Louise, our middle son said that he read where 45% of Japanese babies near the failing nuclear plants have been dying. I have not heard any of this information on our media.

Austerity measures and tax cuts will collapse the economy. But stop to think about what that means. Our global economy is based on growth to pay back the interest of money created by debt. This system is unsustainable and is destroying the biosphere. Any attempts by progressive to raise taxes and create spending programs would only help this economy wreck what remains of our natural resources. Maybe the greedy plutocrats are doing us a favor? Once they collapse the economy we'll be forced to create a "new economy" based on collaboration where sustainability, health, and happiness are maximized rather than profits. We can begin to nourish our souls rather than feed our appetite for entertainment.

You all must realize we can't continue on the same path. That's why they are trying to suck as much wealth out of the system while they can now. Sure, I would love for us to use this workhorse of an economy to build sustainable infrastructure now while we still have cheap energy with the plan of shutting off this economy as soon as possible. Until some progressives have the balls to suggest this idea and implement it I'm afraid collapse is the only way to wake people up. That said, let's pray that "Mad Max" is not our future.

Tiocfaidh Ar La! Sorry Thom but i think it might have to come to violence in order to save our country! I hope im wrong, but thats just how it looks!

So it looks like the economy will collapse just in time for the next election cycle. But Goldman Sachs and the other hedge funds will figure a way to bet against the paper and win on the collapse then gorge themselves on the profits for the next upswing. The Hank Paulson / Chelsey Clinton crowd will come out fatter, but most of us will be begging for crumbs that fall down from the table. I wonder why Hillary is rumored to want to be president of the world bank.

Greece is collapsing because of exotic derivative paper and loans that cannot be repaid to Wall Street Bankers. Why don't we hear more about the role Goldman Sachs role in the demise of the economies of Greece? Or why don't we hear more about the the ongoing role of the Wall Street Investment Bank / Hedge Fund Gamblers in the near collapse of the economies of other countries like Ireland, Portugal, Spain, etc? Perhaps the "Too Big to Fail" bankers should be chopped into smaller pieces until they are too small to miss.

@Palindromedary, I am very pissed at the direction of our country that is goose-stepping our people into the abyss of hell.

We need to remind ourselves of these words!!!

Religion Can Counter Terrorism, Says Holy See
Vatican Addresses U.N.
NEW YORK, MAY 12, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Religion should be the solution to terrorism, not its cause, says the Holy See.
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations, said this Thursday during informal consultations on counterterrorism during a General Assembly session.
"Religions are called to create, support and promote the precondition of every encounter, every dialogue, and of every understanding of pluralism and cultural difference," the Holy See official said.
"That precondition is the dignity of the human person," the archbishop added. "Our common human dignity is a true precondition because it comes before every other consideration or methodological principle, even those of international law."
It is the "'golden rule,' found throughout the religions of the world," he said. "Another description of this concept is reciprocity."
Archbishop Migliore continued: "Encouraging awareness and experience of this common heritage within and among religions will surely help in the translation of this positive vision into political and social categories which will, in their turn, inform the juridical categories linked to national and international relations.
"The Holy See is willing to support initiatives that encourage believers to be agents of peace and join all those who would be builders of our peaceful coexistence."
True nature
"Moreover," the archbishop added, "When religion's true nature is rightly understood and lived out, it can become part of the solution rather than the problem, because it will promote humane engagement and regard for the dignity of others, to the common good of us all."
The prelate explained that Benedict XVI has invited "Catholics and all women and men of good will, to link their efforts to reflection, cooperation, dialogue and prayer, intended to overcome terrorism and build a just and peaceful coexistence in the human family."
To study the causes of terrorism does not mean to justify them, explained the archbishop.
"No cause," he said, "no matter how just, can excuse or legitimize the deliberate killing or maiming of civilians and noncombatants."

Right on, Gerald, and Amen to what you said!

Christians Cannot Be Conservatives

CAN ONE BE A CHRISTIAN AND A CONSERVATIVE AT THE SAME TIME?
Two Thousand years ago in the midst of the Conservative, Militantly, Bellicose, Roman Empire and the parallel Rule of the Ultraconservative Conservative Herodian Kings and Priests, where the death penalty was a broadly used as it has been in Texas and Florida since the Bush advent therein, there came a man who opposed all of that for which they stood. He opposed the death penalty and much forgiving of sexual sins. (The woman caught in adultery John 8:1-11)
He despised greed/avarice which the Bushites Gekko say is Good!. Luke 16:19-31 The avaricious rich man
He opposed violence of any sort; he was by his own admission, "meek and mild." He advocated tolerance and acceptance of others. He offered free health care to any who approached him.
He also refused to condemn or judge others except for the rich who were avaricious and the hypocrites. He opposed judging others, a prime factor in the Bush administration IS judging others Luke 7: 37-42- judging others
He was dismissive of sexuality as a major judgmental concern. Luke 4:4-42 Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well
Jesus was, by the definitions, condemnation and attacks on Liberals by the Bushites and the "Christian" Right, a "bleeding Heart Liberal." They are indeed correct, because in his opposition to everything for which The Conservative Roman Empire and the Ultraconservative Conservative Herodian Kings and Priests, stood Jesus was and remains a Liberal. There is no way the Church can, without being hypocritical wriggle its way around the reality that one cannot be a Christian and a Conservative, any more than one can be a Christian and support the slaughter in Iraq (A nation 12 times smaller than the USA, and lacking air force and navy at the time of the invasion), and the planned slaughters in Iran, and Venezuela.
Therefore, begs the question, CAN A PERSON BE BOTH A CHRISTIAN AND A CONSERVATIVE?

Lacking in Harmony

I have a sister-in-law who will not criticize Israel because she sees Israel as a Jewish state. To criticize Israel is like criticizing Jesus, a Jew. There are Americans who will not criticize America because they see America as a Christian state. To criticize America, a Christian state, is to criticize Jesus. Both are wrong because America and Israel are governments. Both governments are evil. They embrace crises and disharmony. The America government, the rich, the politicians, and the transnational corporations cling to crises and disharmony in order to have their people distracted from the real problems that confront their daily lives.

America is evil, vile, and wicked. America is not good, holy, and saintly. There is a symbiotic relationship between Israel and the United States of Mortal Sin, aka the Anti-Christ, in their similarities of being evil, vile, and wicked in their treatment of God’s children.

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Raising the debt ceiling is all the greedy, stupid and selfish manipulators of the gambling halls of Wall Street have left for our beloved country.

We are at the mercy of Republican "thinkers" and Ayn Rand devotees who view her neurotic novels as a field guide to conquering our national politics. For decades the financial owners of the GOP have had it in mind to establish a ruling party - and many earnestly believe that Calvin was absolutely right, and Jesus badly mistaken about personal and public ethics. And Milton Friedman is their author of the gospel to which these extremists subscribe. Corporations owe no duty, they believe, to any but their shareholders. Those who are wealthy have been blessed by God and that wealth proves their foreordained salvation, no matter what choices they make about behavior. It is a variation on the theme of divine right, as in how the monarch becomes ruler in his or her turn, by right of birth, not talent or good character.

Republicans don't see their duty as being to, "the people". The real problem with raising the debt ceiling is that it's a poor substitute for imposing a system of income tax rates that was in place when Ronald Reagan was president. The people with the money aren't investing their wealth in productive enterprises. They use their political influence to force down wage rates, and they decimate our national capacity to make the things we need here in the name of endlessly larger profits held in accumulating unproductivity.

When your family has to accumulate more money, the adults do what is needful to acquire more income. They don't tell the kids to water down the milk to make it go further. And since the early decades of the 20th century, they don't send the kids to work to make up for the paltry wages the adults can earn when management controls the economic choices absolutely. But if the schools are driven to ineffective disarray by the dropping income available for public costs derived from failing property values and dropping personal incomes, we could see a return to child labor.

When will it be time to name the beast that threatens to destroy the American dream utterly in the interests of establishing total political control ?

Why is it global danger when the world has been ripped off? They mean, Global Heist. Luxury is oozing out of the crevices while the regular population must take on austerity. Why should we believe this malarkey?

Home again? Follow the golden brick road. The Wizard was carried to the Emerald City from the Mutual of Omaha State Fair in a hot-air mortgage balloon. Omaha is home of the Mutual of Omaha Union Pacific Railroad and Harrriman's secret stash of Pepsi-ReMAX Balloons. Ozma, or Ozmaha, is a wise ruler, or measurer of things. The Wizard we can think of as FDR- a very good man, but a very bad (financial) wizard. He had it in his power to go back from whence he came, and Dorothy's zapatas, specifically the heels, got her back to the farm.

In 1912 the newspapers stated that "Omaha implemented its first 99-yr. lease."

This is 2011. I say we should be watching all parties involved in financial transactions generated from securities of 1912 very very closely and analyze every move they make. It is time to string together G-Men with the Facts.

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