Resurrection: A History of Myths

"As fantastic as the world's resurrection stories are, they can't hold a candle to the legend of a friendly rabbit who dispenses colored chicken eggs to children once a year." That, the closing line of the story on LiveScience.com: Resurrection: A history of Myths.

Author Benjamin Rathford begins, "Ancient accounts tell of an important figure whose birth would be heralded by a star in the heavens, a god who would later judge the dead. He would be murdered in a betrayal by one close to him, his body hidden away — though not for long, as he would return in a miraculous resurrection to begin an eternal reign in heaven."

He speaks of the Egyptian god, Orisis, "only one of many pagan gods worshipped thousands of years before the birth of Jesus. Indeed, though Jesus is currently the best-known example of a resurrected figure, he is far from the only one."

Today, the day-between, Christians all around the globe 'await' tomorrow's resurrection event, convinced that in fact, Jesus did somehow beat death to rise and scare the dickens out of the disciples.

The earliest writer of the Gospels, Mark, whose stories were used by Matthew and Luke for the basis of their expanded versions of the story, ends his writing with the words in 16:8 "And they went out, and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them: and they said nothing to any one; for they were afraid."

Biblical scholars suspect that 16:9 - 16:20 were added on sometime in the early Christian era. Thus, Mark, the first writer, does not know what to make of the 'empty tomb' and thus ends his narrative with the women trembling and saying nothing to any one.

Surely these women could not have remained silent otherwise Mark would not have known about the 'empty' tomb. Of course, the 'data' that Mark gives in 14:35-42, regarding the sleeping disciples and Jesus's prayers, is quite suspect because the 'witnesses' are all asleep. Perhaps there was a tape recorder?

Nonetheless, we now have the 'updated' versions of the empty tomb scenario from the other 3 gospels. And there begins the myth, the add-ons, the embellishment of the hero, the martyr, the chosen one. One wise adage warns that the beloved not be embellished more in death than he was in life.

Yet I think that the story of the life of Jesus was clearly more glorious than that specious after-life story. The 'resurrection' that people should witness to is that of the life and teachings of Jesus- summarized in essence in, 'Love one another as I have loved you.' What a great line to repeat at a funeral service.

End of the World is Nigh!

"It's later than you think because we do believe Jesus is coming soon!"  Well, we've been hearing that line for over 1000 years.  One ought to ask, 'Please define soon.'  It does make great theatrics, though. The Toledo Blade's religious editor, David Yonke, has the story of one more biblical end-times preacher who whipped up the 'faithful' here in Ohio with the prophecy.

Eighty-four-year-old Texas evangelist Hilton Sutton believes that current events and biblical prophecies are coming together to prepare the way for such momentous biblical events as the final battle of Armageddon, the Great Tribulation, and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

He feels that this is the 'right time' especially in the past 60 years after the Israeli nation was formed. "When the nation of Israel began to function as a nation...we have End Times prophecies being fulfilled today that no previous generation had ever had fulfilled and the stage is set," said Mr. Sutton.

He stated: In today's world, people were enjoying economic prosperity right up until the day the economic crisis hit, he said, and just like Noah's flood and Sodom's fiery demise, they were caught by surprise.

When asked by a minister about the Antichrist, Mr. Sutton rattled off numerous Bible verses from memory and said the Antichrist will not be revealed until after the Rapture, when all the world's Christians are instantly transported to heaven.

Beam me up, Scotty!

Pittsburgh police shooting suspect may have been white supremacist

CNN) -- "Braced for Fate" believes that Jews control American media, financial institutions and government and that federal authorities plan to confiscate guns owned lawfully by American citizens. Those chilling beliefs are revealed in posts on a white supremacist Web site that the Anti-Defamation League says were made by Richard Poplawski, the man who allegedly ambushed and killed three Pittsburgh police officers last week.

The organization, which tracks anti-Semitic activity, says Poplawski posted on the Web site first under the username "Rich P" and more recently under the ominous username "Braced for Fate."

In one post, "Braced for Fate" describes the eagle tattoo he sports in a photograph taken from Poplawski's MySpace page before the page was taken down, calling it a "deliberately Americanized version of the [Nazi] Iron Eagle.

---------------------------------------

Just one more nut case whose head was loaded with idiotic nonsense and whose trigger finger acted out his madness.

A friend said of Poplawski, "He didn't like the control of the guns that was about to happen. He believed everything our forefathers put before us and thought that it was being distorted."

I wonder where he got that idea? Was Poplawski a frequent listener to talk radio? Did he act out the fantasies that Glen Beck and other right-wing talking heads ranted about? Did he believe, as Beck argued, that he was 'taking back America' from its enemies?

In one of Poplawski's posts to the website he wrote, "If a total collapse is what it takes to wake our brethren and guarantee future generations of white children walk this continent, if that is what it takes to restore our freedoms and recapture our land: Let it begin this very second and not a moment later."

'Restore our freedoms,' he said. Does that phrase sound at all familiar? We have to restore our freedoms- freedoms such as? It really doesn't matter to the propagandists on right-wing radio. Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh merely drop the phrases and let the nut cases decide on how to 'deal' with it.

Regarding his weapon: In another post, answering a question about what weapon he'd like to have if he were allowed only one, he said, "I guess I'd have to say my AK. Which is nice because it doesn't have to fall from the sky -- it's in a case within arms reach."

Nearby, his AK-47, the equalizer. His personal 'revolution' will be carried out with his AK-47, not barricades in the streets, not protest signs on street corners, not letters to the editor. No, that is way-too American. He'd rather 'protest' with 100 bullets into police officers.

All-American guy, Richard Poplawski, fighting for 'freedoms' and 'taking back America,' single handedly with his AK-47.

The Last Supper- Who Knew?

DaVinci knew something.  But that is not my question.  Rather, I wonder just how many at the table referred to as the Last Supper knew what Jesus knew- that this would be their last supper together?  Their last passover Seder as a team?

Thirteen men [or 12 and one woman] at table celebrating the customary Seder meal on the eve of Passover and one, at least, knew what was next.  Possibly two.

After their wine-filled dinner, the Gospels report that they went out to the garden and that the drunken apostles fell asleep, stomachs full, alcohol aiding their slumber.  Yet there were only 11 at that time as 'the one who would betray' Jesus had not fallen asleep.  He had 'gone to the authorities' to alert them to where Jesus was spending the Seder.

Eleven others not in on the plan.  Eleven men travelling with, eating with, sleeping with the master had not a clue that Jesus and Judas had a plan that would 'end' in arrest and the rest.  Of course, the master led them on into believing that this was a insurrection movement, a civil battle between the Jewish people and their captors, the Romans.

Did Judas think the same?  Was he selected to 'do the job' thinking that he was, in some mysterious way, helping to foil the Romans- that this would be the beginning of the insurrection, the revolt against Roman rule?  Of course we will never know that. Clearly the other 11 hadn't gotten even that far in their assumption as what the end-game plan was.

Three years, 1000 days and nights together, 24/7 and they had not a clue the goal of their mission together.  Were they dim?  Did Jesus purposely mislead them, dupe them?  Did any of them ask, throughout those 1000 days, "Master, what is our plan?"  Did they ever ask, "Master, when can we go home and rejoin our wivers and family?"

It was an odd night, curious as well.  Why were they in the dark 'on this special night?'

Sociopathic Gun-Nuts Loose in America

The Kirk editorial cartoon in today's Blade drives home the problem that we here 'at home' are facing on a daily basis: "U.S. Gun Massacre of the Day."

Today we read the funeral plans for the three officers slain by a psychotic sociopath who believed the right-wing chant that 'Obama wanted to take his guns away.'
How many hundreds or thousands others like him are out there, armed to the teeth, unhappy with their lives, listening to the constant chatter from right-wing radio, urging them 'into action to take back America!'

Take back America? From whom? Who has 'taken' America? Who are the traitors, those engaged in espionage?
It really doesn't matter, in the mind of the psychotic, 'who' they are. The sociopath 'knows' who 'they' are; he's been upset with 'them' for a long time. All he needs is some encouragement- someone in authority to give them the permission to do it. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Glen Beck rant and rage 24/7 that America is going to hell and the socialists-communists have taken the country hostage.

Enter the sociopath with his AK-47. Rambo will free his country from these anti-American, freedom-hating people. All he needs in encouragement and permission.

"The Decline and Fall of Christian America."

Hot off of the presses, Newsweek's cover story is Jon Meacham's "The Decline and Fall of Christian America."

According to the American Religious Identification Survey, the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 percent since 1990, from 86 to 76 percent. Meacham writes that these figures show that America has not only become less Christian, but moved into a "post-Christian" phase. "This is not to say that the Christian God is dead," he writes, "but that he is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory."

Many conservative Christians believe they have lost the battles over issues such as abortion, school prayer and even same-sex marriage, and that the country has now entered a post-Christian phase. "A remarkable culture-shift has taken place around us," R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theology Seminary tells Newsweek. "The most basic contours of American culture have been radically altered. The so-called Judeo-Christian consensus of the last millennium has given way to a post-modern, post-Christian, post-Western cultural crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture." What was once the cradle of American civilization may be the cradle of "America's secular future."

Threatens? Threatens the very heart of our culture? Of course, the author is one of those born-again Baptist fundamentalists who would like America to be under Mosaic Law. He doesn't understand the concept of 'democracy' and the freedom from religion, upon which this nation was founded. He, like his Muslim fundamentalist counterparts, believes those ancient rules contained in the dusty writings of those nomadic tribes. He is not wise enough nor is he objective enough to understand that a democracy cannot be encumbered with religious dogma.

It's Holy Week Once Again

One week out of 52 is deemed 'holy' and we are in it, according to Christian tradition.  Death and ressurection, coinciding, incidentally, with the rebirth of nature after the long, cold death of winter.  A passion play in four days.

Of course, Christians weren't the first to think about the life-death-ressurection cycle.  Many cultures that predate Christianity performed rituals both at this springtime as well as the winter solstice, late December. One wonders which ancient culture was the first to recognize that the seed of the plant is the source of new life.

As is so common among tribes and communities, rituals arose that helped the people understand these 'mysteries' of life. Those pagan bonfires in late December 'brought back' the sun before it sank into the sea- before its light was extinguished by the ocean waters. It worked every time. Rejoice and be glad!

Gods and goddesses 'arose' to help tell the stories and with which to identify the 'greatness' of the mysteries of life. In those dim days before the secrets were unlocked by science, magic ruled the earth while, above it, the gods and goddesses ruled and caused those 'miracles' to occur. Unless one praised and adored these supernatural deities, they might become unhappy and turn on the lowly humans and bring wrath and destruction to the people.

Those pre-science days must have been frightful indeed. Every action or inaction might result in punishment by the gods who, in their perch, just above the cloud, watched every movement and marked the observed transgressions on clay tablets. 

The burning of incense somehow pleased the gods; perhaps it was the pleasant odor which rose to the sky to ameliorate the mood of the deity, to make him/her less punitive. The sap of the Commiphora myrrha tree seemed especially sweet and appropriate for deity-pleasing. It is this very tree from which the Greek god Adonis sprung to life from its trunk, having been conceived incestuously.

Myrrh was commonly used by the Ancient Egyptians as far back as 3000 B.C. They used it to embalm the dead, as an antiseptic, and burned it for religious sacrifice. King Tutankhamen was entombed with frankincense, a relative of myrrh.  The practice of embalming with myrrh was common through the 15th century. . This week in Christian churches, the incense of these trees will fill the air and lift the spirits of those in attendance [or cause allergic coughing]. This same myrrh was used to embalm Jesus in the tomb, mixing it with aloes, 'about a hundredweight.' The same frankincense and myrrh that was given to the baby Jesus at his birth. It is interesting to note that, in ancient Chinese medicine, used in concert, myrrh is "blood-moving" while frankincense moves the Qi.

As an altar boy in the 50's, I would scoop out the spoonfuls of the incense into the holders before mass and then watch it spread out on the burning coals, instantly releasing its perfume all about the altar. Magical stuff; great ritual. Those 'holy oils' used this week and throughout the year have been steeped in frankincense and myrrh. Powerfully spiritual resin indeed.

And so goes this Holy Week- steeped in ancient tradition- to tell the story of the seed's life, death and resurrection once again to the 'faithful' who want to believe that there is more to life than just living and dying.

Right-wing Gun Advocate Aflutter on MSNBC

I saw this pathetic 'debate' last evening and wondered why the Second Amendment Advocates allowed this douchbag to represent their point of view.

Notice the 'references' that Gotlieb tries to drop and how Schuster nails these phony facts. It is classic right-wing nonsense.

Obama Praises Non-Fundamentalist Turkey

"I'm trying to make a statement about the importance of Turkey, not just to the United States but to the world," Obama said at a joint news conference Monday with Turkish President Abdullah Gul."This is a country that has been often said lies at the crossroads between East and West. It's a country that possesses an extraordinarily rich heritage but also represents a blend of those ancient traditions with a modern nation state that respects democracy, respects rule of law and is striving toward a modern economy."Obama said Monday that the United States and Turkey can send a powerful message to the world through their friendship.

That's non-fundamentalist Muslim Turkey. Ninety-nine percent Sunni Muslim yet Turkey has a secular constitution, with no official state religion. What a difference it makes to a nation when there is a secular constitution and there is a strict separation of church/mosque and state.

We see the mess that is now Iraq after the 'crusade' by George W. Bush to remove the Sunni leader, Hussein, who permitted a similar tolerance for religion in his dictatorship. So much for bring'n democracy [and tolerance] to Iraq. The Shi'as are clamping down on all aspects of Iraqi society and culture. Fundamentalists hate democracies.

Stupidity nets stupidity. Thankfully, we have Obama at the helm to save us from more blatant ignorance.

Bill Moyers Has Done It

WILLIAM K. BLACK: The facts about how bad the condition of the banks is. So, as long as I keep the old CEO who caused the problems, is he going to go vigorously around finding the problems? Finding the frauds?

BILL MOYERS: You--

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Taking away people's bonuses?

BILL MOYERS: To hear you say this is unusual because you supported Barack Obama, during the campaign. But you're seeming disillusioned now.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, certainly in the financial sphere, I am. I think, first, the policies are substantively bad. Second, I think they completely lack integrity. Third, they violate the rule of law. This is being done just like Secretary Paulson did it. In violation of the law. We adopted a law after the Savings and Loan crisis, called the Prompt Corrective Action Law. And it requires them to close these institutions. And they're refusing to obey the law.

BILL MOYERS: In other words, they could have closed these banks without nationalizing them?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, you do a receivership. No one -- Ronald Reagan did receiverships. Nobody called it nationalization.

BILL MOYERS: And that's a law?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: That's the law.

BILL MOYERS: So, Paulson could have done this? Geithner could do this?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Not could. Was mandated--

BILL MOYERS: By the law.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: By the law.

BILL MOYERS: This law, you're talking about.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Yes.

BILL MOYERS: What the reason they give for not doing it?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: They ignore it. And nobody calls them on it.

BILL MOYERS: Well, where's Congress? Where's the press? Where--

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, where's the Pecora investigation?

BILL MOYERS: The what?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: The Pecora investigation. The Great Depression, we said, "Hey, we have to learn the facts. What caused this disaster, so that we can take steps, like pass the Glass-Steagall law, that will prevent future disasters?" Where's our investigation?

What would happen if after a plane crashes, we said, "Oh, we don't want to look in the past. We want to be forward looking. Many people might have been, you know, we don't want to pass blame. No. We have a nonpartisan, skilled inquiry. We spend lots of money on, get really bright people. And we find out, to the best of our ability, what caused every single major plane crash in America. And because of that, aviation has an extraordinarily good safety record. We ought to follow the same policies in the financial sphere. We have to find out what caused the disasters, or we will keep reliving them. And here, we've got a double tragedy. It isn't just that we are failing to learn from the mistakes of the past. We're failing to learn from the successes of the past.

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: In the Savings and Loan debacle, we developed excellent ways for dealing with the frauds, and for dealing with the failed institutions. And for 15 years after the Savings and Loan crisis, didn't matter which party was in power, the U.S. Treasury Secretary would fly over to Tokyo and tell the Japanese, "You ought to do things the way we did in the Savings and Loan crisis, because it worked really well. Instead you're covering up the bank losses, because you know, you say you need confidence. And so, we have to lie to the people to create confidence. And it doesn't work. You will cause your recession to continue and continue." And the Japanese call it the lost decade. That was the result. So, now we get in trouble, and what do we do? We adopt the Japanese approach of lying about the assets. And you know what? It's working just as well as it did in Japan.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah. Are you saying that Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others in the administration, with the banks, are engaged in a cover up to keep us from knowing what went wrong?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: You are.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely, because they are scared to death. All right? They're scared to death of a collapse. They're afraid that if they admit the truth, that many of the large banks are insolvent. They think Americans are a bunch of cowards, and that we'll run screaming to the exits. And we won't rely on deposit insurance. And, by the way, you can rely on deposit insurance. And it's foolishness. All right? Now, it may be worse than that. You can impute more cynical motives. But I think they are sincerely just panicked about, "We just can't let the big banks fail." That's wrong.

BILL MOYERS: But what might happen, at this point, if in fact they keep from us the true health of the banks?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, then the banks will, as they did in Japan, either stay enormously weak, or Treasury will be forced to increasingly absurd giveaways of taxpayer money. We've seen how horrific AIG -- and remember, they kept secrets from everyone.

BILL MOYERS: A.I.G. did?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: What we're doing with -- no, Treasury and both administrations. The Bush administration and now the Obama administration kept secret from us what was being done with AIG. AIG was being used secretly to bail out favored banks like UBS and like Goldman Sachs. Secretary Paulson's firm, that he had come from being CEO. It got the largest amount of money. $12.9 billion. And they didn't want us to know that. And it was only Congressional pressure, and not Congressional pressure, by the way, on Geithner, but Congressional pressure on AIG.

Where Congress said, "We will not give you a single penny more unless we know who received the money." And, you know, when he was Treasury Secretary, Paulson created a recommendation group to tell Treasury what they ought to do with AIG. And he put Goldman Sachs on it.

BILL MOYERS: Even though Goldman Sachs had a big vested stake.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Massive stake. And even though he had just been CEO of Goldman Sachs before becoming Treasury Secretary. Now, in most stages in American history, that would be a scandal of such proportions that he wouldn't be allowed in civilized society.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah, like a conflict of interest, it seems.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Massive conflict of interests.

BILL MOYERS: So, how did he get away with it?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: I don't know whether we've lost our capability of outrage. Or whether the cover up has been so successful that people just don't have the facts to react to it.

BILL MOYERS: Who's going to get the facts?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: We need some chairmen or chairwomen--

BILL MOYERS: In Congress.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: --in Congress, to hold the necessary hearings. And we can blast this out. But if you leave the failed CEOs in place, it isn't just that they're terrible business people, though they are. It isn't just that they lack integrity, though they do. Because they were engaged in these frauds. But they're not going to disclose the truth about the assets.

BILL MOYERS: And we have to know that, in order to know what?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: To know everything. To know who committed the frauds. Whose bonuses we should recover. How much the assets are worth. How much they should be sold for. Is the bank insolvent, such that we should resolve it in this way? It's the predicate, right? You need to know the facts to make intelligent decisions. And they're deliberately leaving in place the people that caused the problem, because they don't want the facts. And this is not new. The Reagan Administration's central priority, at all times, during the Savings and Loan crisis, was covering up the losses.

BILL MOYERS: So, you're saying that people in power, political power, and financial power, act in concert when their own behinds are in the ringer, right?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: That's right. And it's particularly a crisis that brings this out, because then the class of the banker says, "You've got to keep the information away from the public or everything will collapse. If they understand how bad it is, they'll run for the exits."

WILLIAM K. BLACK: The facts about how bad the condition of the banks is. So, as long as I keep the old CEO who caused the problems, is he going to go vigorously around finding the problems? Finding the frauds?

BILL MOYERS: You--

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Taking away people's bonuses?

BILL MOYERS: To hear you say this is unusual because you supported Barack Obama, during the campaign. But you're seeming disillusioned now.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, certainly in the financial sphere, I am. I think, first, the policies are substantively bad. Second, I think they completely lack integrity. Third, they violate the rule of law. This is being done just like Secretary Paulson did it. In violation of the law. We adopted a law after the Savings and Loan crisis, called the Prompt Corrective Action Law. And it requires them to close these institutions. And they're refusing to obey the law.

BILL MOYERS: In other words, they could have closed these banks without nationalizing them?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, you do a receivership. No one -- Ronald Reagan did receiverships. Nobody called it nationalization.

BILL MOYERS: And that's a law?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: That's the law.

BILL MOYERS: So, Paulson could have done this? Geithner could do this?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Not could. Was mandated--

BILL MOYERS: By the law.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: By the law.

BILL MOYERS: This law, you're talking about.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Yes.

BILL MOYERS: What the reason they give for not doing it?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: They ignore it. And nobody calls them on it.

BILL MOYERS: Well, where's Congress? Where's the press? Where--

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, where's the Pecora investigation?

BILL MOYERS: The what?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: The Pecora investigation. The Great Depression, we said, "Hey, we have to learn the facts. What caused this disaster, so that we can take steps, like pass the Glass-Steagall law, that will prevent future disasters?" Where's our investigation?

What would happen if after a plane crashes, we said, "Oh, we don't want to look in the past. We want to be forward looking. Many people might have been, you know, we don't want to pass blame. No. We have a nonpartisan, skilled inquiry. We spend lots of money on, get really bright people. And we find out, to the best of our ability, what caused every single major plane crash in America. And because of that, aviation has an extraordinarily good safety record. We ought to follow the same policies in the financial sphere. We have to find out what caused the disasters, or we will keep reliving them. And here, we've got a double tragedy. It isn't just that we are failing to learn from the mistakes of the past. We're failing to learn from the successes of the past.

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: In the Savings and Loan debacle, we developed excellent ways for dealing with the frauds, and for dealing with the failed institutions. And for 15 years after the Savings and Loan crisis, didn't matter which party was in power, the U.S. Treasury Secretary would fly over to Tokyo and tell the Japanese, "You ought to do things the way we did in the Savings and Loan crisis, because it worked really well. Instead you're covering up the bank losses, because you know, you say you need confidence. And so, we have to lie to the people to create confidence. And it doesn't work. You will cause your recession to continue and continue." And the Japanese call it the lost decade. That was the result. So, now we get in trouble, and what do we do? We adopt the Japanese approach of lying about the assets. And you know what? It's working just as well as it did in Japan.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah. Are you saying that Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others in the administration, with the banks, are engaged in a cover up to keep us from knowing what went wrong?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: You are.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Absolutely, because they are scared to death. All right? They're scared to death of a collapse. They're afraid that if they admit the truth, that many of the large banks are insolvent. They think Americans are a bunch of cowards, and that we'll run screaming to the exits. And we won't rely on deposit insurance. And, by the way, you can rely on deposit insurance. And it's foolishness. All right? Now, it may be worse than that. You can impute more cynical motives. But I think they are sincerely just panicked about, "We just can't let the big banks fail." That's wrong.

BILL MOYERS: But what might happen, at this point, if in fact they keep from us the true health of the banks?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, then the banks will, as they did in Japan, either stay enormously weak, or Treasury will be forced to increasingly absurd giveaways of taxpayer money. We've seen how horrific AIG -- and remember, they kept secrets from everyone.

BILL MOYERS: A.I.G. did?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: What we're doing with -- no, Treasury and both administrations. The Bush administration and now the Obama administration kept secret from us what was being done with AIG. AIG was being used secretly to bail out favored banks like UBS and like Goldman Sachs. Secretary Paulson's firm, that he had come from being CEO. It got the largest amount of money. $12.9 billion. And they didn't want us to know that. And it was only Congressional pressure, and not Congressional pressure, by the way, on Geithner, but Congressional pressure on AIG.

Where Congress said, "We will not give you a single penny more unless we know who received the money." And, you know, when he was Treasury Secretary, Paulson created a recommendation group to tell Treasury what they ought to do with AIG. And he put Goldman Sachs on it.

BILL MOYERS: Even though Goldman Sachs had a big vested stake.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Massive stake. And even though he had just been CEO of Goldman Sachs before becoming Treasury Secretary. Now, in most stages in American history, that would be a scandal of such proportions that he wouldn't be allowed in civilized society.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah, like a conflict of interest, it seems.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Massive conflict of interests.

BILL MOYERS: So, how did he get away with it?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: I don't know whether we've lost our capability of outrage. Or whether the cover up has been so successful that people just don't have the facts to react to it.

BILL MOYERS: Who's going to get the facts?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: We need some chairmen or chairwomen--

BILL MOYERS: In Congress.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: --in Congress, to hold the necessary hearings. And we can blast this out. But if you leave the failed CEOs in place, it isn't just that they're terrible business people, though they are. It isn't just that they lack integrity, though they do. Because they were engaged in these frauds. But they're not going to disclose the truth about the assets.

BILL MOYERS: And we have to know that, in order to know what?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: To know everything. To know who committed the frauds. Whose bonuses we should recover. How much the assets are worth. How much they should be sold for. Is the bank insolvent, such that we should resolve it in this way? It's the predicate, right? You need to know the facts to make intelligent decisions. And they're deliberately leaving in place the people that caused the problem, because they don't want the facts. And this is not new. The Reagan Administration's central priority, at all times, during the Savings and Loan crisis, was covering up the losses.

BILL MOYERS: So, you're saying that people in power, political power, and financial power, act in concert when their own behinds are in the ringer, right?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: That's right. And it's particularly a crisis that brings this out, because then the class of the banker says, "You've got to keep the information away from the public or everything will collapse. If they understand how bad it is, they'll run for the exits."

BILL MOYERS: Yeah, and this week in New York, at this conference, you described this as more than a financial crisis. You called it a moral crisis.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Yes.

BILL MOYERS: Why?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Because it is a fundamental lack of integrity. But also because, if you look back at crises, an economist who is also a presidential appointee, as a regulator in the Savings and Loan industry, right here in New York, Larry White, wrote a book about the Savings and Loan crisis. And he said, you know, one of the most interesting questions is why so few people engaged in fraud? Because objectively, you could have gotten away with it. But only about ten percent of the CEOs, engaged in fraud. So, 90 percent of them were restrained by ethics and integrity. So, far more than law or by F.B.I. agents, it's our integrity that often prevents the greatest abuses. And what we had in this crisis, instead of the Savings and Loan, is the most elite institutions in America engaging or facilitating fraud.

BILL MOYERS: This wound that you say has been inflicted on American life. The loss of worker's income. And security and pensions and future happened, because of the misconduct of a relatively few, very well-heeled people, in very well-decorated corporate suites, right?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Right.

BILL MOYERS: It was relatively a handful of people.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: And their ideologies, which swept away regulation. So, in the example, regulation means that cheaters don't prosper. So, instead of being bad for capitalism, it's what saves capitalism. "Honest purveyors prosper" is what we want. And you need regulation and law enforcement to be able to do this. The tragedy of this crisis is it didn't need to happen at all.

BILL MOYERS: When you wake in the middle of the night, thinking about your work, what do you make of that? What do you tell yourself?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: There's a saying that we took great comfort in. It's actually by the Dutch, who were fighting this impossible war for independence against what was then the most powerful nation in the world, Spain. And their motto was, "It is not necessary to hope in order to persevere."

Now, going forward, get rid of the people that have caused the problems. That's a pretty straightforward thing, as well. Why would we keep CEOs and CFOs and other senior officers, that caused the problems? That's facially nuts. That's our current system.

So stop that current system. We're hiding the losses, instead of trying to find out the real losses. Stop that, because you need good information to make good decisions, right? Follow what works instead of what's failed. Start appointing people who have records of success, instead of records of failure. That would be another nice place to start. There are lots of things we can do. Even today, as late as it is. Even though they've had a terrible start to the administration. They could change, and they could change within weeks. And by the way, the folks who are the better regulators, they paid their taxes. So, you can get them through the vetting process a lot quicker.

BILL MOYERS: William Black, thank you very much for being with me on the Journal.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Thank you so much.

BILL MOYERS: One of the great reporters of the 20th century, I.F. Stone, told journalism students never to forget that "All governments lie." He could speak with authority, having spent seven decades exposing deception and official lies by digging deep into government documents and transcripts. He gained his greatest fame and impact publishing the newsletter called "I.F. Stone's Weekly," taking on McCarthyism, racism in the military, and the Vietnam War. "In this age of corporation men," he wrote in 1963, "I am an independent capitalist, the owner of my own enterprise." This critically acclaimed documentary, produced in1973, offered an inside look at how Izzy Stone worked.

I.F. STONE: To be able to spit in their eye and do what you think is right and report the news and have enough readers to make some impact is such a pleasure that you forget, you forget what you are writing about. It becomes, you know, it like, you are like a journalistic Nero fiddling while Rome burns and having a hell of a good time or like a small boy covering a hell of a big fire. It's just wonderful and exciting. You are a cub reporter and God has given you big fire to cover. And you forget, you forget it is really burning.

BILL MOYERS: This week, twenty years after Stone's death, the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College in upstate New York presented the first annual Izzy Award to two journalists it describes as "pillars of alternative journalism," honored "for their courage and persistence."

Stone's son Jeremy spoke at the ceremony:

JEREMY STONE: His capacity for thinking independently, and acting on principle, isolated him from just about everyone. He often said he was so happy in his work that he should be arrested. But the truth is the consequences for him of speaking truth to power, was for a number of decades, loneliness.

BILL MOYERS: The recipients of the first Izzy are with me now.

Amy Goodman is the executive producer and co-host of DEMOCRACY NOW! a daily television and radio news program that airs on more than 750 outlets and is streamed on the internet. Her latest book, "Standing up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times," co-authored with her brother David, is out in paperback this week.

Glenn Greenwald is a constitutional lawyer until he turned to journalism after 9/11. His blog, "Unclaimed Territory," on Salon.com is one of the most widely read on the internet. His books include this one, a best seller, "How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok."

Welcome to both of you.

AMY GOODMAN: It's great to be with you.

BILL MOYERS: And congratulations to both of you.

GLENN GREENWALD: Thank you.

BILL MOYERS: Glenn, you were too young to know Izzy Stone, but do you feel, as he said about himself, lonely and marginalized for being independent?

GLENN GREENWALD: Yes and no. In one sense, it's clearly the case that if you are a critic of political power and the media establishment that there are going to be lots of opportunities that you end up not being able to take advantage of. There are going to be lots of invitations that ordinarily you might receive that you end up not getting. Lots of people who shun you. Particularly the targets of your critique. I think that's quite natural. And so, in that sense, I think if you tip, if you purposely remain on the outside of establishment power, in order to critique it, there are going to be lots of episodes that produce a form of loneliness. Which I think is actually quite gratifying and rewarding, and a hallmark of the fact that you're doing the right thing.

But I think one thing that has changed is that there are now lots of other mechanisms, certainly as compared as to when he was writing, that enable like-minded people who are dissatisfied and angry with the establishment to find one another. And to realize that they're not nearly as rare, in terms of what it is that they think, as perhaps even 10, 15 years ago, when there was a monopoly on political discourse.

AMY GOODMAN: You're not alone when you think about the awesome responsibility we have as journalists. With a microphone going to where the silence is. Going to where most people would want to go to ask questions and they can't. So, all of those people are there. And then standing on the shoulders of people like Izzy Stone, I.F. Stone, and all those who feel it's so critical that we have a sacred mission as journalists. There's a reason why our profession, journalism, is the only one explicitly protected by the U.S. Constitution. Because we're supposed to be the check and balance on power. That's

WILLIAM K. BLACK:

Now, going forward, get rid of the people that have caused the problems. That's a pretty straightforward thing, as well. Why would we keep CEOs and CFOs and other senior officers, that caused the problems? That's facially nuts. That's our current system.

National Rifle Association officials couldn't be reached for comment

"National Rifle Association officials couldn't be reached for comment Sunday. The group takes the position that citizens have a basic right to keep and bear arms, a right rooted in the Second Amendment of the Constitution that gun advocates don't believe should be altered even in the case of shootings such as those that have occurred recently."

This comment- or lack of comment- has been appearing ever-so frequently these days as mass killings here in America seem to be on the upswing. Three policemen in Pittsburgh; 14 dead in Binghamton, N.Y; six dead in Washington state; father shoots five of his children, ages 7 to 16, using a rifle; four police officers fatally shot in Oakland, California.

Regarding the Pittsburgh massacre: The 22-year-man who shot and killed three Pittsburgh police officers over the weekend had been stockpiling guns and ammunition, buying and selling the weapons online "because he believed that as a result of the economic collapse, the police were no longer able to protect society," according to a court report. He had an AK-47.

No longer able to protect society, he said. And therefore he decided to kill those very police officers? What's wrong with this message? I don't get it.

Why don't I get it? Let me take a self-inventory: average IQ, late 60's, been around the block lots of time, fairly well educated, family man, worked 35 years, no arrest record, volunteer my services, care for the elderly and the disadvantaged in society, pay my taxes, vote in every election, protested the war in Iraq, keep up with the latest events, traveled to Europe several times, know American and world history, grandparents on both sides were immigrants, love my children and grandchildren, loved my dog until she died, took care of a goldfish for 12 years.

What did I miss along the way?

I never shot a gun.

Is that what I missed?

I've never had a gun.

Is that it?

Why do I not feel the need to own or shoot a gun now or ever in the past?

Was that some sort of right-of-passage for the American male in order to become a fully-functioning adult male in American society? The bullet resembling the male penis?

Why does America have an armed forces, National Guard, and state, county, and local police departments?

Enlighten me.

Grand Enema for the GOP

In former times, parents would give their children a 'spring tonic' that would clean them out from the winter's blahs. I recall my father giving me a tablespoon of an awful looking, licorice-tasting tonic called Alpenkreuter. Colonic cleansing, now even advertised on TV, is a ritual that many people perform seasonally to purify their spirit [and body] of the bad karma.

How about a Grand Old Party grand colonic cleansing? For the past 8 years, the once Grand old Party has been festering like a rancid bowel with a cast of characters fit for Mme Toussant's Wax Museum. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Phil Gramm, George Bush, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, to name but a few. Festering ideologues, passing their horrible gas onto this nation like a great miasmic fog.

That old party, choked by bowel-characters as these has caused that elephant much agony and pain; it lists like a ship ready to capsize, barely able to stand upright.

Recall that most excellent M*A*S*H episode in which Col. Potter's horse became constipated? How they tried to help it get back on its feet? And in the end, so to speak, they gave it a grand enema? And she blew!

That old horse was mighty grateful and quickly perked up after the procedure and trotted around like a young stallion once again.

It's time for a similar Grand Purge of the GOP. Let'er go! Blast those festering pieces of feces out with great gusto and fanfare! Let'er rip!

Fundamentalists Kill 6 Gay Men

Muslim fundamentalists, urged on by their clerics, shot 6 gay men in Iraq in two separate incidents. They were shot dead by members of their tribe in two separate incidents in the past 10 days, an official with Iraq's Interior ministry said. Reuters said:

Homosexuality is prohibited almost everywhere in the Middle East, but conditions have become especially dangerous for gays and lesbians in Iraq since the rise of religious militias after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein six years ago.

Sermons condemning homosexuality were read at the last two Friday prayer gatherings in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum of some 2 million people. The slum is a bastion of support for fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia.

Fundamentalists 'at work' doing god's will. Apparently that do-not-kill commandment must have had an asterisk.