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[Paul Krugman]

Now that all of Ireland has given its enthusiastic and unanimous support to triumphant Volgan Krieg-Königin Angela Merkel's plans, how did the 2000ad contingent vote (if at all) in your referendum? UK TV news managed to find a few beleaguered Dubliners who thought it wouldn't be so bad if all the difficult decisions were taken out of their hands; I'm sure our plucky Brit journalists sought out a completely representative sample of Irish popular opinion.

And what does everyone make of Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman's  thoughts (31min 36sec) on the perils of the rush toward fiscal austerity? Do you think Greece is being made an example of, to scare the rest of the EC into falling into (goose) step with the Reich Chancellor's economic agenda?

In short I think Krugman talks a lot of sense. I doubt if he will get much in the way of a listening ear from the our Etonian overlords though.

"Strip #5 got to the UK two weeks ago. Customs issues mean the order is now back in Bosnia to be re-sent to the UK. More later."

Just on Twitter. The Strip office must have pulled out hair all over its floors.

Strip is published in Bosnia (ie outside europe)
-pj

Well then, that's your problem right there.

It's also an important element of their business plan and costings. Fingers crossed things work out well. I love Strip.

Aye that thought occurred to me as well. it's great value for the money.

Anyone hearing any whispers on dates of issue 5/6 of Strip?

It seems to arrive when it gets here. Not having clearly defined release dates I would imagine is peeing off a lot of people! And the casual reader, that they need to increase their sales, would probably think twice about buying further copies. What's the point, it just seems to be have a guess of available date and hope for the best.

It's a great pity as the content when it arrives is good.

Cheers. The delays are peeing me off, too! Just when I think things are on track, some other bloody bit of Customs/International Delivery issue rears its unwanted head. We need to get this sorted.

More later.

John mine was a non-contentious enquiry. It frankly doesn't annoy me when it arrives other than a greed for its contents. I love the magazine and my understanding is this next one is a fatty (double issue). As an old fart I am going to buy myself an ice-lolly and pretend it's a summer special.

Good luck with all the admin John-rather you than me!

Just answer the question or you are going to hell-ok?

As a relative newbie may I ask-what is the relative spread of left/right politics wise among 2000ad's followers?

Does a request have to be approved before you can post??

Fantastic idea chaps btw

Lads you are a fine bunch to have fallen in with. I salute you!

...and that news is not going to be positive, I'm afraid.

Sounds rather ominous Gordon. Anything we should know?

Meltdown man has grabbed my attention-I know the art is great. Is the story-line worth a punt?

Why's everyone being reasonable? This is the fuckin Politics thread!

M.

Agreed

I disagree with Gay Marriage because I believe it's a conspiracy cooked up by Divorce Lawyers trying to expand their market and line their pockets. Gruddamn Lawyers.

I think that's fairly unreasonable. Not as unreasonable as citing the centuries old ramblings of a bunch of middle eastern goat-farmers in an effort not to sound bigotted, but fairly unreasonable nonetheless

I have read the last para a few times and am still unreasonably confused by the unreasonable amount of negatives in it.

You'll basically end up buying everything, Prodigal. Give it five years and you'll be able to boast a bookshelf of 2000AD trades to rival anything in Waterstone's.

Jimbo I sense the truth of that statement. Still I am having a ball since my return to the fold after a 30 year break. I am having a lot of fun with comics again.

Brilliant advice. Great place this.

[Exodus 22:25]

Exodus 22:25
If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

Ezekiel 18:13
Lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.

Deuteronomy 23:19
You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest.

Proverbs 28:8
Whoever multiplies his wealth by interest and profit gathers it for him who is generous to the poor.

Leviticus 25:3-7
Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. 37 You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit.

Leviticus 25:1-55
The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.

Psalm 15:5
Who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Nehemiah 5:1-13
Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, "With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive." There were also those who said, "We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine." And there were those who said, "We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards." ...

Psalm 15:1-5
A Psalm of David. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Nehemiah 5:7
I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, "You are exacting interest, each from his brother." And I held a great assembly against them

Proverbs 22:7
The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender

***

The 'Imrans 3:130
Believers, do not live on usury, doubling your wealth many times over.

The Cow 2:275
Those that live in usury shall rise up before God like men whom Satan has demented by his touch; for they claim that trading is no different from usury.

The Cow 2:280
If your debtor be in straits, grant him a delay until he can discharge his debt; but if you waive the sum as alms it will be better for you, if you but knew it.

***

So, how many devout Christians have credit cards, loans at interest or mortgages? If your religious leaders are so adamant about sticking to Holy Writ, why does not your rich church offer interest-free loans to you and forgive those loans every seven years? Why does not your church crusade against the usurers who are destroying our societies? Why are not congregations all over the land being told that the Bible is against charging interest? If God is so against it, why do we all believe without question that All Debts Must Be Paid and that interest is simply one of those unavoidable things?

Religion, sadly, is nothing more than a tool for social control. Whilst religion can do many great things, it is a poor second cousin to faith. Religion teaches us that we need it in order to reach God, just like government teaches that we need it to run our lives, but the truth (to my mind) is much simpler and far more empowering. If God is everything and everywhere (let's call Him the Universe) then I am God. Well, I'm a little piece of God and so are you and so is everything else. The overwhelming majority of people know the difference between right and wrong on an almost instinctive level - how we choose to act on that knowledge is the free will part. This is where religion can be useful if it teaches people to look inward at this knowledge and develop a personal relationship with 'God'. The Bible and Koran then become not instruction manuals to be adhered to but 'work-books' to help individuals think about what is Right and what is Wrong for themselves.

But religion, like politics, has been hijacked at the highest levels by the usurers. This is why I found it fitting to see the Occupy London protestors camped outside St Paul's.

Thread successfully steered back to politics, I think!

Shark it might not command the attention as much as right wing cross and flag merchants but there is a very substantial Christian reaction to well reaction. Even in North america there are counter-currents to the usual right wing malarky. There are an incredible array of left leaning social justice campaigners who derive their impetus from what they regard as plain though oft ignored Biblical imperatives to side with the poor and oppressed.

Wasn't it once said that the origins of the British Labour party owed more to Methodism than Marx?

The Almighty also condemns polyester shirts.
(Leviticus 19:19)
'Nuff said.

That's a totally tired and frankly bunk attack line, those regulations were given by God to the Israelites in the wilderness to keep them on the straight and narrow until the Promised Land and the Messiah, they never applied to us Gentiles and don't even apply to the Jews anymore, nice try though...

How odd, that get-out clause doersn't seem to appear in my bible. And if some rules were temporary, as you say, and don
't apply to gentiles, why are they included in the christain bible and why isn't the one about homosexuality one of those? T

his is what bugs me about Christaians. they'll take one phrase or bit of text and consider it massively important, enough to start wars or oppress whole sections of the population; but happily gloss over or sideline other bits that don't fit their world view. As for America and christianity, my reading of the NT tells me that JC's fundamental message was one of pacifism (turn the other cheek) and anti-capitalism (moneychangers, eye of the needle etc), which are the exact opposite of everything the USA stands for - military might and financial riches.

Bottom line, the bible, old and new, was written by fallible human beings with their own influences and agendas and so to take this collection of texts, written by different people in different lands over centuries, bundle them together in one book, allow the Catholic Church sole rights to copy, edit and translate it for another thousand years or so, and then consider it to be the infallible word of God is patently ridiculous.

I've got no beef with people of faith or spirituality, but have contempt for anyone who blindly follows a 'holy book' without question. Believe what you will, but don't force anyone else to. You think God doesn't want gay people to marry? Fine, don't marry a gay person, but no church has the right to impose that belief on anyone else.

I'm not going to enter in a debate, as I've been rouind these houses too many times in the past and I find that it's impossibleto rationally argue with religious types, especially right wing american ones ( The Holy Trinity of Dickery IMHO) so mr Beaky can now go back into my ignore list while I get on with my life.

As a Christian who believes that you should genuinely question everything including the nature of Biblical texts etc I would like to say that I genuinely agree with an awful lot of your post.

I am sorry but I do.