A fitting little item for what was St Francis of Assisi's feast day. Though

[Joe Chi Minh]

limited in its scope, and elegant and matter-of-fact, rather than polemical and impassioned, Jeffrey Sachs, its author doesn't pull his punches about the insensate greed of your body politic:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/oct/04/americas-deepening-moral-crisis

[xchrom]

1. Recommend - though I see it's been Unreccd already. Its an argument centrists,

Moderates, politics is about 'the deal' people cannot understand.

They MOVE to the right on their DEALS and not in A
Way that is good for The People.

But at this point -- What ever.

[pscot]

2. Recced for St Francis

my personal favorite among the elect.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. The author, Jeffrey Sachs, doesn't put it forward it as an argument, as a matter of opinion,

but as the plain reality, based on incontrovertible facts.

Hence the speedy Unrecommend. If it were fanciful, the unrecommender whould see no political danger in its articulation. It could be factually rebutted. This, however, is clearly not the case.

Even the shareholders in Goldman Sachs and the other behemoths cited by Time For Change in his latest article, are clearly despised and ridiculed by the sharks, whose self-awarded bonuses dwarf the net profit payable to the shareholders who are not on those companies' boards. So, it is not only the poor and the destitute and the homeless.

[pscot]

4. That assumes the unrecommender has

the intellectual capacity to frame a rebuttal. Seems doubtful.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. Covetousness is able to engender a very low and very pertinacious cunning. They are like

the dishonest steward, commended by Christ in his parable for knowing what he wanted and going for it - unlike the children of light who tend to be in two minds, havering between the attractions of this world and those of the kingdom of heaven. So, it's not a good idea to look upon Republicans (formal or informal) as stupid, however abysmally stupid they may be in the light of eternity. Where the once Almighty Dollar dollar is concerned, there is not a single area that the corporatist, worlding leaders will not scour, using every possible resource, to harness to their profit.

[pscot]

6. I agree, they possess a feral intelligence

that makes them dangerous. They tend to tribalism also. They screw up their courage by sniffing one anothers armpits and orifices. They love authority and they have aggressive leadership. Their fealty to Beck and Rush and their ready acceptance of corporate agitprop have lead to the teabag movement. As you say, the judgement of eternity is irrelevant.

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. Well put! If somewhat disgustingly in parts!!!!

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. I should have prefixed 'corporate' to 'net profit', above, to avoid misunderstanding.

After all, it would ordinarily seem wildly improbable that a company's net profit should be dwarfed by the bonuses awarded to its 'movers and shakers'.