tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post4643671729253888715..comments2023-11-10T09:15:40.084-08:00Comments on The Friends of Jake: The Decline and FallDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124314924693077453noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-7586729718142120152011-12-07T14:55:32.506-08:002011-12-07T14:55:32.506-08:00Good commentary, The view from the 1 percent, on t...Good commentary, <a href="http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2011/12/07/the-view-from-the-1-percent/" rel="nofollow">The view from the 1 percent</a>, on the Episcopal News site, by a priest named Tom Ehrich. He says in part:<br /><br />Now that the financial industry and major corporations have successfully lobbied Congress to make more people poor and to keep them that way, they are discovering the downside of unbridled greed: people are too broke to buy their products.<br /><br />Heavy discounts were necessary to stimulate sales on Black Friday — a stimulus that lost steam as the big shopping weekend proceeded. Now further discounts will be required. That bodes ill for retailers, as well as for their suppliers.<br /><br />It’s one thing to own Congress, but it’s something else when consumers refuse to buy. They’re staying home, maybe shopping online; they’re not investing, not saving, not selling their houses, not feeling confident about their own jobs.<br /><br />In a freer free-market economy, competitors would emerge to resolve these problems. But corporate giants do everything possible to stifle competition. Consider Verizon’s bid to buy $3.6 billion of unused wireless spectrum to prevent anyone else from having it.<br /><br />Thus we see the demise of modern capitalism, brought down not by socialists or fringe elements, but by the capitalists themselves.<br /><br />Their self-defeating behavior — like that of any addict — has led them into the delusional belief that they can have it all. They can kill prosperity, stifle competition, rig capital creation into an insider game, undermine countervailing forces — and yet somehow the great market will continue to shower wealth on them.<br /><br />The problem is, when the only ones who have money are the ultra-wealthy, those who actually make the economy work — small business, merchants, job-creating employers, innovators, government agencies — are starved. Despite the relentless right-wing drumbeat on tax policy and government spending, the villain in that starvation drama is the greedy 1 percent.dr.primrosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05045500427671158694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-62121963685283276662011-12-04T11:22:21.483-08:002011-12-04T11:22:21.483-08:00Writing in 2005, the New York Times language colum...Writing in 2005, the New York Times language columnist William Safire attributed the term (in its modern usage) to conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan, who wrote on June 1, 2003:<br /><br />I have a new term for those on the fringes of the religious right who have used the Gospels to perpetuate their own aspirations for power, control and oppression: Christianists. They are as anathema to true Christians as the Islamists are to true Islam."<br /><br />The liberal bloggers Tristero and David Neiwert used the term shortly after. Sullivan later expanded on his usage of the term in a Time magazine column. <br /><br />Uses of the term can be found dating back to the seventeenth century, but these are unrelated to its modern meaning.<br /><br />From Wikipedia. Thanks again IT --new mental thread for me.it's margarethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13577280471100732619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-58322364993220954282011-12-04T11:16:58.703-08:002011-12-04T11:16:58.703-08:00Huh... interesting. Thanks IT. I have seen it used...Huh... interesting. Thanks IT. I have seen it used for a while --but didn't know of its origins. <br /><br />Guess I ain't a Christianist. No way. No how.<br /><br />wv: phrei<br />I am phrei!it's margarethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13577280471100732619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-75462375621440780372011-12-02T17:07:46.232-08:002011-12-02T17:07:46.232-08:00Hi Margaret,
Andrew Sullivan among others has used...Hi Margaret,<br />Andrew Sullivan among others has used the term "Christianist" to delineate politically/socially fundamentalist "Christians" from those who, you know, actually listen to Christ? Similarly, he and other use "Islamist" to distinguish miltant fundamentalist Muslims from those who are just trying to lead a faithful life.<br /><br />You ain't a Christianist, any more that Fred Phelps is a Christian.<br /><br />I think it's important to call out those who hide under a cross to commit violence (social, economic, or, yes, spiritual) against others. Hence "Christianist".IThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09605163506396013904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-57752870803113919112011-12-02T16:34:17.863-08:002011-12-02T16:34:17.863-08:00"Christianist social policies" --is Chri..."Christianist social policies" --is Christianist a term for fundamentalist Christianity? --because if not, I would say that my Christianist social policies are fairly well aligned with yours.... if so, who coined it? --curious minds want to know.it's margarethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13577280471100732619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-26955681659388313392011-11-30T13:59:31.990-08:002011-11-30T13:59:31.990-08:00Off-topic:
MadPriest is having more health crises...Off-topic:<br /><br />MadPriest is having more health crises in his family (in-laws). Please pop over to "OCICBW" to show him & Missus MP some love.JCFnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-75635305433270106782011-11-30T06:03:55.377-08:002011-11-30T06:03:55.377-08:00Eisenhower, a Republican I might ad, in his farwel...Eisenhower, a Republican I might ad, in his farwell address said, "Beware the military-industrial complex." No truer words have been spoken.<br /><br />The really sad part is just how many Americans have been duped by the greed of not corprations, but CEOs, Venture capitalists, bankers and the like. <br /><br />The "teaparty" will not be satisfied until all middle class people are just like them -- poor and foreclosed, working part-time, no overtime, no pay to speak of, and little to no education.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-14768795582171603652011-11-30T05:07:30.984-08:002011-11-30T05:07:30.984-08:00Excellent post.
As in the First Gilded Age, in th...Excellent post.<br /><br />As in the First Gilded Age, in the Second, the federal government plays the role of middlemen.Counterlighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14345956180434795401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-64408688218168447172011-11-29T21:29:56.023-08:002011-11-29T21:29:56.023-08:00Meanwhile, guess who this year had record profits?...Meanwhile, guess who this year had record profits? <b>Tiffany Jewelers!</b><br /><br />Oh what fun it is to be the 1%...JCFnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8238382886103256219.post-27206209849883450502011-11-29T11:36:04.939-08:002011-11-29T11:36:04.939-08:00It, I see you are documenting the atrocities, and ...It, I see you are documenting the atrocities, and they are legion. Good for you. Still, it's beyond depressing to read all about it.<br /><br />WV: regata<br /><br />A regata for the rich. Who will win the race amongst the already rich to get richer the fastest?June Butlerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01723016934182800437noreply@blogger.com