spreads for all corporates are expected to widen dramatically, causing large losses to investors, including those without any direct exposure to Lehman.
Barclays credit analysts said earlier this year that CDS counterparty failure could amount to $47 billion in losses.
"Our analysis shows that the failure of a major counterparty which had $2 trillion outstanding in OTC credit derivatives, could result in losses of $36-47 billion in the financial system solely due to the immediate re-pricing of credit risk due to a counterparty default," Barclays said in a February 2008 report.
The U.S. dollar fell against major currencies late Sunday, while U.S. stock index futures tumbled on opening, indicating a sharply lower open on Monday. Dow futures fell more than 300 points, while futures on the S&P 500 were down about 40 points, reflecting investor jitters about the health of the financial sector. ID:nN14672882.
A takeover of Merrill by Bank of America would likely restore some confidence to markets, said Pimco's Gross, "although I am skeptical that BofA would pay such a premium on such short not."
(Reporting by Karen Brettell, Jennifer Ablan and Walden Siew)
(Writing by Ciara Linnane and Chris Sanders)
www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1444498020080914
in a rare emergency trading session.
LOLOLOLOLLLOLOLOLO!!!!!!!!!!!
“Take a load off Fannie, and you put the load right on me".Live from Manhattan, the financial fraud center of the world.Jug beans got a ring side seat.
Events in the financial world, centered in the United States, are due for a sudden and unexpected sequence of events. The ultimate outcome will be known, once the Flash point is reached. The pathogenesis of systemic failure will be long and slow, a torture. It might be quite different in nature from what even the most watchful, intrepid, and accurate analysts have foreseen. The American experiment has failed, wrecked by its own trusted icon banking leaders. The last to comprehend the nature of the failure are Americans themselves, still distracted by the press & media with war and foreign threats. Their government and top corporate leaders have betrayed the people, sold them out, even co-opted the nation by vile relationships with both key allies and crime syndicates. A blood bath in the global financial markets comes, one beyond people’s wildest imagination.
“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.” – Mark Twain
"Trades are contingent on a bankruptcy filing at or before 11:59 p.m. New York time Sunday (0359 GMT)," said the statement. "If there is no filing, the trades cease to exist."
rite!
the jug is up!
da hole cuntry is bakerup!
hay, jug beans...when da cuntry run out of mooney and kunt pay yo anymo, tell me...yo gonna works fo free??
Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., once the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, said it intends to file for bankruptcy after Barclays Plc and Bank of America Corp. abandoned talks to buy the crippled firm.
Lehman Brothers is the quintessential finale to the Wall Street implosion. It has no remedy, only an end.
AIG and WAMU are in the on deck circle. Prepare to defend your selfs.
Lehman Brothers is the quintessential finale to the Wall Street implosion. It has no remedy, only an end.
LOLOLOLOLOLOOLOLLOOLOOLOL!!!
maybe they can do a 'minister remdy'??
call they 'minister' fo da last rites??
o is it 'rawngs'?
yep. just do a AR...A-minster Remdy....
mabye even they minster cant hep dem now...maybe they shoud get hire a singer intead, den they can call it a minstrel remdy...cause it relly a black/white issue.
More bad financial news as AIG, the largest insurance company has problems too, all due to the subprime crisis hitting everywhere it seems. Kind of reminds me of that commercial, "don't worry son, we are with AIG" LOL
Lehman Bros., is headed for bankruptcy, and Merill Lynch is bought out by Bank of America due to their financial problems, however even Bank of America's stock fell 14% probably due to this purchase & taking on alot of bad debt. Fed to make a decision on interest rates on Tuesday. Wouldn't be surprised if interest rates are cut downward again:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/
ap/20080915/ap_on_bi_st_
ma_re/wall_street
No deeper than if the brain damaged guy and Annie Oakley get elected.
________________________________
You know come to think of it, Palin does look like Annie Oakley somewhat, however, Annie Oakley was much better looking. She was a good looking fox who knew how to use a gun in a man's world.
"In fact, there are NOT any major problems with any of the banks being reported as having problems with mortgage failures or “bad” investments."
"Martial law before the 2008 elections."
___________________________________
Give me a break!!! "Dove One of Dumbness & Wrecklessness" I'm sure is printing this mis-information.
She purports & passes more lies than even the US Government.
"no reports of any major damage to oil platforms or oil refineries around Galveston and Houston, Texas. Hurricane Ike was caused by weather control technology"
_________________________________
Sorry, these are all lies. We don't have the technology to do this.
dr. ira gilac said...
The "official" said the government walked in and told all the employees and officers to leave immediately or they would be arrested and jailed.
___________________________________
What? They didn't even threaten to SHOOT them? What a bunch of jack-booted pussies!
judge allslop said...
“Take a load off Fannie, and you put the load right on me".
___________________________________
That's pretty clever... did you come up with that, sloppy? If so, you are a funny guy.
provb1022 said...
One question.. What did you mean by "I had that personal prophecy about finance and marriage" ?
___________________________________
Yes, I am anxious to hear the answer to this question too!
Wow!! Did y'all watch the Glenn Beck Show? I cant believe what i just heard. Glenn and his panel were discussing the recent banking crisis and agreed that the Federal Reserve is to blame. "Why do we listen to these guys since they are not a federal agency...Their private bankers...Nobody voted them in" Glenn said. "As a matter of fact, Alan Greenspan and his buddies created this problem" the panel guest said.
Did i just hear what i think i heard? The problem is, most people aren't listening.
In February of this year I responded to Scott from Vineland's post:
Scott from V said.....
In the end, banking will go on in much the same way that it always has.
___________________________________
THATS WHERE YOU'RE WRONG SCOTT.....THE CLOCK IS TICKING FOR THIS BANKING SYSTEM. G-D IS GOING TO SHAKE THIS THING AND IF YOU ARE STANDING IN THE WRONG SPOT IT MIGHT COME DOWN ON YOU. AS A MATTER OF FACT THE SHAKING IS STARTING. IT MAY BE JUST TREMORS NOW BUT YOU WATCH.
In February 2008 i so posted:
Micah 6:8-16 (LB translation)
8But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is FAIR and JUST to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.
9Attention! God calls out to the city!
If you know what's good for you, you'll listen.
So listen, all of you!
This is SERIOUS BUSINESS.
10-16"Do you expect me to overlook obscene wealth
you've piled up by CHEATING and FRAUD?
Do you think I'll tolerate SHADY DEALS
and SHIFTY SCHEMING?
I'm tired of the violent rich
bullying their way with bluffs and lies.
I'm fed up. Beginning now, you're finished.
You'll pay for your sins down to your last cent.
No matter how much you get, it will never be enough—
hollow stomachs, empty hearts.
No matter how hard you work, you'll have nothing to show for it—
BANKRUPT lives, wasted souls.
You'll plant grass
but never get a lawn.
You'll make jelly
but never spread it on your bread.
You'll press apples
but never drink the cider.
You have lived by the standards of your king, Omri,
the decadent lifestyle of the family of Ahab.
Because you've slavishly followed their fashions,
I'm forcing you into BANKRUPTCY.
Your way of life will be laughed at, a tasteless joke.
Your lives will be derided as futile and fake."
___________________________________
Lehman Brothers been around since the Civil War and now one of the largest bankruptcy in US history. More to come.
Scott says. That's pretty clever... did you come up with that, sloppy? If so, you are a funny guy.
Yes I am.
Regrettably it segue's into a very sad time for our country that has serious consequences for everyone.
On a lighter note, look up the song "The Weight", by "The band" from the 1968 era for an interesting story.
The only thing remarkable about Lehman's, isn't its failure,but why isn't it handled as a crime scene? Why wasn't everyone escorted out of the building, especially management taken in hand cuffs and all property seized? Remember Dorean? This bunch makes Kurt look like the pope.
Where is the outrage from the rat pack(quatlosers)from this SCAM? Your heads too far up your collective asses to notice or just too busy honoring yourselves.
LOL!!!
the Controlled News Network!
Is CNN Getting
Kicked Out Of Russia?
9-15-8
Putin may strip CNN of its Russian broadcasting rights after it refused to air a 30 minute exclusive interview he gave the network.
You probably didn't know that CNN censored Putin for being just too darn sensible. Yep, it's true. About two weeks ago, Putin gave the network an exclusive 30-minute interview. And you know what happened? Nothing. It was never allowed to air. CNN doesn't know it yet, but that decision might have cost them their Russian broadcasting rights.
On August 29, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with senior political correspondent Matthew Chance for a CNN exclusive interview. "This was unprecedented access to Russia's powerful prime minister, the former KGB spy now increasingly at odds with Washington," an overly dramatic voice-over introduced the segment as Chance and Putin enjoyed pre-game banter and a walk through the courtyard of Putin's palatial Sochi residence. Once seated, Chance didn't waste any time with his provocative questions:
Matthew Chance: But it's been no secret either that for years you've been urging the West to take more seriously Russia's concerns about international issues. For instance, about NATO's expansion, about deployment of missile defense systems in eastern Europe. Wasn't this conflict a way of demonstrating that in this region, it's Russia that's the power, not NATO and certainly not theUnited States?
Vladimir Putin: Of course not. What is more, we did not seek such conflicts and do not want them in the future.
That this conflict has taken place -- that it broke out nevertheless -- is only due to the fact that no one had heeded our concerns.
I think both you and your -- our -- viewers today will be interested to learn a little more about the history of relations between the peoples and ethnic groups in this regions of the world. Because people know little or nothing about it.
If you think that this is unimportant, you may cut it from the program. Don't hesitate, I wouldn't mind.
It was a prescient comment. Not only did CNN delete Putin's historical roundup of relations between Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia going back to the 18th century that followed, the network cut out almost everything else as well. Despite the "unprecedented access" hook, for its U.S. feed, CNN reduced the 30-minute interview into a series of sound bites that seized and ridiculed Putin's crackpot theory that the Republican party started the war to boost McCain's ratings.
CNN's international audience, enjoying the news from hotel rooms all round the world, got to see a little more of the the footage. But most of it had to do with Russia's ridiculous "non political" decision to ban some American poultry importers from doing business with Russia because of their poor quality control standards. CNN's intentions were clear: Putin must come off looking like a fool. And it seemed Putin gave them the perfect material. Embargoes on dead chickens and global neocon conspiracies? Gosh, what serious self-respecting world leader would start talking this kind of gibberish? Even Ahmadinejaddoesn't sink that low. Well, the chicken meat embargo might have been a little weak, but the neocon conspiracy I'm not so sure about. But more on that later. (You can see the http://search.cnn.com/search?query=putin&type=video&sortBy=date&intl=true>heavily edited interview clips on CNN website, but the network never made the full version available. But you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ1HaztRKaY&feature=related>can see it on Russian TV.)
Not surprisingly, this didn't go down none too good with the Prime Minister. See, as it turns out, when Putin told CNN he wouldn't mind if they cut some of his comments, he wasn't exactly being honest. Not only did he mind, but he was sovereignly pissed off to find the entire interview censored. After all, he is the one that usually does the censoring. And it's not like he gives out TV interviews every month, or even every year. If I'm not mistaken, the last interview Putin gave to American TV was waaaay back in 2000, when he was on Larry King Live making crude comments about the sinking of the Kursk submarine.
And then there's the issue of Saakashvili's CNN time. Just in the past month, Saakashvili has appeared a dozen times on the network giving interviews averaging 5 to 10 minutes each. As CNN correctly pointed out, Putin is a former KGB spy, so he knows all the details, down to the nearest second. And that's exactly why he's taken it as a personal insult from CNN's headquarters (and probably more proof of an international media/government conspiracy against him). But he just might have the last word.
The word on the street here is Putin is out for blood. It's payback time. According to a source with high-level government connections, the Russians are planning punitive actions against CNN. At this point, it is just a rumor, but they are preparing to kick out about half of the half-dozen Western journalists working at CNN's Moscow bureau. Sooner or later they're going to have to apply for a visa renewal and that's when it's gonna go down.They'll be denied, clean and quiet like. We can only pray that the tool Matthew Chance is up for a new visa soon.
So why did CNN decide to cut the interview? The thing is, Putin came off pretty darn well. Sure, the chicken embargo was embarrassing, but the McCain/neocon conspiracy theory wasn't as crazy as some would want you to believe. Gary Brecher has been saying all along that this little war had the mark of a half-baked neocon plan for world domination. As Gary says, Georgia's move makes no sense at all from a Georgian perspective. Somebody must have told those idiots they'd be safe to retake South Ossetia.And who better than Cheney?
In general, Putin was able to strike an unusually sympathetic chord during the interview. It sure wasn't anything like the grotesque interview he gave eight years ago, where he made that cruel "it sank" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqDqvKYDv9M>Kursk joke. This time around, he was level headed, reasonable and, most importantly, very convincing and believable -- not what you'd expect from the evil Stalin/Hitler hybrid personality being pushed on the American public. And that worried the hell out of CNN editorial staff, enough to make them crudely censor the entire thing and hope no one noticed.
So, what parts of Putin did CNN leave on the cutting room floor?
Putin the anti-Stalinist:
Therefore, those who insist that those territories must continue to belong to Georgia are Stalinists: They defend the decision of JosefVissarionovich Stalin. [It was Stalin who first split up Ossetia and gave the southern half to Georgia.]
Putin the caring:
For us, it is a special tragedy, because during the many years that we were living together the Georgian culture -- the Georgian people being a nation of ancient culture -- became, without a doubt, a part of the multinational culture of Russia.[C]onsideringthe fact that almost a million, even more than a million Georgians have moved here, we have special spiritual links with that country and its people. For us, this is a special tragedy.
Putin the peaceful:
You and I are sitting here now, having a quiet conversation in the city of Sochi. Within a few hundred kilometers from here, U.S. Navy ships have approached, carrying missiles whose range is precisely several hundred kilometers. It is not our ships that have approached your shores; it's your ships that have approached ours. So what's our choice?
We don't want any complications; we don't want to quarrel with anyone; we don't want to fight anyone. We want normal cooperation and a respectful attitude toward us and our interests. Is that too much?
Putin the conscientious business man:
Construction of the first gas pipeline system was started during the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, and for all those years, from the 1960s until this day, Russia has been fulfilling its contract obligations in a very consistent and reliable way, regardless of the political situation.
We never politicize economic relations, and we are quite astonished at the position of some U.S. administration officials who travel to European capitals trying to persuade the Europeans not to buy our products, natural gas for example, in a truly amazing effort to politicize the economic sphere. In fact, it's quite pernicious.
It's true that the Europeans depend on our supplies but we too depend on whoever buys our gas. That's interdependence; that's precisely the guarantee of stability.
.....and now, a long diatribe.....
16/09/08 "Counterpunch" -- On February 1, 1996, I retired from the United States Army. I had served in the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam as an infantryman, the 82nd Airborne Division, the 4th In
fantry Division, 2nd Ranger Battalion, the Jungle Operations Training Center, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta, the United States Military Academy at West Point, 1st Ranger Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, 75th Ranger Regiment, and finally 3rd Special Forces Group. I worked all over "hot spots" in Latin America during the 80s and early 90s. I participated in Grenada and Somalia; and I was the team sergeant for a Special Forces A-Detachment during the 1994 invasion of Haiti. In all that time, I was one of those atheists in the foxholes they say don't exist. I could never have known that I'd find the faith to follow Christ and be baptized on Easter of my 56th year. But I did, even when I'd never grasped for spiritual reassurance as I slogged through the Central Highlands of Vietnam, leapt from airplanes into the night, or had helicopters shot out from under me. I've been taking up residence close to death for a long time. My faith isn't about jumping over death. It's about reconciling with God, who Jesus Christ showed us is Love.
When I was baptized I continued to carry my history; but one identity was sloughed off in the water and a new one born out of it. I write this open letter to troops, brothers and sisters -- of all branches -- who profess the faith of Christ. I write you to ask that you remember your baptism, because at that baptism you declared your renunciation of evil. * The big preposition Note the preposition. I didn't say faith in Christ, I said faith of Christ. Christian is a diminutive term; it means "little Christ." To be a Christian is not to merely have faith in Christ. That's too easy, and Jesus of Nazareth was not about easy. To be Christian is to aspire to have the faith of Christ. Christ's call is not to go along with the program, say the magic words, then be rescued from death. Christ did not merely command belief. Christ commands you to follow him. That command does not wait until death for it to become effective in your life. "Love your enemy." This is not an etching at some altar that you visit; it is your path laid before you by the footsteps of Christ in this world. This is an action religion, not an abracadrabra religion. Christ tells us to take up the cross. That means be willing to risk all, to suffer all when suffering can heal the brokenness in the world. The brokenness of 1st Century Palestine was not altogether different from the brokenness of the world now. Jesus' ministry was conducted in the teeth of a Roman military occupation. Like Nuri al Malaki's "government," the Palestinian Jewish upper-class then lived in an uncomfortable collaboration with that occupation. There were also Jewish insurgents who fought the Roman occupation, who fought among themselves, and who attacked collaborating Jewish sects as well. One particular nationalist party that emerged prior to the revolt with Rome was known as the Zealots. You may recall that Jesus had such folk among his small band of disciples. "And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot..." (Luke 6:13-15)
We can't beat around the bush about this comparison. It's clear.
We Romans
America is now Rome. You are Rome's army of occupation. To the Roman soldier, when Jesus passed down the dusty byways of his occupied land, he appeared no more or less than a random Iraqi or Afghan appears to you. What do you look like to them? Jesus himself looked at the Jewish resistance to Roman occupation, then looked at the corpses rotting on crosses along the roads as Roman examples to the Palestinian Jew,; and he chose a new way. His way was neither passivity, nor counter-violence, but non-violent resistance, just like Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, who both cited Jesus' ministry in their own prophetic missions. Jesus looked at the violence-counterviolence cycle, and determined that each person in that system was redeemable as an individual - each a child of God, each beloved of God. Jewish, Roman, Samaritan, male, female... no matter. He also looked at how the system itself -- operating with a self-reinforcing dynamic that transcends the individual -- led people into the cycles of accusation and violence; and he proposed to undermine that system with this radical doctrine of spiritual equality, a redemption open to all through grace, and a redemption never imposed at the point of a sword... or under threat of a bomb. In the original story, written in Greek, Jesus says, "I am not of this world." At least that's how many interpretations go. But the original Greek word kosmos means world, flesh, or system, depending on context. "I am not of this system." Not simply the system of Roman occupation, but the system of violence-counterviolence... all systems of domination, because domination breeds the cycle of violence-counterviolence.
Pretensions of the devil
Scripture has been interpreted to suit plenty that is the very evil you renounced at your baptism. The subjugation of women. Slavery. War. Even the white supremacist sects have quoted Scripture. But in order to do so, literalism and decontextualizaton have been used to distort the essence and spirit of the Scriptures for the most impure of motives. In America, we hear much about a few references to sex in the Bible, but little about the many references to poverty, and less about Jesus' provocations on peace. When Jesus says his way will break the dominance of one generation over another within the family, between slave and master, between male and female, he does not confine this vision to heaven - where the upside-down "kingdom" without oppression lives in the dimension of Spirit. He says "on earth as it is in heaven." Jesus was an earthy guy. He bathed in rivers, shat on the ground, and broke bread with fishmongers, tax-collectors, outcasts, prostitutes, Zealots... and he showed mercy to the child of a Roman soldier.
Even on the cross, in his final breaths as the Romans' victim, he cries out to God on behalf of those who kill him: "When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.'" (Luke 23:33-34) What do you think that means? Certainly the Roman soldiers (soldiers like you) knew they were participating in a crucifixion. The Roman troops had done this many times.
What they did not understand was how their system led them to do this. In Matthew 27:54, it was a Centurion who heard these words -- "forgive them" -- and experienced an earthquake, saying, "Truly, this is the Son of God." (Do you see how the symbolic truth here is more powerful than the literal seismology?) Forgiveness unmasks Satan, who is not the boogyman of popular culture, but the spirit in the culture -- some would call it a zeitgeist -- that acts as God's jealous pretender, that promotes Self as God, that plays the accuser to stir up the mob (weapons of mass destruction?), that sets up idols... so that we will "know not what we do," so we will not know who and whose we are. You can hear the voice of Satan in every instance of boasting, humiliation of another, profaning of what we know to be sacred (like God's Creation), every thought and word of aggression or revenge, every put-down of other people (all beloved of God). Where you are, you can see how the state of war and occupation -- putting you at odds with an occupied population that does not want to be occupied -- amplifies and focuses the malevolent spirit. Now ask yourself why? Why do troops run down civilians with vehicles to avoid slowing down? Why do troops throw bottles and cans at pedestrians to entertain themselves? Why did the massacres like Haditha occur? Why did the utter destruction of Fallujah happen? Why are wedding parties bombed by US aircraft? Why did a whole squad participate in the premeditated half-hour-long rape and murder of a screaming 14-year-old girl? Why is it that approaching an invader's roadblock can carry death sentence for a whole family? Why can children can be woken from their beds by soldiers kicking down the house doors? Why are thousands are held imprisoned without casue? Why are Iraqi and Afghan elders obliged to obey 20-year-old invaders who can't even speak their language? Why do your peers (perhaps even you) refer to all Iraqis or Afghans with epithets? Why do your peers laugh when they retell stories of their own cruelties and their humiliations of the people whose nations they have invaded? Why are you there? What is the spirit in our culture that spins out clever excuses for these evils? It is that same spirit that you renounced at your baptism, which I call on you to remember now. Remember your baptism, where you renounced Satan.
Making and unmaking enemies
Do you really understand -- any better than the Roman soldiers who "did their jobs" at Golgotha -- how this system has led you to where you are today? You are in the system; but that system is not God's. It is a system of human concupiscience, human malice, human domination, human hubris... a system that functions when you follow the crowd against the Holy Spirit. Satan loves a crowd. These are the weapons of the Satanic spirit that seizes the lynch mob, that calls us to domination and calls it self-defense -- even altruism. This is the spirit of our zeitgeist. Remember your baptism. You declared your renunciation of Satan, and you made that declaration to God.
Did you think it would be easy? The Roman soldiers had been convinced, and had convinced themselves, that they were right to do what they did. To make it alright in their own minds to do what they did, they had to withdraw recognition of the Jewish Palestinians' basic humanity. I don't know what they called the Palestinians, but I am sure there was some equivalent of the term "rag head" or "hajji." And in turn, no doubt, many angry Jews in Palestine had dehumanizing epithets for the Romans. That's the cycle. And as Gandhi said, "and eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Jesus said the same thing. He said that not only were you not to attack your enemies, you are commanded by God to love them. It was on the mountainside, there with His disciples sitting before the crowds, He said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous." (Matt 5:43-45) That's how Christ told us to break the cycle of enemy-making. Fight the system by loving the "enemy," but fight the system nonetheless. Provoke with your presence, but do not batter. This is how demonic power is unmasked, and how it was unmasked on the cross, where Christ baited a snare for Satan with his own frail body. Loving the enemy neutralizes the category of enemy.
Unfortunately, even with phalanxes of chaplains ready to distort and press the message of Christ into the business of war, this means that you are now part of an organization that has no reason to exist without an enemy. The ethic of the military is inscribed in the infantry phrase, "close with The Enemy and destroy him." The ethic of Christ is inscribed in neighbor-love -- love of anyone who is near, and enemy-love -- the unmaking of the category of "enemy." These two perspectives - military doctrine and the ethic of Christ -- cannot be reconciled. "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors (enemies who exploited the people for the economic benefit of Rome) do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles (those who were not of the Jewish nation) do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt 5:46-48) Christ told you to "love your enemies." Break the cycle of enemy-making.
Yet the armed forces are based, at their very core, on the existence of an enemy to destroy. The very doctrine that governs your organization, your technology, and your methods, cannot exist without The Enemy. To accomplish that, the armed forces must do two things: they must devalue the lives of all who are not members of the nation, and they must set up an idol to supplant God.
The idolatry of nation
In your military chapels hang American flags. But God's Creation does not stop at the border of the United States; and God's love is not extended exclusively to Americans; just as God's love was not extended exclusively to the Jews, but also embraced Samaritans and Gentiles and tax-collectors, and even the Roman soldiery who conducted the crucifixion of Jesus. And when we say we are blessed, we need to understand that blessing is not a reward of material goods or social power. To bless means to make whole... to heal brokenness. The root word in "salvation" is not save, but salve... a healing balm. If God is to bless America, then first and foremost, that means "heal" America -- reconcile America to God. Not put the symbol of political authority in the chapel where it can pose as something holy. America cannot be blessed by God without that same blessing -- that same making whole -- extending to the entire human family, because under God, the human family is indivisible. As theologian Shane Claiborne notes:
No wonder it is hard for seekers to find God nowadays. It is difficult to know where Christianity ends and America begins. Our money says, 'In God we Trust.' God's name is on American money, and America's flag is on God's altars.
The Hebraic tradition of Jesus forbids idolatry. Making the flag of a nation, one that has entered history only recently and will as surely leave it some day, an object of worship is idolatry. For God clearly says, "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I am a jealous God ..." (Exodus 20:3-6) And at the heart of belief is not whether we have the proper mental acquiesce to a particular religious decree but whether or not we will follow this God who loves so passionately that even the enemy becomes the object of love. Such love is always contrary to the systems of empire and domination. Jesus clearly refuses the claim of Caesar over his life, economically and as a point of worship. Remember, he asks the followers of the Pharisees and Herod to hold up a coin with a graven image, an image of Caesar - the 'divine one,' an image explicitly forbidden by Judaic law, and then says, "give to this image, this false God, what it is due." "...Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's'" (Mark 12:17) Jesus was facing an attempt to entrap him in a debate about not paying taxes to The Enemy (Rome). His reply: Caesar's money? That's part of Caesar's system, not mine, and not God's. The use of this story today to claim one realm for religion and another for obedience to the state, the idea that there were two separate spheres in the state and religion then at all, is a grotesque retrojection of later interpretations into 1st Century Palestine. It is an absurdity that exploits our historical ignorance about that time and place.
This obedience-to-the-state interpretation of the story of the coin with Casear's graven image was proffered when the church was merged with the state... and it is blasphemy, a demonic co-optation of Scripture by principalities and powers to trick subject populations into support for the schemes of power. Christ didn't obey the state; he subverted it. Then the state bowed to the lynch mob and nailed this gentle rabbi to a cross for a slow and painful execution. There are a couple of things that we can never seem to separate from the state, however: money and war. * The pigeon-sellers of war The one time Jesus became physically angry in Scripture was when he overturned the tables of the pigeon-sellers and money-changers who were encamped on the steps of the temple, driving them out when they exploit and abuse and rob the poor ones who only seek obedience to God, corrupting a practice that was meant to connect and honor and instead making it an exploitive practice done in the name of religion and under the sanction of Rome. (Mark 11:15-18) Remember your baptism; and know that God's currency is courage in love, not the currency of Caesar that dissolves communities with obsession and envy and war. Can you see the money-changers at work again? Look around you now at the orgy of war-profiteering, the get-rich(er)-quick schemes that attach to war like pilot fish on a shark. But the shark must have enemies to feed upon. Now, even when there is no credible military threat to the United States that a standing military can prevent, you are being bent to the will of a doctrine that must have The Enemy. If there is no enemy, then one must be created.
The Enemy is the raison d'etre of the armed forces. And so other nations - nations of people who have already suffered terribly - were selected to become The Enemy in order to justify the plundering of their resources and the subsidized economies of war - from no-bid contracts for hi-tech weapons to contractors who pay exorbitant salaries and charge outrageous prices to wash your clothes, feed you, and run facilities that insulate you from the harsh and incessant realities of the nations you now occupy. Do you really think that were it not for oil, you would even be in that region? Do you know how many campaign contributions are funneled to politicians of both parties by "defense" contractors? Enemies make money. Enemies are good business. The business of war is good these days. The structures of evil and the evil of structures are visible to anyone who consents to see. Consenting to see constitutes an entry through the passageway of Grace.
Entering the New Life
You -- as an individual human being -- are redeemable through grace. Faith -- radical trust -- is how we act into Grace. "Consider the lilies of the field..." All the excuses and twisted explanations that are made for these wars of occupation - and that is what they are, lies and excuses - are designed to clear away the psychological and spiritual obstacles to your carrying out this occupation of other peoples' lands. The politicians are creating the twisted logic. The contractors are supporting the twisted logic. The warlike culture in America is directed by the very spirit you renounced at your baptism. The malevolent spirit is not just the devil; it is a devil-maker... a demonizer, an enemy-maker. The devil -- the malevolent within our zeitgeist -- demonizes Arabs (our brothers and sisters before God), demonizes Muslims (our brothers and sisters before God) and expresses these explanations-for-war as pus is expressed from an infected wound. Even some clergy are complicit - as it was in the time of Jesus, when the clergy itself called for his execution. (Mark 11:17) You -- soldier, sailor, airman, marine... and you, officer -- must pray for them; and you must not obey them. You know, many of you, that the ugliness of any description of war can never be equal to the stark and actual obscenity of war. That obscenity is the visible face of Satan that many of us are working very very hard not to see. It's the twisted imitator of God, the demonic spirit, the misleader... that crafts a War Jesus. That millions have been misled does not in any way change what it is. Jesus never gave his sanction to war. The most common quote from scripture used by warmongering government and clergy is Luke 12:49-53, where Jesus says He will sow discord in the family.
I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
He does not say "not peace, but war." He's says "not peace, but division." And the faultline for that division is between generations. Age and gender in 1st Century Palestine defined familial authority. Familial authority was the basis of social stability (the "peace" of Power). Get your head around that.
These divisions are not between brothers and sisters who are the co-children of God, but between generations and the hereditary powers that inhered in the system of human authority. To name this passage a call to war, or its justification, simply because it says he comes not to bring "peace" to domination in the patriarchal household, is a rhetorical acrobatic, just as the return of Caesar's image is not by any stretch a call to obey the government.
This passage is a call to divide human authority in order to reunite authority under a loving God. And it is a clear call. The official doctrine of the armed forces is based on an Enemy. The doctrine of the Kingdom of God "on earth as it is in heaven" has no enemies. Ever since Constantine subverted the church by making it a state religion, the powers and principalities have taken the name of Christ and abused it to make war. Christ invoked to support prejudice and oppression. Christ invoked to line pockets (ignoring that Jesus said you cannot serve God and money at the same time). (Matt 6:24) Look past these centuries of pretenders, because the Word that is the Christ remains unshakable, even when it is a minority view in a broken and warlike culture. You are called to disobey human authority each and every time that authority commands you to increase the brokenness of the world. Refuse to fight. Refuse to support the fighting. Lay down your weapons and refuse to fight, and you will be blessed. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." (Matt 5:9). You will be healed and made whole; you will be reconciled to God because you will have begun your reconciliation with the billions of human beings who are -- under God -- one family. You will be reviled -- powerfully at first -- as Christ was on the way to Golgotha. The malevolent spirit will writhe. You will be ridiculed as an extremist, less-than-a-real-man (or whichever other gendered attack), an apostate, just as Jesus was when even his closest friends refused to acknowledge their relation to him while the crowd howled for his blood. And you will enter into conflict with your own families. You will not be nailed to a cross; but you may be jailed, spat on, isolated, abused... but you will also be embraced, accepted, and loved. We already love you. This is what you need far more than the esteem of the demonic macho culture of war that glorifies the taking of human life - God has already forgiven your past and pointed to the path ahead. Do not any longer give the glory to Rome that belongs to God. * From Jerusalem to Baghdad Do not expect praise or stained-glass or elegiac music in the background when you refuse. This path blazed by Christ is gritty and hard. As George MacLeod once said,
I simply argue that the cross should be raised at the center of the [street market] as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town's garbage heap; at a cross road, so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek... At the kind of a place where cynics talk smut and thieves curse and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He died. And that is what He died for. And that is what He died about. That is where [Christians] ought to be and what [Christians] ought to be about.
"About" in a place not unlike Mosul or Baghdad or Bagram or Khoust. The mission that made Jesus into the Christ, the anointed, was not cleaned and pressed, not shiny like a supermarket, not sanitary like a freshly scrubbed bathroom, not air-conditioned, not safe. You are at the kind of place where God breaks into the world to the exact degree that you let yourself become a "little Christ" -- the hands and feet and eyes and ears of Christ. Christ doesn't demand your mere belief. Christ demands participation in the work of God. Lay down your weapons, refuse your orders, accept the ridicule and abuse of the mob that "does not know what it is doing," and Christ will walk beside you. You'll be surprised at how many of us will walk beside you, too.
Who would lead a total revolution that would shake off internal oppression as well as the foreign yoke... Jesus' approach stood in unique opposition to the prevailing assumptions of his day. He articulated an altogether different way... He did not come in the sectarian guise of his time, offering redemption only to those belonging to a particular group, nor did he adopt a primarily adversarial stance. He came with a prophetic message concerned for the good of all and with an eagerness to bring God's kingdom within reach of everybody, even the enemy.
[from Jesus and the Non-Violent Revolution, by Andre Trocme] Remember your baptism. Your allegiance is to the eternal God, not the flag of a transient empire. Who and whose are you? You will hear people say that this burnt out veteran has no authority to speak as a Christian on these matters. And I am burnt out; and I did come to Christianity late in life. But I am not making any of this up. Honest and fearless Christian theologians of the ecumenical, prophetic, and evangelical churches have spoken out against war, and in exactly the terms presented here. I bring nothing original to this plea for obedience to the God of the Nazarene. I write to you as one who has shared your experience, not that of the clergy or the Academy. I have known your position, trapped between the regrets and guilt of the past and the anxieties of the future, plodding against the current of Holy Spirit to clutch at the "esteem" of your militarized nation, "proving" yourselves again and again to your peers who define masculinity and human value by the ability to risk one's own safety to dominate or destroy others. That is who I was before I was baptized into who and whose I am, and that is why I can tell you that the risk you must take is the risk not to dominate. It is the risk of losing the esteem of those who "know not what they do." Seek your redemption and the redemption of the world, the flesh, the system... by taking up the cross, walking the painful path to Golgotha, and overcoming your alienation from the triune God, who Paul - himself a violent persecutor of Jesus' followers until his epiphany - called Love, Grace, and Fellowship with your human family. The fellowship you lose if and when you refuse to fight, if you refuse to give another hour of support to this obscene enterprise, will be replaced not seven-fold, but seven-hundredfold by the fellowship of Peace: Christians, non-Christians, veterans, and non-veterans, and from many nations. This Pentecost waits for you. Have faith, knowing that faith is not sorcery... not magic... not abracadabra. Faith is radical trust that God has your back. And trust the evidence not of what those around you try to excuse and explain, but of what you see them actually do. Watch how your institution treats 'the least among us," because that is how the institution is treating Christ (Matt 25:40). You cannot point a gun at another human being, frighten a child, bully a man, demean a woman, violate the sanctity of a threshold, or kill, and not be doing this violence to Christ. There is nothing circumstantial about it. Christ was categorical about this. You must resist; and you must do so without violence and be prepared to love those who abuse you for your refusal. And trust, too, that all will be well, even though you might pass through a dark night first. Your obedience to peer pressure and your obedience to the government are both superceded absolutely by obedience to God. Elections will not stop this war, just shift its emphasis. Only you will stop it, starting with yourself. That is the way Jesus worked; and at your baptism you promised to follow the Christ. Refuse your work. Refuse your orders. Refuse to pick up the weapon and fight; and pray for the redemtion of those who will stand against you when you stand with God. When you do, and do so in the name of Christ, there are thousands more waiting that will follow. And there is One who will walk beside you every step of the way.
Stan Goff is the author of "Hideous Dream: A Soldier's Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti" (Soft Skull Press, 2000), "Full Spectrum Disorder" (Soft Skull Press, 2003 He is a Methodist and an organic gardener. He has written about the military and militarism, and about masculinity-constructed-as-conquest. He can be reached at: stan@stangoff.com
LINKS for Christian troops ready to say no:
http://ivaw.org/
http://www.afsc.org/
http://www.bcm-net.org/
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/7227
http://www.farmsnotarms.org/
http://www.objector.org/
http://www.girights.org/
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/ http://www.thewitness.org/agw/myers040704
html http://www.mfso.org
NOTE From Wikipedia on Contientious Objection:
A 1971 United States Supreme Court decision broadened U.S. rules beyond religious belief but denied the inclusion of objections to specific wars as grounds for conscientious objection.[22] Some desiring to include the objection to specific wars distinguish between wars of offensive aggression and defensive wars while others contend that religious, moral, or ethical opposition to war need not be absolute or consistent but may depend on circumstance or political conviction. Currently, the U.S. Selective Service System states, "Beliefs which qualify a registrant for conscientious objector status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims."[23] In the US, this applies to primary claims, that is, those filed on initial SSS registration. On the other hand, those who apply after either having registered without filing, and/or having attempted or effected a deferral, are specifically required to demonstrate a discrete and documented change in belief, including a precipitant, that converted a non-CO to a CO. The male reference is due to the current "male only" basis for conscription in the United States. In the United States, there are two main criteria for classification as a conscientious objector. First, the objector must be opposed to war in any form, Gillette v. United States, 401 U.S. 437. Second, the objection must be sincere, Witmer v. United States, 348 U.S. 375. That he must show that this opposition is based upon religious training and belief was no longer a criterion after cases broadened it to include non-religious moral belief, United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163 and Welsh v. United States, 398 U.S. 333. COs willing to perform non-combatant military functions are classed 1-A-O by the U.S.; those unwilling to serve at all are 1-O.
This open letter and other written material (like that found in the enclosed links) opposing war on moral and-or religious grounds "demonstrate a discrete and documented change in belief, including a precipitant, that converted a non-CO to a CO," if they are listed as the persuasive moral, religious, and philosophical arguments leading to your objector status
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20782.htm.
* The big preposition Note the preposition. I didn't say faith in Christ, I said faith of Christ. Christian is a diminutive term; it means "little Christ." To be a Christian is not to merely have faith in Christ. That's too easy, and Jesus of Nazareth was not about easy. To be Christian is to aspire to have the faith of Christ. Christ's call is not to go along with the program, say the magic words, then be rescued from death. Christ did not merely command belief. Christ commands you to follow him. That command does not wait until death for it to become effective in your life. "Love your enemy."
Time to stock the bunker. Anybody know where I can find a deal on bulk quantities of 7.62x39?
Seriously, I have watched a lot of financial institutions fall recently with only a moderate amount of concern but it's beginning to get scary now, even for an optimist like myself. So if anyone wants to say "I told you so", knock yourselves out.
So if anyone wants to say "I told you so", knock yourselves out.
;-)
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;-)
The government and the military have stored these foods for over 30 years.
....just about as long as it gong tp take to recover from the 'total economic meltdown'.......
btw....wah hoppens when day say dat sumting gooona 'meltdown'.....
is dat like when yo got a eye scream corn???
is dat like when yo got a eye scream corn???
...an den it 'meltdown' on yo shirt?
7.62x39
SKS or Moissan Nagant?
....soiled or hello point??
....like jug has beans say....it all cums down 'in da end'........
..an wen it hit da fan...whay all the bakers gong to run to...o from?
unda jeg beans bench??
tehy be 'tankin' it in da end' too!
LOLLLOOOLLL!!!
As traders watched the Dow slide, Treasurys popped higher and yields fell dramatically. Investors are flooding out of even "safe" investments like money market funds in favor of government-backed bonds.
As news spread today that the Reserve Primary Fund fell below $1 a share in net asset value because of its losses on debt issued by Lehman Brothers Holdings, cash depositors across the banking and investment sector have been flocking to safer havens.
Early Wednesday, the rate on U.S. Treasurys had fallen to as low as 0.23 percent on three-month T-bills, the lowest since 1954, reports Bloomberg News.
And 30 day T-bills on Wednesday dipped briefly to a zero percent return.
LOOL!!
And 30 day T-bills on Wednesday dipped briefly to a zero percent return.
no inferist....yo get yo mooney back...dats all....
wah dose dis tell yo???
liek it sayed, take yo money out of mummy make it funds an by treasony bills....
becoss if dis waht they doon, happy to jus get yo moeny back, den it means dat all money makeit instrumetns aer gong to go down.
Even the mainstream media are starting to admit whats really going on right now. In this video clip on 4-1-08 Glenn Beck interviews Ron Paul about the banks and the federal reserve (especially listen at 5:55 on): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i6D_tWetv8
Ron Paul: The large banks are in cahoots with the federal reserve.
Glenn Beck: I've never been a conspiracy theorist but the more I look at our history and how certain events were created to give control to these private individuals...I mean, How do we untangle ourselves from this?
For the last several days Glenn has been revisiting this topic with other guests who agree that something rotten is going on with our banking system.
Scott from V said...
Seriously, I have watched a lot of financial institutions fall recently with only a moderate amount of concern but it's beginning to get scary now, even for an optimist like myself. So if anyone wants to say "I told you so", knock yourselves out.
___________________________________
Scott, what you (and all of us) need is the ability to SEE...Some SPIRITUAL 20/20 vision...
2 Chronicles 20:20
"....Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets (seers), so shall ye prosper."
I do appreciate your ability to be honest...It prooves you are way above others on this blog.
Yahoo News 9-18-08 AMERICANS FEELING ANXIOUS
As stocks swoon and financial giants fall, the market crisis is creating emotional turmoil.
Philippians 4:6
Do not be ANXIOUS about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Everyone needs to read this book: 'How I Clobbered Every Bureaucratic Cash-Confiscatory Agency Known to Man' by Mary Elizabeth Croft. She actually offers her book free online. I dont agree with her spiritual views but her observation about our banking system is right on.
I’ve exchanged a few emails with Mary recently and she intoduced me to a CASH generating system in which she generated over $20k cash in her first month. Heres what she says about it:
“This is the easiest, fastest, fairest, most equitable, and most ethical way to get cash into your mitts without involving the banks’ control over our lives. This activity began over 5 years ago and never a glitch … because it is private. “
I dont usually pitch stuff here on the blog but considering whats going on in our country i feel i should share this with those that want to take advantage.
Go to:
www.empower2prosper.com (Deut 8:18) We've got people all over the world inquiring about this.
There is a wealth trasfer taking place.
neodemes said...
7.62x39
SKS or Moissan Nagant?
___________________________________
Ruger Mini-30 actually. Chambered for AK/SKS round.
dr. ira gilac said...
....soiled or hello point??
___________________________________
FMJ mostly but I might want a few hundred soft-points.
Seriously, I'm not REALLY stocking up on ammo and freeze-dried foods just yet but the developments of the last week or so are very alarming (Yes, I realize some of you have been alarmed for a long time now).
The company I work for has been in business since 1979, an almost unprecedentd length of time for a small, privately owned mortgage banking company. We've ridden out lots of financial crises, even in the 10+ years I've been here. So when our secondary marketing guy, my barometer for monetary foul weather, begins to get nervous, I know it's time to re-think things.
Hopefully November will tell where things will go from here. If the Fed doesn't have to bail anybody else out and the world financial markets retain even a little bit of confidence in the US market, we might avoid a complete meltdown. But I'll find a way to put food on the table and keep the roof over my family's heads no matter what happens.
Hey Hab-
I hope that you believe me when I tell you that I have ALWAYS tried to be honest in my discussions with you guys. I know that most of Kurt's supporters think I'm some kind of mortgage whore who has never spoken a word of truth here but that's simply not true. When I talk about this issue, I do so with a clear conscience. And even though you and I don't always agree, I've never doubted your integrity either. Time will tell, I guess.
Scott, No worries.I recognized your honesty from the beginning....and our discussions have been civil. Yes, time will tell. Its starting to tell a lot right now.
I wish the best for you and yours.
Is anybody watching Glenn Beck Show this week on Headline News?? All week he's been saying that the Federal Reserve is a secretive organization that answers to no one amd they have to be stopped. He's been saying everything short of saying the Fed is evil.
There it is folks. Its hit the mainstream media. The naysayers have no excuses now...Its out in the open.
The sad news is that nobody understands what he's talking about.
Scott, what you (and all of us) need is the ability to SEE
====================
aka know as the HS ;-)
FMJ
ya...dat wah a good movei.....
Everyone needs to read this book: 'How I Clobbered Every Bureaucratic Cash-Confiscatory Agency Known to Man' by Mary Elizabeth Croft.
goo book....red it, but it dated now...
good on philsoppy, but lacks real world intrucions...
if yo try to follow it,yo will wine up in jewel...
wha she dun telly yo is dat yo need to stablish yo sovinty first beefo yo can try dose thins she write about...like when da pull this off icer stop yo.
September 17, 2008 (LPAC)--The Federal Reserve, which has been pumping money into the financial system faster than a scalded cat, is now seeking a bailout of its own, from the Treasury Dept. According to today's Washington Post, the Fed has asked Treasury for an additional $40 billion, as it has depleted its store of Treasury bonds. At the rate the Fed has been passing out money late
ly, that small amount will probably be gone before lunch.
www.larouchepac.com/node/11329/print
fed borry frum the treasony???
ho dose dat wurks??
ain dat as backwurks???
dun da FED da none dat pint up da doe???
so now, if dat da case, den i now as a cizen, own a "piece" of da FED.
SO PAY UP OR GONNA SEND LUCA BRALESS AFTA YO!!!
YO BE SLEP WIT DA FINCHES!
an wislin' like one too!!
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