We have all beaten Christ. We do it every time we sin. Each sin is one more lash of the whip, one more pounding on the nail.

But sooner or later, we all die. That's what Mugabe should be worried about, not THIS life, but the next.

Rhodesia used to be the second richest country in Africa. Now they are begging for food. All thanks to this criminal monkey Mugabe.

Wait, he beat Christ? When was the bout, did he win by KO or TKO. Something doesn't sound right.

gotta say, I like George Burn's advice for growing old a lot better than Mugabes...

The only sensible thing he has done is advocate a vegetarian diet with no alcohol, and no smoking. Otherwise, the man is a monster.

Commonsense - We have all beaten Christ. We do it every time we sin. Each sin is one more lash of the whip, one more pounding on the nail.

There is no such thing as 'sin'. It is a man-made concept, unrecognized by Christ or God. So don't worry about it.

To quote Johnny Cash, "Sooner or later, God will cut you down."

"He put his longevity down to rising at 5 a.m. for a daily exercise routine, abstinence from alcohol and tobacco and a balanced diet." Im sure this helps prevent things that could cause you to die early, but research is showing a long life tends to be attributed to genes... especially for centenarians. In fact, many centenarians smoke(d) and/or drink.

Just dont do it in excess like pretty much anything.

The western press is always concerned about human rights in other parts of the world ONLY when western interests are involved. Mugabe's credibility is not much lower than the media that is now invoking Christ to flare sentiment against him. First of all this article doesn't have anything new other than his Christ comment. So why is this such a big deal at all?

First of all "Christ" is the state of being Anointed. Jesus was a person who was anointed there fore Jesus was the "Christ". So my question is How do you beat Christ either you are anointed or your not. Sounds like some people need some education. Also look up the word "SIN" it means "short comings" which we all have. You people need to look up things for yourself and stop making things up or listening to others.

once the bread basket of Africa; all the large farms were broken up and given in small plots to the masses; they now do not grow enough food to even feed their own population ( at one time they fed 40% of Africa); they now rely on food donated by aid agency's, to keep their population from starving to death; their road and railway system , built to high standards by the British, is now in total collapse, what farmers still produce, is next to impossible to even bring to market since their transportation system is gone; Colonial rule was replaced by dictators and mass starvation.

Add arial sharon too...

Pure Western propaganda. The whites in the West on behalf of their white Zimbabwe brothers have tried all sort of tricks to get rid of Mugabe without success. He will never go at the whim of genocidal Western Imperialism. He is a better Christian than those who preach lies day in and day out.

... their road and railway system , built to high standards by the British, is now in total collapse....

Why don't you take a drive through the capital of Zimbabwe on YouTube, and surprise yourself?

No he won't. You cease to find out anything after your brain stops functioning at death.

Where did you get such nutty ideas? Oh! I know. You had a vision or something like that.

He did!

Muslims make up one percent of the population. The country is overwhelmingly christian and increasingly fundamentalist.

Muslims, Christians, Jews - it doesn't matter. There is excellent reason to separate church from state, and keep fundamentalists out of power. This nut fits in the same box as all the other religious despots.

Absolutely correct. If we don't help each other in this life, there is no second chance.

I've long felt that God is just as often an excuse for doing whatever you want in this world, not a deterrent. Want to molest little kids? God will forgive you. Want to murder your fellow citizens wholesale? God elevated you to a position of power so he must be on your side.

Radical Muslims wait to take control.

Facts don't matter to people who "know" they're right. (And they're usually, "far right".)

I certainly believe in God. But Christianity in this country is perverse. Whenever someone doesn't like what God has told them to do, they go find some preacher or one of the many translations of the Bible now available to tell them exactly what they want to hear. They think it is ok to crap all over people because they will be forgiven. Because that is what they paid the minister down at the money temple to tell them. They have created exactly what they wanted and it has little to do with God or the teachings of Christ.

First of all "Christ" is the state of being Anointed. Jesus was a person who was anointed there fore Jesus was the "Christ". So my question is How do you beat Christ either you are anointed or your not. Sounds like some people need some education.

And your proof of this nutty claim?????

Porter, lay off. You know as little as anyone else about how the universe works, so what makes you so confident in confronting others beliefs?

Now we're in agreement!

I don't know and YOU don't know. Nobody knows.

So why are you so sure you do know?

Porter I find great irony in reading your posts and realizing that you are named (at least this name here) for a religious zealot.

Just because people choose to believe and have faith in something bigger than the narrow world you have chosen to live in, doesn't mean you have to post something argumentative or negative on their post. Just stop already.

"Irony" is exactly why I selected it. I'm a great admirer of Schindler's book.

I would stop, but ......

Well ... Let's consider Mugabe as a case in point since the article is about him.

What should have happened in Zimbabwe? It would have been really nice if people of good will saw what he was doing and said, "This is not right! This must stop!" ... when there was still an opportunity for Mugabe to actually be stopped. (We passed that point many years ago, I admit, but I think there was a time when it would have worked.)

My argument with religion is when people use it as a reason to try to exercise power over other people. (Granted, that's not the only way it happens. Stalin and Mao, for example, certainly didn't use it that way. But I would claim that they took advantage of the same human weaknesses that religion also uses.)

Here in America today, we have candidates for President who are feeding on this human weakness. I'm trying to say, "This is not right. This must stop!"

One of the best ways ... at this point in time at least ... is to simply make fun of it. And besides, I'm having a ball.

Don't worry about the debt just keep printing $$$$$$ and diluting $$$$$$ and the debt disappear at some point. Just joking ????

Max^108

Rhodesia was not rich for the Africans, they we all under the grips of a few hateful white people. Mugabe has done anything different from what Smith did, he is just perpetuating it.

What is an idiot? I just think it is relative, He is a man who lives by fear. Look at Syria, what is the difference?

Does God have a sense of humor? He must. Consider, for example, what we're forced to do to simply reproduce.

What's funny about. I think it's pretty darn nice.

Well ... as a participant, I think it's nice too.

But you gotta admit that it's funny looking and totally undignified.

Isaac Asimov ("I, Robot" ... wonderful author) once wrote that the human body couldn't have been designed or they never would have put the fun house next to the sewer.

Escaping death and resurrecting are two completely different things.

Correct. 2 different things. Escaping death happens daily in the real world. Resurrection only happens in fiction.

The hollow promise of something else after death is so powerful that most people simply can't resist it. If you think about it logically, it's just silly. But most people are simply incapable of facing their own death without this crutch.

Porter, I wish you would face your death now.

Thanks for your Christian charity! As Joe Hill said, "In the sweet by and by ..."

@Porter Rockwell hollow is relative to what you believe (assuming you have not died and come back right?).

Not sure what you're trying to say ... really.

I'm aware of the historical namesake. Did you think I wasn't? I picked the name for the irony.

I finally figured out what you were trying to say. (Yeah ... bad on me ... I didn't realize you were responding to my ORIGINAL post in this thread.)

The hollow promise of something else after death ...

That's an interesting point in epistemology. I'm firmly in the camp of René Descartes and the internalists. Descartes wrote that, because the only method by which we perceive the external world is through our senses, and that, because the senses are not infallible, we should not consider our concept of knowledge to be infallible.

So, what you "believe" is irrelevant. You "know" nothing.

Interesting, but (referring back to your other comment on heaven/hell after death) illogical thinking shouldn't be confused with being naive. I.e. Like you said, there is nothing that shouldn't be completely illogical if no one person is omniscient.

Yeah, but they have some really great black people too. Nelson Mandela, for example, is an inspiration for the ages. Good and bad people come in all colors.

Yeah Mandela was great. Especially when he led the ANC in terrorist bombings that killed innocent civilians - both black and white. We all seem to conveniently forget that is why he was jailed. No one argues that apartheid was wrong, but this guy wasn't involved in peaceful protest like Ghandi.

That's true. Although later in his life, "Mandela described the move to armed struggle as a last resort; years of increasing repression and violence from the state convinced him that many years of non-violent protest against apartheid had not and could not achieve any progress."

I'm not the kind of liberal who thinks that resorting to armed conflict is always wrong. George Washington and President Obama have both shown a willingness to take the fight to the enemy and I'm glad of that. (Washington, in particular, was a better war leader than anything else.)

In the case of apartheid, my judgment ... and I think the judgment of history now ... is that Mandela was justified in taking up arms.

When you want to be free, you get there by, ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

How's that bigotry working out? Making you even hate yourself some days? Good! On those days, you're like the rest of us.

I didnt see any bigotry there. I was in Zimbabwe in the mid to late 80's. It was awesome. The people were extremely friendly. The problem was the government took the land which was mostly farm ground "owned" by whites and gave it to the natives. Only problem was none of them were educated in farming enough to be able to run the farms successfully. 20 years later, this is what we have.

If you don't see bigotry, then you're looking through the same "colored" glasses.

South Africa was able to provide for social justice without destroying their economic base. It's not "black empowerment" that caused the collapse of Zimbabwe, it's the failure of a society to embrace social justice for everybody.

(ps ... I admit that South Africa is starting to struggle these days. I hope they are able to right themselves and continue the amazing turnaround they achieved under Nelson Mandela.)

It wasnt even that he gave land to the natives. He gave it to fellow crooks who knew nothing about farming. Actual black farmers would have done just fine but monkeyboy was paying off his croanies. That's how dictators stay in power.

South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment Program has Failed

Oh, it was a great moment when Black South Africans freed themselves from the yolk of Apartheid being administered by the white Afrikaners. However, we must remember that civil rights and political clout without economic empowerment will become borrowed events. The leaders of South Africa have recognized this and are trying to formally do something about it. So far there have been little results. What they have implemented is the Black Economic Empowerment Program.

According to Wikipedia, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a program launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of Apartheid by giving previously disadvantaged groups (black Africans, Coloreds, Indians and Chinese – declared as Black in June 2008 – who are South African citizens) economic opportunities previously not available to them. It includes measures such as Employment Equity, skills development, ownership, management, socioeconomic development and preferential procurement. After the end of Apartheid in 1994 and with the advent of majority rule, control of big business in both the public and private sectors still rested in the hands of white individuals. According to Statistics South Africa, whites comprise just under 10% of the population, meaning that most of the country’s economy was controlled by a very small minority. BEE is intended to transform the economy to be representative of the demographic make-up of the country.”

It sounds like a noble cause but there is just one thing. It is not working. It is poorly implemented and is wrought with corruption, fraud and misrepresentation. A few colored and Asians are getting the lion’s share of the business while the Black population continues to be left out of the economic infrastructure. Among the 295 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Blacks account for just 4% of chief executive officers, 2% of chief financial officers and 15% of other senior posts (The Economist). Entrepreneurship is basically void and a start in this area is desperately needed. Even President Jacob Zuma seems to agree. “Instead of redistributing wealth and positions to the Black majority, they have resulted mainly in a few individuals benefiting a lot,” he says, “while leaving the leadership of most big companies in white hands. The Black masses, the intended beneficiaries, have hardly gained.” Well, Mr. President, what are you going to do about it?

South Africa must turn this opportunity into a success. Affirmative Action is written into its constitution so there can be no legal challenges of a direct and aggressive program. That being the case they should look at models that have worked. There has been no more successful model than our Small Business Administration’s 8a program. This business development program has made more Black millionaires than all of the other economic empowerment programs combined. South Africa needs to form an agency such as the Small Business Administration and begin working on a program that will work.

In addition to business development there should be a pool of capital set aside for business start up and expansions. Capital is the “life blood” of any business and to try and implement an economic empowerment program without ready reserves becomes an impossible task by itself. Here again, the SBA lending programs can be emulated or even improved with less paper work.

The South African government must set aside a pool of contracts for participants in the program to compete for. There can be some subcontracting also but prime contracting is the key to business growth. Develop large Black owned businesses and demand that they subcontract to other Black owned firms.

Black should be Black. They must not aggregate all ethnic groups under the label of Black. They should separate and monitor each group. You can’t tell me that the colored, Indians and Chinese endured Apartheid in an equal manner to Blacks. The typical executive in South Africa makes $80,000 per year. A typical Black makes $800 per year. This disparity is intolerable and must be dealt with immediately. Entrepreneurship and business development are the direct ways to correcting the situation.

Collectively, South Africa is a financially strong nation. It is the only first world nation on the continent of Africa. The problem is the distribution of wealth. Some of the richest families in the world reside in South Africa while the poverty levels rival many third world nations. The crime and violence are rampant and soon, if they don’t address it, it will evolve into rebellion and than full scale revolution. The time for change is immediate and the potential for greatness is obviously attainable if the leaders would become more accountable and take their people to greatness. There is no other nation on earth with such potential for great change. God bless South Africa.

Mr. Alford is the co-founder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce®. Website: www.nationalbcc.org. Email: halford@nationalbcc.org.

Y'know ... That's a fundamental part of totalitarian rule that we fail to understand most of the time.

Consider heriditary totalitarianism like, for example, North Korea or Saudi Arabia. (I picked two very different parts of the world to illustrate that this has nothing to do with religion ... it's a very human thing.) The figureheads that are so often the only visible part of the power structure are really just a symbol that a whole layer of minor despots gather around to preserve their own power.

The "1%" is a world wide phenominon with deep roots in human history. But it finds lots of different ways of infecting society.

Naturally violent people cling on to whoever they think will be a steady supply of money and when that supply starts looking iffy (old, sick, effective santions), they find somebody else.

Ageed!

Something went wrong with this posting.

And, like, that never happens anywhere else? Pol Pot was an African?

You should read about how Americans eliminated their native competition starting around 1500.

There's plenty of evil to go around in this world. It doesn't help to try to blame it on just one part of it.

Porter...there were no Americans in 1500...shame on you. And, it was the European diseases that wiped out much of the North & South American indigenous population. If that had not happened conquest may never have happened.

"American" is a term of convenience. You choose to use "North & South American indigenous population" (and, in that, you still use the term American. Amerigo Vespucci's name wasn't attached to the place until 1507 and the guy who did it tried to change his mind later on and call it “Terra Incognita”. May have been more appropriate in retrospect, but I digress ...)

Although disease was certainly a huge factor, it was helped along with frequent and enthusiastic genocide by various European forces. In this case, I think "intent" should be considered heavily.

The way we beat the war drums on Iran I'm counting on 2012.

So ... YOU worship Christ and the people of Kenya worship Christ. What is the difference between you and them again?

Well, they are not American Christians! Big difference apparently. He's our God. You can tell because it says so on our money. And you know God is all about the money. He's greedy like that. And since we are created in his image.....

Was Christ an "American Christian"?

(and ... it would be a lot more true if it said, "And man created God in his own image ...")

Convenient thing about sky-spirits. Leaders can claim that they say anything they want and nobody can get god to deny it.

@Anonymous: I don't know the twisted sort of education you've had, but check the facts: The god of Mohammed is the god of Abraham.

Humans like to change the gods from time to time so it's hard to predict what god will be actual 2000 years from now.

Humans like to change the gods from time to time ...

Not Me!!! I say, Gimme that old time religion! That's why I still worship Thor and Odin!

(And drink lots and lots of beer.)

"And man created God in his own image ..."

They tried it but fat, bald and stupid just wasn't selling!

I said, "Man's Image" -- not Porter Rockwell's image. (I had in mind the Old Spice guy.)

ps ... hee! hee! I voted your comment up.

Or the 'most interesting man in the world'. He bowls overhand and that's what we here as thunder. No offense to Thor or Zeus!

Gee! And I thought what we hear as thunder when the 'most interesting man in the world' was around was just the result of drinking too much bad beer.

You best not offend the Lord God Thor!! He'll hammer ya! (I got hammered just last weekend.)

Oh no! I wrote here not hear. I'm surprised the Newsvine gods didn't strike me down! Thor hammered me last night too so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

"@Anonymous: I don't know the twisted sort of education you've had, but check the facts: The god of Mohammed is the god of Abraham." - Matt-3468366

Abraham would not agree, nor would any rabbi. According to Torah (aka Old Testament) the one who tries to modify or nullify any part of Torah in the littlest is a false prophet. Mohammad must be taken for what he was - a psycho murderer and a perverted pedophile on top of that.

I'm not intolerant. I'm willing to discuss the issue and even put up with you. I just think your ideas are nutty and I'm not shy about saying it.

Religious people start from an assumption that they have the truth and nobody else does. That's the very definition of intolerance.

Based on all of your comments, you seem to start from the same assumption that you have the truth and religious people do not. So, you ARE intolerant.

No ... I DON'T claim I have the truth. I just think your claim is as silly as it has always been down through the ages.

(Gee! Think I'll go worship a rock somewhere. That rock has gotta be God. It told me so.)

There's a huge difference between believing you have the truth and simply realizing that there are a lot of things you will never know.

The more important aspect is who thinks they have the right to force their opinions on somebody else. Callling it "debate" doesnt give you the right to interfere with/be intolerant of other peoples' choices. If you dont like somebody's choice, have a nice day somewhere else.

No ... This is a neutral ground. I think I'll have a nice day right here.

I would give your point of view more consideration, but today and throughout history, it's been religion forcing (and I do mean "forcing") their opinions on other people.

People like me are totally willing to live and let live.

NOBODY BEATS CHRIST! Who does this guy think he is?

Ummmm ... the Romans did. (Quite literally, if you can believe the Bible.)

You know what I mean! How irreverent do you want to be (non believer for sure) perhaps you are a Roman....

That's an excellent summary (and quite accurate as far as I know).

Zimbabwe is a tragedy that has unfolded. I worry about South Africa. After an amazing start, they seem to be losing their grip on social justice these days.

I was there with the Scouts and Gray's Riders as an advisor. I saw what it was then. What a waste of a beautiful and prosperious country.