Justice and Mercy on Wall Street

Dear Rabbi:

I agree that we must get beyond mere finger pointing, but that is hard to do when it seems that the fat cats have once again robbed us and gotten away with it.

I would hope that the judiciary will prosecute those who broke the law and got us into this mess, while the legislatures make sure these abuses won't happen again.

We need mercy and justice

While justice AND Mercy is the winning formula, mercy need not be a "one-way" street. Before we bail out a bank or financial institution why not attach a non-negotiable condition to the deal:

"We'll bail you but ONLY if your top executives GIVE BACK 90% of what they 'earned' over the past 12 months."

Wouldn't that be the "just" thing to do?

Although I have read and reread your post several times, Rabbi, I honestly don't know what you're talking about. Frankly, what you write sounds as close to Judaism as Brooklyn is to Beijing. The words for justice and mercy are closely related in Hebrew as you know, and are barely distinguishable in Judaism as you should know.

Those guilty of this disgusting debacle, the Phil Gramms, the Chris Dodds, et al, not to mention those walking away with billions as we head off into a recession need to be held accountable for their actions. So, too, does a Congress that didn't even bother to read some of the bills and addenda it signed off on.

Judaism has a role for us. Perhaps, you have heard of it: Tikkun Olam. The beauty of Justice is that it refuses to visit the sins of the father on the children. By failing again and again to visit Justice on perpetrators, we make perpetrators of the children, that is, we visit the sins of the father upon them. This, Rabbi, is justice and mercy, often one and the same. It is Judaism 101, Rabbi, I'm afraid.

I'm not interested in blame. I'm interested in the billions that the robber barons are getting away with, that should go into the public coffers. I'm interested in an inquiry into the doings of Chris Dodd lo these many years, and of the Congress, which allowed all this to occur.

I'm interested in the fact that having nationalized AIG, the American public now owns it and should demand a voice in how its managed. You, rabbi, I, every tax payer in America owns shares in AIG. If necessary we can sue the Federal Government to get our hands on it. I'm not fantasizing, just imagining what an activist public could do, a public that believes it can be effective, that will not let itself be led by the nose into the next financial disaster, or into the next Iraq.

the golden calf on wall street!

please work on removeing the rotten foissled calf from peoples hearts and necks ,the shackles is too heavy too stink.

please check what moses done to remove and clean the most rotten crap in the world.

The Money Changers gives some interesting perspective

Then and now.

http://coinage.me/coinage_the_money_changers.htm

By all means, then, do explicate what innocent thing you felt so moved to share with us, brave Anonymous.

I thought it meant watering the garden, getting the plants wet.

For the record, mods, 'wet work' is slang for things ...generally considered bad. In a, well, ..it means killing people.

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Please See, & Read, Robber Baron McCain in Action: Time To Retire "Friend":

Pleaza, See How John McCain & ‘Friends’ [Co.] got away with squandering Tax-Payers deposits, via his banking ’FRiENDS” in the 1990’s. Then ‘Evangelical Run ENRON’ now Evangelical bankrupt FANNi-May & Freddie Mac as if their (not our?) Uncle & Aunt SAM!?

Prophetically speaking they (evangelical JUDEO-JU’s, turned into JUDEO-Christs, play out their (not our) or Enforces them Evil Biblio “Drunkin racist Noah Storys & their “JACOB ULTiMATE SWiNDLE “Story, where he [Jacob/Israel] Robs his Uncle LEBAN & screws His own Cousins & Swindles ESEAUs Inheritance [similar to Ishmael, Hagar’s son Too] ; All this via Unsuspecting dumb god (not OUR G-D) song & story & Flocks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five AND

Please see Mass Murdering & Mass Destructor, Captain John McCain Dropping Napalm, before being Shot-Down in ViET NAM , and Killing Kids or Maiming Children & their Familys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev2dEqrN4i0

AMAZiNG () No GRACe!

--- THEREFORE:

VOTE: The ‘APOCALYPT-ARiAN’ Prophecy!

VOTE: OBAMA-BiDEN team , GOG (Truth) thinkers, not McCain-Palin team ,MAGOG (Illusion) , not-thinking!

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L O V e R O C K
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-- VOTE:

..........................OBAMA for PREZ!

...........................................BiDEN vPREZ 2009!

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LiSTEN-UP:

WHAT "C H A N G E"? WHAT Can the Same Ole, Same BUSH-CHANEY-McCAiN-PALin Delusion -TEAM "C H A N G E?"

Did Ye Forget Who Got-Us in the Middle-East Quandary in the 1st Place. Example:

REMEMBER & do not Forget:

The SAViNGS & LOAN Scandal [initiated by John McCain et al 1990‘s], the ENRON Electric & Gas Scandal [1999-2002] and The now Defunct quazi Governmental FANNiE May & FREDDiE MAC & Korean Purchasers Scandal [started 2007-current]! And also their Greasing McCains Oil Lobby ‘Friends‘, and their Armageddon Desert-Storm, False “WMD“ delusional BiBLio- fulfillment Pushers , via false stories to start Wars! Or Pre-Empt such DiViSion of Nations [See any BiBLE @ LUKE:12:51 & 14:26 et seq] , as we are witnessing like pushing Mother/Father of Sweet RUSSiA’s, Buttons …?? PLEAZEa!

Vote: BiDEN/OBAMA.

--- VOTE: Marriage is Between a real-Man (MAVORiTE) & a real-Lady (SPORADE) , interesting both candidates agree!

THEY Have "Religios Jealousy Psychosis!" With acute “Synergetic-less-Split/Minded Thinking” , also “DOUBLE STANDARDS PSYCHOSiS’s” , a Dangerous Molotov Cocktail so to spaketh TRUTH (opposite of MYTH-illogical SuperStupidStitious thinking)!

--- WELCOME to the 'AQUARiUS-AGE' (Astronomy thinking, NOT-Astrology/Zodiac) evolving out of the 'PiSCES-Age' (Based on Equinox Allignment Storys, not Zodiac nor Biblical Story’s).

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Pay'd For & Approved By the "American JO{KTANian-Race of the "EC{LAT-i-ON Party” & "O.U.R. Votary Association U.S.A." 2013+, a Prophecy whose TiME is now Cometh, for ALL those who Seek , the NEW Song, comming from O.U.R. Old Songs & Story’s!

--- iMPORTANT: Please See this Linko:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientious_objector

WE 'Apocalyptarian Nationalis despise 'Neo-Conservative Moveants', instead, we, The-HUE{MATE} Kinds, not like them HUMANS un-kinds, are "JO{KTAN"ly, CONSCiENTious Objectors & UnITERS, unlike them "PELEG"ian 'DiViDERS, aka 'WAR' Mongers, aka ARMAGEDON [Biblio Maniacs]Lovers!

New York Times is up 12 percent, the most since January 1980, to $15.25. I guess things are looking up at the Post here, although I don't know the numbers. I'm more of a letters kind of guy. The right letters can do wonders for the numbers. The numbers don't help the letters get better. It's all just an economy of words and the numbers follow from there.

What can we do for each other? Write love letters and never sign a Valentine with your own name for openers. A good word goes a long way. I never count the words when I write. Numbers distract(14th century) me and words attract(15th century) me. It took some time to go from distraction to attraction. We have to keep pulling for each other. In good time things improve. You have to go from mad to love for things to work the way God intended them.

"hey are real issues as Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy and the federal government loans billions of our dollars to ailing insurance giant, AIG. Is there a spiritual response to the melt down in the credit market?"

Maybe one that stops treating single-payer insurance as an inevitable turn toward 'Godless Communism' ...as opposed to having the government bail out the 'holy capitalist free market' on the public's dime every time the profit motive proves too 'tempting' for those who give us Religious-Right-endorsed rulers and bet our futures without taking the risks themselves?

Maybe the spiritual response should be, 'Whoa. Praying for the numbers to work out on ideological profit motives didn't give us this holy prosperity our preachers told us it would...'

That'd be a start, I suppose.

Thank the Gods they didn't actually get to put our Social Security fund in those companies' hands to profiteer off tanking themselves and our economy.

You know, that Bush plan that McCain suported the first time around and said he'd tr to resurrect in this campaign.

I think the spiritual response here is... Whoa. Even *this* meltdown dodged a bullet, what would have happened if we'd let the Religious Right candidates control *everything.*

It is astonishing to me the massive hypocrisy that is evidenced by these panelists who seem to be apologists for the greed driven credit dependent culture that is American economics today.

Don't blame the guilty? And why shouldn't the ants blame the grasshoppers who played today and thought the winter would never come?

How convenient that suddenly the spiritual guides here are aying we should deflect our blame, forget about that- just worry about our neighbors.

Well, I already know that- unless you are counted among those who refrained from benefitting from the credit industry, have lived within your means all your life-
your words are empty.
And there IS a religion whose core IS justice and that is Islam.

To suggest we circumvent justice because it is not central to your own beliefs, and that no religion has it as it's central tenet-

is to suggest that justice shoudl be dispensed with in this particular instance.

Ridiculous- this hide your head in the sand approach and be in denial to the root causes of the current economic debacle is to implicate yourself as one who is guilty, and not in a position to censure others.

I'm doing mud here Rabbi and flowers and peppers. Each must tend their own garden. I food for free, so good does grow beyond what evil is capable of creating. Evil self destructs. Ike brought some destruction. I lost a few flowers, but not all of them. I got rights and I got wet work to do. Good luck!