Wow, this totally explains the Republican Party.

Exploitation of religion to make the rich richer at the expense of the little guy. Exactly the opposite of what Jesus taught

That GOP crowd is busy on another thread at the moment urging Detroit to throw people out of their homes for property taxes when there are few jobs in the city. They are perfectly ok with throwing the 82 year old man out to the street corner.

Never enough:

“When we get more houses than we can live in, more cars than we can ride in, more food than we can eat ourselves, the only way of getting richer is by cutting off those who don’t have enough.”

Money is power. The way to consolidate power is to take it from others.

They are always looking for ways to hate on poor people, especially if those poor are black. Any comment thread that has anything to do with black people turns into a klan rally in minutes.

All while they deny that they're racist.

In a way, it's good to know who these people are so we can know who and what they are about. There are quite a few commenters whose posts I don't even bother reading anymore.

But -- and this is a big but -- it makes the NPR community look backwards and evil when they are allowed to do this unchecked.

Disqus does offer us the vote on whether or not a post is positive and helpful, or negative and not worth replying to. I do wish more people would bother to use that vote.

No. Don't check them. Don't feed the trolls. -- but yes, do vote!

Try to use the useless Disqus down vote button and see why no one uses it.

Each down vote works to take them out of the "best" comment filter

So, How many democrats voted for "In God we trust"

Under the "Pledge of Allegiance" why did it get removed from Our schools? Because it uses "Under God"? Wrong.
Thank the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Because of the word I " Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag"!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

"Under the "Pledge of Allegiance" why did it get removed from Our schools?"

Who cares why? The Pledge of Allegiance loses all meaning when it is forced.

Yes.

Because "In God We Trust" has been written on money, some people have come to think that money IS God!

“You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?
“So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Yes.

Thanks for agreeing with the words from Jesus

I disagree with nothing He said; I don't take His words literally all the time. Why do you thank me? What's it got to do with you?

---

Yet, -- people have come to believe that money is God. They sell their souls for the stuff. Why do we put the words "In God We Trust" on money? Seems stupid to me. If you are supposed to give Ceasar's face to Ceasar, then we should give money that says "In God We Trust" to God. Don't keep it in banks; or under the pillow. Don't hoard the stuff. Give it to God! And the best way to do that, is to support social programs for the poor, etc. Schools, Roads, things that go to the general welfare, and common good. I'm sure God will approve.

And we all know the 1950's religious revival was to morally compensate for the atomic bombs we dropped on innocent women and children. We needed some plausible deniability no matter how false it is.

The Devil quotes Scripture for his own purposes....- Shakesphere.

There is a distinct smell of republican in this important story.
It becomes clear how a candy coated ideology makes fools of us all,
in order that a few can indulge, with unsolidarity and greed; while telling the rest to get dirty, work harder
and at lower pay, to achieve the American Dream, the dream already stolen by the very rich.

The wall of separation between church and state should be made higher. Many people can make a better ten commandments than is in the Bible.

Well said!

Call it a legal argument temporally contigued to deter counterattack. In other words, we're too righteous to be nuked back now.

There seems to be a parallel to how the antebellum south adopted 'blue laws' to demonstrate their moral superiority after having lost a war over slavery

Dropping the bomb(s) saved as many innocent lives (or more) as they took.
The Atomic bomb saved many lives.

Dude, you are freaking brainwashed. Take a reality check.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

The Japanese people committed suicide at Okinawa rather than surrender to Americans. Their leaders told them that U.S. soldiers would eat them, and they jumped off cliffs with their babies.
... The Japanese leaders were training every man, woman and child to fight to the death. Talk about brainwashed. ... and do ... do take a reality check.

The good get rich and go to heaven. The poor stay poor, and go to Heck -- or somewhere similar.

Oh please. Pick a poor, black community that isn't run by Democrats. Democrats care nothing about black people, poor or otherwise. They just use them to get money to give to their special corporate friends.

How about the poorest states?

1) Mississippi - Poverty rate: 24.1% - Gov/Legislature - Republican

2) New Mexico - Poverty rate : 22% - Gov/Legislature - Republican

3) Louisiana - Poverty rate: 19.1% - Gov/Legislature - Republican

4) Georgia - Poverty rate: 19% - Gov/Legislature - Republican

5) Kentucky - Poverty rate: 18.8% - Gov/Legislature - Republican

Should I continue?

See what happens when people think they should vote for Jesus. A great blog.

Democrats are elected to represent black communities, they don't run them. And Democrats are not any worse or better than any other politician- they don't care about people, they care about votes. They advance the issues that get them the votes.

That is not true. What about the NBA? Or Music? Or Oprah?

"Their initial campaign doesn't go anywhere but once Eisenhower's own pastor endorses it ... it catches fire."

Ironically liberals frequently quote Eisenhower's wisdom on the Military Industrial Complex.

Nothing ironic about it at all, Art - Eisenhower happened to be correct about the Military Industrial Complex, and his pastor happened to be wrong (spectacularly so) about that odious campaign. Pray, tell, were's the irony in that?

The irony is simply that liberals would frequently quote a Pro-God Republican.

Again, Art, there's nothing ironic about it at all - you know as well as I do that plenty of "liberals" identify themselves as Christian, i.e "pro-God", and you know as well as I do that Eisenhower had a LOT to recommend him. The fact that "liberals" are able to admire his points that are admirable, and criticize the less-than-admirable aspects of his pastor, isn't "ironic" at all - it's a sign of good sense. And we both know that you're fully aware of that - this extremely lame attempt at semantic games is beneath you.

I do not believe in God for the same reasons I do not believe in Thor. So the problem rests with in belief without good evidence. The GOP uses religion to delude people who have been deluded with faith. Free Thinkers are the ones who do their home work.

You're giving him way too much credit- there's very little that's beneath Art.

Eisenhower was a top rated American and it is not ironic to quote him. He was the product of a world war and he himself set up America's Spheres of influence and his spying and other actions helped to create the cold war. The Russians had really payed a big price to stop Hitler. There have been several massive campaigns to bring religion to America in the "First Great Awaking" Christianity was based on "predestination" and failed. After that form of faith failed they they dropped "predestination" and then marketed Christianity as personal choice where one could be saved by believing. That promotion was more successful.

Such insane Leftist garbage. Detroit was destroyed by Democrats. There are no jobs there because of Democrats. Detroit has been run by Democrats since the 50s. If they cared about the poor, they would care about businesses coming back there so that people could actually have jobs. But they don't. The only thing they care about is how much they money they can take - and it's never to help the poor.

Zelda, what upset you so much about the piece? It sounded like the book author was simply stating the facts of how the Christian Right was formed. Is it possible that you feel the U.S. Constitution/Bill of Rights were sourced right from the hand of Jesus as so many on the Right? Still, I'd like to hear what specifically about the piece you found so left-slanted or objectionable. Calling it Leftist garbage just isn't very profound on its own.

Oh, and I think you have completely disregarded how Corporate America - imagine - had mismanaged their automobile manufacturing companies. I really don't think it has had much to do with the democratic leadership of the local governments. They were pretty much doing the best they could with the hand dealt to them by the Big Three.

Such insane Rightist garbage. Mississippi was destroyed by Republicans. There
are no jobs there because of Republicans. Mississippi has been run by Republicans since the 50s. If they cared about the poor, they would care
about businesses coming back there so that people could actually have
jobs. But they don't. The only thing they care about is how much they
money they can take - and it's never to help the poor.

See what I did there?

Detroit was destroyed by NAFTA! NAFTA was a pro-business agreement and it helped businesses move out of the country! Detroit was never poor- it was one of the most prosperous cities in America. Being pro-business is a race to the bottom for the working man. You'll never give business enough tax breaks, enough union concessions, or enough exemptions and there'll always be some politician or third world country who will. Your carrot will never be big enough to lure business on it's own- you have to beat them with the stick too.

"Detroit was destroyed by NAFTA!"

NAFTA just sped up what was already happening.

Yes, it had nothing to do with the auto industry producing Pintos, Vegas and Aztecs, as the rest of the world blew by them.

The auto industry out sourced the labor and Micheal Moore has great videos on how the ruling class thinks with the head of Nike, who refused to start jobs in Detroit while people where asking please. Then the sport figures made millions on Nike ads while their former neighbors where left to eat dirt and worship them. The new system works great for the top few and now with China the super stars need American fans even less. Dancing with the Stars? daaaaa.