Sam Fields: My Random Thoughts
BY SAM FIELDS
Rose Marks, a Roma fortuneteller, “caught a dime” (10 year prison sentence) for defrauding her customers out of $17+ million with promises of prayers that would cleanse them and their money of sins and curses.
In other words she was similar to a traditional Catholic who was selling “indulgences.” The Church openly peddled “indulgences” for a 1000 years and now does it with terms like “tithing.”
But Catholics are not the only ones who sell God’s blessing.
That’s the stock and trade of television evangelicals. My favorite is Robert Tilton and his “Success-N-Life” pitch. It features suckers –err, believers— who tell you how the more money they sent Tilton, the more they got back as God’s blessing.
The only difference between Tilton and Marks is that he bothered to get a 501(c)(3) religion classification from the IRS.
IF ONLY SHELDON ADELSON WOULD GET ALZHEIMERS
The New York Times has reported that in light of the Federal government’s cutbacks in science funding, billionaires are stepping up to the plate.
The list of spenders is the Who’s Who of the uber-rich. Some of them are funding pet projects that interest them.
Intel’s Gordon Moore is interested in basic science including $200 million for the latest, greatest telescope.
Bloomberg L.P.’s Michael Bloomberg is spending his money on public health and the environment.
Microsoft’s Bill Gates has been promoting new ideas for education and a cure for diseases like malaria.
Most of them seem to have a more parochial interest. They are putting serious coin into curing specific diseases that they or a family member has or had.
So David Koch and Michael Milken – both had prostate cancer — are heavy into funding research into that disease.
Google’s Sergey Brin is funding Parkinson’s research. Seems that mom has the disease and he has the gene.
SunAmerica’s Eli Broad is looking to cure Crohn’s, which is an illness that his son has.
The list goes on. I’m not saying that there is something wrong with what they are doing. In fact I would expect that the money is better spent when one guy is in charge, rather than a legion of bureaucrats.
What bothers me is that, as the Feds cut back on science research, we have to depend on the whims and personal needs of the rich.
Have breast cancer running in your family? If you’re lucky, one of the Wal-Mart Waltons will get the disease.
MEREDITH STATUTE REDUX
Last month I predicted that the folks who draped the statue of civil rights pioneer James Meredith with a noose and a Confederate flag would turn out to be some drunken frat boys pulling off a tasteless prank. I further insisted this was NOT a crime.
The idiots have been identified and that is exactly as I said. Furthermore, no one less than James Meredith has dismissed it as “foolish” behavior.
The three have been kicked out of their frat. And guess what, just as I predicted, no criminal charges will be filed because law enforcement officials figured out that no crime was committed.
GAY DECEIVER
Once again, gay organizations were prohibited from openly marching numerous St. Patrick’s Days Parades. It has to be confusing for them.
Apparently the rule is this. Gays can March in a parade where half the men are wearing skirts, as long as they don’t openly claim to be homosexuals.
ISRAEL JEWISH? I THOUGHT IT WAS METHODIST.
I have repeatedly said there is a disconnect between Israel’s national survival and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival.
Giving back the West Bank is not only a question of his political survival but also his personal survival. (Think Rabin assassination in 1995.)
It’s not surprising that he has pretended to support a peace settlement while throwing a monkey wrench into the negotiations by continuing to build settlements in Palestinian areas.
His latest ploy is to insist that the Palestinians acknowledge that Israel is Jewish…something that was not demanded in the previous treaties with Egypt and Jordan.
Or put another way, in the future, the Palestinians will be prohibited from saying: “Funny thing, you DON’T look Jewish?”.
March 20th, 2014 at 5:37 pm
Fields is an old man who is angry at his own irrelevance.
March 20th, 2014 at 7:06 pm
One cannot mention Robert Tilton, and not mention his farting YouTubes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me2H7Ja93Wg
March 20th, 2014 at 8:01 pm
Sam Fields, you are a moron.
The Catholic Church does not now nor has it ever condoned selling indulgences. 500 Years ago, certain corrupt priests and bishops would do it to feather their own nest. Neither does the Catholic Church tithe. Tithing was invented, I am sure you know, by old Testament Jews.
Sam, did you ever hear the saying, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth?” You must be a sad and bitter man to see something wrong with people donating money to find the cure for diseases.
The organizers of the St Patty’s Day Parades should allow openly gay participants just like the Celebrate Israel Parade should allow the KKK and al Qaeda. NOT!
Israel gets to pick how they want to be represented and what their foreign policy is. Move over there and vote Bibi out or just quit your bitching.
Oh and did I say Sam, you are still a moron.
March 21st, 2014 at 8:16 am
@Sam the Sham is right. Only a moron would criticize billionaires who agree to contribute money to help society.
March 21st, 2014 at 8:17 am
Sam Fields has the constitutional right to comment on religion and Israel. He also has shown here he has a constitutional right to be an idiot.
March 21st, 2014 at 9:08 am
Really liked this!
March 21st, 2014 at 1:46 pm
Mr. Fileds speaks the truth. Not only can some of you not handle it, but you take ridiculous, unwarranted personal shots too. Take a deep breath, go back and read his comments again. Only this time read very slowly and try to comprehend.
March 21st, 2014 at 4:32 pm
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2014/0316/Irish-ask-What-s-the-big-deal-about-letting-gays-in-St.-Pat-s-parades-video
Irish ask: What’s the big deal about letting gays in St. Pat’s parades?[
As organizers of the Boston and New York annual St. Patrick’s Day parades resist letting LGBT marchers in, many back in Ireland wonder what their problem is. […]
David Norris, an Irish senator and former professor, has been at the center of the Irish gay rights movement for four decades. In fact, it was his lawsuit against the country in the European Court of Human Rights that resulted in the country’s 1993 decriminalization of homosexuality.
“I find it extraordinary that Irish Americans can be so far behind the actual inhabitants of the island of Ireland; that 10 years ago the gay float won first prize in our national St. Patrick’s Day Parade,” […]
With a yes vote in this year’s referendum on gay marriage considered a foregone conclusion, Ireland is drifting ever further from the Catholicism-dominated days of yore. […]
March 27th, 2014 at 7:31 am
Sam the Sham is right, but let me inform you that at temples if you want your seat up front you have to pay for it. Yup, that’s right, you need to cough up the money…and the more the better. Those is the front row seats paid the most! If you’re a poor sucker you stand in the back.
How do you like that?