Article

2009-09-19 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Billion-Dollar Pyramid Scheme Rivets Lebanon

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Posted by Fred 2009-09-19 00:00|| || Front Page|| [13 views ] Top
File under: Hezbollah

#1 Has anybody but me noticed that the
"Deeply Religious" are behind a good 99% of the world's problems?

Posted by Redneck Jim 2009-09-19 02:56|| 2009-09-19 02:56|| Front Page Top

#2 "The scandal has embarrassed the party, which prides itself on a reputation for honesty and selfless piety." lol.

Redneck Jim, you seem to be missing the forest for the trees here. Religion is concerned with spiritual afterlife. Greed is the motivator for all ponzi schemes and it is deeply rooted in the here and now and has little to do with one's faith or lack thereof.

The reason that Arabs live in squalor is because their leaders allow them to blame the Jews for everything that is wrong in the world rather than holding the leaders accountable. I'm beginning to notice the same trend here among liberals and some independents- blaming "the deeply religious" or "fundamentalists" for all that is wrong. Just like the Arabs do to the Jews. Heck, it has worked for them for thousands of years, I suppose there is no reason it can't work here too. But I have no intention of falling for it.

Posted by Jumbo Slinerong5015 2009-09-19 06:49|| 2009-09-19 06:49|| Front Page Top

#3 "the "Deeply Religious" are behind a good 99% of the world's problems"

You mean like the Gulag, the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, Pol Pot's killing fields, etc?

It cannot be stated often enough - atheist regimes killed, raped, and tortured more people in the last century than have been harmed in all the religious conflicts in history COMBINED, even if you include the ROP.

Posted by no mo uro 2009-09-19 06:54|| 2009-09-19 06:54|| Front Page Top

#4 Don't mind RJ. It's a Pavlovian thing - mentioning 'religion' just gets him to frothing at the mouth.

Seriously, this isn't anything new - and really has to do more with social issues. Take this excerpt:

many of Lebanon's Shiites, despite their ascent from near feudal poverty just a few decades ago, remain in some ways a nation apart. Their residual distrust of mainstream Lebanese institutions, which helped fuel Hezbollah's rise as a virtual state within a state, also appears to have made them vulnerable to Mr. Ezzedine's schemes

Substitute 'African American', 'Hispanic', etc. for 'Shiite" and (insert advocacy group) for Hesb'allah.

Heck, the defrauder doesn't even have to be religious - they just have to be more 'ethnic' than the rest of their target demographic.

Posted by Pappy 2009-09-19 11:02|| 2009-09-19 11:02|| Front Page Top

#5 I've heard that Mormons from the Utah heartland are disproportionately likely to be victimized by these sorts of confidence-game-enhanced pyramid schemes. The con men depend on the higher level of trust that tight-knit religious communities produce to jump-start their scams. RJ's partially right in that members of self-isolating religious sects are more vulnerable to betrayal by quick-talking Elmer Gantry-style scammers.

Look up the Dream Mine for a classic, ongoing example.

Posted by Mitch H.">Mitch H. 2009-09-19 11:42|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]">[http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/] 2009-09-19 11:42|| Front Page Top

#6 It's a good thing all those secular leftists voted the way they did in November, then.

Not a hint of messianic imagery in that campaign, nosirree. Must be why the policies since then have been trouble free, for them and for us.

Posted by lotp 2009-09-19 13:31|| 2009-09-19 13:31|| Front Page Top

#7 Annnd lotp takes the early lead in today's Snark O' the Day Award™

Posted by badanov 2009-09-19 13:47|| http://www.freefirezone.org]">[http://www.freefirezone.org] 2009-09-19 13:47|| Front Page Top

#8 It's basic Chesterton:

The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything. Astrology, politicized science, the One .....

which is not to say that those who are highly religious can't sometimes be fools and PITAs too. They can, because it's a human potential that manifests in all groups.

Posted by lotp 2009-09-19 13:49|| 2009-09-19 13:49|| Front Page Top

#9 I think Y'all missed the point

Jim Jones Compound in Guyana and his "Koolaid"
The Branch Davidians, ETC.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2009-09-19 14:18|| 2009-09-19 14:18|| Front Page Top

#10 To Continue
Islam who preach that they will Kill ALL non Islamics (Y'all forget there's a war going on right now with "Religious Extremists"?)

Japan in WW2 who firmly believed their Emperor WAS God.

Kimmie who's trying right now to attain Godhood among the NORKS

No I don't believe, I've seen too much evil under the HOLY banner, but you seem able to ignore facts unless your nose is rubbed in shit first "Pappy".

And No, Just because I've Don't believe does NOT mean that I'm gullible enough to believe other plain scams like Tarot, Fortune tellers, palm reading Zodiac, or hundreds of other similar scams.

I was raised Episcopal until I actually READ the Bible and not forced to listen to other "HOLY" folks, telling me "What it really means".
Crap like Geology shows the earth far older than the Bible states, and being told (By a Priest, no less) that God made it that way to test our faith, either you believe in God, or the Lying Evidence of Your own Eyes.

Enough, I'm no longer Hag ridden by "ANY Religion" and the bullshit you're taught as HOLY TRUTH Not to be questioned.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2009-09-19 14:42|| 2009-09-19 14:42|| Front Page Top

#11 You mean like the Gulag, the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, Pol Pot's killing fields, etc?

them was religious too... the people just worshiped their leader instead of a traditional divinity.

Posted by abu do you love ">abu do you love 2009-09-19 14:44|| 2009-09-19 14:44|| Front Page Top

#12 Has anybody but me noticed that the
"Deeply Religious" are behind a good 99% of the world's problems?

I would say deeply indoctrinated, whether these are Islamists, Gaia worshippers, atheists or liberals.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2009-09-19 15:19|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2009-09-19 15:19|| Front Page Top

#13 IIRC a recent Ipsos poll in the UK revealed that a majority of (secular, post-modern post-Christian) Brits believe in parapsychology, communing with spirits, etc. Also, in Germany, where hardly anyone believes in God, about 30% of the populace believes that on 9/11 the Pentagon bombed the Pentagon. Recent polls of registered Democrats here indicate that 32% believe 9/11 was a conspiracy pulled off by Chimpy BusHitler ande Darth Cheney.

I'd say that maybe a third of any population is susceptible to a monstrous delusion of one kind or another. Size matters here: see Hitler's "big lie" theory.

Posted by lex 2009-09-19 17:40|| 2009-09-19 17:40|| Front Page Top

#14 Kimmie who's trying right now to attain Godhood among the NORKS

Last time I checked, they, like all communists, maintained an officially atheist party line. Just like you.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2009-09-19 18:39|| 2009-09-19 18:39|| Front Page Top

#15 Enough, I'm no longer Hag ridden by "ANY Religion" and the bullshit you're taught as HOLY TRUTH Not to be questioned.

That's nice. You're Free.

Spare us the preaching tho, 'kay? You're pegging the irony meter.

Posted by Pappy 2009-09-19 19:09|| 2009-09-19 19:09|| Front Page Top

#16 I was raised Episcopal until I actually READ the Bible and not forced to listen to other "HOLY" folks, telling me "What it really means".

Well that certainly explains your blame the ~~Jews~~ Holly Roller mindset. I also was raised Episcopalian and thus understand how you can sit through years and never get a clue what Christianity is about. Also explains why you were "surprised" when you actually read the bible. LOL! Who knew God wasn't Santa Claus?

If you want to argue your case, you've picked very bad examples. I suggest you actually go back and read what others here have said so that you aren't just like our blinkered Middle Eastern friends who spend their life assigning blame to a group of "very-bad-others" so they don't have to put much thought into complex issues. But then, it's so much easier that way, isn't it? Don't have to tax the brain to sort through human nature's ugly mess. You are good. They are bad. End of story.

Posted by Jumbo Slinerong5015 2009-09-19 19:32|| 2009-09-19 19:32|| Front Page Top

#17 It's not a religion/non-religion thingy. Rather, it's trusting another member of the in-group. So Jews fall for Madoff, Shiites fall for Ezzedine, and non-believers fall for those clever guys and gals working at Lehman Brothers. The important thing here is how sudden massive poverty and an embarrassing connection will affect Hizb'allah's pull on Lebanese affairs in the short to medium term. Could it be, f'r instance, that Nasrallah's sudden announcement that Hizb'allah is not interested in war with Israel is connected?

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-09-19 21:30|| 2009-09-19 21:30|| Front Page Top

#18 "Some farmers mortgaged their fields and brought in cash. Others sold land they had inherited from their parents. Teachers gave up all their savings. Old people lost everything they had."

Then they're idiots.

As are the people who gave Madoff their entire life savings to "invest" at some ridicuously high percent "return."

Madoff was a selfish, self-centered criminal SOB, but their own greed did them in in the end.

Same here. "Mortgaged their farms"; "sold their land"; what idiot does that? Now they're whining that they were scammed? Howzabout they remember you can't cheat an honest man?

Pfui.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2009-09-19 21:52|| 2009-09-19 21:52|| Front Page Top

#19 OK the statemenrs I made ae being rewriten and derailed
thus understand how you can sit through years and never get a clue what Christianity is about.

Oh I got it, "Do as I say and Maybe you'll get aa reward long after it'll do you any good, and in a manner that nobody can verify"

The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything.
NO it's a hard lesson that well meaning people WILL LIE to get you to do what THEY want you to do. Give me Money, of course it's NOT for me, but FOR GOD (and to pay for the church building's mortgage)along with saying do not accumulate material things (Like the gold candlesticks and lectern, the Priest's salary, and Fancy cloths bleached snowy white those DON"T COUNT)

what I'm speking of is the practice of NOT following the same "Lessons" we're taught
That "GOD"S HOUSE is somehow exempt.

To quote another saying "One set of rules for thee and another se for ME"
So common in Government today.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2009-09-19 22:42|| 2009-09-19 22:42|| Front Page Top

#20 Jimmuah Ima here for you man!

Also happy new year!

Posted by .5MT 2009-09-19 23:45|| 2009-09-19 23:45|| Front Page Top

#21 Lots of Rantburg atheists agree with you about religion, Redneck Jim. If only we could figure out a way to prove one way or another, but that's the difference between faith and science. But because of your own faith, you might find it interesting to read Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible: A Historical Look at the Old and New Testaments. It's a tad dated now -- my copy is from 1988 -- but it addresses historical evidence as well as internal evidence, remembering that as a writer both of fact and fiction, the good doctor understood the various reasons a tale might be told. I reread it about every ten years

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-09-19 23:51|| 2009-09-19 23:51|| Front Page Top

#22 Heh... Ima was researching the topic and found gold....

Jim here's a little non-sectarian religon for 'ye.

Posted by .5MT 2009-09-19 23:51|| 2009-09-19 23:51|| Front Page Top

#23 Happy Jewish New Year to you too, .5MT. May you and all Rantburgers be written in the book of life for health, happiness and success.

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-09-19 23:53|| 2009-09-19 23:53|| Front Page Top

23:54 .5MT
23:53 trailing wife
23:51 .5MT
23:51 trailing wife
23:47 anymouse
23:45 .5MT
23:31 Woozle Uneter9007
23:31 trailing wife
23:26 Woozle Uneter9007
23:25 Zhang Fei
23:18 Old Patriot
23:02 Old Patriot
22:42 Redneck Jim
22:29 lotp
22:21 KBK
22:17 lotp
22:16 Barbara Skolaut
22:12 lotp
22:07 Barbara Skolaut
22:05 Redneck Jim
22:05 Barbara Skolaut
22:01 Cyber Sarge
21:58 Cyber Sarge
21:54 trailing wife