John 2:13-15
Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.
Discuss.
damnned communist.
I think what Goldy is trying to do is offer a sermon in praise of the OCCUPY Wall St movement.
There is, sadly, the following history where Jesus’ movement gets co-opted by Wall St.
The Temple courtyard in that time was under control of Roman syncophant priests … The Romans has allied themselves with the priesthood. Jesus was part of a Nazarene movement to protest this.
Of course, after crucifying Jesus, the Romans took over the movement and made it their own. Or .. as the greatest of Roman philosophers said,
“Habemus hostibus obviam fecit nos.”
Lucious Pogo.
Sounds like one righteous dude
“I think what Goldy is trying to do is offer a sermon in praise of the OCCUPY Wall St movement.”
No shit, Sherlock?
Just ribbing you, SJ.
Hay Steve ..
My comment needs to be put in my ocntext. I suspect the Prophet Goldy is trying to spred the glory and credit of Jeezus over the 99%ers.
My trouble with that is for those of us who have neen stoned, gassed, enslaved, burned, getto-ized. in the name f Jeezus, this is not exaclty satisfying.
Not to say that I do nto appreciate what the Prophet intends. Personally, I am more impressed by the roots of the Occupie movement in the Sons of Liberty!
Put another way …
WWJD
What would JEFFERSON do?
That’s the Jesus I’m for.
Jesus hates capitalism!
Occupy Movement, circa 30 A.D.
I would like to point out that being against the billionaires, banksters, and Wall Street manipulators isn’t anti-capitalism or anti-free markets.
In fact, the Occupy Movement arguably is fighting for the preservation of capitalism and free markets.
Wall Street has little or nothing to do with capitalism or the market economy; it’s simply a gigantic skimming operation that undermines capitalism and wrecks markets (just look around you).
Fighting the destroyers of markets and capitalism is hardly anti-market or anti-capitalist. It’s saving about Main Street.
I like how these asshole “christians” always ignore this part.
Interesting how John places Jesus’ expulsion of the money changers at the beginning of his time in Jerusalem, while the synoptic gospels place it at the end.
Which is it Puddy? Did Jesus clear out the temple when he first got to Jerusalem, or just before his conviction at the end of his stay? Or did he do it twice?
Today being the dedication of the MLK Memorial in Washington D.C., this is a good time to remember the vicious rightwing attacks on Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement during his lifetime.
Whatever else they are, rightwingers are remarkably consistent. For many decades they have been steadfast defenders of entrenched social injustices, determined in their resistance to social change, and relentless in their efforts to divide people and stir up hatreds.
I’m old enough to remember clearly the civil rights struggles of 1950s and 1960s. Back then, while blacks (and some whites) were risking (and sometimes losing) their lives to secure for blacks the right to use restrooms, ride public transit, sit at lunch counters, and vote, rightwing fanatics worked themselves into a frenzy trying to discredit Dr. King by portraying him as a communist, subversive, and womanizer. They went apeshit when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
A womanizer he was, and he admitted it; that was an outgrowth of his complex personality and the incredible pressures on a person who was, after all, a man and a very human one at that. So what? His affairs were consensual, private, and a matter between him and his partners (and his family).
What King did in his personal life doesn’t matter very much. His public life matters hugely to every racially minority person in the United States. Adultery is a small and private thing; putting an end to de jure segregation and the social respectability of racial discrimination and mistreatment is a gargantuan accomplishment that benefits all of us. Yet, fifty years on, rightwingers still belittle the man — and still stubbornly resist his accomplishments.
Why does anyone listen to those people?
Herman Cain Exposed As Koch Operative
The Associated Press and Huffington Post released a story today exposing GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain as a Koch operative. See my longer post in the “Friday Night Extravaganza” thread below.
Greeting my most excelent Neo-Socialist friends! The protest against Wall Street is very much akin to the Tea Party movement. Both are a result of the unwise and dangerous acivity of loaning money to folks who cannot repay the loans. Also, cajoling less-sophisticated people into borrowing money for houses by setting them up with teaser interest rates breeds resentment and hatred of business and finance. The realtor lobby could have done something to stem the debacle-in-progress, but they were making too many sales and housing prices were going to continure to rise “forever.” Most unwise!
The sad thing about all the financial shennanigans is that the guilty and unscrupulous people involved will go scot free. The current protestors will probably “tar and feather” the wrong people in that they should also be interested in ferreting out those in government and those government-sponsored entities (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) and the rating agencies who are also culpable.
I’d like very much to see many people from Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and all the rest of them get some serious prison time, but they won’t serve a day in jail. The large firms that made stupid bets on CMOs, CDOs, and CDS investments should have been allowed to fail, versus being balied out by the government. All bail-outs do is to encourage risky, irresponsible behavior by these financial giants. It’s called “socializing the losses and privatizing the profits” by some, and I agree with that analysis.
In summary, while the current demonstrators are attacking the Wall Street culprits, they should also take into account the government-sponsored entities and rating agencies that helped cause the mess.
@15 “Greeting my most excelent Neo-Socialist friends!”
Oh please. Give it a rest! Nobody believes that threadbare line anymore. But go ahead, call me — the stock-flipping leech — a “socialist,” if you dare. We all need a good horse laugh.
Btw, you don’t seem to get how “loaning money” really works. As I pointed out in a previous thread, imperialists sometimes don’t even bother to write the “loans,” they simply invade a country and tell the inhabitants they “owe” the invader for the costs of the invasion! This kind of debt is about subjugating people, not collecting interest, which is only a side business. The real purpose of debt is to enslave, but for that to work, you have to figure out a way to force people into “debt” whether they’re willing to borrow or not.
Remember this ditty?
“I owe, I owe, so off to work I go …”
As always, it’s all about cheap labor.
One of the lies peddled by rightwingers is that contracts are sancrosanct and can never be broken, and debts must always be repaid.
This is sheer nonsense. Rightwingers tear up union contracts and abrogate pension obligations without skipping a heartbeat. For them, breaking contracts and not paying debts is routine; they do it every day.
In theory at least, creditors get paid for taking risk, and the very concept of “risk” implies that some debt will get written off. Our entire banking system — with its lending standards, regulatory requirements to maintain “loan loss reserves,” and minimum capital requirements — is based on the idea of promoting economic activity by making risky loans in such a manner as to manage losses within a defined range.
When the anti-regulation crowd got their way in Washington D.C., the financial industry sought even bigger profits by deliberating writing bad loans and fobbing them off on unsuspecting investors. They did this becaue they profited several times: By collecting loan origination fees, then collecting brokerage fees, and then collecting another round of fees by insuring these loans. They didn’t care whether the loans were sound or not, because bigger loan volume meant more fees, and to maximize loan volume they had to expand lending to include the demographic of uncreditworthy borrowers. The banksters designed the system to leave someone else standing when the music stopped and the game of musical chairs came to an end — it was constructed very much like a chain letter, only on a gargantuan scale. They knew all along those borrowers would default and those loans wouldn’t be repaid.
Now, to restore the American economy to normal functioning, it’s necessary to write off hundreds of billions of dollars of exploitive mortgage, credit card, and student loan debt. Those debts aren’t collectible anyway, so let’s get them off the books so we can get the economy moving again and provide our people with real jobs and real incomes.
Immoral Rabbit:
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an inspirational leader in public and a womanizing adulterer in private.
Rabbit Those are his character flaws why excuse it?
No one is perfect.
While it is widely believed that Martin Luther King, Jr. was committed to the “Christian religion,”
It is reported that Dr. King repudiated the doctrine of the deity of Jesus.
Adultery is not a small thing to many true believers and Christians
You can say he died a hero, but not a saint.
@18 “Immoral Rabbit”
Where do you get this from? You know nothing about me.
“Those are his character flaws why excuse it?”
I wrote, “A womanizer he was, and he admitted it;” this is excusing it? Where did I say adultery is all right? I didn’t. What I did say is that his contributions as a civil rights leader vastly outweigh his personal failings. If you think otherwise, you’re a shithead.
“No one is perfect.”
No, but MLK was much closer to perfect than any race-baiting segregationist ever was.
“It is reported that Dr. King repudiated the doctrine of the deity of Jesus.”
Is this what you read for recreation?
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com.....xposed.htm
“Adultery is not a small thing to many true believers and Christians”
Pop quiz: What did Jesus do to sinful woman?
“You can say he died a hero, but not a saint.”
Who said he was a saint?
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This was too easy. We need better trolls on this board.
Rabbit @ 19,
That was so easy, it wasn’t even fun, was it? We really need better trolls, but from where do we harvest them?
And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Tom Darien
People like you make me so sad.
I have commanded you not to bear fale witness, yet you say that Martin Luther King should be catigated for his character flaws? You violate MY laws and do so in My Name.
From My point of view all of you have character flaws.
A good place to learn about the flaws of humans is with the tales you tell of Jesus. In your tales of this man, you say he used my name. At that time, and still today, use of My name was blasphemy … a sin aganst the law you say he followed.
Your Jesus also fails to show charity, bragging about being My son and doing magic tricks may be impressive but giving of his own wealth would have meant more.
Finally, the image of youir Jesus arranging for his own death by human sacrifice is an example of prideful vainglory, not virtue.
So Jesus was not, in your own terms “a saint.”
But, since many regard Jesus as great human. should you reject Jesus’ teaching because you say “No one is perfect?”
As for the level of Dr. King’s commitment to “the Christian Religion” … why is that even relevant? Was Pope Pious XII a good man because he was “Christian?” Are the Buddha’s teaching wrong because Buddha was neither a Christian not a believe in Me?
Do you think GW Bush’s Christianity justifies his war any more than Jefferson Davis’ christianity justifies slavery? Do you reject the teaching Ai weiwei today because the great artists is Chinese or because he is an atheist?
Oh, and back at Jesus, why is it importnat for a “christian” to believe in gods beside me? Is belief in Jesus more important than good acts?
Would you negate My word because noone is perfect enough to speak it?
I am what I am.
rodent, do you actually know any of the “cheap labor conservatives,” or “imperialists” that you talk about so much?
Or are you just another arrogant fucking asshole from the Sixties who never got over the fact that he or she was the cause of his or her own problems? Get over it, fucktard!
BTW, you never addressed the comments Libertarian made about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the rating agencies. Those entities played a big part in the mortgage mess and seem to be getting off “scot free.”
@ 24
“BTW, you never addressed the comments Libertarian made about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the rating agencies.”
OK. I will. The comments Libertarian made about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are bullshit.
Next question.
“The comments Libertarian made about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are bullshit.”
You can believe that if you want, but Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were part of the cause of the sub-prime mortgage mess.
@ 26
“You can believe that if you want, but Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were part of the cause of the sub-prime mortgage mess.”
If you want me to believe your hypothesis, then provide supporting evidence. If all you do is state the hypothesis and then ridicule me for not believing your hypothesis, then your hypothesis is bullshit.
In this particular case, the lack of supporting evidence is stark. Indeed, there is much evidence to the contrary, starting with the very definition of a “subprime” mortgage.
I believe what the evidence tells me. You believe…what?