OK, EC, it’s a deal - but what makes you think that I disagree with Karl Marx about religion being the opiate of the people?

Karl Marx was right!

However, ‘religion’ is not where Truth (and Life and Salvation) can be found! It is found in the Person of Jesus the Christ. Furthermore, I can’t convert you! Only God can convert anyone. In a certain way, it’s up to Him, not to you. I can assure you of one thing, though, IF you Seek (Him), you WILL find (Him) and you will know things that were unknowable before. It’s what happened with me

If you already know all the answers, there is no reason to Seek, is there?!

I’ll make a deal with you, GS, don’t try to convert me to religion and I won’t try to convince you that Marx was right—that religion is the opiate of the masses.

EC:

‘Never’ is a strong word - perhaps too strong. Atheists have been known to change their mind about God - or have it changed for them, by God
Do you know the story about John Newton (Amazing Grace)? He once was blind (for most of his life) - but then he began to SEE! It happens all the time. It could happen to you! I’m not trying to convert you - but maybe you can study it?

Well, Godsend, since I am an atheist, I suspect there are some things on which you and I will never agree, but I appreciate your thoughtful comments on this topic.

PS That’s BIS (Bank for International Settlements) not BIC (the pen company) that very recently raised a red flag about the threat of a Depression Actually, the Grand Depression is already in progress - especially to people with subprime mortgages and present and future unemployed or under-employed! It’s just the tip of the iceberg.

EC:

I respect your measured and reasonable comments. It’s refreshing and welcome, considering other comments here.

Nowhere do I credit(?) Zionists and Zionism for all of the world’s problems - or all of the problems here in America! Zionists are not the only Satanists!

What is unique about Zionism, though, is the long-term nature of their deceptions, nastiness of their plans for humanity and sheer viciousness and brutality - not to mention the irony of their behavior, considering the history of their (unfortunate) persecution! Their actions have an inhuman, not just inhumane characteristic. 

I discovered Benjamin Freedman not very long ago! - but what he wrote is consistent with other observations - and can be ‘documented’. Just think about the implications of his revelations, what they mean for the present and for the future!

Only with the added spiritual dimension does the demonic nature of Zionism become clear. This is not just another chapter of history, with a bunch of bad guys getting what they want. The spiritual dimension is made very clear on my website. We are SEEing biblical prophecy fulfilled. The “god of this world” is the Devil (really!) and he has been unleashed into the world with his angels (demons), in a final rebellion against God. I know that from a standpoint of human reason alone, this analysis seems over-the-top or even crazy. I recommend that you read Paul Levy’s analysis of Bush (Awaken in the Dream) to shed some light on the supernatural and psychological aspects of what is happening - and especially what ails Bush (who he really is). Levy does not have the complete picture, but his observations are enlightening - as far as they go.

Only time will tell if I’m right about what I SEE! - or if I’m delusional. In any case, Zionism is a great threat to America and to the world - and certainly agonizing for the Palestinians and the entire Middle East. The Zionism-generated problems (current and future) for America are life-threatening for millions of us - just like terminal cancer. When Ron Paul (and others, like the BIC) talks about the threat of another Depression, it’s no exaggeration! There is no doubt that it will have been intentionally caused by Greenspan other Zionists. Greenspan is too smart to have done this accidentally or through stupidity (create the devastating credit bubble - which generated all sorts of other bubbles).

GodSend, I would be the first to agree that Zionists, through institutions like AIPAC, exert an enormous impact on American policy decisions, decisions that are often at odds with the interests of not only the vast majority of Americans and, of course, Palestinians, but at odds with the majority of Israeli citizens as well.  But your assertions that everything that occurs within the U.S. government are explanable solely on the basis of some great Zionist conspiracy is over the top.  There are motivating factors involving greed, lust for power, crony capitalism, the military-industrial complex, oil and other resources, and U.S. imperial hegemony that far exceed and are often independent of Zionist goals, though there is a coalescence in the goals of the Zionists and the U.S. imperialists.

When comments, like yours, reference “Messianic Jews” while ignoring Messianic Christians and Messianic Muslims, they begin to tread onto the dangerous and slipery slope of a paranoid anti-Semitism.

While, like Professor Norman Finkelstein, I think it wrong for those who would equate opposition to Israel’s 40-year brutal and illegal occupation with anti-Semitism, I also think it appropriate that those who would mount a valid criticism of Israeli Zionist policies avoid stepping over the line by beginning to sound like an anti-Semite.

So here we have a 1st-hand eyewitness account of the corruption of 7 Presidents by Zionism, courtesy of an ‘insider’ ex-Zionist, turned Messianic Jew!

http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-genocide-german-freedman.html

Why would anyone think that the Zionist influence (more like death-grip) on the MSM and America has waned - with the rise of Neocon influence everywhere we look?! Just add a few more Presidents to his list of 7 - ending with Bush, until 2008.

Benjamin Freedman’s prophetic words about Americans dying unnecessarily in Zionist-inspired future wars to protect the interests of “Greater Israel” and help Israel to rule the world (NWO) ring true!

General Odom, it’s not only time to bring American soldiers home from Iraq (and other places where they do not belong), it’s high time to rally American patriots and root out the deceptive Zionist devils from our midst - ‘Strike the Root of Evil’, we MUST!

Who is REALLY behind the Iraq Invasion, the ridiculous ‘War on Terror’, 9/11 and the prelude to WWIII? Is Bush just another President in a long line of Presidents appointed by a ‘Hidden Hand’? Is he just the most recent ‘appointee’ of Zionism?

Read all about it here, going back to pre-WWI! (The more (some) things change, the more they remain the same)

It’s no accident that Freedman’s appeal was being made to the US Military in 1974 - where are all the patriots when we need them the most? - NOW!

http://www.iamthewitness.com/Freedman1974speech.html

#86240 by Ernest Canning on 7/12 at 8:40 am
(594 comments total)

and for Dustbin as well

What can I say, perusing a post at 430 AM after having gotten up at 130AM to go salmon fishing the previous day. I reread the thing in its entirety (which I hadnt done earlier)....sorry for the misunderstanding but I plead old age and exhaustion.

Yes, Gen. Odom’s concepts are plain common sense. But let’s remember that the Iraq war is only the tip of an iceberg of deliberate mismanagement of the US government.

And even though firing president Bush is a good idea, let’s remember that he and his aides have packed the federal bureaucracy with thousands of individuals based on their extremist credentials rather than a drive to serve the public. A huge purge is in order.

Ardee, my friend, if you took it at face value, you misread Dustbin’s post.  He was attempting a bit of sarcastic irony.  I, for one, find it difficult to accept that our dissembling president believes half of the religious crap he lays on us, especially when he claims to have talked to God.  But then perhaps just the thought that the man with his finger on a trigger that could bring about a nuclear Armageddon could be that delusional is so scary that my mind simply refuses to accept that George W. could really be that divorced from reality.

#85642 by Dustbin on 7/10 at 12:08 pm
(Unregistered commenter)

General Odom just cannot grasp inspired leadership, (Jesus inspired leadership I might add,) that Bush provides for our America.
...
Dont know about you but the last thing I want, or my nation needs, is someone who not only hears voices in his head but follows the instruction given him by those voices…chilling actually.

Dustbin, your pathological lack of morality concerning over one billion people makes it perfectly clear that you are no follower of the real teachings of Christ but just another would be butcher, one in a sadly long line of those who commit atrocities wrapped in the mantle of religion.

Oddly , that puts you smack dab in the camp of those like AlQaeda, I guess fanatics come in all stripes…..nice work , get help really soon.

Accolades to General Odom for having the good sense to tell the truth and communicate common sense.

Dustbin, the classic definition of chutzpah is the little boy who murdered his parents, then asked the court for mercy because he was an orphan.  Bush murdered the constitution, then asked us all for understanding because Cheney made him do it.

Well, scurveybro, one reason the networks, especially NBC which is owned by the major weapons mfg., GE, do not invite Gen. Odom and Paul Craig Roberts on is that they would much prefer the profits from the brand of infotainment known as militainment.  The interests of the military-industrial complex and the conglomerated corporate media are aligned.  The Bush administration, the Republicans and the sector of the Democratic Party who have sold out to the corporatocracy look out for the conjoined interests of the military-industrial complex and the conglomerated corporate media which has profited mightely by advancing the PNAC agenda.  Now what would happen to that agenda if someone like Odom is allowed to explain to the U.S. public that the so-called “war on terror” is a nonsensical, Orwellian slogan whose only purpose is to whip up fear and provide cover from an effort to permanently alter the United States from a Constitutional democracy to a dictatorship of the “Unitary Executive”?

I am guessing Mudwallow was joking. If he wasnt, then he is the very definition of a walking cliche!

brandon
http://www.actforyourself.org

I can’t figure out why the network and cable talk shows don’t invite people like Gen. Odom and Paul Craig Roberts onto their shows, instead of the usual lineup of liars such as Bill Kristol, William Perle, Morton Kondracke, Charles Krauthammer, etc., all of whom have been spectacularly and utterly wrong in their comments, pronouncements and predictions about the Iraq war.

It’s enough to make you suspect the mainstream media shares the neocons’ perspectives, and thus provides exposure only to those assured of promoting them. Oh, wait ...

This man is an obvious pinko, liberal sympathizer. If he’s not for our president, he’s against him, and that’s almost treason. If he can’t say anything nice about this war why doesn’t he shut up. Liberal.

Now that a genuine American patriot, Mr. Libby, isn’t going to jail, we should put this anti-American enemy sympathizer in Libby’s place.

Firstly,jfior has it absolutely correct. The absence of a draft has allowed this war to be removed in large part from the public consciousness.

Secondly, many of our military leaders have been opposed from the very beginning to the planning and execution of this conflict. That they do not speak in public is attributable to the obvious pressures and needs to conform to the leadership inherent in a military environment.

That the Democrats have allowed themselves to be so easily handled and made foolish is a testament both to the expertise of Rovian politics and the abysmal lack of leadership within that sad little group.

Again and again Bush refers to following or supporting the needs of the military yet how many of his own general staff take early retirement rather than be a party to such incompetence. If we on the internet can speak so clearly to the issues why then cannot the Democratic Party? Of course they could if they so chose thus there must be a very good reason why they do not. I would assume the reason lies with the large campaign checks written by the miltary industrial complex that makes such huge profits from this war.

This may seem like an odd idea, but I think if we want to drum up support for our troops we should argue to re-institute a general military draft to give them the support they need so that they are not constantly deployed.  I think that the US citizenry likely would not stand for that and there would be protesters in the streets of DC…one would hope that the uproar would be so great that by the time anyone drafted would be sent to the front lines, the line would no longer be in Iraq.

As it stands now, this war is only truly effecting the portion of the population whose sons and daughters are over there fighting..the rest of us, myself included, have not seen their lives change one bit..other than the constant news stories of death (both US and Iraqi) that infuriate me…. but really, that isn’t bad….

I think a draft would provide a rallying cry for those who want to end the Iraqi occupation…so let’s do it…let’s writeletters to our senators and house members that we feel that the greatest war of this generation (to paraphrase the White House and DOD) requires more than just a surge of 20,000 more troops…and see what happens to the sleeping American population sitting back on their laurels, knowing that unless their sons or daughters volunteer, they can still buy gasoline at a decent price for their SUVs, they can still shop at strip malls, buy Starbucks coffee and wave American flags at the appointed time of year so as not to be called “non-patriotic”....

Bravo to General Odom. It is time for the vast majortiy of Americans to realize that “supporting our troops” doesnt mean “blindly support the war agenda”. I for one am sick of Bush’s lies. I am sick of Fox news propoganda, and I am ready for a change in the country.

brandon
http://www.actforyourself.org

General William Odom should not merely be designated the Truthdigger of the week.  He should be the Truthdigger of the Century for his ability to cut through the Orwellian propaganda that lies at the core of the phrase, “global war on terror.”  Way back on November 24, 2002 Odom told viewers on C-SPAN:

“Terrorism is not an enemy.  It cannot be defeated.  It’s a tactic.  It’s about as sensible to say we declare war on night attacks and expect we’re going to win that war.  We’re not going to win a war on terrorism.  And it does whip up fear.  Acts of terror have never brought down liberal democracies.  Acts of parliament have closed a few.”

Eisenhower began planning for the Allied occupation of Germany in late 1941.  Evidence would have it that the ‘occupation’ of Iraq was never planned.

Any military man worth his salt when faced with a battle that is clearly being lost will call a retreat.  To sit by and watch his men being slaughtered (because of his bad planning) and refuse to save their lives by removing them from combat is tantamount to murder.