@TheJediCharles: The mere double use of "LITERALLY" (as Prager does every damn day) in your reply shows me you're too far gone under his spell to warrant a response, be it specific or general. I hope to God that American Jews have rebuked that deranged narcissist. Burn in hell, Prager.
Oh, I am not a Leftist- I am a former Republican and Prager devotee who finally learned to think for myself. I no longer look to this man for answers because I think he is naive about American history.
I offer historical examples and that makes me a simpleton? I'm not offering vague notions about America as does Mr. Prager. The vast number of Africans who arrived in America have been looking for economic opportunity- their homelands were destroyed by European colonialism of the late 19th Century. Those who arrived during the turn of the 20th Century were relegated to the ghettos of American cities such as Harlem.
Dennis is a simpleton... no, he's ignorant. He believes in an American past that never existed. Historically, Americans have despised immigrants! Know Nothing Party, Chinese Exclusion Act, Gentleman's Agreement, Johnson Reed Immigration Act of 1924, Ku Klux Klan of 1920s, etc. About the only immigrants ever welcomed into this land were African slaves!
How do you explain the vastly greater numbers of Africans that have immigrated to becom United States citizens than ever came on slave ships? If what you say was even remotely true, why would they come to the place they will "be despised?"
It's leftist claptrap, that's why.
They know they have a far greater chance of being mistreated in their home continent than here.
@sycamoresalmonpatty You're as much a history simpleton as Prager. Another thing about Prager...he's a hardline THEOCRAT, but don't hold your breaths waiting for him to admit it.
@TheJediCharles My post is one of truth, not anger...and I am a non-partisan centrist moderate...and I am not your friend. Prager is a psychological danger to all who buy into his monotonous con artist drivel.
could you please indicate which exact part of this video, down to the quote, that endangers my psychological health?
It's too late for you to step back and say crap like, "oh, it's bigger than just this video" because you chose this video to take your stand and warn us all that were just a question of time from literally, LITERALLY DYING because of him.
Okay, let's have the specifics from THIS VIDEO.
I have my aluminum foil hat on already, now save my life.
Junk-media DumbedDownClownCoward @howardz43 'The World/Humanity is no-better than in Biblical daze, except for post-Reformation PsychoChristians POSING as so called 'Civilised' while murdering millions including millions of children. UNlike UNposing savages who don't claim to be so called 'Civilsed - so who are the bigger hypocrites ?
Big Government taking over and running everything as with totalitarian socialism is not the best answer to the problem of human nature. The human nature not basically good is what needs to change. Most humans have to fight their selfish nature to be good. The U.S. founder's system of small limited Government combined with good religious values is what best encourages people to work to change their nature in order to succeed.
@DougPatton1, I said, "good religious values," not bad ones. 'WTF' with your comment. You have too high either an opinion of how the natives were treating each other during those times, or you are ignorant of the history, especially in what is now Mexico. The whole world then, meaning everywhere, was a very different kind of place than you appear now to suppose.
@howardz43 There has been a moronic and shamelessly hypocritical tendency for the American 'left' to idealize some previous Golden Age when Man was a gentle kindly creature in tune with nature. Then along came the technologically advanced but spiritually backward invaders. Interesting too, as regards the Americas, the revisionists studiously avoid mention of the period 1500 - 1700 when the slaughter and robbery was inspired by the Vatican's very own dogma; the Inquisition.
@ritchloui ALMOST correct "..hypocritical tendency for ALL of the west." The hypocrite Augustine bent Anglo Saxon Protestants, and the Augustine bent Latin Cathoilics. The pacifist gentle Jew Jesus would weep at what they have done in his name and if he came back now those PsychoChristians would nail him up again. Not for capital punishment but we say PsychoChristian Hypocrisy should be a Hanging Offence - just stretch em a bit. NO ? OK then a lot !I Hang Em High & Streeetch Em Real Loooow !!
@DougPatton1 There is another disturbing trend. Notice the longstanding pathological self-loathing of the US leftist narratives, the transmogrification of the US story into a story of Irish (Catholic) disaffection (we're all Irish now) and how seamless the uptake of propaganda that even Goebbels would have been proud in the form of Islamofascism. The Founding Principles of the US seem almost inexplicable and anachronistic in all the din.
DumbedDown gullible @ritchloui: Another disturbing trend bin goin on for only 3 Millenia since an invisible old man in the sky gave 2 tabs o' stone TWICE to another almost invisible old man on a mountain is - BULLSHIT - WTF ?!
@DougPatton1 I don't understand your comment. It seems odd to me indeed that the Old Man in the sky only thought fit to intervene in human activity a mere 3 millenia ago. Presumably before then all the Gods were delusions and now only one of the 3 monotheist religions has the right one because they all regard the others as heretical. Of course, it is rather more likely that they are ALL wrong.
@ritchloui, Not to go all ‘mystical’ here, however the ancient belief that the passage of time is not only linear but also circular simultaneously and that Ages in general human evolution and devolution informing world history, may simply be true. They would explain various things which most of the historians and philosophers of history, have not very logically or clearly explained to be otherwise. YouTube search: the great year documentary james earl jones.
@howardz43 Yeah, I'll check it out. There is no doubt that some of the speculative ideas of the ancients are of genuine interest in their own right. My current guess is that the enormous tenacity 'religious beliefs' is how incredibly well they serve the interests of leaders. The monotheistic idea is radically simple and a superb way of terrifying people into obedience. Circularity of time reminds me of the Eternal Return (Nietzsche)
@ritchloui, Monotheism is simply not competitive when it comes to leftism. Leftism is a religion as much as any traditional religion only it has no God or the recognition of transcendental Reality. Lacking those, leftists need States of Big Government social totalitarianism to believe in. Leftists believe in their leftism as much as any traditional religious cleric believes in his traditional religion. The difference is, the left fights those who try to fight evil. It does not fight evil.
@howardz43 Yes. I think the greatest danger for Mankind is our fondness for dogma. Unfortunately the easier and more didactic the dogma the greater its appeal. Basically rich people bad, poor people good. The former exploit the latter and are therefore its enemy. Notice too the distaste for 'business' and 'commerce'.
@DougPatton1, Sounds like you are the one who needs to "WIZEUP!!" AND LEARN SOME REAL HISTORY. The whole world was radically different place in 1500 - 1700 than it is today, Apparently you don't care to know anything about the natives’ raiding their neighbors’ for human sacrifice and cannibalism because weirdly you prefer to bash only Western culture which even then was much less brutal? Also if you were less biased, you would sound like less of a Bigot!
Its not a European value that everyone should end up equal. That's a marxist value and this guy knows that Europe is not marxist, just socialist. A horrible simplification to reach his viewers who want to hear that America is 'exceptional'. If there is any value that is typically European, it would be that no one gets left behind, even if you fail because you are a lazy moron. That certainly doesnt mean that people dont need to try, or that succes doesn't need to be rewarded.
Den in deep denial kinda conveniently forgot that Christian American Democracy started it's 'GREAT' 20th Century having just mass-murdered TRUE American native Red Indians reduced from 4 Million in 1800 to 90,000 in 1900 with treaty after treaty broken by white Christian Democratic (& Repugnant Party) Americans - a bloody insult to gentle Jesus AND true Democracy !
@DougPatton1 "By their fruit you will know them," said Jesus to His disciples. What you point out supports the notion that this country was NEVER Christian. People will use whatever tool they can to accomplish their desires.
I don't think countries can be "Christian" for this reason.
@DougPatton1 Ah. A shameless revisionist. When did the Roman Catholic bully boys arrive in the New World? When and by whom was all its lands, wealth and peoples granted as the possessions of the Spanish and Portuguese for ever? How long did it take for them to turn South America into a genocidal slave camp and establish the trans-Atlantic slave trade? Yes, several HUNDRED years before 1800. Vatican sap.
This legendary line embodies the spirit that created america and built it into the strongest nation on earth. Equality is great. I want the best for the lower class and do live a humanitarian life. However nothing, not even equality or easing of suffering, is worth the loss of liberty. The human soul thrives when it is free and rots when chained. In the end america will break without liberty, and people will suffer more.
I am not christian. I believe profoundly in the soul but pray there is no god because even making considerations for satan and human sin, it is still impossible for a god who made this world to be good.
So I am uncomfortable with "In god we trust", but I will grant that "all (created) equal" and the "self evident" rights of man are divine concepts and that no man has moral right to take your natural rights from you. I would hope this philosophy could be adapted to appeal to people like me.
@jaybb789 So.. Prager uses a tribute placed on our coins to help illustrate the American value system, but since this tribute didn't happen until the late 19th century, it invalidates the entire value system! The logic of moronic liberals such as yourself is just astounding.
I think it may also prove helpful to some of the viewers here to try to evaluate many of the more strident claims of the anti-theist critique ("brights") from a ideological/ metaphysics perspective. Check out the recent article by Jackson Lears in the May 16, 2011 issue of the The Nation entitled "Same Old New Atheism" .The article offers a compelling analysis of Sam Harris' works. Consideration is given to general secular social perspectives
Right you are, the GOP is going nuts trying to spin this one since it doesn't fit with any of their stated views about Obama and his abilities to be Commander-in-Chief. It didn't happen under their watch and could it when Bush said in 2002 he really didn't think much about him (OBL) anymore then formally dismantled the team to find him. Ho hum - the truth is out, the Repugs are stupid and incompetent, Obama did what they couldn't.
@jaybb789, Given the subject of this video, apparently you think the American trinity of values is repressive, and the U.S. is a repressive regime as the result? Please quote the comments of mine that make you think that I "love blood and death," and that I "hate it that people are now rising up on their own trying to remove repressive regimes?" I simply don't see the connection that you think you see. You appear to be projecting what disturbs you in the world onto me, and also onto others.
Let's all give some credit where credit is due. Congratulations to President Obama for following the initiative and taking advantage of the ground work of his predecessor President Bush in doing what it took to get Osama bin Laden.
@jaybb789, I'm not an Islamist nor an Iraqi. Most of the people killed in Iraq while we were there were Iraqis killed by other Iraqi extremists, other Islamist foreign fighters etc. I suppose from your remark that you would get an erection and/or salivate over the thought of what went on in Saddam Hussein's torture chambers, and consequently wish that you could have been someone to do such kinds of work for him.
Here is an interesting related question: Why do some Muslims insist that Bin Laden (now Dead) get a “proper Muslim burial” if he was really a “distorter" of Islam, as other Muslims claim?
@heyhowie123, You are correct, this isn't a theocracy, it's based on Self-government. James Madison, the fourth President of the United States and the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments. "
@mdstalla, I agree regarding government and Justice. Liberals, and leftists especially, try to use Government to force everyone to be equal. I believe ‘born equal as (fallen) souls’ would be close to what Prager meant where he said (3.57 ): ‘We are all born equal; that’s an American Value...’ We are not all equal otherwise than as souls, is obvious. Making everyone equal is what Marxists tried to do in the Soviet Union by managing everything from the top down, and it does not work.
There is no way for a country to insure that we all start off equal -- no matter what the system of government is. There is no way for a country to do that. Without understanding there are spiritual laws of personal cause and effect that are not limited to only one lifetime, there is no way other than an afterlife to reconcile the apparent injustices that are obvious in nature and the various conditions we are born into and/or born with, for which no material science has an ultimate answer.
@mdstalla, Individual Souls (the Spiritual essences of individuals) are what has the equal value. On this earth everyone is nonequal from birth. Born at birth is the human body-soul or "dust of the ground" per the Book of Genesis, which is the fallen soul body of each individual. Each one has latent 'nonequal values' accumulated from the past that are revealed gradually as we grow up. We feel inwardly that things should be different, but we have to live here on earth with the way they are.
@mdstalla, Where, exactly, as you seem to think did Prager say as you put it: "our political system ensures that each individual is born equal." Are you trying to say that you believe Prager thinks that political systems are what control such things as what genes a person inherits from their parents? That sounds like you are here trying to project your own personal beliefs onto someone else. Maybe you should try out owning some of your own beliefs?
@howardz43 Are these really such outrageous questions? 3.57: ‘We are all born equal; that’s an American Value…’ As you yourself alluded; we are not born equal (different genes), so how can this be a meaningful value. 4.09: ‘Our business in America is to enable you to have the liberty to end up were ever your talents bring you’ Again, two kids with equal talent want to go to college. One can go because his parents saved; the other can’t because they didn’t. Where is the ‘American enabling?
@mdstalla, No political system can ensure each individual is born equal. The American Value that Prager likely was referring to is that we are all “born equal” as souls. Certainly not, as human beings. That we are “born equal” as souls are an American value. Really talented children who want to go to college, and were born of parents who did not or could not save, often get loans and scholarships. Included these days are children of illegal aliens. Why do you ask, “Where is American enabling?”
@howardz43 Is Prager then suggesting that soles have equal value at birth; but non-equal values as life goes on? And ‘really talented children’ is not in the scope of my question (I’m talking two kids comparable in talent, but different only in household income). And college debt is simply kicking the ‘Inequality’ down the road a few yeas; the rich kid won’t hve 20 years of debt to pay off. Prager says that the American system enables us the liberty to end of where our talent take us. How?
@mdstalla, Human life is based on the fact that we have to all work in some way for what we get. We have more liberty and opportunity to do so than in most other places. You want a great life for free on a silver platter? You will have to figure out how to get yourself back into Heaven for that. Talented children who want to go to college, and were born of parents who did not or could not save, they often get loans and scholarships. Again, why do you ask, “Where is the American enabling?”
It isn't about wealth or poverty. "Born equal" is about individuasl being equal under the law. This was and is very different than monarchies where the elite were above the law. "Equal opportunity" means an equal opportunity to pursue happiness however you choose to define it. If you wealth is your goal, you are free to work hard, make decisions and do what it takes to achieve it. Not everyone defines "wealth" or "happiness" the same way.
There is no way for a country to insure that we all start off equal. No matter what the system of government, there is no way for a country to do that. Without understanding there are spiritual laws of personal cause and effect that are not limited to only one lifetime, there is no way other than an afterlife to reconcile the apparent injustices that are obvious in nature and the various conditions we are born into and/or born with, for which no materialistic science has the ultimate answer.
If the country is to ensure that we all start off equal; than how does it account a kid being born into a poor, single mother household on welfare, while another is born into a wealthy family? From the quality of education, healthcare, food and housing, the poor kid is at a disadvantage.
@mdstalla Yet there are countless instances of individuals from poor upbringings ending their lives much wealthier. Most Millionaires in America were not born into wealthy families, they earned it.
@TheCrocodilator True; but beside the point. Prager said that our pol. system ensures that each individual is born equal; and then equated that with 'given equal opportunity.'' These are 2 diff. things; neither of which are true. From age 0 to say, 16; most of us don't have much control over things like, saving for college. A poor student has less a chance of attending University than a rich student of equal academic merit. So either Pagers wrong; or the GOV needs to start paying tuitions.
Big Business tends to go along with whatever the political power structures in Government dictate. Socialism doing for people things they should do for themselves is no more beneficent or saintly than Big Business in controlling human nature. Both are pernicious when administered by or for people having natures either, deluded or not basically good. FDR's "New Deal" only prolonged the 1930s depression by seven years, UCLA economists calculate.
James Madison, the fourth President of the United States and the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments. "
The lutz of the left is as the one done in figure skating. Leftism is based on convoluted theories ignoring the fact that human nature is not basically good. Like a moral Ponzi scheme, leftists try to take from those who have, to give to those who have not, in order to get control of society without even first changing the degraded aspects of their own nature. That is why when the left takes over and the bigger the Government gets, the less that people matter as individuals or are even needed.
We understand almost nothing about the left if we don't understand it is a religion. It is a 'religion' as much as any traditional religion only it has no God or the recognition of transcendental Reality. Lacking those, the left needs to have states of Big Government social totalitarianism to believe in. Leftists believe in their leftism as much as any traditional religious cleric believes in his traditional religion. The left fights those that fight evil. It does not fight evil.
@howardz43 I agree 100%! Liberalism, at its core, is the religion of Atheism. More important than rejecting the notion of God; they reject the notion of mans divinity. And you are right; Liberals are in a power-grab struggle against organized religion—they reject Religion's influence and authority to define moral code; and believe they should be the gatekeepers of social values--after all, whose resume beats the University Elitist, the adorned Hollywood actors and the Billonair Business men?
@mdstalla, Human nature and especially leftist human nature are not basically good. That human nature is not basically good is not the same as inherently evil either. The leftist mind distorts such things as the truth about human nature a lot on purpose in its trying to deny reality. It is marked by a spectacular lack of self-awareness. Realities are the overwhelming majority of persons have to fight their nature to be good. Heavenly Goodness does not come with human nature automatically.
@howardz43 Let me propose this to you: Pagers statement that the American System ensures that we are born equal (or have equal shot at equal opportunities) is false. We are no more born equal then we end up equal, and uncontrollable circumstances in any given life can deny that person the same opportunities another may have. And, as you say, if he was talking about ‘equal in the eyes of God (equal souls)’, then yes, we are born equal but that doest change as life goes on (cont...)
@howardz43 ). (...cont) The word ‘equality’ is an ugly word, especially in the discourse of politics. No two men are equal and no government should try and artificially make it so. You see, ‘equality’ is nothing more than the empty shell we are left with after pulling the moral-spine out of Justice. Justice is the key and the America value I think Pager was looking for. If I am born into a wealth family, and you are not; that’s not fair (or equal); but it is not Unjust. (cont...)
The left hates the U.S. really, because it is based on the three values that Prager cites, which the left has upside down and backwards versions of, and thinks should prevail. Also, the U.S. existence is what has mostly blocked the left from taking over the world. That militant Islam has similar aspirations of totalitarian control by its Clerics portends an eventual future conflict of the left with Islam, if or when either one succeeds in imposing upon the U.S. a different kind of government.
You don’t understand anything about the left if you don't understand it is a religion. It is a religion as much as any traditional religion only it has no God or the recognition of transcendental Reality. Lacking those, the left needs to have states of Big Government social totalitarianism to believe in. Leftists believe in their leftism as much as any traditional religious cleric believes in his traditional religion.
@Thedudeachtig, I think you are correct that what Prager does is to explain the basis for the U.S. was a combining for the first time in history of three ancient concepts which, when put together, make for a rather different kind of country than those Europe and other places in the world have tended to produce. He touches some also upon the reasons, which are not otherwise obvious, for why there would be the different results. His doing that appears to be what irritates leftists the most.
“Many have a hard time understanding where the political left in Europe and the United States have common ground with this theo-political Islamist movement. Socialist ideology promotes an oppression of the individual for the collective needs of society and government. Islamist ideology similarly promotes the oppression of the individual for the ‘common good’ of the Islamic state. Both snuff out individual responsibility for tribal collective control.” - M. Zuhdi Jasser MD
The left, for all of it’s calling itself progressive, is really quite destructive. It turns to crap all that it touches and then, blames what it has touched for causing the problem. The typical left response to any concept it doesn’t like is to slander and mock, rather than to address and respond to the concept as such with a better concept. When it tries to do that, All it, Comes up with is essentially from Marx. Being on the left means never having to say you are sorry.
Generally speaking, leftism makes people worse. It doesn’t make them better. Things get better in this world only to the extent that people work on themselves to change and ultimately redeem their nature. It’s a bit hard for good people to get used to, but when you’re dealing with the left you are dealing with slime. Being on the left means never having to say you are sorry.
The core issue today is much the same, all around the world: What do you believe about America? The conservative right believes America is exceptionally great. The left believes America is the cause of all the worlds’ problems and is exceptionally Guilty. In its essence that is because the original concept of America does not coddle unregenerate human nature. As America does that more and more, due to the influence of the left, it becomes less and less great, and more and more ‘average’.
@Thedudeachtig Prager is a mouth peice for the radical far right. He always presents a very simplistic black and white view of the world, of people's problems, of politics, public polocy, etc. Incredibly simplistic "solutions" and "explanations" for very complex problems. He is also incredible pompous and tries to dress up all of his shallow thinking in intellecually sounding language.
@Thedudeachtig Actually it does have to do with what you said. His standard line of Europe is all socialistic and bad and the US is all good and great is a part of his typical simplistic black and white thinking. A typical line of the radical right here in the US.
@MaryJo1950 No it's not, I just said he gives the impression every country in Europe is socialistic, I never said it's bad.. And he did not either so i'm not entirely sure what point you are trying to make here?
@Thedudeachtig You must not be familiar with his 'work' or quite grasped what he was saying in this video. His very clear implication is that the US and the US way of doing things is always better and superior to "socialistic" Europe.
@MaryJo1950 The fact that I would not be familiar with his 'work' is completely irrelevant since that does not change the content of the video. Only personal views on the subject do.
@Thedudeachtig No, he very clearly lays out in this video all of the reasons why the US and the US way is in all respects superior to and better than those of Europe and part of the argument is labeling all of Europe as socialistic. In the US the world "socialism" is a rather loaded word that conjurs up memories of the Soviet Union, etc. So that is his attempt to make all European societies and governments seem as somthing to be feared and suscipious of.
@Thedudeachtig Your profile states that you are in the Netherlands. Perhaps you are not familiar enough with the political scene in the US and the various people involved to understand all of the implicatons that are being made.
@MaryJo1950 1. You are talking about his attempt to make European societies seem as something to be feared and suspicious of, is that really what he wants to achieve with this video? No he tries to inform people, not to make Europeans look bad. Since it has been a while since you were in school, I suppose you should check how valid your arguments are.
@Thedudeachtig Actually if you would familiarize yourself with him and his work as well as his like minded commentators you would see that is exactly what it is. You left a comment regarding him giving the impression that all European countries are socialistic and I responded offering an explanation as to his motives for doing so.
@howardz43 You've not shown much though here yourself. Just an ability to parrot and copy and past. I suppose intentional distortions do require some thought.
@MaryJo1950, The left says things for emotional impact in order to destroy its enemies, not because the things it says are true. The resulting responsibility of intelligent conservatives is to often have to restate the obvious. Being on the left means never having to say you are sorry.
The modus operandi of the left is to, smear opponents with ad hominem attacks, then lie, and make-up phoney facts and other distortions of the truth. The right doesn’t want the left suppressed. The left wants the right suppressed. That is why the left doesn't merely disagree, rather it slanders and slimes. What frightens the left so much about the right is that it would not allow the left to proceed with its socialist dictatorial anti life, anti-Free Speech agenda.
@MaryJo1950, In his Book, On Tyranny, Leo Strauss wrote: “these ideologies [Nazi and Marxist], were both descendants of Enlightenment thought, and tried to destroy all traditions, history, ethics, and moral standards and replace them by force under which nature and mankind are subjugated and conquered.” - Wikipedia.
That is what Strauss wrote. Therefore, Would “neo- cons,” per your earlier statement, not be against Strauss as their “father?” It is obvious how badly you are mixed up.
@howardz43 Instead of copying and pasting things from wikipedia why don't you visit your local library and get some real books and do some real study? Read Strauss's writings. Learn who many of his students and followers were. Many of them still around. Many of them ended up in positions of power. The particular comment you've copied and pasted from Strauss here does nothing other than show that he practiced what he preached - it's ok to manipulate and distort in order to "prove" your point.
@MaryJo1950, In his Book, On Tyranny, Leo Strauss wrote: “these ideologies [Nazi and Marxist], were both descendants of Enlightenment thought, and tried to destroy all traditions, history, ethics, and moral standards and replace them by force under which nature and mankind are subjugated and conquered.” - Wikipedia. Could, Strauss’ saying such be why you don’t like Strauss? Would “Neo- cons” not be against Strauss as their “father?” Leftists fight those who fight evil. They do not fight evil.
@MaryJo1950, Strauss taught that “The second type of nihilism – the "gentle" nihilism expressed in Western liberal democracies – was a kind of value-free aimlessness and a hedonistic "permissive egalitarianism,” which he saw as permeating the fabric of contemporary American society.”- Wikipedia. I can easily imagine him saying things like that may really be why you don’t like him. He was anti leftist.
You know the Conservatives want to live in this pretend little world where all Christians do right and the world is this perfect place. Even in Christs time that was not true, the leaders, of his Church, are the ones who delivered him to the authorities to be sentenced to death, even insisted on him being put to death. Christ made it very clear that he woudl not enter the realm of "political action" in his time, true Christians would follow that lead if they did WWJD.
Due to the fall of mankind described in the biblical book of Genesis and in other true religions it is much easier to do evil than to do, good. Even the best of human organized religion tends to degenerate and become whatever the lowest common denominators want for the religion to be. For two prominent examples, Choose Islam and you get theocracy, choose the left and you get a bureaucratic totalitarian State. That is all due to the unnatural depravity of the fallen human condition.
@howardz43 You cannot prove or disprove the "truth" of any religion. And yet again you say totalitarianism only comes from the far left and refuse to admit it can and has come from the far right as well. As for theocracy - are you saying there have been no Christian theocracies, quasi or defacto Christian theocracies in history? That there were no persecutions, no witch hunts, no heresey trials, etc.? The only truely Islamic theocracies are Saudi Arabia and Iran.
@MaryJo1950, Earlier, you linked Leo Strauss with “neo-cons.” Strauss however, “taught that liberalism in its modern form contained within it an intrinsic tendency toward extreme relativism, which in turn led to two types of nihilism. The first was a “brutal” nihilism, expressed in Nazi and Marxist regimes.” - Wikipedia. Could any of that be why you don’t like Strauss? You think “neo-cons” are like Nazi’s, and Marxists? Could that be why the left, during ‘W’s’ presidency, said ‘he is “Hitler?”’
@howardz43 People of both fringe extremes yell Hitler and/or Stalin whenever their guy is not in office. I never said Bush was Hitler. Go read Strauss' books, not about him in a Wikipedia article. He is indeed considered as a leading founder of neoconservitism. He also wrote about using religion to control people, creating national myths for people to believe in - didn't matter if any of those things were true so long as they acheived the desired goal.
@MaryJo1950, In his Book, On Tyranny, Leo Strauss wrote: “... these ideologies [Nazi and Marxist], were both descendants of Enlightenment thought, and tried to destroy all traditions, history, ethics, and moral standards and replace them by force under which nature and mankind are subjugated and conquered.” Could, Strauss’ saying such be why you don’t like Strauss? Would “Neo- cons” not be against Strauss as their “father?” Leftists fight those who fight evil. They do not fight the evil.
@MaryJo1950, You say: "He [Strauss] is indeed considered as a leading founder of neoconservitism." By whom, a bunch of leftists? What is wrong with neo-conservative, please? You say: "He also wrote about using religion to control people, creating national myths for people to believe in - didn't matter if any of those things were true so long as they acheived the desired goal." Where do you get that from? Please quote, or provide a link to what he said that makes you think that.
@MaryJo1950, You say: ""He [Leo Strauss] also wrote about using religion to control people, creating national myths for people to believe in - didn't matter if any of those things were true so long as they acheived the desired goal."
Everyone, please, Google or YouTube Search: "Obama Messiah." See for yourselves what Mary Jo is talking about that has come from the left, which she will not either criticize or denounce because it is her guy in Office.
@MaryJo1950, I have been aware of this stuff since the early 1960s. There once was a time when the Democrats were liberal but not leftists. You say: "People of both fringe extremes yell Hitler and/or Stalin whenever their guy is not in office." The first time I ever heard a U.S. President in office called "Hitler" by proponents of the other party, were Democrat Party leftists calling President Bush "Hitler," almost constantly, for the entire eight years that he was in Office.
@victoriahessco7, Moral religious people who fight their nature, tend to be enterprising in their service to others and conservative. They tend to also give more to charity voluntarily. Others want for a Big Government bureaucracy to heavily tax them so it can spend their money to make everyone and everything materially equal, so in theory no one then will ever have to fight their own nature to be good. Difficult to understand is exactly how that is really supposed to work?
However, beens this is a free country, and as for capitalism to function in a manner to benefit all it must do so on the honors system, pure capitalism will lead to the misuse, abuse, and detrement of the poorest in the community. Study some history. The bible teaches that the Church should use its money to help the poor and those in need. How many so called "Christian" businessmen spend more money on political action then feeding the poor? I rest my case?
Cooperative capitalism is no Oxymoron. One Business cannot handle all the business unless it is Big Government taking over all the business as with totalitarian socialism. THAT is evil. Human nature is not basically good, and humans mostly have to fight their selfish nature to be good, not evil. Conservative moral religious people fight their nature and give to Charities. Leftists however want for a Big Government to tax them heavily and think, then they won't have to fight their nature.
“Leo Strauss was a vigorous anti-globalist, writing in his book Natural Right and History, that "no human being and no group of human beings can rule the whole of the human race justly."” - Conservapedia.
If Strauss said that and is the "father of neo-conservatives," Wouldn’t it, mean neo-cons and leftists have much in common? Linking “neo-con” as pejorative with Strauss is really a kind of irrational leftist foil for creating confusion. Leftism does attempt to turn the world upside down.
Capitalism when it is informed by accurately interpreted scriptural morality, is what enables people as individuals to have the kind of life each one individually wants in relation to the whole of society according to the quality and kind of effort they put out. Not according to what some Big Government dictator and bureaucrats tell you that you can have, and your life has to be like. That is much more Christlike than any kind of Big Government materialistic totalitarian socialism.
For if you do not agree with the Marxist Doctrine, you are deemed not to be on the side of progress. The term of distinction reserved for those who have not been visited by the new revelation is the word 'Reactionary'. Literally, the inference is that you are working against progress, in a backward direction. - Bertrand Russell
The left doesn’t want honest talk; it wants left talk. Why does the left promote both "multiculturalism"and being a "world citizen," which is mutually contradictory at the same time? The answer is, they BOTH diminish American exceptional ism and identity, along with the distinctly American value of E Pluribus Unum placed on U.S. coins meaning, Out of many - One!
The immune system of the United States of America is being sabotaged by the cancer of leftism. It fails increasingly to recognize its own cells within the body politic. Since the time of Marx, the left in the West has been slowly trying to condition it like Pavlov’s zombie dog, to cannibalize itself whenever a leftist PC platitude bell is rung.
The left throws up whatever it can against the right, hoping for it to stick. My pleasure is to repeat the truth about what the left does in society. The more that scripturally accurate, and spiritually true religion decrease, the more Big Government socialism and secular degeneracy increase.
Demonization of the right is the single greatest thing the left does to further its agenda. If a lie is told often enough, it tends to get believed. Since Marx, every generation has gotten sucked into the leftist rhetoric until it sees the left in real life doing what it does best, which is what resulted in the Soviet style totalitarian States of the 20th century. The left is still at it. You think the vampire and the werewolf are dead, but like in horror movies they arise again.
@jnick1980, The debate regarding this Video has been quite fun thus far, and educational in terms of doing research to back up my intuitive views with facts. I sent that to you, mostly so that it will not come across here that your views are superior, simply because you use lots of foul language but I am too Good to use any at all so therefore my viewpoint is inherently not credible. The fallacious hypothesis in your mind is obviously that whoever curses the most is telling the most truth.
My pleasure here to repeat the truth about what the left does in society. The more that spiritually true religion decreases, the more Big Government socialism and secularism increase.
Jefferson was a deist. Deists generally believe God created the world of nature and abandoned it. Deistic belief was why Jefferson disavowed aspects of the Bible that predicate God’s active involvement in His Creation. The principal U.S. founders other than Franklin were mostly theistic Christians who believed that God is alive and well, and that, He participates in the affairs of mankind whom, He created in, His image and likeness, and in, His doing so gave freedom to choose or reject, Him.
You don’t understand anything about the left if you don't understand it is a religion. It is a religion as much as any traditional religion only it has no God or the recognition of transcendental Reality. Lacking those, leftists needs to have states of Big Government social totalitarianism to believe in. Leftists believe in their leftism as much as any traditional religious cleric believes in his traditional religion. The left fights those that fight evil. It does not like to fight evil.
Jefferson was a deist. Deists believe God created the world and abandoned it. Deistic belief was why Jefferson disavowed aspects of the Bible and religion that predicate God’s active involvement in His Creation. The principal U.S. founders other than Franklin were mostly theistic Christians who believed that God is alive and well, and that, He participates in the affairs of mankind whom, He created in, His image and likeness, and in, His doing so gave freedom to choose or reject, Him.
Jefferson: “The good are rare enough at best. There is no reason to subdivide them by artificial lines. But whether we shall ever be able so far to perfect the principles of society as that political opinions shall, in it's intercourse, be as inoffensive as those of philosophy, mechanics, or any other, may well be doubted." - TJ to Thomas Pinckney, 29 May 1797
Jefferson: "Political dissension is doubtless a less evil than the lethargy of despotism: but still it is a great evil, and it would be as worthy the efforts of the patriot as of the philosopher, to exclude it's influence if possible, from social life.” - TJ to Thomas Pinckney, 29 May 1797
Jefferson: "... no nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man, and I as chief magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example." - Historical Sketch of Washington Parish, Washington City, 1794-1857, by Reverend Ethan Allen (1796-1897).
Sadly, religion tends to degenerate and become whatever the lowest common denominators in society want for it to be.
There is a link which exists between communism/socialism and the attacks on religion. The attacks on religion started during the height of the cold war! Coincidence? No. Socialism opposes religion - - any country that adopts socialism does everything possible to discourage religion. At the same time it also opposes nationalism. In both cases’ history is revised to support their position. Also a fact is that religion plays a strong part in bringing down such regimes.
Either man is God or God is God. Marx was first to say man is God. That is why of Marxism and religion are to prevail, religion must be destroyed. Religion was first on Lenin’s list for destruction in the Soviet Union. When a leftist says, ‘you are going to Hell, or any such thing, don’t be fooled. It is not because he is religious or believes in what he is talking about.
The deists, Jefferson and Franklin, wanted for the U.S. Dollar bill to have a picture of the Jews leaving Egypt on it. Slavery in Egypt is today slavery to the left.
Jefferson: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” [Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781]
Howard: Get yourself a dictionalry. The fact that you think of the bathroom when someone uses the world drivel is a rather disturbing insight into how your mind works. From Merriam Webster:
@xexixk Did you say Jefferson was an atheist? No you didn't. You said he was secular. That he was. Howie is ignorant of or ignores Jefferson many unflattering comments on Christianity. Such as the letter where he referred to the book of Revelations as the rantings of a mad man. Jefferson never clearly defined his religious beliefs, he seems to have been a diest. He believed there was a god but not in any one particular religion.
@MaryJo1950 Indeed. Some of my favorite Jefferson quotes: Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined & imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. -Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
@MaryJo1950 I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism & demonism, & really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think themselves Christians. -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price, Jan. 8, 1789
@MaryJo1950 2/2 " the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom
@MaryJo1950 1/2 Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion
@MaryJo1950 Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle.
@MaryJo1950 The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
@xexixk Good quotes. I'm familiar with many of them. Of course Jefferson also took the New Testament and removed everything he regarded as either mythology or as being an imposibility and left what he regarded as the good teachings of Christ. Something that people like Howie would be up in arms about if you or I did it.
@MaryJo1950, Most people study the Bible according to their capacity to understand the meaning what they are reading. I don't blame Jeferson for doing what most people do. Much in the Bible that sounds like "mythology" is most likely either linguistic allegory or metaphor. We don't really know. If a primitive people were told about modern technology, they might easily think of what they were being told in the same way.
@MaryJo1950 I don't care if Howard sees any Christ like behavior in me or not. I'm not the one who is the warmonger who gets off on killing people and then talks out the other side of my mouth about what a good "Christian" I am.
First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."
No "separation between Church and State" language there. It is basically neutral on that issue.
@MaryJo1950 Despite what Howard says I somehow think if you or I created a different version of the New Testament he would be screaming that we where heretics.
@xexixk, People distort scripture and crucify Christ all the time. It goes on to this day on both the right and the left. But it is done mostly, or most 'conscientiously,' on the left.
@MaryJo1950 Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle.
@xexixk Howie just can't stay away from that bathroom humor can he? Funny his definition of drivel isn't contained in that Merriam Webstter definition and just looked it up too so I could see if you cut anything from it and you didn't. I have never heard anyone use the world drivel as Howie claims. Never in my life. Have you?
@MaryJo1950 Oh now he pulls his own Jefferson quotes out that prove nothing. Speaking of one's own personal beliefs doesn't mean they are opposed to secular governments. Saying that he some of Christ's teachings were good changes nothing. One can believe that and still be rather critical as was Jefferson. He clearly believed in religious freedom for all as well as the right not to believe. He also did not believe in compelling people to practice religion or religious leaders meddling in gov.
@MaryJo1950 Yes it's similar to that famous quote of Ghandi's "I like your Christ but I don't like your Christians." That's Howard. Christ spoke of compassion for the sick, poor, society's rejects, the downtrodden, peace, etc. Do you see any of that Christ like behavior in Howard? I see none of it.
@MaryJo1950 Oh Howard is funny. The left more commonly distorts scripture? That's hysterical it's warmongers like him who ignore Christ's teachings about peace and love of your fellow man (he doesn't say love your fellow man only if he is from the same country as you) who distort scripture. Slavery on the left? Howard wants us all to be serfs in the coming corporate feudal state. That sounds pretty slave like to me.
@xexixk, There have been more Iraqis killed by terrorists in Iraq than by the U.S., but that doesn't matter to you on the left because terrorists and terrorist sponsoring states cannot be blamed because they target innocents on purpose. They do so specifically for the effect of terror.
I and many others have great sympathy for the children of those who cannot or will not overthrow their dictators. If what you say is true about peace and love of your fellow man, their parents have responsibilities to overthrow their dictators who torture and kill their fellow man. Using innocents for human shields is immoral. If such people were to prevail there would soon be no, good people remaining on earth. I don’t believe God, or anyone else who is sane, wants that to happen.
@MaryJo1950 And of course there is Jefferson's well known letter to the Danbury Baptists where he writes that the first amendment creates a wall of separation between church and state. Something Howard is sure to object to.
The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution, was a blessing from God upon the U.S. Cultures all over the world were consistently more brutal, unethical, and inhumane in the past than they are today. Why did Zinn not compare the U.S., which the left says, has consistently been more brutal, unethical, and inhumane, with the world standards in general at the same periods in time, rather than with our contemporary modern world standards? Because of his anti-U.S. bias.
Cooperative capitalism is no oxymoron. One Business cannot handle all the business unless it is Big Government taking over all business as with totalitarian socialism. THAT is what is evil. I've said human nature is not basically good, and that humans mostly have to fight their selfish nature to be good, not evil. Conservative moral religious people fight their human nature and give more to charities. Leftists need Big Government to tax them so they don't have to fight their nature.
@onesmartgal1, I'm laughing at how you have to go back into very ancient times when the whole world was a very different kind of place than it is now, to find examples in the Bible of mistreatment of women per post modern standards. Standards which no longer exist or are not applied today in most
@TheJediCharles: The mere double use of "LITERALLY" (as Prager does every damn day) in your reply shows me you're too far gone under his spell to warrant a response, be it specific or general. I hope to God that American Jews have rebuked that deranged narcissist. Burn in hell, Prager.
4wheelerDJ 1 week ago
Oh, I am not a Leftist- I am a former Republican and Prager devotee who finally learned to think for myself. I no longer look to this man for answers because I think he is naive about American history.
sycamoresalmonpatty 1 week ago
I offer historical examples and that makes me a simpleton? I'm not offering vague notions about America as does Mr. Prager. The vast number of Africans who arrived in America have been looking for economic opportunity- their homelands were destroyed by European colonialism of the late 19th Century. Those who arrived during the turn of the 20th Century were relegated to the ghettos of American cities such as Harlem.
sycamoresalmonpatty 1 week ago
Dennis is a simpleton... no, he's ignorant. He believes in an American past that never existed. Historically, Americans have despised immigrants! Know Nothing Party, Chinese Exclusion Act, Gentleman's Agreement, Johnson Reed Immigration Act of 1924, Ku Klux Klan of 1920s, etc. About the only immigrants ever welcomed into this land were African slaves!
sycamoresalmonpatty 1 week ago
@sycamoresalmonpatty
Simple question.
How do you explain the vastly greater numbers of Africans that have immigrated to becom United States citizens than ever came on slave ships? If what you say was even remotely true, why would they come to the place they will "be despised?"
It's leftist claptrap, that's why.
They know they have a far greater chance of being mistreated in their home continent than here.
TheJediCharles 1 week ago
@sycamoresalmonpatty You're as much a history simpleton as Prager. Another thing about Prager...he's a hardline THEOCRAT, but don't hold your breaths waiting for him to admit it.
4wheelerDJ 1 week ago
Prager is today's Jim Jones without the cyanide and dead bodies.....yet.
4wheelerDJ 3 weeks ago
@4wheelerDJ
This is what passes as liberal thoughtful disagreement.
If this is the most civil, fair-minded disagreement you can state, then it's clear who has been chugging the Hate-Aid, my vitriolic liberal friend.
TheJediCharles 1 week ago
@TheJediCharles My post is one of truth, not anger...and I am a non-partisan centrist moderate...and I am not your friend. Prager is a psychological danger to all who buy into his monotonous con artist drivel.
4wheelerDJ 1 week ago
@4wheelerDJ
A psychological danger...
could you please indicate which exact part of this video, down to the quote, that endangers my psychological health?
It's too late for you to step back and say crap like, "oh, it's bigger than just this video" because you chose this video to take your stand and warn us all that were just a question of time from literally, LITERALLY DYING because of him.
Okay, let's have the specifics from THIS VIDEO.
I have my aluminum foil hat on already, now save my life.
TheJediCharles 1 week ago
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Junk-media DumbedDownClownCoward @howardz43 'The World/Humanity is no-better than in Biblical daze, except for post-Reformation PsychoChristians POSING as so called 'Civilised' while murdering millions including millions of children. UNlike UNposing savages who don't claim to be so called 'Civilsed - so who are the bigger hypocrites ?
Don'tDumbDownClowns - WIZEUP!!
DougPatton1 1 month ago
Big Government taking over and running everything as with totalitarian socialism is not the best answer to the problem of human nature. The human nature not basically good is what needs to change. Most humans have to fight their selfish nature to be good. The U.S. founder's system of small limited Government combined with good religious values is what best encourages people to work to change their nature in order to succeed.
howardz43 3 months ago
@howardz43 Good religious values to establish a state constantly lying and slaughtering nearly 4 million natives, men women and children - WTF ?!
DougPatton1 1 month ago
@DougPatton1, I said, "good religious values," not bad ones. 'WTF' with your comment. You have too high either an opinion of how the natives were treating each other during those times, or you are ignorant of the history, especially in what is now Mexico. The whole world then, meaning everywhere, was a very different kind of place than you appear now to suppose.
howardz43 1 month ago
@howardz43 There has been a moronic and shamelessly hypocritical tendency for the American 'left' to idealize some previous Golden Age when Man was a gentle kindly creature in tune with nature. Then along came the technologically advanced but spiritually backward invaders. Interesting too, as regards the Americas, the revisionists studiously avoid mention of the period 1500 - 1700 when the slaughter and robbery was inspired by the Vatican's very own dogma; the Inquisition.
ritchloui 1 month ago
@ritchloui ALMOST correct "..hypocritical tendency for ALL of the west." The hypocrite Augustine bent Anglo Saxon Protestants, and the Augustine bent Latin Cathoilics. The pacifist gentle Jew Jesus would weep at what they have done in his name and if he came back now those PsychoChristians would nail him up again. Not for capital punishment but we say PsychoChristian Hypocrisy should be a Hanging Offence - just stretch em a bit. NO ? OK then a lot !I Hang Em High & Streeetch Em Real Loooow !!
DougPatton1 1 month ago
@DougPatton1 There is another disturbing trend. Notice the longstanding pathological self-loathing of the US leftist narratives, the transmogrification of the US story into a story of Irish (Catholic) disaffection (we're all Irish now) and how seamless the uptake of propaganda that even Goebbels would have been proud in the form of Islamofascism. The Founding Principles of the US seem almost inexplicable and anachronistic in all the din.
ritchloui 1 month ago
DumbedDown gullible @ritchloui: Another disturbing trend bin goin on for only 3 Millenia since an invisible old man in the sky gave 2 tabs o' stone TWICE to another almost invisible old man on a mountain is - BULLSHIT - WTF ?!
Don'tDumbDown - WIZEUP!!
DougPatton1 1 month ago
@DougPatton1 I don't understand your comment. It seems odd to me indeed that the Old Man in the sky only thought fit to intervene in human activity a mere 3 millenia ago. Presumably before then all the Gods were delusions and now only one of the 3 monotheist religions has the right one because they all regard the others as heretical. Of course, it is rather more likely that they are ALL wrong.
ritchloui 1 month ago
@ritchloui Yeah all wrong all right OK ?
DougPatton1 1 month ago
@ritchloui, Not to go all ‘mystical’ here, however the ancient belief that the passage of time is not only linear but also circular simultaneously and that Ages in general human evolution and devolution informing world history, may simply be true. They would explain various things which most of the historians and philosophers of history, have not very logically or clearly explained to be otherwise. YouTube search: the great year documentary james earl jones.
howardz43 1 month ago
@howardz43 Yeah, I'll check it out. There is no doubt that some of the speculative ideas of the ancients are of genuine interest in their own right. My current guess is that the enormous tenacity 'religious beliefs' is how incredibly well they serve the interests of leaders. The monotheistic idea is radically simple and a superb way of terrifying people into obedience. Circularity of time reminds me of the Eternal Return (Nietzsche)
ritchloui 1 month ago
@ritchloui, Monotheism is simply not competitive when it comes to leftism. Leftism is a religion as much as any traditional religion only it has no God or the recognition of transcendental Reality. Lacking those, leftists need States of Big Government social totalitarianism to believe in. Leftists believe in their leftism as much as any traditional religious cleric believes in his traditional religion. The difference is, the left fights those who try to fight evil. It does not fight evil.
howardz43 1 month ago
@howardz43 Yes. I think the greatest danger for Mankind is our fondness for dogma. Unfortunately the easier and more didactic the dogma the greater its appeal. Basically rich people bad, poor people good. The former exploit the latter and are therefore its enemy. Notice too the distaste for 'business' and 'commerce'.
ritchloui 1 month ago
DumbedDown Naieve @howardz43 "Man's Inhumanity To Man" not new then OR now. Don't Dumb Down - WIZEUP!!
DougPatton1 1 month ago
@DougPatton1, Sounds like you are the one who needs to "WIZEUP!!" AND LEARN SOME REAL HISTORY. The whole world was radically different place in 1500 - 1700 than it is today, Apparently you don't care to know anything about the natives’ raiding their neighbors’ for human sacrifice and cannibalism because weirdly you prefer to bash only Western culture which even then was much less brutal? Also if you were less biased, you would sound like less of a Bigot!
howardz43 1 month ago
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DougPatton1 1 month ago
Its not a European value that everyone should end up equal. That's a marxist value and this guy knows that Europe is not marxist, just socialist. A horrible simplification to reach his viewers who want to hear that America is 'exceptional'. If there is any value that is typically European, it would be that no one gets left behind, even if you fail because you are a lazy moron. That certainly doesnt mean that people dont need to try, or that succes doesn't need to be rewarded.
underdogg20 4 months ago
Den in deep denial kinda conveniently forgot that Christian American Democracy started it's 'GREAT' 20th Century having just mass-murdered TRUE American native Red Indians reduced from 4 Million in 1800 to 90,000 in 1900 with treaty after treaty broken by white Christian Democratic (& Repugnant Party) Americans - a bloody insult to gentle Jesus AND true Democracy !
DougPatton1 5 months ago
@DougPatton1 "By their fruit you will know them," said Jesus to His disciples. What you point out supports the notion that this country was NEVER Christian. People will use whatever tool they can to accomplish their desires.
I don't think countries can be "Christian" for this reason.
deQuercy321 5 months ago
@DougPatton1 Ah. A shameless revisionist. When did the Roman Catholic bully boys arrive in the New World? When and by whom was all its lands, wealth and peoples granted as the possessions of the Spanish and Portuguese for ever? How long did it take for them to turn South America into a genocidal slave camp and establish the trans-Atlantic slave trade? Yes, several HUNDRED years before 1800. Vatican sap.
ritchloui 1 month ago
@ritchloui ShamelessDumbRevisionistOfDougPattonsPost Check deQuercy321 !
DougPatton1 1 month ago
"Give me Liberty or give me death."
This legendary line embodies the spirit that created america and built it into the strongest nation on earth. Equality is great. I want the best for the lower class and do live a humanitarian life. However nothing, not even equality or easing of suffering, is worth the loss of liberty. The human soul thrives when it is free and rots when chained. In the end america will break without liberty, and people will suffer more.
waldoman7 5 months ago 2
I am not christian. I believe profoundly in the soul but pray there is no god because even making considerations for satan and human sin, it is still impossible for a god who made this world to be good.
So I am uncomfortable with "In god we trust", but I will grant that "all (created) equal" and the "self evident" rights of man are divine concepts and that no man has moral right to take your natural rights from you. I would hope this philosophy could be adapted to appeal to people like me.
JustThink00 5 months ago
Who was the most fiscally responsible president of the last 30 years, anyone know?
KenMacMillan 6 months ago
@jaybb789 So.. Prager uses a tribute placed on our coins to help illustrate the American value system, but since this tribute didn't happen until the late 19th century, it invalidates the entire value system! The logic of moronic liberals such as yourself is just astounding.
mattpkp 6 months ago
"Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy". Margaret Thatcher
Ovadiazigi 7 months ago
Does anyone know the name of the piece of music starting at 4.09?
Mousquetaire1 7 months ago
@Mousquetaire1 "Simple Gifts" is a Shaker song written and composed in 1848 by Elder Joseph Brackett.
TwmSaer 3 months ago
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I think it may also prove helpful to some of the viewers here to try to evaluate many of the more strident claims of the anti-theist critique ("brights") from a ideological/ metaphysics perspective. Check out the recent article by Jackson Lears in the May 16, 2011 issue of the The Nation entitled "Same Old New Atheism" .The article offers a compelling analysis of Sam Harris' works. Consideration is given to general secular social perspectives
shieldsff 7 months ago
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I have a bridge to sell you in New YorK!
PremierLegend 8 months ago
@heyhowie123
Right you are, the GOP is going nuts trying to spin this one since it doesn't fit with any of their stated views about Obama and his abilities to be Commander-in-Chief. It didn't happen under their watch and could it when Bush said in 2002 he really didn't think much about him (OBL) anymore then formally dismantled the team to find him. Ho hum - the truth is out, the Repugs are stupid and incompetent, Obama did what they couldn't.
onesmartgal 8 months ago
@jaybb789, Given the subject of this video, apparently you think the American trinity of values is repressive, and the U.S. is a repressive regime as the result? Please quote the comments of mine that make you think that I "love blood and death," and that I "hate it that people are now rising up on their own trying to remove repressive regimes?" I simply don't see the connection that you think you see. You appear to be projecting what disturbs you in the world onto me, and also onto others.
howardz43 8 months ago
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Let's all give some credit where credit is due. Congratulations to President Obama for following the initiative and taking advantage of the ground work of his predecessor President Bush in doing what it took to get Osama bin Laden.
howardz43 9 months ago
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@jaybb789, I'm not an Islamist nor an Iraqi. Most of the people killed in Iraq while we were there were Iraqis killed by other Iraqi extremists, other Islamist foreign fighters etc. I suppose from your remark that you would get an erection and/or salivate over the thought of what went on in Saddam Hussein's torture chambers, and consequently wish that you could have been someone to do such kinds of work for him.
howardz43 9 months ago
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Here is an interesting related question: Why do some Muslims insist that Bin Laden (now Dead) get a “proper Muslim burial” if he was really a “distorter" of Islam, as other Muslims claim?
howardz43 9 months ago
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howardz43 9 months ago
@heyhowie123, You are correct, this isn't a theocracy, it's based on Self-government. James Madison, the fourth President of the United States and the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments. "
howardz43 9 months ago
@mdstalla, I agree regarding government and Justice. Liberals, and leftists especially, try to use Government to force everyone to be equal. I believe ‘born equal as (fallen) souls’ would be close to what Prager meant where he said (3.57 ): ‘We are all born equal; that’s an American Value...’ We are not all equal otherwise than as souls, is obvious. Making everyone equal is what Marxists tried to do in the Soviet Union by managing everything from the top down, and it does not work.
howardz43 9 months ago
There is no way for a country to insure that we all start off equal -- no matter what the system of government is. There is no way for a country to do that. Without understanding there are spiritual laws of personal cause and effect that are not limited to only one lifetime, there is no way other than an afterlife to reconcile the apparent injustices that are obvious in nature and the various conditions we are born into and/or born with, for which no material science has an ultimate answer.
howardz43 9 months ago
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howardz43 9 months ago
@mdstalla, Individual Souls (the Spiritual essences of individuals) are what has the equal value. On this earth everyone is nonequal from birth. Born at birth is the human body-soul or "dust of the ground" per the Book of Genesis, which is the fallen soul body of each individual. Each one has latent 'nonequal values' accumulated from the past that are revealed gradually as we grow up. We feel inwardly that things should be different, but we have to live here on earth with the way they are.
howardz43 9 months ago
@mdstalla, Where, exactly, as you seem to think did Prager say as you put it: "our political system ensures that each individual is born equal." Are you trying to say that you believe Prager thinks that political systems are what control such things as what genes a person inherits from their parents? That sounds like you are here trying to project your own personal beliefs onto someone else. Maybe you should try out owning some of your own beliefs?
howardz43 9 months ago
@howardz43 Are these really such outrageous questions? 3.57: ‘We are all born equal; that’s an American Value…’ As you yourself alluded; we are not born equal (different genes), so how can this be a meaningful value. 4.09: ‘Our business in America is to enable you to have the liberty to end up were ever your talents bring you’ Again, two kids with equal talent want to go to college. One can go because his parents saved; the other can’t because they didn’t. Where is the ‘American enabling?
mdstalla 9 months ago
@mdstalla, No political system can ensure each individual is born equal. The American Value that Prager likely was referring to is that we are all “born equal” as souls. Certainly not, as human beings. That we are “born equal” as souls are an American value. Really talented children who want to go to college, and were born of parents who did not or could not save, often get loans and scholarships. Included these days are children of illegal aliens. Why do you ask, “Where is American enabling?”
howardz43 9 months ago
@howardz43 Is Prager then suggesting that soles have equal value at birth; but non-equal values as life goes on? And ‘really talented children’ is not in the scope of my question (I’m talking two kids comparable in talent, but different only in household income). And college debt is simply kicking the ‘Inequality’ down the road a few yeas; the rich kid won’t hve 20 years of debt to pay off. Prager says that the American system enables us the liberty to end of where our talent take us. How?
mdstalla 9 months ago
@mdstalla, Human life is based on the fact that we have to all work in some way for what we get. We have more liberty and opportunity to do so than in most other places. You want a great life for free on a silver platter? You will have to figure out how to get yourself back into Heaven for that. Talented children who want to go to college, and were born of parents who did not or could not save, they often get loans and scholarships. Again, why do you ask, “Where is the American enabling?”
howardz43 9 months ago
It isn't about wealth or poverty. "Born equal" is about individuasl being equal under the law. This was and is very different than monarchies where the elite were above the law. "Equal opportunity" means an equal opportunity to pursue happiness however you choose to define it. If you wealth is your goal, you are free to work hard, make decisions and do what it takes to achieve it. Not everyone defines "wealth" or "happiness" the same way.
pookatim 9 months ago
There is no way for a country to insure that we all start off equal. No matter what the system of government, there is no way for a country to do that. Without understanding there are spiritual laws of personal cause and effect that are not limited to only one lifetime, there is no way other than an afterlife to reconcile the apparent injustices that are obvious in nature and the various conditions we are born into and/or born with, for which no materialistic science has the ultimate answer.
howardz43 9 months ago
If the country is to ensure that we all start off equal; than how does it account a kid being born into a poor, single mother household on welfare, while another is born into a wealthy family? From the quality of education, healthcare, food and housing, the poor kid is at a disadvantage.
mdstalla 9 months ago
@mdstalla Yet there are countless instances of individuals from poor upbringings ending their lives much wealthier. Most Millionaires in America were not born into wealthy families, they earned it.
TheCrocodilator 9 months ago
@TheCrocodilator True; but beside the point. Prager said that our pol. system ensures that each individual is born equal; and then equated that with 'given equal opportunity.'' These are 2 diff. things; neither of which are true. From age 0 to say, 16; most of us don't have much control over things like, saving for college. A poor student has less a chance of attending University than a rich student of equal academic merit. So either Pagers wrong; or the GOV needs to start paying tuitions.
mdstalla 9 months ago
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howardz43 9 months ago
Big Business tends to go along with whatever the political power structures in Government dictate. Socialism doing for people things they should do for themselves is no more beneficent or saintly than Big Business in controlling human nature. Both are pernicious when administered by or for people having natures either, deluded or not basically good. FDR's "New Deal" only prolonged the 1930s depression by seven years, UCLA economists calculate.
howardz43 9 months ago
James Madison, the fourth President of the United States and the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments. "
howardz43 9 months ago
The lutz of the left is as the one done in figure skating. Leftism is based on convoluted theories ignoring the fact that human nature is not basically good. Like a moral Ponzi scheme, leftists try to take from those who have, to give to those who have not, in order to get control of society without even first changing the degraded aspects of their own nature. That is why when the left takes over and the bigger the Government gets, the less that people matter as individuals or are even needed.
howardz43 9 months ago
We understand almost nothing about the left if we don't understand it is a religion. It is a 'religion' as much as any traditional religion only it has no God or the recognition of transcendental Reality. Lacking those, the left needs to have states of Big Government social totalitarianism to believe in. Leftists believe in their leftism as much as any traditional religious cleric believes in his traditional religion. The left fights those that fight evil. It does not fight evil.
howardz43 9 months ago
@howardz43 I agree 100%! Liberalism, at its core, is the religion of Atheism. More important than rejecting the notion of God; they reject the notion of mans divinity. And you are right; Liberals are in a power-grab struggle against organized religion—they reject Religion's influence and authority to define moral code; and believe they should be the gatekeepers of social values--after all, whose resume beats the University Elitist, the adorned Hollywood actors and the Billonair Business men?
mdstalla 9 months ago
@mdstalla, Human nature and especially leftist human nature are not basically good. That human nature is not basically good is not the same as inherently evil either. The leftist mind distorts such things as the truth about human nature a lot on purpose in its trying to deny reality. It is marked by a spectacular lack of self-awareness. Realities are the overwhelming majority of persons have to fight their nature to be good. Heavenly Goodness does not come with human nature automatically.
howardz43 9 months ago
@howardz43 Let me propose this to you: Pagers statement that the American System ensures that we are born equal (or have equal shot at equal opportunities) is false. We are no more born equal then we end up equal, and uncontrollable circumstances in any given life can deny that person the same opportunities another may have. And, as you say, if he was talking about ‘equal in the eyes of God (equal souls)’, then yes, we are born equal but that doest change as life goes on (cont...)
mdstalla 9 months ago
@howardz43 ). (...cont) The word ‘equality’ is an ugly word, especially in the discourse of politics. No two men are equal and no government should try and artificially make it so. You see, ‘equality’ is nothing more than the empty shell we are left with after pulling the moral-spine out of Justice. Justice is the key and the America value I think Pager was looking for. If I am born into a wealth family, and you are not; that’s not fair (or equal); but it is not Unjust. (cont...)
mdstalla 9 months ago
@howardz43 (...cont) My family didn’t steal from yours to get that way so I (nor any government) owes you restriction.
mdstalla 9 months ago
The left hates the U.S. really, because it is based on the three values that Prager cites, which the left has upside down and backwards versions of, and thinks should prevail. Also, the U.S. existence is what has mostly blocked the left from taking over the world. That militant Islam has similar aspirations of totalitarian control by its Clerics portends an eventual future conflict of the left with Islam, if or when either one succeeds in imposing upon the U.S. a different kind of government.
howardz43 9 months ago
You don’t understand anything about the left if you don't understand it is a religion. It is a religion as much as any traditional religion only it has no God or the recognition of transcendental Reality. Lacking those, the left needs to have states of Big Government social totalitarianism to believe in. Leftists believe in their leftism as much as any traditional religious cleric believes in his traditional religion.
howardz43 9 months ago
@Thedudeachtig, I think you are correct that what Prager does is to explain the basis for the U.S. was a combining for the first time in history of three ancient concepts which, when put together, make for a rather different kind of country than those Europe and other places in the world have tended to produce. He touches some also upon the reasons, which are not otherwise obvious, for why there would be the different results. His doing that appears to be what irritates leftists the most.
howardz43 9 months ago
“Many have a hard time understanding where the political left in Europe and the United States have common ground with this theo-political Islamist movement. Socialist ideology promotes an oppression of the individual for the collective needs of society and government. Islamist ideology similarly promotes the oppression of the individual for the ‘common good’ of the Islamic state. Both snuff out individual responsibility for tribal collective control.” - M. Zuhdi Jasser MD
howardz43 9 months ago
The left, for all of it’s calling itself progressive, is really quite destructive. It turns to crap all that it touches and then, blames what it has touched for causing the problem. The typical left response to any concept it doesn’t like is to slander and mock, rather than to address and respond to the concept as such with a better concept. When it tries to do that, All it, Comes up with is essentially from Marx. Being on the left means never having to say you are sorry.
howardz43 9 months ago
Generally speaking, leftism makes people worse. It doesn’t make them better. Things get better in this world only to the extent that people work on themselves to change and ultimately redeem their nature. It’s a bit hard for good people to get used to, but when you’re dealing with the left you are dealing with slime. Being on the left means never having to say you are sorry.
howardz43 9 months ago
The core issue today is much the same, all around the world: What do you believe about America? The conservative right believes America is exceptionally great. The left believes America is the cause of all the worlds’ problems and is exceptionally Guilty. In its essence that is because the original concept of America does not coddle unregenerate human nature. As America does that more and more, due to the influence of the left, it becomes less and less great, and more and more ‘average’.
howardz43 9 months ago
Lol, Prager gives the impression that every country in Europe is Socialistic
Thedudeachtig 10 months ago
@Thedudeachtig Prager is a mouth peice for the radical far right. He always presents a very simplistic black and white view of the world, of people's problems, of politics, public polocy, etc. Incredibly simplistic "solutions" and "explanations" for very complex problems. He is also incredible pompous and tries to dress up all of his shallow thinking in intellecually sounding language.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 That could be true, but it has nothing to do with what I said.
Thedudeachtig 10 months ago
@Thedudeachtig Actually it does have to do with what you said. His standard line of Europe is all socialistic and bad and the US is all good and great is a part of his typical simplistic black and white thinking. A typical line of the radical right here in the US.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 No it's not, I just said he gives the impression every country in Europe is socialistic, I never said it's bad.. And he did not either so i'm not entirely sure what point you are trying to make here?
Thedudeachtig 10 months ago
@Thedudeachtig You must not be familiar with his 'work' or quite grasped what he was saying in this video. His very clear implication is that the US and the US way of doing things is always better and superior to "socialistic" Europe.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 The fact that I would not be familiar with his 'work' is completely irrelevant since that does not change the content of the video. Only personal views on the subject do.
Thedudeachtig 10 months ago
@Thedudeachtig No, he very clearly lays out in this video all of the reasons why the US and the US way is in all respects superior to and better than those of Europe and part of the argument is labeling all of Europe as socialistic. In the US the world "socialism" is a rather loaded word that conjurs up memories of the Soviet Union, etc. So that is his attempt to make all European societies and governments seem as somthing to be feared and suscipious of.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@Thedudeachtig Your profile states that you are in the Netherlands. Perhaps you are not familiar enough with the political scene in the US and the various people involved to understand all of the implicatons that are being made.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 1. You are talking about his attempt to make European societies seem as something to be feared and suspicious of, is that really what he wants to achieve with this video? No he tries to inform people, not to make Europeans look bad. Since it has been a while since you were in school, I suppose you should check how valid your arguments are.
Thedudeachtig 10 months ago
@Thedudeachtig Actually if you would familiarize yourself with him and his work as well as his like minded commentators you would see that is exactly what it is. You left a comment regarding him giving the impression that all European countries are socialistic and I responded offering an explanation as to his motives for doing so.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
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howardz43 9 months ago
It is enough on the left to know about eight slogans and then thought is unnecessary.
howardz43 10 months ago
@howardz43 You've not shown much though here yourself. Just an ability to parrot and copy and past. I suppose intentional distortions do require some thought.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950, The left says things for emotional impact in order to destroy its enemies, not because the things it says are true. The resulting responsibility of intelligent conservatives is to often have to restate the obvious. Being on the left means never having to say you are sorry.
howardz43 9 months ago
The modus operandi of the left is to, smear opponents with ad hominem attacks, then lie, and make-up phoney facts and other distortions of the truth. The right doesn’t want the left suppressed. The left wants the right suppressed. That is why the left doesn't merely disagree, rather it slanders and slimes. What frightens the left so much about the right is that it would not allow the left to proceed with its socialist dictatorial anti life, anti-Free Speech agenda.
howardz43 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950, In his Book, On Tyranny, Leo Strauss wrote: “these ideologies [Nazi and Marxist], were both descendants of Enlightenment thought, and tried to destroy all traditions, history, ethics, and moral standards and replace them by force under which nature and mankind are subjugated and conquered.” - Wikipedia.
That is what Strauss wrote. Therefore, Would “neo- cons,” per your earlier statement, not be against Strauss as their “father?” It is obvious how badly you are mixed up.
howardz43 10 months ago
@howardz43 Instead of copying and pasting things from wikipedia why don't you visit your local library and get some real books and do some real study? Read Strauss's writings. Learn who many of his students and followers were. Many of them still around. Many of them ended up in positions of power. The particular comment you've copied and pasted from Strauss here does nothing other than show that he practiced what he preached - it's ok to manipulate and distort in order to "prove" your point.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950, In his Book, On Tyranny, Leo Strauss wrote: “these ideologies [Nazi and Marxist], were both descendants of Enlightenment thought, and tried to destroy all traditions, history, ethics, and moral standards and replace them by force under which nature and mankind are subjugated and conquered.” - Wikipedia. Could, Strauss’ saying such be why you don’t like Strauss? Would “Neo- cons” not be against Strauss as their “father?” Leftists fight those who fight evil. They do not fight evil.
howardz43 9 months ago
@MaryJo1950, Strauss taught that “The second type of nihilism – the "gentle" nihilism expressed in Western liberal democracies – was a kind of value-free aimlessness and a hedonistic "permissive egalitarianism,” which he saw as permeating the fabric of contemporary American society.”- Wikipedia. I can easily imagine him saying things like that may really be why you don’t like him. He was anti leftist.
howardz43 9 months ago
You know the Conservatives want to live in this pretend little world where all Christians do right and the world is this perfect place. Even in Christs time that was not true, the leaders, of his Church, are the ones who delivered him to the authorities to be sentenced to death, even insisted on him being put to death. Christ made it very clear that he woudl not enter the realm of "political action" in his time, true Christians would follow that lead if they did WWJD.
victoriahessco7 10 months ago
Due to the fall of mankind described in the biblical book of Genesis and in other true religions it is much easier to do evil than to do, good. Even the best of human organized religion tends to degenerate and become whatever the lowest common denominators want for the religion to be. For two prominent examples, Choose Islam and you get theocracy, choose the left and you get a bureaucratic totalitarian State. That is all due to the unnatural depravity of the fallen human condition.
howardz43 10 months ago
@howardz43 You cannot prove or disprove the "truth" of any religion. And yet again you say totalitarianism only comes from the far left and refuse to admit it can and has come from the far right as well. As for theocracy - are you saying there have been no Christian theocracies, quasi or defacto Christian theocracies in history? That there were no persecutions, no witch hunts, no heresey trials, etc.? The only truely Islamic theocracies are Saudi Arabia and Iran.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950, Earlier, you linked Leo Strauss with “neo-cons.” Strauss however, “taught that liberalism in its modern form contained within it an intrinsic tendency toward extreme relativism, which in turn led to two types of nihilism. The first was a “brutal” nihilism, expressed in Nazi and Marxist regimes.” - Wikipedia. Could any of that be why you don’t like Strauss? You think “neo-cons” are like Nazi’s, and Marxists? Could that be why the left, during ‘W’s’ presidency, said ‘he is “Hitler?”’
howardz43 9 months ago
@howardz43 People of both fringe extremes yell Hitler and/or Stalin whenever their guy is not in office. I never said Bush was Hitler. Go read Strauss' books, not about him in a Wikipedia article. He is indeed considered as a leading founder of neoconservitism. He also wrote about using religion to control people, creating national myths for people to believe in - didn't matter if any of those things were true so long as they acheived the desired goal.
MaryJo1950 9 months ago
@MaryJo1950, In his Book, On Tyranny, Leo Strauss wrote: “... these ideologies [Nazi and Marxist], were both descendants of Enlightenment thought, and tried to destroy all traditions, history, ethics, and moral standards and replace them by force under which nature and mankind are subjugated and conquered.” Could, Strauss’ saying such be why you don’t like Strauss? Would “Neo- cons” not be against Strauss as their “father?” Leftists fight those who fight evil. They do not fight the evil.
howardz43 9 months ago
@MaryJo1950, You say: "He [Strauss] is indeed considered as a leading founder of neoconservitism." By whom, a bunch of leftists? What is wrong with neo-conservative, please? You say: "He also wrote about using religion to control people, creating national myths for people to believe in - didn't matter if any of those things were true so long as they acheived the desired goal." Where do you get that from? Please quote, or provide a link to what he said that makes you think that.
howardz43 9 months ago
@MaryJo1950, You say: ""He [Leo Strauss] also wrote about using religion to control people, creating national myths for people to believe in - didn't matter if any of those things were true so long as they acheived the desired goal."
Everyone, please, Google or YouTube Search: "Obama Messiah." See for yourselves what Mary Jo is talking about that has come from the left, which she will not either criticize or denounce because it is her guy in Office.
howardz43 9 months ago
@MaryJo1950, I have been aware of this stuff since the early 1960s. There once was a time when the Democrats were liberal but not leftists. You say: "People of both fringe extremes yell Hitler and/or Stalin whenever their guy is not in office." The first time I ever heard a U.S. President in office called "Hitler" by proponents of the other party, were Democrat Party leftists calling President Bush "Hitler," almost constantly, for the entire eight years that he was in Office.
howardz43 9 months ago
@victoriahessco7, Moral religious people who fight their nature, tend to be enterprising in their service to others and conservative. They tend to also give more to charity voluntarily. Others want for a Big Government bureaucracy to heavily tax them so it can spend their money to make everyone and everything materially equal, so in theory no one then will ever have to fight their own nature to be good. Difficult to understand is exactly how that is really supposed to work?
howardz43 10 months ago
However, beens this is a free country, and as for capitalism to function in a manner to benefit all it must do so on the honors system, pure capitalism will lead to the misuse, abuse, and detrement of the poorest in the community. Study some history. The bible teaches that the Church should use its money to help the poor and those in need. How many so called "Christian" businessmen spend more money on political action then feeding the poor? I rest my case?
victoriahessco7 10 months ago
Cooperative capitalism is no Oxymoron. One Business cannot handle all the business unless it is Big Government taking over all the business as with totalitarian socialism. THAT is evil. Human nature is not basically good, and humans mostly have to fight their selfish nature to be good, not evil. Conservative moral religious people fight their nature and give to Charities. Leftists however want for a Big Government to tax them heavily and think, then they won't have to fight their nature.
howardz43 10 months ago
“Leo Strauss was a vigorous anti-globalist, writing in his book Natural Right and History, that "no human being and no group of human beings can rule the whole of the human race justly."” - Conservapedia.
If Strauss said that and is the "father of neo-conservatives," Wouldn’t it, mean neo-cons and leftists have much in common? Linking “neo-con” as pejorative with Strauss is really a kind of irrational leftist foil for creating confusion. Leftism does attempt to turn the world upside down.
howardz43 10 months ago
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howardz43 10 months ago
Capitalism when it is informed by accurately interpreted scriptural morality, is what enables people as individuals to have the kind of life each one individually wants in relation to the whole of society according to the quality and kind of effort they put out. Not according to what some Big Government dictator and bureaucrats tell you that you can have, and your life has to be like. That is much more Christlike than any kind of Big Government materialistic totalitarian socialism.
howardz43 10 months ago
For if you do not agree with the Marxist Doctrine, you are deemed not to be on the side of progress. The term of distinction reserved for those who have not been visited by the new revelation is the word 'Reactionary'. Literally, the inference is that you are working against progress, in a backward direction. - Bertrand Russell
howardz43 10 months ago
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howardz43 10 months ago
The left doesn’t want honest talk; it wants left talk. Why does the left promote both "multiculturalism"and being a "world citizen," which is mutually contradictory at the same time? The answer is, they BOTH diminish American exceptional ism and identity, along with the distinctly American value of E Pluribus Unum placed on U.S. coins meaning, Out of many - One!
howardz43 10 months ago
The immune system of the United States of America is being sabotaged by the cancer of leftism. It fails increasingly to recognize its own cells within the body politic. Since the time of Marx, the left in the West has been slowly trying to condition it like Pavlov’s zombie dog, to cannibalize itself whenever a leftist PC platitude bell is rung.
howardz43 10 months ago
The left throws up whatever it can against the right, hoping for it to stick. My pleasure is to repeat the truth about what the left does in society. The more that scripturally accurate, and spiritually true religion decrease, the more Big Government socialism and secular degeneracy increase.
howardz43 10 months ago
Demonization of the right is the single greatest thing the left does to further its agenda. If a lie is told often enough, it tends to get believed. Since Marx, every generation has gotten sucked into the leftist rhetoric until it sees the left in real life doing what it does best, which is what resulted in the Soviet style totalitarian States of the 20th century. The left is still at it. You think the vampire and the werewolf are dead, but like in horror movies they arise again.
howardz43 10 months ago
@jnick1980, The debate regarding this Video has been quite fun thus far, and educational in terms of doing research to back up my intuitive views with facts. I sent that to you, mostly so that it will not come across here that your views are superior, simply because you use lots of foul language but I am too Good to use any at all so therefore my viewpoint is inherently not credible. The fallacious hypothesis in your mind is obviously that whoever curses the most is telling the most truth.
howardz43 10 months ago
My pleasure here to repeat the truth about what the left does in society. The more that spiritually true religion decreases, the more Big Government socialism and secularism increase.
howardz43 10 months ago
The left throws up whatever it can against the right , hoping it will stick.
howardz43 10 months ago
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howardz43 10 months ago
Jefferson was a deist. Deists generally believe God created the world of nature and abandoned it. Deistic belief was why Jefferson disavowed aspects of the Bible that predicate God’s active involvement in His Creation. The principal U.S. founders other than Franklin were mostly theistic Christians who believed that God is alive and well, and that, He participates in the affairs of mankind whom, He created in, His image and likeness, and in, His doing so gave freedom to choose or reject, Him.
howardz43 10 months ago
You don’t understand anything about the left if you don't understand it is a religion. It is a religion as much as any traditional religion only it has no God or the recognition of transcendental Reality. Lacking those, leftists needs to have states of Big Government social totalitarianism to believe in. Leftists believe in their leftism as much as any traditional religious cleric believes in his traditional religion. The left fights those that fight evil. It does not like to fight evil.
howardz43 10 months ago
Jefferson was a deist. Deists believe God created the world and abandoned it. Deistic belief was why Jefferson disavowed aspects of the Bible and religion that predicate God’s active involvement in His Creation. The principal U.S. founders other than Franklin were mostly theistic Christians who believed that God is alive and well, and that, He participates in the affairs of mankind whom, He created in, His image and likeness, and in, His doing so gave freedom to choose or reject, Him.
howardz43 10 months ago
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howardz43 10 months ago
Jefferson: “The good are rare enough at best. There is no reason to subdivide them by artificial lines. But whether we shall ever be able so far to perfect the principles of society as that political opinions shall, in it's intercourse, be as inoffensive as those of philosophy, mechanics, or any other, may well be doubted." - TJ to Thomas Pinckney, 29 May 1797
howardz43 10 months ago
Jefferson: "Political dissension is doubtless a less evil than the lethargy of despotism: but still it is a great evil, and it would be as worthy the efforts of the patriot as of the philosopher, to exclude it's influence if possible, from social life.” - TJ to Thomas Pinckney, 29 May 1797
howardz43 10 months ago
Jefferson: "... no nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man, and I as chief magistrate of this nation am bound to give it the sanction of my example." - Historical Sketch of Washington Parish, Washington City, 1794-1857, by Reverend Ethan Allen (1796-1897).
Sadly, religion tends to degenerate and become whatever the lowest common denominators in society want for it to be.
howardz43 10 months ago
There is a link which exists between communism/socialism and the attacks on religion. The attacks on religion started during the height of the cold war! Coincidence? No. Socialism opposes religion - - any country that adopts socialism does everything possible to discourage religion. At the same time it also opposes nationalism. In both cases’ history is revised to support their position. Also a fact is that religion plays a strong part in bringing down such regimes.
howardz43 10 months ago
Either man is God or God is God. Marx was first to say man is God. That is why of Marxism and religion are to prevail, religion must be destroyed. Religion was first on Lenin’s list for destruction in the Soviet Union. When a leftist says, ‘you are going to Hell, or any such thing, don’t be fooled. It is not because he is religious or believes in what he is talking about.
howardz43 10 months ago
The deists, Jefferson and Franklin, wanted for the U.S. Dollar bill to have a picture of the Jews leaving Egypt on it. Slavery in Egypt is today slavery to the left.
howardz43 10 months ago
@jnick1980, Nor you. Especially, you!
howardz43 10 months ago
Jefferson: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus." [Letter to Benjamin Rush April 21, 1803]
howardz43 10 months ago
Jefferson: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” [Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781]
howardz43 10 months ago
Jefferson: “It [the Bible] is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."
[Jan 9, 1816 Letter to Charles Thomson]
howardz43 10 months ago
Howard: Get yourself a dictionalry. The fact that you think of the bathroom when someone uses the world drivel is a rather disturbing insight into how your mind works. From Merriam Webster:
1driv·el verb \ˈdri-vəl\
Definition of DRIVEL
intransitive verb
1
: to let saliva dribble from the mouth : slaver
2
: to talk stupidly and carelessly
xexixk 10 months ago
@xexixk I think Howie has confused drivel with dribble. However, he does indeed dribble drivel. Also, he should get himself a dictionary.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@xexixk Did you say Jefferson was an atheist? No you didn't. You said he was secular. That he was. Howie is ignorant of or ignores Jefferson many unflattering comments on Christianity. Such as the letter where he referred to the book of Revelations as the rantings of a mad man. Jefferson never clearly defined his religious beliefs, he seems to have been a diest. He believed there was a god but not in any one particular religion.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 Indeed. Some of my favorite Jefferson quotes: Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined & imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. -Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
xexixk 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism & demonism, & really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think themselves Christians. -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price, Jan. 8, 1789
xexixk 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 2/2 " the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom
xexixk 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 1/2 Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion
xexixk 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950, Oh, here you come for a reinforcement, eh? Xexixk can't handle this on his own? Where is onesmartgal? She must have gone to bed already.
howardz43 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Rush, 1813
xexixk 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
-- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia
xexixk 10 months ago
@xexixk Good quotes. I'm familiar with many of them. Of course Jefferson also took the New Testament and removed everything he regarded as either mythology or as being an imposibility and left what he regarded as the good teachings of Christ. Something that people like Howie would be up in arms about if you or I did it.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950, Most people study the Bible according to their capacity to understand the meaning what they are reading. I don't blame Jeferson for doing what most people do. Much in the Bible that sounds like "mythology" is most likely either linguistic allegory or metaphor. We don't really know. If a primitive people were told about modern technology, they might easily think of what they were being told in the same way.
howardz43 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 I don't care if Howard sees any Christ like behavior in me or not. I'm not the one who is the warmonger who gets off on killing people and then talks out the other side of my mouth about what a good "Christian" I am.
xexixk 10 months ago
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First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..."
No "separation between Church and State" language there. It is basically neutral on that issue.
howardz43 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 Despite what Howard says I somehow think if you or I created a different version of the New Testament he would be screaming that we where heretics.
xexixk 10 months ago
@xexixk, People distort scripture and crucify Christ all the time. It goes on to this day on both the right and the left. But it is done mostly, or most 'conscientiously,' on the left.
howardz43 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Rush, 1813
xexixk 10 months ago
@xexixk Howie just can't stay away from that bathroom humor can he? Funny his definition of drivel isn't contained in that Merriam Webstter definition and just looked it up too so I could see if you cut anything from it and you didn't. I have never heard anyone use the world drivel as Howie claims. Never in my life. Have you?
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 Oh now he pulls his own Jefferson quotes out that prove nothing. Speaking of one's own personal beliefs doesn't mean they are opposed to secular governments. Saying that he some of Christ's teachings were good changes nothing. One can believe that and still be rather critical as was Jefferson. He clearly believed in religious freedom for all as well as the right not to believe. He also did not believe in compelling people to practice religion or religious leaders meddling in gov.
MaryJo1950 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 Yes it's similar to that famous quote of Ghandi's "I like your Christ but I don't like your Christians." That's Howard. Christ spoke of compassion for the sick, poor, society's rejects, the downtrodden, peace, etc. Do you see any of that Christ like behavior in Howard? I see none of it.
xexixk 10 months ago
@xexixk, I don't see any Christ like behavior in you.
howardz43 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 Oh Howard is funny. The left more commonly distorts scripture? That's hysterical it's warmongers like him who ignore Christ's teachings about peace and love of your fellow man (he doesn't say love your fellow man only if he is from the same country as you) who distort scripture. Slavery on the left? Howard wants us all to be serfs in the coming corporate feudal state. That sounds pretty slave like to me.
xexixk 10 months ago
@xexixk, There have been more Iraqis killed by terrorists in Iraq than by the U.S., but that doesn't matter to you on the left because terrorists and terrorist sponsoring states cannot be blamed because they target innocents on purpose. They do so specifically for the effect of terror.
howardz43 10 months ago
I and many others have great sympathy for the children of those who cannot or will not overthrow their dictators. If what you say is true about peace and love of your fellow man, their parents have responsibilities to overthrow their dictators who torture and kill their fellow man. Using innocents for human shields is immoral. If such people were to prevail there would soon be no, good people remaining on earth. I don’t believe God, or anyone else who is sane, wants that to happen.
howardz43 10 months ago
@MaryJo1950 And of course there is Jefferson's well known letter to the Danbury Baptists where he writes that the first amendment creates a wall of separation between church and state. Something Howard is sure to object to.
xexixk 10 months ago
@xexixk, The word drivel is also used to denote what comes out when one has verbal Diarrhea, such as you.
howardz43 10 months ago
The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution, was a blessing from God upon the U.S. Cultures all over the world were consistently more brutal, unethical, and inhumane in the past than they are today. Why did Zinn not compare the U.S., which the left says, has consistently been more brutal, unethical, and inhumane, with the world standards in general at the same periods in time, rather than with our contemporary modern world standards? Because of his anti-U.S. bias.
howardz43 10 months ago
Cooperative capitalism is no oxymoron. One Business cannot handle all the business unless it is Big Government taking over all business as with totalitarian socialism. THAT is what is evil. I've said human nature is not basically good, and that humans mostly have to fight their selfish nature to be good, not evil. Conservative moral religious people fight their human nature and give more to charities. Leftists need Big Government to tax them so they don't have to fight their nature.
howardz43 10 months ago
@onesmartgal1, I'm laughing at how you have to go back into very ancient times when the whole world was a very different kind of place than it is now, to find examples in the Bible of mistreatment of women per post modern standards. Standards which no longer exist or are not applied today in most