Ross Douthat’s Poison Pen on Religion – New York Times - “All the news that’s fit” to be bought

If you can define the parameters of an argument, you will likely win the argument.

There is a poison in American Religion. It is politics.

It started in the eighties when one third of a modern day version of an Anti-Christ in the form of Ronald Reagan, an actor, was helped into his cushy CEO crony job with the aid of southern bigots aka as “born again” Christians in the form of Jerry Falwell Incorporated. 

The television evangelists labeled their Edsel version of religion televangelism.  There were no warning labels on the make it up as you go along programming and or snake oil product and the resulting wealth brought out the vote for a washed up black and white film “B” Hollywood Actor in 1980. Every marketing success spawns repeat and imitation.

There is a poison in American Religion.  It goes beyond the Bush “Black Purse” ongoing bribe given to churches to dole out soup but not condoms to the poor.

There used to be a fairly decent Religion section the British Newspaper The Guardian. It disappeared one night that coincided with the visit of King Benedict the German of the Vatican 108 acre based money laundering empire.

In fact, I don’t recall The New York Times ever being big on religion or where religion would be booked except in the leisure section is in fact it ever existed.

I guess no doubt the editorial staff heard about all the Religious Politics or is it Political Religion that has poisoned the modern and or virtual American Town Square. FOX NEWS moronity sells papers so to speak and attracts sponsors.

On to the scene of the past few years is the Harvard educated Conservative Ross Douthat to explain modern religion to a seemingly godless liberal New York Times readership. No truth to the rumor that the NYT needed an emergency midnight loan to survive one day back when and the Knights of Columbus, the Roman Catholic Church’s “Black Banker” came through in a pinch, and Ross now has a bought desk, boutique stall, at the grand old lady of news as a concession or condition of that emergency Vatican backed loan?

Anyway, I keep seeing wanna be memes popping up from time to time based on the NYT Vatican Desk in the form of "TC" theologically correct Ross Douthat articles on a truly global news site that has room even for a token puissant or is it pissant opinion pundit like Douthat.

Memes flow through the blogosphere. There are whole chucks of Catholic and or right wing “Born Agains” or the new flavor of the month title is “evangelicals” blogs that repeat, reverberate and praise the Douthat Vatican echo chamber.

There was quite a stir about the dangerous “Pantheism” theology threat of the Movie Avatar that Ross probably got nominated for a Pulitzer on.  Straight off the secret? GOP/RCC daily talking points sheet. Wink. Nod.

In a way, Douthat is the Ivy League version of the Beer and Sauerkraut Bill Donohue at the Catholic League directed toward the Church Militants, “igorant enlightment” for the lower classes on the right and wrong American Catholic PC political opinion and positions of the hour, day and month these days.  It is not like the Catholics ever read the NT.

Which brings me to the latest politically labeled religion piece by Ross trying to piss on Mainstream American Protestantism.

Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?

I have read many blogs in response of this piece of political trash masquerading as religion.

Give it a read and form your own individual opinion while you still have that option in a "free" America.

When did any Christianity become “Liberal” or “Conservative”?

Those are political terms!

And once this form of "Boutique Journalism" courtesy of the RNC and Ross Douthat interjects terms like liberal or conservative into the opinion page of the Beard NYT, then the parameters of the argument are already set. The argument is won by the controlling out of touch corrupt 1% elites trying to use one more ploy to prostitute religion into a political matrix of the 2012 election.

Christianity is neither liberal or conservative. It just is.

And for those of you that need a visitor’s guide to Christianity, take the Douthat tour and drink in his religion and in the end wake up in bed with dross of the soul.

Your soul.  

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Boutique Journalism - WTF - Beware!

You have got to be careful about what you think you see on news lists on the Internet. You might see a story as being posted under a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or the New York Times (NYT) and you might assume that the story will be of high quality. There was a time when the WSJ and the NYT were considered the Rolls Royces of Journalism. But looks can be deceptive these days. Look under the hood.

There are very well known ritzy department stores in New York that have a decades old name for quality and they bank on it for tourists to visit. I was surprised when somebody told that the floor space on the main floor of one of these famous named stores, a lot of the counter spaces and racks of clothes were auctioned off to individual companies to sell and supply perfume and fancy clothes.

The ritzy department store is like the old indoors farmers’ markets and renting stalls to individual retailers. The ritzy store gets upfront rent and or a percent of receipts as recorded off the online cash registers. This new Boutique Retailing is not like the original smallness and intimacy of the traditional Boutique retail outlet. Such is the modern world. - And you get to take your stuff home in a ritzy label shopping bag.

Borrowing from the new Boutique Retailing of some major department stores, so too once fancy ritzy reputation newspapers seem to be renting stalls or their columns to outside retailers or in this case “Journalists”.

One such example I believe is this put down of American workers and their wages.

American Wages Out of Balance

That compared to overseas deregulated labor:

The global wage gap has been narrowing, but recent labor market statistics in the United States suggest the adjustment has not gone far enough.

One indicator is unemployment, which has risen unexpectedly rapidly. The 7.3 million jobs lost are more than triple the 2 million during the 1980-82 recession. Some of that huge increase reflects the sharp decline in gross domestic product, but there could be another factor: the recession shows that many workers are paid more than they’re worth.

And

The big trade deficit is another sign of excessive pay for Americans. One explanation for the attractive prices of imported goods is that American workers are paid too much relative to their foreign peers.

Real comforting to see something like this on the business page of the New York Times.

But if one looks closely you can see that the three “reporters” are not employed directly by the NYT but Breakingviews.com – is this a subsidiary of NYT or is the NYT merely renting a stall in its indoor farmer’s market of “Journalism”?

I have been caught in eye-catching headlines marked WSJ – Wall Street Journal on the Internet only to be disappointed by a blog or opinion page – not journalism but opinion on right wing conservative political topics. The punditocracy is everywhere. Facts do not count anymore. It is all paid for opinion.

To add insult to injury to the American Worker on the above mentioned Boutique Journalism article about how “American Wages (are) Out of Balance”, The Pundit Boutique Journalists go on to say that no crimes were committed on Wall Street with the collapse for the Wall Street Ponzi. Some mere mistakes were made by honest but gullible Hedge Fund Manager types.

The case against two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, was the closest anything came to a trial over Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis. Their acquittal suggests that blame is not easily apportioned — and that mistakes, not conspiracies, offer the more likely explanation.

Bullshit and propaganda I can understand in a rag like the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) now that is owned by Rupert Murdock. But the New York Times – The New York Times – ??? Geez!

These Boutique journalists – their webpage describe themselves as :

Breakingviews.com is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. Breakingviews.com has 22 correspondents and columnists based in London, New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Washington and Madrid. Our aim is to become the lingua franca for the global financial community.

"Our real-time subscription service currently reaches around 15,000 financial professionals such as investment bankers, senior corporate executives, hedge fund managers, lawyers and private equity professionals. We reach a broader audience of nearly 4.5m investors and opinion-formers via columns in the following influential newspapers and magazines: The New York Times (USA), The Telegraph (UK), The International Herald Tribune, Le Monde (France), El Pais and Cinco Dias (Spain), Handelsblatt (Germany), La Stampa (Italy), NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands), Nikkei Veritas (Japan). Caijing (China) The National (UAE), The Business Times (Singapore), The Business Standard (India) and L’Agefi (Switzerland)."

Journalism in America appears to have been outsourced like every other honest real job that used to be on this soil. Now we only have “opinion-formers” for the MBA types in this case.

This piece about wages in America being too high comes just before Thanksgiving and the need for management to consider Christmas Bonuses and raises in the new year.

With a quotation from the New York Times telling management that wages are too high and Americans are paid too much - this will not justify even a 1% raise for the Bob Crachits of this world. These quotations above from a “NYT Article” in Boardrooms will no doubt ruin many a Tiny Tims’ Christmas.

Have a nice day. Humbug!