California Free Press

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

It's never a good sign when a nation's currency is on the skids and inflation accelerates. The architect of Reagonomics, Alan Greenspan, has come in for a lot of criticism lately. As well he should. It looks like replacing all those manufacturing jobs with stock and mortgage broker jobs wasn't such a good idea after all. What has been called the financialization of the US has led directly to the pauperization of the US. It's one thing for government officials to lie to us about war; it's quite another to lie to us about our breadbasket. As they use statistics to cover their asses, it just gets silly to argue about whether or not we're actually in a recession. "Oh, you couldn't prove it by me. We might be in one or we might just be in a slowdown or we might be in a downturn, but who knows." The thing is they've defined "recession" in such a way that we can never know we're in one till it's over! How convenient!

The good news is that underwater homeowners can still "walk away" from their homes without their mortgage debt following them for the rest of their lives. Student loan debters aren't anywhere near as lucky! Investors are going, "Aw, shucks. Didn't they change the law so that they wouldn't be able to do that? How can we reliably rate bonds triple A without that kind of investor protection?" Banks have been lobbying Congress to prevent consumers from walking away from credit card debt by declaring bankruptcy. Instructively, holders of student loan debt have already had the laws changed to prevent students from walking away from student loan debt by declaring bankruptcy. Those debts will follow them for the rest of their lives. Bondholders, whose securities are mortgage backed, are out of luck as the recent sub-prime crisis illustrates. Homeowners simply walked away. Banks lost billions. They won't make that mistake next time unless the Democrats simply roll back the sanctions against bankruptcy. The Republicans will seek to roll them forward as part of their plan to create a debtor class out of the middle class.

As the US dollar falls, the Finns legislate days off for shagging:

Gspan's new paradigm would have continued if cheap (read: slave) wages in China stayed in the sub-50 cent per hour range allowing Wal-Mart to continue offering; 'Every Day Low Prices That Save You $1 at the Cash Register But Cost You $2 In Pay.' But starting last summer, when interest rates began moving higher - after wages in China and India bottomed - the unbearable lightness of America's Zeppelin economy found a lead lining and started to sink - taking with it the U.S. dollar, the illusion of cheap imports, and high productivity gains (in reality, just Chinese slaves sewing American flags for pennies a day). Digression and Rhetorical Foreshadowing Alert: One of the lies U.S. government statisticians tell Americans is that Europeans are less productive. In fact, Europeans are equally, and in many cases more productive than the average American worker. The difference is that Europeans invest their productivity gains into time off while Americans invest their gains in consumption. Getting back to Gspan's nightmare, his Philosopher's bong-pipe smoking FOMC (Fed Open Market Committee) circle jerks thought that copper, lead, zinc, oil, gold, corn, wheat, rice, coffee and milk were never going to rise in price ever again. Now we've all got the munchies, but nobody can afford beer or pretzels. The zombies and shills on CNBC and Fox Business News keep jabbering away trying to inflate Gspan's busted new paradigm lead balloon with the force of their own hyperbole even while it gets pricked with rumors and negative bets from titanic currency speculators and spiteful Sovereign Wealth Funds. James Cramer can blow only so much hot air. Greenspan wrongly thought that 'financial services' could permanently replace manufacturing in America. Imagine a nation of 100 million stock brokers trying to sell stocks and bonds to each other; i.e., Atlanta Georgia times 10,000 (before the recent collapse). Now that the value of financial services are collapsing along with the dollar, Americans are being asked to step up to the plate and forget all about financial services. The Fed's got a new idea; manufactured synthetic financial memories. Bernanke says inflation is not really a problem. He says the problem is people's expectation of inflation. To fix the economy people have to remember a time when inflation wasn't such a big problem and then inflation will go away - even though Goldilocks has been replaced with Charles Bukowski - and is lying in the gutter too drunk to remember his own name - much less $20 a barrel oil. Americans think their financial collapse is going to take the whole world down with them. No way. Aside from the world benefiting from a bankrupt America that can no longer bomb people for sport and oil, the other major benefit of an evaporated U.S. is the removal of the globe's no. 1 waste producer. The U.S. has only 4.5% of the world's population yet generates 25% of its garbage. And Americans themselves might benefit too. As the price of food skyrockets America's obesity problems should dissipate. Greenspan will write a new book; "From Turbulence to Starvation: Lose Weight and Money at the Same Time." The rest of world (the parts of it the U.S. isn't bombing-for-dollars) doesn't see any risk in a collapsed U.S. America as the brand that is America just isn't cool any more. As an ideology, American style democracy faded as a world leading beacon along with Katrina and the Abu Ghraib photos. Add to the mix preemptive wars, expanded death penalties, NSA, FBI, CIA, wire tapping, and rigged elections. No, the Europeans are not worried. Take the Finns for example. Typical of their high productivity European counterparts they live in a huge economic zone with a strong currency, less unemployment than the U.S. (as pointed out in a recent HuffPost Blog, America's Government Lies -- Adjusted unemployment number is 12% not 5.1%), and enjoy a higher quality of life, and higher human and civil rights too. But there is never enough of a good thing, so the Finns are looking to pass a new law that gives couples a paid week off per year to shag.

Want a solution to the mortgage and credit crises? Reinstitute the Glass-Steagle Act! Nobody's talking about that. The repeal of Glass-Steagle led directly to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, but now all they're talking about is more regulation and oversight - by the Fed. Note that the Fed has no oversight by any democratic body such as the US House or Senate, and we're going to look to them to prevent any future banking crisis? The fox guarding the henhouse? Why doesn't Congress get involved and put Glass-Steagle back into effect. That would put the firewall back between commercial and investment banking and tend to definancializise the US. I think that is just what we need. It would take away all the hedge fund managers' toys though. Oh nooooo. On second thought we can't have that.

The US and Iraq: Locked in an Embrace Gnawing on Each Other's Heads in the 9th Circle of Hell

Dante wrote one of the allegorical classics of western literature: The Inferno, meant to be a description of Hell. In the 9th (and lowest) circle of hell he placed Count Ugolino of Pisa and Archbishop Ruggieri, both  men frozen in ice up to their necks with Ugolino gnawing on Ruggieri's head for all eternity. This is an apt metaphor for the US in Iraq: the US is frozen in the 9th circle of hell with Iraq gnawing on its head for all eternity. The US can never get away from Iraq because the logic for staying is always circular. If we're winning, we have to stay until the job's finished which it never will be, and, if we're losing, we have to stay until we win which we never will.

Stuck in hell gnawing on each other's heads - the US and Iraq will continue their dance of death until China decides to take away the baby bottle of finance and the whole enterprise collapses of its own weight bringing down the whole economy with it and turning US taxpayers into perpetual slaves as interest and debt are forever. The kind of violence that goes on in Iraq can continue to pop up on and on so there will never be an end game, there will never be a definition of winning, there will be nothing but interminable, intermittent violence leading to more and more death and destruction and pissing money down hell's rathole. And al Quaida is getting exactly what it wants - bleeding the US to death. The US, responsible for a million Iraqi deaths - mostly civilians - is not capable of liberating the people it's killing - only killing the unliberated. It's created 2 million refugees and displaced persons, people who cannot lead any kind of normal life and are condemned to a hellish existence despite their innocence.

Colin Powell's Pottery Barn metaphor for Iraq is not apt. We broke it but we can't  fix it so either we wash our bloody hands and admit our guilt for creating this chaos or we stay frozen in a deathly embrace gnawing on Iraq's head in perpetuity. This is a worse result than admitting that all the lives spent, all the money spent, was not only in vain but was res- ponsible for the des- truction of a nation and a people, reducing a some- what civilized society to a trash heap, a Humpty Dumpty that can't be put back together again. In fact the only hope for its ever being put back together is for the US to get out and let the chips fall where they may because the US prescence there is only making matters worse.

Whatever "improvement" there is in the situation there has come about because the US has bought off some of the fighters. Frantically trying to find every fighter to pay off is a fool's mission, but it's clear the only Iraqis who want the US there are those who have their hands in the US' pockets. The Iraqi government is corrupt; it's being paid off so it wants the US to maintain its prescence there so it can continue to get paid off. This is part and parcel of the gnawing on our neck which will go on until the US cuts the umbilical cord and leaves with past blood but not future blood on its hands - where the line of demarcation between past and future is the point at which the US leaves. Abandon all hope ye who enter here should have been the US' slogan for war in Iraq.

Freddie Hubbard's 70th Birthday at Anthology

Freddie Hubbard was the preeminent jazz trumpet player of the 60s and 70s. His capabilities on the trumpet and for jazz improvization were boundless. He was a matador of the trumpet; great ideas, great technical facility. But in a demise of Shakespearean proportions, sadly, Freddie Hubbard can no longer play the trumpet. Although fronting an excellent band, Freddie couldn't get a legitimate note out at the Anthology club in San Diego last night. No breath control, no endurance, no improvising capability, terrible intonation. He played worse than a first grader on his first day of taking up the trumpet. It was pathetic. A man of such transcendant powers has lost it all. A total Greek tragedy. Why?

According to Freddie, about 10 years ago, he overdid it - too many gigs, too many high notes, too many endurance contests - and he blew his lip out. Freddie also admits that there were too many drugs or other negative lifestyle choices as well - "partying with the rock crowd". In any event, a few months off the horn and his lip should have recuperated so there's more to it than that. It's as if a portion of his brain is missing - that portion having to do with his at one time prodigious musical ability. My guess is he had a stroke or other brain damage. Charlie Parker, on his worst day, sounded infinitely better. Parker rued the release of his recording of Lover Man, but it was great compared to Freddie last night. Lester Young in his last recordings didn't finish a chorus but what he did play was great compared to this.

From an article in downbeat circa 1995 entitled When Your Chops Are Shot:

Hubbard traces his problem to a series of shows beginning in late 1992, when he flew to Europe on a gig with Slide Hampton's band, alongside fellow trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Jon Faddis. "I started playing high notes with Faddis and got carried away," Hubbard says seriously, sitting at a wooden desk in his office/practice room at home. "High notes aren't my forte. I came back, went to Philly and played with some guys without warming up. That's when my top lip popped. Then I went to New York and played the Blue Note for a week. That's when I should have stopped cold." But Hubbard didn't stop there. Instead, he went back to Europe for a big band date, and soon after realized his lip had become infected. When he returned to Los Angeles, a doctor performed a biopsy, fearing cancer. "I said to myself, 'Man, I'm going to get a day job. This is terrible.'" Hubbard says, adding also that he was drinking too much and partying with "the rock crowd." In addition, he conceded that he missed several gigs due to these problems.

Freddie lived large for a long time, but now he's fallen like an aging warrior. It's bound to happen to all of us sooner or later. But most of us don't attain the heights Freddie attained. So the fall is not as far or as drastic. When he first came to New York as a young man, his only rival on the trumpet was Lee Morgan.

Much has been made of the so-called rivalry between Hubbard and the late Lee Morgan during those heady New York years. But Hubbard sets the record straight.

"Lee was the only young cat that scared me when he played," he says. "he had so much fire and natural feeling. I had more technique, but he had that feeling. People seemed to like him more than they liked me at the beginning. But we'd follow each other around, buy sports cars and chase the same chicks. It was a different period then. Today, it's all business."

Well,  at least, Freddie had the luck not to have wound up like Lee Morgan did - shot dead by a jealous lover.

I loved Freddie's recording with Eric Dolphy: "Outward Bound." It was "free" for its day. When Freddie hit and sustained a high F in the middle of an improvised chorus, I was in awe as a trumpet player. His signature lip trills and repeated, cyclical motifs on Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" and "Empyrean Isles" had other trumpet players trying to imitate him. I even loved his more commercial records for CTI such as "First Light," my favorite make-out music. So to hear Freddie play last night was only an occasion for regret. Age alone doesn't explain it. Doc Cheatham and others have played tolerably well into their 80s. Barbara Walters interviewed 101 year old trumpet player, "Rosie" Ross who still plays professionally! Oscar Peterson still played OK even after his stroke and until he died although not with his former proficiency. You can see and hear Freddie in better days on YouTube here.

So why is Freddie Hubbard still playing and how does he even get gigs? The answer to the first question is that he needs the money. In an interview, he said that he can't make it financially living off the residuals from the over 300 records and CDs he's made. He gets gigs based mainly on his legendary status as a jazz musician. But he should have hung it up and rested on his laurels long ago. I guess the lesson here is that nothing lasts forever, and you can't take for granted any talent, ability or asset. It can all be taken away. I'm reminded of Shelley's poem, Ozymandias:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

There but for the grace of God go I.

Credit Default Swaps: Who Needs 'Em?

You thought the sub-prime mortgage mess was bad. Take a look at credit default swaps (CDSs) - a $45 trillion boondoggle that you've never even heard of. It's an enormous market. Consider the Federal debt - $10 trillion; GDP - $14 trillion; the US stock market - $22  trillion; the entire mortgage market - $7 trillion; the US Treasuries market - $4.4 trillion. The credit default swaps market dwarfs them all! In fact it is not much less than all these markets combined!

Credit default swaps are insurance-like contracts that promise to cover losses on certain securities in the event of a default. They typically apply to municipal bonds, corporate debt and mortgage securities and are sold by banks, hedge funds and others. The buyer of the credit default insurance pays premiums over a period of time in return for peace of mind, knowing that losses will be covered if a default happens. It's supposed to work similarly to someone taking out home insurance to protect against losses from fire and theft. Except that it doesn't. Banks and insurance companies are regulated; the credit swaps market is not. As a result, contracts can be traded — or swapped — from investor to investor without anyone overseeing the trades to ensure the buyer has the resources to cover the losses if the security defaults. The instruments can be bought and sold from both ends — the insured and the insurer. All of this makes it tough for banks to value the insurance contracts and the securities on their books. And it comes at a time when banks are already reeling from write-downs on mortgage-related securities. "These are the same institutions that themselves have either directly or through subsidiaries invested in the subprime market," said Andrea Pincus, partner at Reed Smith LLP. "They're suffering losses all over the place," and now they face potentially more losses from the CDS market.

Credit default swaps suffer from all the same defects as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) in that no one knows who's responsible for the pay-out in the case someone actually defaults. And there's a lot of defaultin' goin' on. Lordy! Lordy! Just think of mortgage defaults. Lack of regulation, lack of accountability - all the same factors that caused chaos when mortgages were securitized, sliced and diced and sold off to investors. No one knows who's responsible! Who's on first? I dunno. What's on second? Duhhh. Citibank? Now with all the liquidity crises and credit crunches, no one, not Paulson, not Bernanke, is suggest- ing that we reinvoke the Glass-Steagall  Act which would have prevented all of it since with Glass-Steagall mortgages could not have been securitized. Therefore, there would be no mortgage backed securities, no CDOs, no CDSs. Reinvoke Glass-Steagall and all these financial instruments would disappear overnight because they would all become illegal in one fell swoop. But nobody is proposing that. Why? Because they still are intending, once this current crisis is "worked through," to go on fleecing the American public with predatory loans. They intend to continue on their course of turning the US into a three class system: the homeless, the debtor class (the former middle class) and the investor class. The debtor class will be up to its eyeballs in debt starting with student loans followed by auto loans followed by credit card debt followed by mortgage debt.

According to Bill Gross, a fixed income market guru, the size of the credit default swap market is "$43 trillion, more that half the size of the entire asset base of the global banking system." If that is not scary enough he goes on to tell us that "total derivatives amount to over $500 trillion, many of them finding their way"......................well, everywhere.

So it's not just the credit default swaps we're talking about here but derivatives of them as well. Talk about a casino! Some people are betting on investments to succeed. Others are betting on them to fail. The question is: is all this really necessary in order to provide the food, shelter, transportation, communications, entertainment and other basic needs and even luxuries of society. My answer is a resounding NO! None of these financial instruments are necessary. They only contribute to the financial- ization and casinoization of society. They should be done away with if there is any hope for the US to be a decent, humane and prudent society. But that certainly isn't the world view of the wealthy neocons who run this society. Their world view is to create a debtor class who will owe them (the investor class) in perpetuity. It isn't even a question about earned or unearned income, about income from work or income from investments. It's a question of what kind of work and what kind of investments and what kind of predation. I say let the investors get a job. The financialization of the US is ruining the US.

According to Jacki Zehner in the Huffington Post:

Bill Gross is a very senior guy at PIMCO, one of the largest fixed income managers in the world. They boast managing over $700 billion of assets, and in my experience as an ex-Goldman Sachs bond trader, they generally do it very well. Bill has been talking for a while now about the "Shadow Banking System" that has developed, which now dwarfs the traditional banking system. He describes how "our modern shadow banking system craftily dodges the reserve requirements of traditional institutions and promotes a chain letter, pyramid scheme of leverage, based in many cases on no reserve cushion whatsoever." Participants in this shadow banking system are in the business of making money, much like their more regulated cousins. They borrow money, leverage it up, and invest in assets to make a positive spread. Sounds simple, until things start to go wrong in the underlying asset, which of course is what is happening now. At the center of this system is a product little known outside of the world of fixed income traders and investors, called Credit Default Swaps. According to Wikipedia, a "credit default swap (CDS) is a bilateral contract under which two counterparties agree to isolate and separately trade the credit risk of at least one third-party reference entity. Under a credit default swap agreement, a protection buyer pays a periodic fee to a protection seller in exchange for a contingent payment by the seller upon a credit event (such as a default or failure to pay) happening in the reference entity. When a credit event is triggered, the protection seller either takes delivery of the defaulted bond for the par value (physical settlement) or pays the protection buyer the difference between the par value and recovery value of the bond (cash settlement). Credit default swaps resemble an insurance policy, as they can be used by debt owners to hedge against credit events. However, because there is no requirement to actually hold any asset or suffer a loss, credit default swaps can be used to speculate on changes in credit spread. Credit default swaps are the most widely traded credit derivative product. The typical term of a credit default swap contract is five years, although being an over-the-counter derivative, credit default swaps of almost any maturity can be traded. " Now what part of that description did you find the scariest? Was it the fact that this market is $43 trillion according to Gross? Or that all the contracts are based on the CREDIT of the underlying asset? Or the contingent payment based upon a credit event? Or the fact that in most cases the seller can ask for delivery of the defaulted bond? Or that there is no requirement to actually hold any asset or suffer a loss? Each of these questions could take pages and pages to dissect. The whole system is obviously based on the assumption that your counter-party can in fact make good on the trade. That is why banks are moving quickly to check their counter-party risk and shore up margin requirements. The prices of the underlying securities have been going down, making net net, some people winners, and some losers. It is the losers we need to worry about as they need to make good on their part of the trade, but will they have the money, the capital, to do so? ... Given the size of the market, and the lack of transparency as to who owns what, we really have no idea about the financial impact caused by the deterioration of the underlying assets. This is why we care. One can not look at history to help figure this out either, as we have never had so much credit product outstanding. Where we are currently in the credit markets is fresh territory, uncharted waters, the wild west. The system is so complex and interconnected that it is absolutely impossible for anyone, any firm, any anything, to get their arms around it. Smart people are going to figure out a way to make money from this uncertainty, and less smart people are going to lose a lot. Bill Gross is warning of the possibility of financial Armageddon as a result of this financial pyramid scheme, along the same line that George Soros, another billionaire who generally knows what he is talking about, came out about a few weeks ago. Both of these wizards of Wall Street have been known to talk to their position, but that does not mean they are not right.

Phil Gramm could not wait to get rid of Glass-Steagall so Citibank could merge with Travelers' Insurance. The banks could not wait to combine commercial and investment banking. What's the result? A total mess. And all the Fed and the Treasury Department are doing is putting band-aids on it hoping that the dam won't totally burst until the Democrats take over and they can blame it on them!

Christian Conservative, an Oxymoron?

Would Jesus be a Christian conservative? I don't think so. They stand for everything he didn't. For instance, Jesus was against capital accumulation, the private pursuit of wealth and for helping people less fortunate. What do Christian conservatives stand for: capital accumulation and not paying taxes which might help somebody less fortunate. Christianity has become a perversion of what Jesus stood for and proclaimed: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Basically, Christianity has come around to serving the needs of its constituents which are basically selfish. (So what else is new?) And their selfish interests have to do with getting their souls into heaven in the least onerous way. Helping others materially and paying taxes to support government programs which help the less fortunate is onerous. Tithing to the church and adopting a certain mindset of correct beliefs (allowing yourself to  be brainwashed) is less onerous. It doesn't require any physical exertion. Tithing is simply life-after-death insurance which corresponds to life insurance. The prudent person wants both.

Christianity in the US, especially modern day evangelicals, places all the emphasis on having a correct belief system. Any time believing a certain way is important, in my opinion, you're dealing with brainwashing. And if it's so important that, unless you have the correct beliefs, you're going to hell, the stakes are raised considerably and the brainwashing is commensurably increased. The Soviet Union used to brainwash its constituents politically. In the US that function has been off-loaded to conservative pastors who provide religious and political brainwashing, the political component of which dictates that government should lower taxes and eliminate social programs to help the poor. Even the pastors, including the Grassley six, advocate the private pursuit of wealth and capital accumulation as evidenced by their own conspicuous consumption and extravagant lifestyles. Jesus told the rich man: "Sell what you have, give it to the poor and come and follow me." (Oh, and, by the way, I live an impoverished lifestyle. Get used to it!) Modern day evangelicals preach a "prosperity doctrine" which teaches that private wealth is a sign of God's approval. It's a nice theory but it is the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. Nor is it original. Max Weber in 1904 pointed out in "The Protestant Ethic and the Rise of Capitalism" how Protestantism made Christianity more amenable to the private pursuit of wealth.

PHOENIX, Nov. 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- The head of a financial accountability group for Christian nonprofits says that the Senate Finance Committee is likely to be looking at three areas of operation of "the Grassley Six," as he calls them, major ministries headed by Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer and Randy and Paula White. Ken Behr, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, told Church Executive, a business magazine for larger and mega churches, that Senator Chuck Grassley is likely to probe into concerns over excessive compensation, income unrelated to the business purpose of the ministries, and perks or what is known as "excessive benefit transactions."

In a statement, Grassley said he was acting on complaints from the public and news coverage of the organizations. "The allegations involve governing boards that aren't independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls-Royces," Grassley said. "I don't want to conclude that there's a problem, but I have an obligation to donors and the taxpayers to find out more. People who donated should have their money spent as intended and in adherence with the tax code."

Creflo Dollar has a Lear Jet, a Gulfstream 3 jet, a Rolls-Royce, a $3 million mansion in Atlanta and a more modest $2.44 million condo overlooking Central Park in Manhattan. These guys and gals have amassed personal fortunes, and their parishioners are stupid enough to keep contributing to them. They live like Wall Street moguls! Why? Didn't they read that part of the Bible where Jesus tells the rich man to give all his money to the poor or that part about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven? These people would not necessarily have to live ostentatious and extravagant lifestyles. It is possible to accumulate a lot of money, live a modest lifestyle and use that money to do good works to help the poor and less fortunate. Some rich people even lead an impoverished lifestyle using their money to help others.

Jesus was against the private accumulation of capital: "Consider the birds of the field; they neither sow nor reap, but yet their Heavenly Father provides for them. Lay not up earthly treasure where dust and moth can corrupt, but seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these things will be added to you." Jesus' only act of violence was overturning the money changers' tables in the temple. One could gather from this that money and all its manifestions was disgusting to him especially when it was an integral part of religion.

Christianity has had 2000 years to distort and pervert Jesus' teachings. It didn't start with the modern day evangelicals and their wealthy pastors. Renaissance Popes offered indulgences which bilked the faithful into paying money to get their souls or their dead relatives' souls out of purgatory and into heaven. Again life-after-death insurance or pay-to-play to get your soul into heaven much as you would pay a bribe to gain your body safe passage. Clergymen have been proficient for centuries in using the fear card to fleece their flocks. They've been proficient in getting their flocks to contribute to the church (meaning them) in order to enrich themselves while getting the flock to believe they were giving to God and promoting their own prospects for the afterlife. And the fear of death is the ultimate fear of the unknown.

According to Jesus, however, this particular theory is invalid. It's not what you believe that counts; it's not what you give to the church that counts. It's how much you help those who are less fortunate that counts. Suppose God is not really interested in whether you  believe in Him or believe in Jesus or not. What a refreshing breath of fresh air to be relieved of that brainwashing burden! By the way, a lot of religious people and good citizens don't believe in Jesus: Jews, for example.

Suppose that what really counts is how you live your life, especially in terms of whether or not you've helped those less fortunate than yourself. There are many ways to do this to be sure, and supporting a tax policy that redistributes wealth to help the poor and disadvantaged is surely one of them. Government can and should help the poor in a comprehensive manner while private charity is at best a hit or miss, hodge podge proposition. In other words, by its very nature, some people will always be left out. With a comprehensive government program, sufficiently funded and mandated, this should not happen. Everyone that falls into a certain category will be helped unless there's corruption and bribery which is all too common in government, especially in the Bush administration.

Religions other than Christianity don't place the same emphasis on having a correct belief system so they have a lot less of a load, a lot less of a mental burden on their shoulders. In the Pilgrim's Progress, Christian carried this burden on his back which was a metaphor for the mental burden of having to have a correct belief system or in other words to accept the brainwashing aspect of religion. Religions that don't try to indoctrinate their constituents into having correct beliefs place the emphasis elsewhere (like on living a good life), are much less involved in guilt and shame and free their constituents' minds so that they can function in a more creative manner intellectually. Therefore, they are far more likely to make real contributions to human knowledge than are people whose minds are hampered by religious brainwashing. Consider Einstein. Not being a Christian, his mind was free to ponder the universe without having to be afraid he was violating some sacred, correct belief system and that his soul was in in jeopardy. What a refreshing approach to life!

Finally, in Jesus' last teaching, before he was hauled off and crucified, according to Matthew, he told his disciples:

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' 41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Is there any clearer exposition that, according to Jesus, what is really important is not what you believe but how much you help your fellow man especiallly those less fortunate?  This is the coup de grace to all those who have perverted Christianity into a belief system which condones the private acccumulation of capital and ignores or deemphasizes the pursuit of policies which help those in need. Jesus did not distinguish between the deserving and the undeserving poor. Being poor was in and of itself, de facto, a good enough reason that they should be helped. So may I suggest that supporting tax policies that redistribute wealth from rich to poor and provide support for people in need is quite a bit less severe than "selling what thou hast and giving it to the poor." Instead of a life-after-death insurance policy which involves tirthing to the church, real Christians should support governmental programs which redistribute wealth and help those in need.