Health Care: Do You Agree with His Holiness or with the Tea Party?

What good is it, if we have a strong economy, but our people are ill?

For what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, but destroy his own soul? That is why the Church must set itself into people’s minds, and why it must say what it must naturally, with love, not stepping back, not looking down on those who live in poverty, but in solidarity with poor people, to proclaim moral values. Then, nobody would accuse the Church of sanctimonious hypocrisy, but would attend to the preaching of the Church. This exhortation is now crucial for the survival of our civilisation; the consumer psychology and the lust of the flesh are not viable… they destroy the spiritual dimension of life, and turn human beings into animals.

However, there is another problem, if we talk about the Christian world, namely, that part of the Christian world today live under different laws… the laws of secular society. Not in the sense that those belonging to these religious groups are good and law-abiding citizens, rather, it’s something else. These Christians admit to their inner world sinful elements of the world and justify these elements, if secular society offers it to them. Today, we encounter such phenomena in modern Protestantism. It’s a very dangerous phenomenon, when under the influence of secular liberal views, the liberal clichés of these secular philosophies are repeated within the Protestant Churches, and become rooted in their religious consciousness.

His Holiness Kirill Gundyaev

Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias

Do you agree with His Holiness or do you agree with the Tea Party? So-called “conservatism” is actually Radical Neoliberalism, and His Holiness’ comments on “liberalism” expose its vacuity and its sterility. You can stand with His Holiness… and understand that we are all linked together… and that we all rise and fall as one. On the other hand, you can stand with Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Caribou Barbie, and all the HMO executives and worship greed and cupidity. There’s no middle ground. There’s a nasty and noxious reality under their “Christian” verbiage (Beck’s a Mormon… he’s not even a Christian!). It’s why I won’t rest… do reflect on the fact that Paffhausen is in bed with the Tea Party… birds of a feather…

His Holiness says that we’re all tied together (he’s not heavy, he’s my brother), and the Unholy Trio says that we’re atomised consumers (where’s mine!). I stand for the former, what about you?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 14 August 2010

Albany NY

Editor’s Postscript:

In researching this post, I came across a nasty little website called “GetReligion”. On it, Terrence Mattingly was expatiating on the MP, and the obvious ignorance of his presentation was shockingly apparent. It’s very easy to get material on His Holiness… most of it is in Russian, though. He didn’t even know how to access the information on Patriarchia.ru correctly. The more I see of this character, the more of a boob he reveals himself to be. He knows NOTHING about Orthodoxy in Russia and you should discount anything he says concerning it. The people in his commboxes were even more ignorant of the subject, if that’s possible (and it is).

In any case, none of the people on this website know the first thing about Russians. For one, Russians aren’t Germans… we’re not efficient, we don’t follow the letter of the law (if there was a nation of artful dodgers, we’re it), and we put people in front of dogmas and ideas. These pseudo-intellectuals are WORDS, WORDS, WORDS… the sheer wind-power would be enough to propel the Cutty Sark to China and back. It’s why the konvertsy don’t “get it”… they read this or that, and assume that’s what we believe. Orthodoxy is experiential… and until these children learn that, they shouldn’t comment on Church affairs (and learning Russian or Greek wouldn’t hurt, either…).

It does take all kinds… I’m aware of that. Unfortunately, Mr Mattingly is a total flake when it comes to anything Russian… if he speaks on any Russian topic, ignore him, he doesn’t know the first thing about it. Why doesn’t he stick to American Sectarians and Catholics… he does know about them. Crazy world, ain’t it?

BMD

US Economy: Doom and Gloom

The United States is facing a financial crisis of a scale that makes Greece’s economic woes look pallid in comparison. Experts claim that the US economy will need a 6 trillion dollar (183.661 trillion Roubles 4.703 trillion Euros 3.846 trillion UK Pounds) injection in order to survive.

Everyone now admits that the US economy defied all their expectations and forecasts; it won’t escape the crisis unscathed. The last to surrender was the US Federal Reserve. Early this summer, everyone was happy about the Federal Reserve’s optimistic statements on the continuing economic recovery and gradual labour market improvement. However, as autumn drew nearer, the statements were toned down, and the Fed increasingly often pointed up that there was a slow-down in the recovery, even though major US corporations issued happy talk in their financial statements. Nevertheless, even they failed to conceal the obvious fact that it was impossible to douse the problems with money, the policy of economic incentives has fallen through, unemployment continues unabated, and buyers won’t buy, whilst banks don’t offer loans.

Our economic observer, Grigori Beglaryan said in elaboration, “The US economy is shrinking because the motive force behind it, consumption, has long since ground to a halt. The programmes of incentives in the United States certainly made people spend more, but the lack of income growth and heavy debt burdens make it impossible to face the future positively. OK, the US adopted a programme to stimulate demand, and consumers bought a certain number of cars and fridges, but what will situation look like in the next two or three years? Everyone is now asking, ‘What will the situation around demand look like in future’?”

The towering federal debt and exorbitant financial obligations threaten to drive up the federal budget deficit to a head-spinning 14 percent of GDP, which is even higher than the 11.5 percent accumulated by Greece, which led to the entire EU desperately trying to bail them out. To reverse this very dangerous trend the US needs to either cut spending or double taxes. Either of these two options, let alone both, may cost Barack Obama the presidency, experts warn. Well, Washington may look for foreign assistance, but bailing out America will cost a whopping 6 trillion dollars, which makes the 147 billion dollar (4.5 trillion Roubles 115.204 billion Euros 94.227 billion UK Pounds) aid package for Greece look like peanuts. This means that finding anyone willing to shell out that much money will be a tough call, indeed. What is more likely is that those with greenbacks may want to get rid of them, and fast. Public trust in the US dollar may wane at any time, and, when that happens, catastrophic inflation wouldn’t take long to pick up steam.

The Americans would then have to jack up their refinancing rate sharply to keep it above consumer inflation. This, in turn, will lead to an economic depression even more hard-hitting than the one the world is going through now. In a situation like this, the only way you get a somewhat optimistic sound bite about things yet to come is to turn to a financial guru. What we are getting now looks discouraging, with Nuriel Roubini, who predicted the 2008 crisis, saying that the US economy will not start looking up before 2013.

14 August 2010

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/08/14/15741000.html

Editor’s Note:

The Tea Party bleats, “Elect us, and we’ll avoid financial catastrophe”. The objective situation is such that the USA either must end its two pointless (and costly) wars in peripheral theatres IMMEDIATELY or face an economic collapse that makes the present sickness look mild by comparison.

Let me speak bluntly. The Tea Party will NOT end the wars. The Tea Party will NOT end the expensive attempt to encircle Russia with military bases. The Tea Party will NOT increase taxes on richest Americans… indeed, expect them to CUT them (Remember Leona Helmsley? “Only the little people pay taxes”… she’s not alone, kids.. the Tea Party speaks for THEM, NOT for YOU). The Tea Party will shred the social safety net. They will do anything to preserve the dividends of the rentier class.

Don’t be fooled by the pious claptrap that issues from the Tea Party. I shall speak bluntly… the Tea Party is the greatest argument for atheism that one can see on the current scene. It’s nothing but “greed is good” and unashamed kowtowing before Mammon and all his associated deities. Reflect well on the fact that Jonas Paffhausen is in bed with the Tea Party. To be fair, there are all too many Orthodox who are doing likewise, from all the three Russian Orthodox groups.

You’ve heard the BS from the Tea Party. Here’s what His Nibs had to say on the economy:

The modern economy is built largely on fraud; it creates money out of thin air. [Money is] a token of human labour and of our God-given resources, such as coal, ore, and oil, along with our intelligence, physical labour, culture, and spirituality. [However,] every company produces its own money in the form of shares, which is passed onto the secondary market, becoming not just simple securities; they are traded and used as items of speculation. If these mere phantasms earn billions, not even backed by labour or real capital, then, how can such an economy exist? Who is going to pay for all of this? Why, the simple worker [is going to], who produces the value behind all of this bubble. [We need] a fair economic system where money and capital are equivalent and are the expression of real work.

There you go. You can have Kirill Mikhailovich Gundyaev, the Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias, or, you can have those great experts, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Caribou Barbie. I’ll say this… it WON’T take a whole lotta huffn’ and puffin’ to blow their house down! The only question is how long it’s gonna take ‘im! (I am taking bets on the side, kids…)

BMD

Orthodox Assumption Lent Begins

Today, Orthodox Christians begin the two-week Assumption Lent. It precedes the feastday of the Assumption/righteous death of the Most Holy Mother of God, which will be celebrated on 28 August. Of the four Lents in the church year, the Assumption Lent is the most severe. Today is the holyday of the Most Merciful Saviour, glorifying the explicit help of God to Christians. It was established in the early days of the Church due to the appearance of extraordinary phenomena, signs appeared on the holy icons in a battle of the Christians against the Theomachists. It occurred almost simultaneously both in Russia and in the Roman Empire, in the armies of Prince St Andrei Bogolyubsky and of the Greek Emperor Manuel. In August, there are two other feastdays of the Saviour, on 19 August, it’s the Transfiguration of Our Lord, and on 29 August, we remember the Icon of Jesus Christ “Not Made by Hands”, according to ITAR-TASS.

14 August 2010

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/08/14/15704934.html

US President Obama Defended the Construction of a Mosque near the 9/11 WTC Site

On Friday, US President Barack Obama defended a project to build a Muslim cultural centre and mosque near the former site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in a suicide attack on 11 September 2001. “As a citizen and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right, together with all other American citizens, to manifest one’s religion”, Mr Obama said. He made this statement during a dinner with Muslim representatives at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. In early August, the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission decided that the building on the site for the planned mosque wasn’t an architectural landmark; ergo, it can be demolished. This decision was met with vehement reaction from the opponents of the construction of the mosque, who say that the construction of the Muslim centre near the site of the 9/11 attacks is an insult to the memory of the victims. For their part, advocates of the construction of the mosque emphasise that the objective of the project bring together the people of various faiths in New York City, and to emphasise that the monstrous terrorist act [committed on 9/11] contradicted the very foundations of Islam, RIA-Novosti reported.

14 August 2010

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/08/14/15705454.html

Editor’s Note:

I find it hilarious that the main opponent of the Muslim Cultural Centre is Pat Robertson. After all, the closest people to Muslims on the Christian “spectrum” are the American Sectarians (and I would argue that they are not even Christians). American sectarians have no liturgy, no sacraments, and no sense of tserkovnost. Their conventicles are like mosques in their sterile and cold iconoclastic emptiness (in truth, if one looks at them from an artistic standpoint, the mosques come out better than the Sectarian prayer halls). Indeed, their attitude to the Scriptures is much like the Muslim veneration of the Koran. One could even argue that there is much in common between fanatical American sectarians and the woollier forms of Islam. In short… shut up, Mr Robertson… this cultural centre and mosque shall be two whole city blocks away from the WTC site. Your obvious hatred and bigotry is visible to all comers.

If anyone votes for the Tea Party after this little show of small-mindedness, it doesn’t speak well for our country, does it? Don’t vote for Robertson’s little vendetta… don’t vote for the Tea Party. It’s quite that simple.

BMD