He says don't take a victim mentality. I FOR SURE DO NOT. I understand what Paulson and Bernanke are doing to flood liquidity and manipulate the markets. I understand how to counter those forces. I know how to create a strategy to avoid being manipulated.

Care to give any detail?

oh hell i've talked about it for years. Few listened. Probably because it's too boring.

Osteen's just another God Squad snake oil salesman.

In a long line of them...

lol, positivity has ALWAYS been osteen's bag. he's never been prosperity gospel...lol. c'mon - get your televangelists straight.

Yep...shotshot is correct. Gary, you got this one wrong. Osteen is part preacher...part motivational speaker. He doesn't preach prosperity the way that many others do. You never hear him say the standard "plant a seed" line. He doesn't even ask for money during his broadcast....very rare. What he does do is make millions from book sales.

I am not too fond of Osteen's teachings. He really does seem to be more of a motivational preacher, and the Gospel is sorely missed in his messages.
Being positive is a good thing (half-glass full, people!), but leave that to the motivational speakers, Joel, and preach the Gospel!

Gary, as you know Pastors at this level have to be quite business minded to be successful. But I don't think he should be expected to grilled on the economy, I would give him a pass on that topic.

However, I wouldn't give him a pass on his prosperity doctrine...that's disgusting and manipulative.

I bet Creflo Dollar knows about liquidity and short selling ...

I'm not aware of any 'legitimate' Christian denomination that preaches doing good things in this life will get you material benefit IN THIS LIFE as well. The benefit is spiritual, and it's delivered in the next life.   

Bought this. A must read. Well researched. "God is not Great". He talks about how religion has been man-made and how falacies built on each other to offer us cooked up versions.

http://www.amazon.ca/God-Not-Great-Religion-Everything/dp/0771041438/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228913604&sr=8-2

Richard7, you can believe a man, created by God, who wrote a book, or you can believe the God of the Universe.

And yes, man has made all sorts of religions, but religion is only man trying to reach out to God or a god.

Christianity is God reaching out of time to mankind through Jesus.

Also, Jesus is no fallacy. He was born, he lived and he died and rose again.

History is divided by His life. You can deny these things, which I know you will certainly do, or you can put down your pride, and seek after God with all your heart.

"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

I've read the Bible many times throughout my life, and other books like the Baghavad Gita, the Koran, and other religious books. I personally know about the inconsistencies of the Old Testament, and the New Testament. You've got so be blind to so many passages, and only pick out what confirms your faith to make any sense to you.

There is no historical proof of the existence a a Jesus. The New Testament is built upon the Old Testament, which is a bunch of second-hand and I don't know how many hand accounts of myths, wife's tales, and urban legends. As you know, if you start with fabulations and build on that, you get other fabulations. On untruth does not make another truer.

I read the Bible. Will you read the book I suggest? I doubt it.

Richard, I read that book last year... I even sent it out as a christmas present to my stepmother, an ex-nun..... who LOVED it.

The last chapter in particular, really moved me.

"you can believe a man, created by God, who wrote a book, or you can believe the God of the Universe."

Of course, the logical fallacies in this statement alone would cause Hitchens to go apoplectic. :)

Not going to comment on Joel's views. Everyone has there world view and belief system that shapes their world....

Forget Republican or Democrat... what you need to know who has the real power in this country... (and it will get worse)

Regarding the bailout: Next time you take out a $5 or $20 bill take a close look at it.  What does it say on the top?  "Federal Reserve Note"  that $20 is nothing more to pay debt to the Federal Reserve Bank/s.

The Federal Reserve is NOT a government agency. Ben Bernanke (the Fed Chairman) but a collection (cartel) of large banks that fund our US debt. and that's how they make their money off the interest and it can be traced to a secret meeting at Jekyl island GA1913 and all the way back to on The Bank of England and the Rothchild Family from Germany.

Our paper money is just that..."paper" based or backed by nothing except the Bonds that were sold to countries like China who fund our debt. We should be concerned if they ever decide to flood our market selling their US bonds.  We would sink.

The next big step after this recession is huge inflation! That's the way the Fedreral reserve makes their money. Why do think the banks aren't loaning? squeezing and tight liquidity? To cause the US gov. to produce a huge stimulus package. More debt more interest.

Next move is the combining North, Central, South American Curriencies.

We are heading more toward a global economy

@theojohns - 

YOU WROTE: Richard7, you can believe a man, created by God, who wrote a book, or you can believe the God of the Universe.

I: OK. How do I know "God of the Universe", if not by man (my mind or the mind of another man)?

YOU WROTE: Also, Jesus is no fallacy. He was born, he lived and he died and rose again.
I: No historical proof. The died and rose again, is flagrant borrowing from other mythical stories and "pagan" religions before that one.

YOU WROTE: History is divided by His life. You can deny these things, which I know you will certainly do, or you can put down your pride, and seek after God with all your heart.
I: You mean, remove any inkling or rational and critical thinking.

YOU WROTE: "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13
I: Another example of a platitude with "fill in the blanks" for what it really means.

If religions have had as a mission to bring us closer to God, it certainaly is a failure. Even to this day, God is used to justify murder. Oh...the God of the Muslims is not the same as the God of faithful Christians? So, let's pray to our God and go teach a lession or two to the Afghans and Irakians. Let's get the Jews and Palestinians to the final fight so that the temple of Jerusalem can be rebuilt on the ashes of the Mosque so that rapture can occur to fufill the PROPHECY, so that Jesus can come back on a cloud in all his might.

In your dreams...:)

@richardj7 - 

"In your dreams...:)"

Literally, in his case.

Someday, Richard, you will die. You will have eternity to think about the opportunities you had in this life to seek after the one true God. I really really wish I could wrench you away from disaster.

I can only speak the truth, and that I love you. And fjlau. And Gary. And Melissa.

"I really really wish I could wrench you away from disaster."

I really really wish you weren't so delusional and dogmatic too. But that is what your "truth" is.

I pray that you someday are awakened to the beauty, power and intellect of rational thought.

Lovingly,

Frank

From Slaughterhouse Five:

The visitor from out space made a very serious study of Christianity to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouple was slipshod storytelling in the New Testament. He supposed that the intent of the gospel was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low.

But the gospels actually taught this:

Before you kill somedbody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes.

The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn't look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought . . .
Oh boy--they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time!

And that thought had a brother: "There are right people to lynch." Who? People not well connected. So it goes.

The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.

So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that, too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was.

And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of The Son of the Creator of the Universe thoughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!

Debates about religion and politics tend to be passionate and many times argumentative but do very little to change anyones' pt of view.

but i guess that's what "blogs" are all about. Opinions!

jack

Suggestion,

Start hedging and purchase gold and silver as protection for the coming years.

Jack

@uptonjb - 

Will they have value after you are raptured?