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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Land Shark who wrote (34262)	6/29/2011 7:50:50 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 36917

And the relevance of that is what?

To: Land Shark who wrote (34262)	6/29/2011 9:47:20 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 36917

Maybe there is a relevant point there. In the Roman era, the Roman procurators had the power to appoint high priests and we know all of the high priests belonged to one of several wealthy families that monopolized the high priesthood. No one person served very long, and its believed the office was purchased by bribes ... the way government appointments often are ... see Blagojevitch for an example. The high priests held the power to appoint lower levels of priests, levites and attendants and what we'd call today, contractors. Those moneychangers and animal sellers were likely picked by the high priests officers based on kickbacks and received their reward via inflated exchange rates and prices. Truly a den of thieves. But this is the way things work in government bureaucracies .. we know corruption and fraud and crony capitalism is rampant today in our country. An example: The Food-STAMP Crime Wave The number of food-STAMP recipients has soared to 44 million from 26 million in 2007. Not surprisingly, FRAUD and abuse are rampant. .... online.wsj.com ... The Obama administration is responding by cracking down on state governments' antiFRAUD measures. The administration is seeking to compel California, New York and Texas to cease requiring food-STAMP applicants to provide finger images. .... Another example is the granting of HCR waivers to political favorites - in a recent month it was revealed that 1/5 of the waivers for that month went to hoity-toity restaurants and clubs which serve the elite in Nancy Pelosi's district. Another example is the fact that we have a Treasury Secretary, responsible for enforcing income tax laws, who is himself a known tax cheat. Not to mention that the former head of the Congressional tax writing committee was recently sanctioned for tax cheating. I could go on and on, naming the high-powered political insiders; like Jamie Gorelick, James Johnson, Franklin Raines; who drove Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into financial failure but walked away with tens and hundreds of millions in compensation. Then there are the environmental conmen like Al Gore, puffing himself up like an ancient prophet, preaching austerity and scolding his critics as sinners, while he lives a life the opposite of what he preaches and lines his pockets with millions obtained from government mandates that he has pushed for. In koan's view of the world, these cronies, corruptocrats, grafters are holy administrators of what he considers our current holy priesthood who run the nanny state. Truly today, our government agencies are a den of thieves, just as the corrupt priesthood of the first century Jerusalem temple was.