The nexus between government-backed home loans and government-student loans.
The mortgage crisis and the “prosperity gospel.”
Customs agents detain woman at the border for a notebook doodle of an sport utility vehicle. They apparently suspected her of “copyright infringement.” Be sure to click through to see the offending drawing.
Punish governments, not people.
Drug raid turns up tiny amount of pot, anti-anxiety medication. Ironic, because the home’s occupants could probably use a little of the latter.
Teach the Controversy t-shirts. I like the turtle best.
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on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 4:09 pm by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
The “Prosperity Gospel” is the worst perversion I’ve ever seen of religion. I’m not religious, but if I were, I would think that every single one of those fracker’s were going to hell.
How they turned Jesus’ message of the immateriality of wealth into the message that “rich means that God loves you and if you’re poor, it’s because you’ve offended God, therefore, the poor are bad people” is deplorable.
That concept is nothing new. There have been Christian sects who’ve used prosperity as a marker of grace before.
Oh, and the Turtle shirt should have turtles all the way down.
I can’t believe that they detained this woman for such a shitty drawing of vehicle. Honestly, how does such madness happen? I can’t believe that goevernment agents are can be so fucking dangerous while being so retarded at the same time. It defies all reason and logic.
I just find it ridiculous that the Customs people think that they can do anything to protect IP with physical searches at the border. There are devices available now, such as telephones, fax machines and computer networks, which make international borders pretty irrelevant to the movement of information. Has Customs not noticed?
I have lost everything including my live in girlfriend. My portfolio was worth over three million dollars only four years ago—now it is worthless. My creditors have been hounding me day and night and I had to disconnect my phone service in order to get some sleep. All I am left with is savings of less than 75 hundred dollars. I blame my stock broker for advising me to invest all my hard earned money in the auto industry and even my car needs a new transmission. Instead of me weeping I have started over again by mopping floors in the local fast food restaurant. We all learn from experience and what I learned is to keep my money under the mattress.
What’s the last shirt all about?
I like the turtle best.
Any self-respecting Terry Pratchett fan would.
TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN!!!!!
Interesting story about the border guards. I think the U.S. is becoming a caste system. I’m seriously thinking of trying to get some kind of civil service job so I can move from the persecuted class into the persecutors class.
I can’t believe that goevernment agents are can be so fucking dangerous while being so retarded at the same time. It defies all reason and logic.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
I came across something interesting about two clicks from here. This is from the Post editorial the prompted “Punish Goverments, Not People” talking about the recent Socialist movements in several Latin American countries:
“Most are moving to embrace 20th-century economic policies that the world outside Latin America almost universally recognizes as unworkable, like the state takeover of industries. Their presidents seek to monopolize power, limit the freedom of the press and independence of the courts, and paint the United States as an enemy.”
And this seems to have been written completely without irony. Unbelievable.
Sorry, should be “that prompted”
“Prosperity Gospel” is the worst perversion I’ve ever seen of religion. I’m not religious, but if I were, I would think that every single one of those fracker’s were going to hell.
As would any self-respecting Stephen King fan.
See the Turtle of enormous girth! On his shell he holds the earth, His thought is slow but always kind; He holds us all within his mind. On his back all vows are made; He sees the truth but mayn’t aid. He loves the earth and loves the sea, And even loves a child like me.
And now homeland security, after this kind of crap and the TSO who was stealing out of luggage and selling it on eBay, wants to extend their clown-suit security to General Aviation.
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=92f5341494e2e61519eeaa7d94379713&t=874416
What do we have to do to kill this hydra?
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”
Or…
“None of us is as stupid as we all are.”
Seeing that turtle shirt really reminds me of Bertrand Russell’s essay “Why I’m Not A Christian.” Here’s one of my favorite quotes:
“It is exactly of the same nature as the Hindu’s view, that the world rested upon an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, ‘How about the tortoise?” the Indian said, “Suppose we change the subject.’”
Obviously it speaks volumes to how stupid the argument of the first cause is.
BTW, I’m buying that turtle shirt.
I think I might get one.
Gonzo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld
Is one explanation. Nando’s is another.
As would any self-respecting Stephen King fan.
Not to get into a fanboy flame war but allow me:
Great A’Tuin the Turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked with meteor crates. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and asteroid dust He stares fixedly at the Destination.
In a brain bigger than a city, with geological slowness, He thinks only of the Weight.
Most of the weight is of course accounted for by Berilia, Tubul, Great T’Phon and Jerakeen, the four giant elephants upon whose broad and star-tanned shoulders the disc of the World rests, garlanded by the long waterfall at its vast circumference and domed by the baby-blue vault of Heaven.
The graphics on the shirt is an obvious representation of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Just sayin’.
If some pop culture phenon is to blame for the housing crisis, I’d blame HGTV.
How many shows have featured a 100,000 yard renovation, or someone putting 50,000 in their bathroom?
And how many stories have you heard that go like this: “My brother in law refinanced his house to do some…”
The “name it and claim it” or “health and weath” gospel is not really a big movement.
There is an intersection in two of the links. The t-shirt link is awesome (I’ve ordered one with the egghead hugging the nuc. plant).
But related to this is the article from Cato about trade. The empirical and theoritical evidence evidence, as well as the consensus among economicsts, is very, very strong that free trade is good, and is indeed great for the most “common folk” in society. Yet we have “flat earthers” that believe we need protectionism.
When I hear someone spout the virtues of protectist policies, as an economist I cringe as much as a biologist cringes when someone says the earth is 6,000 years old. And for the same reason.
Pratchett didn’t invent the elephants on the turtle any more than Tolkien invented gold rings. Claiming that a shirt depicting a many-thousand-year-old Hindu myth is “an obvious representation of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series” is about equivalent to arguing that a picture of Jesus must obviously be a Monty Python reference.
Gabriel -
My bad. Technically, you are correct of course. But what I didn’t specify was the context I was referring to. In this case, in a literary sense. When #15 Ben mentioned Stephen King, I had to point out the more specific reference in Pratchett’s opening for “The Colour Of Magic”.
Sorry about the confusion.