Dollar Dropped in Iran Asset Move

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6190865.stm

18 December 2006

Iran is to shift its foreign currency reserves from dollars to euros and use the euro for oil deals in response to US-led pressure on its economy. In a widely expected move, Tehran said it would use the euro for all future commercial transactions overseas.

Analysts said Tehran had been steadily shifting its foreign-held assets out of dollars since 2003 and that Monday's announcement was unlikely to affect the value of the dollar, which has weakened significantly in recent months.

 

Oil Producers Shun Dollar

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/277471c2-8889-11db-b485-0000779e2340.html

Dec 11 2006

Oil producing countries have reduced their exposure to the dollar to the lowest level in two years and shifted oil income into euros, yen and sterling, according to new data from the Bank for International Settlements. The revelation in the latest BIS quarterly review, published on Monday, confirms market speculation about a move out of dollars and could put new pressure on the ailing US currency.

Russia and the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the oil cartel, cut their dollar holdings from 67 per cent in the first quarter to 65 per cent in the second.

 

Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer, 2004

Economic Objective

 Just under the noise, death, and rhetoric yielded by the foregoing episodes of war lies a largely ignored factor that may constitute al Qaeda’s main war effort – the steady bleeding of the U.S. economy. The immediate impact is massive expenditures – at all levels of American government – that will add permanently to the size and cost of government. In addition to the cost of hiring thousands of federal employees for homeland security purposes; acquiring buildings, equipment, and training to make them effective; and requiring proportionate upgrading at state, municipal, and local levels; there lie what must be substantial amounts of unpredictable expenditures for overtime wages – in government and business alike – whenever Washington raises the threat level, or when high levels of security are provided at public places or functions heretofore not seen as serious security risks.

The September 11 attacks were not apocalyptic onslaughts on Western civilization. They were country-specific attacks meant to inflict substantial, visible, and quantifiable human and economic destruction on America.

 

Venezuela 'may swap oil currency'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4990302.stm

17 May 2006

Venezuela has hinted it could price its oil exports in euros rather than US dollars, further weakening its links to the US. President Hugo Chavez said he was considering taking the step following a similar declaration by Iran. Earlier this month, Iranian authorities gave backing for the launch of an oil exchange that traded solely in euros.

Experts have suggested that, should Iran demand payment for its exports in euros, central banks could opt to convert some of their dollar reserves to euros and therefore possibly trigger a further decline in the US currency.

The dollar has already come under pressure in foreign exchange markets in recent weeks, triggering nervousness in world stock markets. Central banks, especially in Asia, who hold large amounts of the US dollar, could find the value of their foreign currency reserves substantially reduced.

Iran - A Threat To The Petrodollar

 

http://www.countercurrents.org/rutledge161105.htm

16 November 2005

[Emilie Rutledge is a British economist based at the GulfResearchCenter in Dubai]

Iran’s reported intention is to invoice energy contracts in euros rather than dollars. The contention that this could unseat the dollar’s dominance as the de facto currency for oil transactions may be overstated but this has not stopped many commentators from linking America’s current political disquiet with Iran to the proposed Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB).

It is primarily the US which stands to lose out from any move away from the petrodollar status quo, it is the world’s largest importer of oil and a move away from invoicing oil in dollars to euros will undoubtedly have a negative effect on its economy.

Fewer nations would be willing to hold the dollar in reserve which would cause a significant devaluation and result in the loss seigniorage revenues. In addition US energy related companies stand to lose out as they will be unable to participate in the bourse due to the longstanding American trade embargo on Iran.

The current petrodollar system greatly benefits the US; it enables it to effectively control the world oil-market as the dollar has become the fiat currency for international trade. In terms of its own oil imports, the US. can print dollar bills without exporting commodities or manufactured goods as these can be paid for by issuing yet more dollars and T-bills.

George Perkovich, of the Washington based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has argued that Iran’s decision to consider invoicing oil sales in euros is "part of a very intelligent strategy to go on the offense in every way possible and mobilize other actors against the US." This viewpoint however, ignores Iran’s economic motives, just because the decision, if eventually taken, displeases the US does not mean that the rationale is purely political.

 

Syria Picks Euros Over Dollars

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ABA36728-9F9D-4A2C-8F37-9C3230B7E971.htm

14 February 2006

Syria has switched all of the state's foreign currency transactions to euros from dollars amid a political confrontation with the United States. Duraid Durgham, the head of state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria, said on Monday: "This is a precaution. We are talking about billions of dollars. Switching to the euro will help us avoid settlement problems in the United States.

The Real Reasons Bush Went to War

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1270414,00.html

July 8, 2004

There were only two credible reasons for invading Iraq: control over oil and preservation of the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

In 1999, Iran mooted pricing its oil in euros, and in late 2000 Saddam made the switch for Iraqi oil. In early 2002 Bush placed Iran and Iraq in the axis of evil. If the other Opec countries had followed Saddam's move to euros, the consequences for Bush could have been huge. Worldwide switches out of the dollar, on top of the already huge deficit, would have led to a plummeting dollar, a runaway from US markets and dramatic upheavals in the US.

Rather than discussing the Holocaust, they should discuss the validity of interest as an economic concept. Shake the foundations of interest, and the financial house of cards crumbles. Challenge a concept, not a people.  

Law separates interest and usury by defining what is exorbitant. The distinction between interest and usury is an arbitrary legal determination with no basis in mathematics. Interest and usury are conceptually synonymous. The quantification of debt wrongfully applies the algebraic concept of exponential growth - compounding interest - upon money. Nothing can grow forever at an ever-increasing rate. As time moves on, the emphasis of ever-increasing growth becomes omnipresent, is quantified and institutionalized in the societal structure, and eventually pushes economic stress to its extreme, the upper limit of expansion: over consumption, over development, and excessive expectations.

Deuteronomy XXIII:19 (Old Testament): Thou shalt not lend upon usury to the brother; usury on money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury:

Deuteronomy XXIII:20 (Old Testament): Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon a stranger; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury...

 

Holocaust denial is on the fringe, and passing punitive laws against this fringe draws attention and lacks wisdom.

 

In Quotes: Iran's Holocaust Conference

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6172889.stm

Dec 12, 2006

International leaders have expressed outrage and condemnation of a two-day conference hosted by Iran which examined whether the Nazi Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed actually happened.

The event attracted a number of well-known Western "revisionist" historians and academics, including some who have been prosecuted in Europe for denying the Holocaust took place.

 

 

French court fines far-right leader for questioning Holocaust

 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/815201.html

 

18 January 2007

 

A court in Lyon convicted a far-right leader and member of
the European Parliament on Thursday and fined him for questioning the
existence of Nazi gas chambers.

 

 

Germany tries 'Holocaust denier'

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6147400.stm

 

14 November 2006

 

A German man deported from the US has gone on trial in the Germany city of Mannheim for alleged Holocaust denial. Germar Rudolf published a study saying the Nazis did not use gas to kill Jews at the Auschwitz concentration camp.  The prosecution says he "represented the Holocaust as invention" and used the internet to spread his documents. If found guilty, Mr Rudolf will face up to five years in prison. He has already been given a jail sentence in a similar case but fled to the US. A chemistry graduate, 42-year-old Mr Rudolf also faces charges of defaming the memory of the dead.

 

Christ Series

 

 

DaVinci Code, Excerpts

 

Constantine and the New Testament

 

Three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Christ’s followers had multiplied exponentially. Christians and pagans began warring, and the conflict grew to such proportions that it threatened to rend Rome in two. In Constantine’s day, Rome’s official religion was sun worship – the cult of Sol Invictus, or the Invincible Sun – and Constantine was its head priest. Unfortunately for him, a growing religious turmoil was gripping Rome. Constantine decided something had to be done. In 325 AD, he decided to unify Rome under a single religion. Christianity. Historians still marvel at the brilliance with which Constantine converted the sun-worshipping pagans to Christianity.

The New Bible

To rewrite the history books, Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion – Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John among them. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned. Any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life were omitted from the Bible.

As part of the Vatican’s campaign to eradicate pagan religions and convert the masses to Christianity, the Church launched a smear campaign against the pagan gods and goddesses, recasting their divine symbols as evil. The newly emerging power took over the existing symbols and degraded them over time in an attempt to erase their meaning. In the battle between the pagan symbols and Christian symbols, the pagans lost; Poseidon’s trident became the devil’s pitchfork, the wise crone’s pointed hat became the symbol of a witch, and Venus’s pentacle became a sign of the devil. The symbolism of the pentacle has been distorted over the millennia through bloodshed.

Nothing in Christianity is original. By fusing pagan symbols, dates, and rituals into the growing Christian tradition, he created a kind of hybrid religion that was acceptable to both parties. The pre-Christian God Mithras – called the Son of God and the Light of the World – was born on December 25, died, and buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. December 25 is also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity’s weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans. Originally Christianity honored the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday, but Constantine shifted it to coincide with the pagan’s veneration day of the sun – Sunday.

Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints. Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus. And virtually all the elements of the Catholic ritual – the miter, the altar, the doxology, and communion, the act of “God-eating” – were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions.

So strong was the Church’s fear of those who lived in the rural villes that the once innocuous word for “villager” – villain – came to mean a wicked soul. The term pagan became synonymous with devil worship – a gross misconception.

Catholic Clergy Demonize Women

The Vatican tried to bury the secret in the fourth century. Magdalene was recast as whore in order to erase evidence of her powerful family ties. Magdalene was no prostitute. That misconception is the legacy of a smear campaign launched by the early Church. That’s part of what the Crusades were about, gathering and destroying information. The threat Mary Magdalene posed to the men of the early Church was potentially ruinous. Not only was she the woman to whom Jesus had assigned the task of founding the Church, but she also had physical proof that the Church’s newly proclaimed deity had spawned a mortal bloodline. The Church perpetuated her image as a whore and buried evidence of Christ’s marriage to her, thereby defusing any potential claims that Christ had a surviving bloodline and was a mortal prophet.

For the early Church, mankind’s use of sex to commune directly with God posed a serious threat to the Catholic power base. It left the Church out of the loop, undermining their self-proclaimed status as the sole conduit to God. For obvious reasons, they worked hard to demonize sex and recast it as a disgusting and sinful act.

The Catholic Inquisition published the book that arguably could be called the most blood-soaked publication in human history. Mallleus Maleficarum – or The Witche’s Hammer – indoctrinated the world to “the dangers of freethinking women’ and instructed the clergy how to locate, torture, and destroy them. Those deemed “witches” by the Church included all female scholars, priestesses, gypsies, mystics, nature lovers, herb gatherers, and any women “suspiciously attuned to the natural world.” Midwives also were killed for their heretical practice of using medical knowledge to ease the pain of childbirth – a suffering, the Church claimed, that was God’s rightful punishment for Eve’s partaking of the Apple of Knowledge, thus giving birth to the idea of Original Sin. During three hundred years of witch hunts, the Church burned at the stake an astounding five million women.

Women, once celebrated as an essential half of spiritual enlightenment, have been banished from the temples of the world. There are no female Orthodox rabbis, Catholic priests, nor Islamic clerics. Holy men who had once required sexual union with their female counterparts to commune with God have feared their natural sexual urges as the work of the devil, collaborating with his favorite accomplice … woman.

Not even the feminine association with the left-hand side could escape the Church’s defamation. In France and Italy, the words for “left” gauche and sinistra – came to have deeply negative overtones, while their right-hand counterparts rang of righteousness, dexterity, and correctness. To this day, radical thought was considered left wing; irrational thought was left brain, and anything evil, sinister. 

 

Christ Series

 

Below are excerpts of several books that suggest a bloodline of Christ. Kathleen McGowan's  version of John the Bapist is thought provoking. The book itself starts out like a C+ DaVinci Code thriller; however, the book redeems itself in Mary's gospel. Look forward to her forthcoming book.

 

The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan, 2006

 

Mary Magdalene

 

The only daughter in the lineage of Benjamin, her future had been carved out since her infancy. Hers was the privileged destiny of royal blood and prophecy that had been foretold by the great prophets of Israel – a marriage that was believed was no less than the absolute will of God.

 

High Priests Pick Mary’s Husband -- John

 

Annas to Jesus: “You have brought this about yourself by aligning with the Zealots. The Romans will never allow us to show any kind of alliance with you because of the assassins and revolutionaries among your supporters. We would be inviting slaughter on our own people.”

 

Water to Wine – Mary Weds John

 

The wedding of Mary, the daughter of the house of Benjamin, and John the Baptizer, from the priestly lineage of Aaron and Zadok, took place on the hill of Cana in Galilee. It was well attended by nobles, Nazarenes, and Pharisees. Jesus attended with his mother, his brothers, and a group of their disciples. Caiaphas, who officiated the ceremony, lifted his glass to John, the bridegroom, and praised him for the quality of the wine.

 

Following the wedding of John and Mary, no one was speaking of the bride and bridegroom. Indeed, the dynastic merge had been completely overshadowed by the discussion among the common people of the miraculous transformation of water into wine by the younger prophet.

 

Unhappy Marriage

 

John wanted only to remain in the wilderness and do God’s work. He would abide by the law, which required men to be fruitful and multiply, and visit his wife at the appropriate times for reasons of procreation. But other than those periods specifically dictated by law and tradition, he had no interest in keeping company of any woman.

 

John would not allow Mary to be in the presence of Nazarene teachings. She would not be allowed to visit the home of the Great Mary, her most revered teacher and friend. And she would certainly never appear in public where Jesus was speaking. John was rankled by the fact that some of his own disciples had left the banks of the Jordan to follow his cousin Jesus.

 

Young, naive, and never exposed to anything by love and acceptance, Mary attempted to argue this with John, but met the first of her husband’s blows as she tried to object. John’s hand left an imprint on Mary’s cheek as a firm reinforcement that she would not argue with him about matters of obedience. He was a rough man who had never asked for what was pressed upon him, never intended to take a wife. She did her best to behave in a way that John would determine was obedient, but nothing about her ever pleased him.

 

John is Arrested

 

John the Baptizer was a troubling prisoner. Herod Antipas had not anticipated the strength of John’s following, which had grown to extraordinary proportions. Petitioners flooded the palace each day, demanding the release of their prophet. They appealed to Herod as a Jew, begging his sympathy as one of their own. To release the man would make Herod appear inconsistent and perhaps even incompetent to deal with Jewish insurgents.

 

John continued his ministry from prison, where his legend and his influence grew in the southern region. But the ministry of his cousin, the charismatic Nazarene, blossomed with increased vigor in the area north of Jordan and into Galilee. John’s followers brought word to him in prison of Jesus’ great works and of the miraculous healings that were attributed to him. But they also told of the Nazarene’s continued leniency toward gentiles and the unclean.

 

Herod Antipas had a problem. The Roman envoy who had witnesses the arrest warrant for John the Baptizer months earlier had returned. When the Roman asked the tetrarch’s officials why there were so many Jews surrounding the palace, he was told that the imprisoned prophet continued to attract followers. Herod knew when he was cornered. This envoy was returning to Rome the following day, and he could not risk the man reporting any perceived weakness to Caesar.

 

Before his execution, John asked for just one thing – that a message be sent to his wife in Galilee. He was allowed to receive one follower to act as a courier. To him, John gave his final words of instruction and repentance before the centurion’s sword fell swiftly. The head was severed from the body with the first blow, and John the Baptizer, prophet of the Jordan, was sent to the kingdom of God. It was to a heavily pregnant Mary that word was brought of John’s execution.

 

Herod had John’s head mounted on a pike and displayed high at the front of the gate of the palace to show the Roman envoy how swiftly and severely he would deal with treason. It stayed there until it had been picked clean by scavenging birds, but disappeared mysteriously one night.

 

Birth of John’s Child

 

Mary of Magdala sent word to the Great Mary and to Jesus that her child had been delivered safely, along with her thanks for their welcome prayers. She named the child John-Joseph, after his father.

 

Difference of Philosophies

 

After John’s execution, tremendous pressure was put upon Jesus to take a position among the followers. He went into the desert place and met with the Essenes and John’s disciples, preaching the kingdom of God in his own way. Some among the Essenes accepted Jesus as their new messiah and followed him because he was of the line of David. Yet many others were opposed to his Nazarene reforms because John had spoken harshly of these things at the end of his life. For the majority of the desert dwellers, John was the one and only Teacher of Righteousness, and anyone who tried to take his position was an imposter. The followers of John the Baptizer ignited a conflagration that has burnt through thousands of years.

 

The deep division between those who would follow John and those who would be faithful to Jesus was fashioned in these early days. The Nazarene spirit emerged as one of love and forgiveness, and was accessible to anyone who chose to embrace it. The Johannnite philosophy was a very different one, based on harsh judgments and strict rules of law. Where women were welcomed and honored by Jesus and the Nazarenes, they were reviled by the followers of John. John had always held women in low esteem.

 

Jesus Marries John’s Widow

 

Word of the union spread quickly, and the following day, throngs of people began arriving in Tabga. Some were followers, some merely curious at the idea of the bride and bridegroom of Solomon’s prophecy coming together. Others were not pleased at the idea of their beloved Galilean prophet joining with this woman of tarnished reputations.

 

All who feasted on the shores of Tabga that day were convinced beyond any doubt that Jesus the Nazarene was truly the messiah of prophecy. His reputation as a great worker of miracles as well as a healer continued to spread, as did his following among the common people. And many more were inclined to accept Mary at this time. Surely if so great a prophet had chosen this woman, she must be worthy.

 

Birth of Sarah

 

A perfect, tiny daughter was delivered to Mary and Jesus upon their return to Galilee. They gave her the double name of a princess, Sarah-Tamar. The name Sarah invoked a noble Hebrew woman of scripture, the wife of Abraham. Tamar was Galilean name; it made reference to the abundant date palm trees that grew in the region, and had been used by royal houses for generations as a pet name for their daughters.

 

Mary Pregnant at Crucifixion

 

“I will let the world know that you are my most beloved disciple. This child you carry, this son of ours, he has the blood of prophets and kings, as our daughter does. Their descendants shall take their place in the world, preaching the kingdom of God and the words contained within the Book of Love so that all people will know peace and justice the world over. This child has a special destiny in the western islands where the word of the The Way will spread. I have given my uncle, Joseph, instructions on this child’s upbringing. And you must name him Yeshua-David, in memory of me and the founder of our royal line. The greatest king to rule on earth will come from his blood.”

 

Fate of John-Joseph, Son of John the Baptist

 

One legend says that the more fanatic followers of John sought out his heir in Rome and convinced him that the Christians had usurped his rightful place. That John was the one true messiah and John-Joseph as his only son was the heir to the throne of the anointed one. Some say that John-Joseph turned on his mother and his family to embrace the teaching of his father’s followers. We don’t know where he ended up, but we do know that there is an intense sect of John worshipers in Iran and Iraq, called the Mandaeans. Peaceful people, but very strict in their laws and in their belief that John was the only true messiah. It is possible that they may be direct descendants.

 

 

The Woman with the Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird, 1993

 

After the crucifixion of Jesus, Mary the Magdalene found it necessary to flee for the sake of her unborn child to the nearest refuge. The influential friend of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, could very will have been her protector. The child was born in Egypt. Egypt was the traditional place of asylum for Jews whose safety was threatened in Israel.

 

This Sarah is further characterized in local legends as “young,” no more than a child. So we have, in a tiny coastal town in France, a yearly festival in honor of a young, dark-skinned girl-child called Sarah. The fossil in this legend is that the child is called “princess” in Hebrew. A child of Jesus, born after Mary’s flight to Alexandria, would have been about twelve years of age at the time of the voyage to Gaul recorded in the legend.

 

Heretical sects of Christianity believed that Jesus was fully human and married, that his royal blood still flowed in the veins of the noble families of Provence, and that the messianic promises of the Hebrew Scriptures would someday be fulfilled in a descendant of Jesus. The royal bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene eventually flowed in the veins of the Merovingian monarchs of France. The royal bloodline of Israel survived persecution and eventually surfaced in the Merovingians of Europe and in related families that guarded their secret genealogies through the centuries.

 

The Holy Grail was said to be the vessel that once contained the blood of Jesus. The Grail heresy implied that certain families in southern France could be traced back to Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The legend promises that the restored Grail will have the power to heal the wasteland. When it is returned to the crippled Fisher King, it will heal his woundedness, the source of the desolation that plagues his realm. And the Grail is the lost feminine – the Sister-Bride of Christianity, the wife of Jesus.

 

 

DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

 

Christ as Messiah

 

Jesus Christ was a historical figure of staggering influence, perhaps the most enigmatic and inspirational leader the world has ever seen. As the prophesized Messiah, Jesus toppled kings, inspired millions, and founded new philosophies. As a descendant of the lines of King Solomon and King David, Jesus possessed a rightful claim to the throne of the King of the Jews. His life was recorded by thousands of followers across the land.

Christ as Messiah was critical to the functioning of Church and state. By officially endorsing Jesus as the Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable. This not only precluded further pagan challenges to Christianity, but now followers of Christ were able to redeem themselves only via the established channel – the Roman Catholic Church. The early church literally stole Jesus from His original followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power.

Some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive - The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950s hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert and The Coptic Scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi. These documents speak of Christ’s ministry in very human terms. One particularly troubling earthly theme kept recurring in the gospels, Magdalene’s marriage to Jesus Christ. A child of Jesus would undermine the critical notion of Christ’s divinity and therefore the Christian Church, which declared itself the sole vessel through which humanity could access the divine and gain entrance to the kingdom of heaven.

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene was of royal decent, the House of Benjamin. Jesus was of the House of David, a descendent of King Solomon – King of the Jews. By marrying into the powerful House of Benjamin, Jesus fused two royal bloodlines, creating a potent political union with the potential of making a legitimate claim to the throne and restoring the line of kings as it was under Solomon.

Mary Magdalene was pregnant at the time of the crucifixion. For the safety of Christ’s unborn child, she had no choice but to flee the Holy Land. With the help of Jesus’ trusted uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene secretly traveled to France, then known as Gaul. There she found safe refuge in the Jewish community. It was here in France that she gave birth to a daughter. Her name was Sarah.

Magdalene’s and Sarah’s lives were scrutinously chronicled by their Jewish protectors. Magdalene’s child belonged to the lineage of Jewish kings – David and Solomon. The Jews in France considered Magdalene sacred royalty and revered her as the progenitor of the royal line of kings. There exists a family tree of Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

Christ Series

 

Money – Songs and Poems Selection

 

 

CHRIST CLIMBED DOWN

 

Ferlinghetti, 1958

 

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year

and ran away to where

there were no rootless Christmas trees

hung with candycanes and breakable stars

 

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year

and ran away to where

there were no gilded Christmas trees

and no tinsel Christmas trees

and no tinfoil Christmas trees

and no pink plastic Christmas trees

and no gold Christmas trees

and no black Christmas trees

and no powderblue Christmas trees

hung with electric candles

and encircled by tin electric trains

and clever cornball relatives

 

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year

and ran away to where

no intrepid Bible salesmen

covered the territory

in two-tone cadillacs

and where no Sears Roebuck creches

complete with plastic babe in manger

arrived by parcel post

the babe by special delivery

and where no televised Wise Men

praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey

 

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year

and ran away to where

no fat handshaking stranger

in a red flannel suit

and a fake white beard

went around passing himself off

as some sort of North Pole saint

crossing the desert to Bethlehem

Pennsylvania

in a Volkswagen sled

drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer

and German names

and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts

from Saks Fifth Avenue

for everybody's imagined Christ child

 

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year

and ran away to where

no Bing Crosby carollers

groaned of a tight Christmas

and where no Radio City angels

iceskated wingless

thru a winter wonderland

into a jinglebell heaven

daily at 8:30

with Midnight Mass matinees

 

Christ climbed down

from His bare Tree

this year

and softly stole away into

some anonymous Mary's womb again

where in the darkest night

of everybody's anonymous soul

He awaits again

an unimaginable

and impossibly

Immaculate Reconception

the very craziest of

Second Comings

 

Christ Series

 

 

Karen Armstrong [Catholic Scholar]

It has been suggested in recent years that Jesus was crucified by the Romans for an attempted rebellion: some Biblical scholars have seen the account of his overturning the tables of the moneylenders in the Temple as a truncated version of a coup, by means of which he and his followers took over the Temple for a period of three days.

The Woman with the Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird

The action that led to his immediate arrest by the authorities in Jerusalem was the overturning of the tables of moneychangers in the temple of Jerusalem during the Passover festival. Scattering coins all over the temple floor was a radical attack on the religious establishment of the Temple priests and Sadducees, the ruling elite who collaborated with the Roman authorities to preserve peace and order in the province.

The radical content of his message was illustrated when Jesus overturned the moneychangers’ tables in the Temple, upsetting the status quo of the elite cult of corrupt priests. The Jesus described in the Gospel stories is an antiestablishment hero, an incarnation of the spirit of wisdom, gentle and compassionate toward the poor and a champion of justice. It is this Jesus who is the role model for the life of a true Christian.

 

Muhammad - A Biography of the Prophet by Karen Armstrong, 1993

Emergence of Wealth Disparity

The Quraysh had become rich beyond their wildest dreams in the old nomadic days. They saw wealth and capitalism as their salvation, which seemed to have rescued them from a life of poverty and danger and given them an almost godlike security. They were no longer hungry, no longer plagued by enemy tribes. Money began to acquire a quasi-religious value. But aggressive capitalism was not really compatible with the old communal tribal ethic. It encouraged a rampant greed and individualism.

Instead of sharing their wealth equally, according to the old tribal ethic, individuals were building up personal fortunes. They were exploiting the rights of orphans and widows, absorbing their inheritance into their own estates, and were not looking after the weaker, poorer members of the tribe as the old ethos had required. Their new prosperity had severed their links with traditional values and many of the less successful Quraysh felt obscurely disoriented and lost. Naturally the most successful merchants, bankers, and financiers were delighted with the new system. Only two generations away from the penury of the nomadic life, they believed that money and material goods could save them. They made a new religion of money.

The new prosperity drew people’s attention to the disparity between rich and poor. All the great religious leaders and prophets had addressed themselves to these issues and provided their own distinctive solutions. The younger generation was growing disenchanted and seemed to be searching for a new spiritual and political solution to the malaise and disquiet in the city.

Jesus Christ Superstar

Money Changers and Merchants

Roll on up Jerusalem,

Come on in Jerusalem,

Sunday here we go again,

Live in me Jerusalem.

Here you live Jerusalem,

Here you breathe Jerusalem,

While your temple still survives,

You at least are still alive.

I got things you won't believe,

Name your pleasure I will sell.

I can fix your wildest needs,

I got heaven and I got hell.

Roll on up, for my price is down.

Come on in for the best in town.

Take your pick of the finest wine.

Lay your bets on this bird of mine.

What you see is what you get.

No one's been disappointed yet.

Don't be scared give me a try,

There is nothing you can't buy.

Name your price, I got everything.

Hurry it's going fast.

Borrow cash on the finest terms.

Hurry now while stocks still last.

Roll on up Jerusalem,

Come on in Jerusalem,

Sunday here we go again,

Live in me Jerusalem.

Here you live Jerusalem,

Here you breathe Jerusalem,

While your temple still survives,

You at least are still alive.

I got things you won't believe,

Name your pleasure I will sell.

I can fix your

JESUS

My temple should be a house of prayer,

But you have made it a den of thieves.

Get out! Get out!

 

Richest 2% Own ‘Half the Wealth'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6211250.stm?ls

Dec 6, 2006

The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth, according to a new study by a United Nations research institute.

 

The report, from the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the UN University, says that the poorer half of the world's population own barely 1% of global wealth. What they mean by wealth in this study is what people own, less what they owe - their debts. The assets include land, buildings, animals and financial assets.

The analysis shows, as have many other less comprehensive studies, striking divergences in wealth between countries. Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and some countries in the Asia Pacific region, such as Japan and Australia. These countries account for 90% of household wealth.

 

 

#1) Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy

http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/1.html

The top 5% is capturing an increasingly greater portion of the pie while the bottom 95% is clearly losing ground, and the highly touted American middle class is fast disappearing. National leaders and mainstream media tell us that the only way out of our own economic hole is through increasing and endless growth-fueled by the resources of other countries.

 As rich countries, strip poorer countries of their natural resources in an attempt to re-stabilize their own, the people of poor countries become increasingly desperate. This deteriorating situation, besides pressuring rich countries to allow increased immigration, further exacerbates already stretched political tensions and threatens global political and economic security.

The strict repayment schedules mandated by the global institutions make it virtually impossible for poor countries to move out from under their burden of debt. "In a form of colonialisation that is probably more stringent than the original, many developing countries have become suppliers of raw commodities to the world, and fall further and further behind," says one UN analyst. World economists conclude that if enough of the world's nations reach a point of economic failure, such a situation could collapse the entire global economy.

Chairman Alan Greenspan