"Therefore let no one judge you in regard to food and drink or in regard to [the observance of] a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day." (Colossians 2:1)

The ancient Jewish celebration of Purim 2024 also begins Saturday night, March 23, continuing through this Sunday, March 24, 2024 (extending through Monday in Jerusalem).

The festival of Purim commemorates the Divinely orchestrated salvation of the Jewish people from Haman’s plot “to destroy, k**l and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day, two thousand, four hundred years ago BCE, by Persia's Jewish Queen Esther, in the ancient Persian Empire,” It is celebrated with Megillah readings, gifts of food, charity, feasting, and merriment.(Esther 9:17-19, 9:27)

Oxford University Press, a department of the University of Oxford acknowledges that the term, Bible Thumper, is now considered to be a derogatory term within our contemporary society.

The term is often used by today's activist nonreligious to imply that someone who quotes Scripture in their daily speech usage is [politically incorrectly] pushing their religious beliefs upon others. However, the Bible itself endorses the promoting or endorsing of God's word, calling followers of Christ to share the gospel.

In sharing one’s faith, gentleness and respect (1st Peter 3:15) are to be utilized by Christians as they are also exhorted to always "speak the t***h in love" (Ephesians 4:15)

The earliest known use of the noun Bible-thumper is in the 1810s, during a time when officiating pastors often held their Bible aloft while delivering a sermon, and would occasionally tap it with their free hand for emphasis. This was especially common throughout the southern and midwest United States, in what has been traditionally known as the Bible Belt.

In His Priestly Prayer to God the Father in John 17, Jesus confirms that He has brought the message of salvation to the world: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Jesus’ mission of bringing the t***h has been accomplished (John 17:4), and He turns the focus of His prayer to God working through the disciples and other believers. He confirms that believers will be rejected by the world for believing “Your word is t***h,” but believers are also assured joy, God’s protection from the evil one, and sanctification by God’s Word (John 17:13–19).

The Old and New Testaments reaffirm that the words recorded in the Bible are God’s words and that they are totally true. Since God cannot lie, His Word is t***h: “As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless” (Psalm 18:30). Since God is eternal and unchanging, His Word is always the same: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35; Isaiah 40:8). Jesus uses the Word as He rebukes the devil who was tempting Him: “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’”
(Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3).

"Civility and healing our neighbor went out the window" after the New York Times reported on 14 June 2008, p**********l candidate Senator Barack Obama was fund-raising in Philadelphia... But he was talking about "the Chicago way."

Channeling the mob drama, "The Untouchables," Mr. Obama said in reference to the general e******n rumble with the Republicans: "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."

On the same date, Reuters published an item that stated, in part: Democratic p**********l nominee Barack Obama, who regularly uses language to reinforce his modern-guy credentials, seems to have set that aside when he explained how he won’t be cowed by Republican attacks.

"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun," Obama said at a fund-raiser in Philadelphia on Friday, employing a phrase that could have been lifted from a gangster movie.

George W. Bush didn't create the American subprime mortgage crisis resulting in a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 and contributed to the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, a severe contraction of liquidity in global financial markets that originated in the collapse of the U.S. housing market.

It threatened to destroy the international financial system; caused the failure (or near-failure) of several major investment and commercial banks, mortgage lenders, insurance companies, and savings and loan associations; and precipitated the Great Recession (2007–09), the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression (1929–c. 1939). The crisis led to a severe economic recession, with millions of people losing their jobs and many businesses going bankrupt.

The expansion of mortgages to high-risk borrowers, coupled with rising house prices, initiated the period of turmoil in financial markets that lasted from 2007 to 2010. This was never the policy of George W. Bush who had warned these agencies, - who ignored him.

Start with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), title VIII of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1977, signed by President Jimmy Carter, a United States federal law designed to "encourage" commercial banks and savings associations to facilitate mortgages to residents in low-and moderate-income [minority] neighborhoods - regardless of their ability to repay.

In 1999, under Bill Clinton, the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act (1933) was partially repealed, allowing banks, securities firms, and insurance companies to enter each other’s markets and to merge, resulting in the formation of banks that were “too big to fail” (i.e., so big that their failure would threaten to undermine the entire financial system).

In addition, in 2004 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) weakened the net-capital requirement (the ratio of capital, or assets, to debt, or liabilities, that banks are required to maintain as a safeguard against insolvency), which encouraged banks to invest even more money into MBSs. Although the SEC’s decision resulted in enormous profits for banks, it also exposed their portfolios to significant risk, because the asset value of MBSs was implicitly premised on the continuation of the housing bubble.

To buttress the funding of mortgages, the Congress had greatly increased the maximum size of mortgages that FHA would insure. Because FHA loans allow for low down payments, the agency’s share of newly issued mortgages jumped from under 10 percent to over 40 percent.

The subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–10 stemmed from an earlier expansion of mortgage credit, including to borrowers who previously would have had difficulty getting mortgages, which both contributed to and was facilitated by rapidly rising home prices. Historically, potential homebuyers had always found it difficult to obtain mortgages if they had below average credit histories, provided small down payments or sought high-payment loans, and rightfully so... Mortgage lending is serious amounts of funding by profit motivated business, it is not a charity.

Unless protected by government insurance, lenders often denied such mortgage requests. While some high-risk families could obtain small-sized mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration/ FHA, (a.k.a., tax-payers), others, facing limited credit options, rented.

In that era, home ownership fluctuated around 65 percent, mortgage foreclosure rates were low, and home construction and house prices mainly reflected swings in mortgage interest rates and income.

In the early and mid-2000s, high-risk mortgages became available from lenders who funded mortgages by repackaging them into pools that were sold to investors. New financial products were used to apportion these risks, with private-label mortgage-backed securities (PMBS) providing most of the funding of subprime mortgages. The less vulnerable of these securities were viewed as having low risk either because they were insured with new financial instruments or because other securities would first absorb any losses on the underlying mortgages (DiMartino and Duca 2007). This enabled more first-time homebuyers to obtain mortgages (Duca, Muellbauer, and Murphy 2011), and home ownership rose.

The resulting demand bid up house prices, more so in areas where housing was in tight supply. This induced expectations of still more house price gains, further increasing housing demand and prices (Case, Shiller, and Thompson 2012). Investors purchasing PMBS profited at first because rising house prices protected them from losses. When high-risk mortgage borrowers could not make loan payments, they either sold their homes at a gain and paid off their mortgages, or borrowed more against higher market prices. Because such periods of rising home prices and expanded mortgage availability were relatively unprecedented, and new mortgage products’ longer-run sustainability was untested, the riskiness of PMBS was not well-understood. On a practical level, risk was “off the radar screen” because many gauges of mortgage loan quality available at the time were based on prime, rather than new, mortgage products.

When house prices peaked, mortgage refinancing and selling homes became less viable means of settling mortgage debt and mortgage loss rates began rising for both lenders and investors. In April 2007, New Century Financial Corp., a leading subprime mortgage lender, filed for bankruptcy. Shortly thereafter, large numbers of PMBS and PMBS-backed securities were downgraded to high risk, and several subprime lenders closed. Because the bond funding of subprime mortgages collapsed, lenders stopped making subprime and other nonprime risky mortgages. This lowered the demand for housing, leading to sliding house prices that fueled expectations of still more declines, further reducing the demand for homes. Prices fell so much that it became hard for troubled borrowers to sell their homes to fully pay off their mortgages, even if they had provided a sizable down payment.

As a result, two government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, suffered huge losses, resulting in being seized by the federal government in the summer of 2008.

Earlier, in order to meet federally mandated goals to increase home ownership, often to families with no potential means to repay the mortgage. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had issued debt to fund purchases of subprime mortgage-backed securities, which later fell in value. In addition, the two government enterprises suffered losses on failing prime mortgages, which they had earlier bought, insured, and then bundled into prime mortgage-backed securities that were sold to investors.

In response to these new developments, lenders subsequently made qualifying more difficult for high-risk and relatively low-risk mortgage applicants, depressing housing demand further. As foreclosures increased, repossessions multiplied, boosting the number of homes being sold into a weakened housing market. This was compounded by attempts by delinquent borrowers to try to sell their homes to avoid foreclosure, sometimes in “short sales,” in which lenders accept limited losses if homes were sold for less than the mortgage owed.

In these ways, the collapse of subprime lending fueled a downward spiral in house prices that unwound much of the increases seen in the subprime boom.

The housing crisis provided a major impetus for the recession of 2007-09 by hurting the overall economy in four major ways. It lowered construction, reduced wealth and thereby consumer spending, decreased the ability of financial firms to lend, and reduced the ability of firms to raise funds from securities markets (Duca and Muellbauer 2013).

manning, most assuredly, the vast majority of those early settlers who made it to North America's shores after long, trying, difficult ship voyages, had every intention of contributing to the success of a new nation, as it was meshed with their own success, first as an individual, and eventually as a family.

That is just as true today as then... unless suffering from mental illness.

According to Town and Country magazine .com, published Nov 14, 2018, DJT may have been the 1st to use the acronym MAGA, however, he was in no way the first politician to use the phrase. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush used "Let’s Make America Great Again" in their 1980 campaign and at the Republican National Convention that same year.

Although former President Bill Clinton criticized the phrase as r****t before a crowd at a Florida rally in 2016, he, too, has used it himself. "I believe that together we can make America great again," Clinton said in his 1991 p**********l announcement speech.

Clinton also used it at a campaign stop about a year later, when he asked v**ers "to make America great again economically, educationally, and socially."

manning,

Let there be no doubt that you really are the brightest bulb on this board, and a refreshingly good example of a class act within our midst, to be emulated to the best of our ability.

AuntiE and NotMAGA, It has been my personal experience that no one is 100 percent composed of any man-made ideology... and manning is indeed head and shoulders above most of we mere mortals on the battlefield, -

However, having had a Scottish maternal grandfather, and recognizing "ilk" is chiefly of Scottish abstraction, per se, I cheerfully claim the class distinction of having had the good fortune to have grown to maturity on a 300 acre farm in southern Indiana (redneck), in a family of quite devout Christian BibleThumpers who owned rifles, shotguns and pistols, and being fully dedicated to Making America Great Again (MAGA), I will gladly attire myself in three out of four of those adjectives.

The only one up for grabs is ignorant, and I easily vacillate from one side of that descriptive word to the other often enough in one sitting to be one digit past Meatloaf's well known refrain of "two outta three ain't bad!"

If I have a point it is that there is always hope that the opposing side will have an epiphany.

All hope will never be lost... Unless or until there comes that dire day that we are forced to fat shame the ubiquitous lady into singing.

Your familiarity with the Epoch Times speaks well of you, NotMAGA.

Were you closed minded, as some of all political persuasions are wont to be, you
wouldn't touch such a well known affiliate of all things MAGA...

Of course they were.

Without a proper shout out to their L***Q++ supporters, by properly attired and toe nail painted donkey Queens, the day's unconstitutional persecution/prosecution of America's only viable p**********l candidate could not have been adjourned for the day.

Excellent summary, manning!

Also, an astute observation of Donald John Trump's collective of opponents, as they are literally twisting themselves into pretzels in their limitless and frenzied multi-attempts to destroy this All-American blue-collared billionaire's appeal to normal, natural, unrefined Yankee-Doodle-Dandy Americans... which is not going to happen, -

because we get it!

Middle of the road Americans get his over the top dialogue and his sense of humor.

This Donald John Trump is a man we would choose as a reliable ally and trustworthy companion if in a foxhole on a wartime setting... and that is not too far off when used to describe this nation's present predicament.

It is in their continual pursuit of fulfilling every liberal progressive's ancient dream of becoming "as God," - as well as their own personal jealousy of Trump that has allowed the former president's enemies to so overestimate themselves as to create within this nation's routinely scheduled year of p**********l campaigning, the unprecedented frenzied atmosphere of a Buffalo Bill Cody wild west rodeo show, operating within a Barnum and Bailey three ring circus, within our nation's courtrooms.

Personally, manning, I applaud "his pettiness, and bull-in-the-china-shop attitude" - the Good Lord knows we American citizens need a good jolt of something to awaken us from our trance-like doldrums [a period of stagnation, and slothful listlessness] as our nation is teetering on the edge of an ever sharpening precipice!

She should have sat down in shame, and permanently remained silent after declaring herself unable to define what a woman was at her confirmation!

The video is excellent, Parky

For those who do not watch videos, the printed word is still priceless for detail:

Communism and Marxism: Different, Yet the Same ~ Deceptive, godless Atheistic Violent Tyranny

19th-century Atheist, German philosopher Karl Marx, the founder and primary theorist of Marxism, viewed religion as "the soul of soulless conditions" or the "opium of the masses."

Communism and Marxism are often conflated, but there is a basic difference between the two ideologies. Karl Marx developed the theory of Marxism, which focuses on his self perceived, imagined class struggle to lead to social change, while the existence of any form of Supernaturalism or Deity is not acknowledged to be even a possibility...

The stated utopic goal of Marxism is the creation of a materialistic society in which everyone receives equal material wealth.

Communism was developed by Vladimir Lenin, based upon Karl Marx's Marxist theory, in order to implement it.

The key professed difference between communism and Marxism is that communists believe in using violence to achieve their goals, while Marxists claim that they do not. Both ideologies, however, have been used historically, as a justification for committing terrible atrocities, even as they deny that their philosophies are inherently evil.

Learning about these godless theories that so oppose and threaten a free society in advance equips a nation's citizenry, especially its youth, to understand world events as they recognize these man-made philosophical ideologies at play, and to make better informed personal and political decisions whenever confronted by them.

According to Marx, religion in this world of exploitation is only the people's expression of distress, as well as their protest against their real distress. IOW, according to Marx, religion continues to survive because of oppressive social conditions. Marx theorized that when this oppressive and exploitative condition is destroyed, religion will become unnecessary, as he simultaneously, saw religion as a form of protest by the working classes against their poor economic conditions and their "alienation."

Denys Turner, a Marx and historical theology scholar, classified Marx's views as "Post-Theism," a philosophical position that the worshiping of God, or any deities, although it will eventually be obsolete, is a temporarily necessary stage in human spiritual development as all humanity is freed from any need to worship.

In the Marxist-Leninist interpretation, all modern religions and churches are considered as "organs of proletarian/elitist reaction" serving to achieve the purpose of "the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class." A number of Marxist-Leninist governments in the 20th century such as the Soviet Union after Vladimir Lenin and the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong, implemented rules outlawing religion and introducing state atheism.

Chronic unsettled confusion obscures the existing differences between Communism and Marxism. At times, the two terms are used interchangeably, and at others are treated as completely different ideologies. Any differences now existing between the two concepts have evolved over time.

Marxism as an economic and social system based upon the political and economic theories of Karl Marx, has formed the foundation of existing communist societies around the world.

It was founded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century. "Marxism" teaches that capitalism is a mode of production where the capitalists/ bourgeoisie continually exploit the proletariat/workers.

Marxism is considered one of the most important theories in history, having reshaped our understanding of capitalism, socialism, and communism, as it has been used to justify revolutions and uprisings around the world. It's use has also created some of history's most oppressive regimes.

Communism is a political and economic system based on the ideas fomented by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in seeking the mechanism whereby they might create a "classless society."

Communism is a system in which the government owns the means of production, there is no private property, and, it is claimed, in which everyone receives a pay amount from their Communist masters that is "according to their individual needs."

Communism is the final stage of socialism. It is a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs... as determined by those Communist elites who have risen to ruling positions of power. It's claim is to be a society that is free from all exploitation, oppression, and class distinction.

The Differences between Communism and Marxism

Definition: Marxism is an economic and political theory, while Communism is the governmental vehicular form used to implement Marxism upon the people.
Date: Marxism, as a theory, was created in the 1840s; Communism was then actualized with the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, capturing the Russian government.
Focus: Marxism's focus is on propagandizing the working classes into believing they have a perpetual struggle against the elite/upper class, while Communism's focus is upon creating a classless society.
Achievement: Marxism is achieved through a violent revolution, while Communism can be achieved either by peaceful revolution, or through violence - whichever is required.
Belief: Marxism believes in the existence of a class struggle while Communism does not.
Application: Marxism is applied in a country once it has become a Socialist state, while Communism has no intermediary, and is applied from the beginning.
Dependency: Marxism is dependent on economic conditions while Communism is not.
Claimed Goals: The goal of Marxism is to create a classless society while the goal of Communism is to create a stateless, classless society - which then inevitably devolves into a Communist ruled state with Communist top leadership as the elite class.
Ownership: Marxism believes in "public" ownership of the means of production - with the Marxist leaders assuming control, and in charge, ostensibly "on behave of the public," while Communism believes in "collective ownership" of the means of production, through a collective of Communist party elites and manufacturing/production elites, again on behave of an invisible powerless "public."
Dictatorship: Marxism believes in a dictatorship of the proletariat while Communism does not believe in any form of dictatorship, although fully functioning as one.
Human nature: Marxism believes in the existence of a proletariat while Communists [as do Progressives] believe in the perfectibility of humans, which came straight from the hiss of the serpent in the Garden, "you shall be as God" (and the dream has never died).
Freedom: Marxism upholds the principle of freedom, although never producing it, while Communism makes no such claim.
Equality: Marxism claims to uphold the principle of equality while Communism does not bother.
Democracy: Marxism purports belief in a democratic state while Communism does not believe in democracy.
Internationalism: Marxism believes in the principle of internationalism while Communism does not, although, in reality, both seek world domination.
Science: Marxism upholds the "scientific method" while Communism makes no such claim.
Religion: Marxism is atheistic while Communism can assume the persona of either atheism or theism.
Human nature: Marxism believes in the existence of a proletariat while Communism claims not to believe in any form of class, although unavoidably creating one through their leader's inevitable powerful preeminence in any society they control.

"Do as I say, NOT as I do" never has worked, NM.

Professing Christians have been trying it for 2,000 years; the Jewish people tried it for 2,000 years before that.

Forty years ago, in a setting of upperly mobile housewives nestling down for their weekly Bible study, the priorities were similarly eskewed.

No interest in the meanings of Biblical phrases, verses or chapters, but a lot of conversation regarding their newest appliance (the color was Avocado) at that time, or gold drapes for the living room picture window, or the latest trending film.

This generation must do what every generation has done...

That is to personally build a relationship with Jesus Christ through faith in His death, crucifixion and resurrection.

For many, that's too simplistic.

The Bible says "Work out your own salvation with trembling and fear."

This generation is in the most perilous times any generation has been since the first century.

We Are Told to be courageous and to stand fast, no backtracking and no surrender.

There are millions of Evangelicals.

Evangelicals derives from the Biblical Greek word, "evaugelion" meaning "the good news" or the "Gospel."

Remove this from Christianity, you have nothing.

The Evangelical faith is the good news, the Gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Those who believe themselves to be in trouble, spiritually, likely are. (Romans 1:17; Habakkuk 2:4; Galatians 3:11)

God gave each of us a conscience.

Whatever God's people thought for three or four minutes is really irrelevant in the historical scheme of things.

God promised regularity in the seasons. He also promised special signs in the heavens that would bring wonderment to mankind. (Genesis 1:14; Psalm 65:5 )

There are more pertinent verses, those are the ones that comes to mind at the minute.

It's doubtful that many, if any, could have reached a sufficient state of panic in that brief timespan to do themselves or others any permanent damage.

After all, they were momentarily
stumbling around in the dark!

Being in on the ground floor of this first time phenomenon was an honor.

After this, it would be but another eclipse.

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, in spite of his name, is truly an original, both witty and wise!

He is one of the very few national politicians who actually could both entertain and educate in a one-man-show.

God forbid, indeed!