If the leaders desire what is good, the people will become good also. –Confucius Some people doubt if Confucianism is a religion. Confucius never talked about a god; he didn’t discuss the afterlife. His sole interest was establishing what he called The Mandate of Heaven upon the earth. He envisioned a perfect society, without crime, […]
Continue readingThe Limits of Occupying Wall Street
I’ve been trying to decide what I think about the Occupy Wall Street crowd camped out in New York City’s Zucotti Park. I came of age in the late Sixties, and they remind me a little of that time—a disparate bunch, loosely organized around a sense of injustice, with more than a few joining in […]
Continue readingOne Nation Under God- Part 2
While courts may view the phrase one nation under God with some skepticism, the American people do not. An amazing eighty-five percent of us believe the sentiment belongs in the Pledge of Allegiance. That’s a degree of unanimity Americans share about very few things, and it makes me wonder if people have thought this through. […]
Continue readingOne Nation Under God- Part 1
A billboard caught my attention today. Squeezed between signs for a real estate agency and a casino, there was one with white block letters superimposed over an American flag. It declared ONE NATION UNDER GOD to everyone passing east on Route 23. I immediately wondered what it meant. Who put it there and paid for […]
Continue readingJesus Didn’t Work At Goldman-Sachs
In 2008, at the height of the banking crisis, Lloyd Blankfein attended a meeting with government officials about the insurance giant AIG. As chairman of Goldman-Sachs, he presided over the purchase of insurance on investments the bank knew would go bad. Along with other banks who did the same thing, they drove AIG, the world’s […]
Continue reading