Commentary - Jordan Ballor: Tithing is about giving, not getting

All the candidates that ran for the office of president never seemed to touch on the pressures put on the farmer by extreme fuel and fertilizer costs that caused many small farms to shut down.....they all were very aware of the pigs on Wall Street and were able to do the first big bail out job in one short weekend---listen folks, it will not be long untill you will not have food in your pantry! I suppose we will import food stuff from China and doing that already I reckon?? Wake up! Seems like Republicans had rather see the house burn down than for this super smart president make some positive adjustments for the nation and the mess the past eight years have brought... Thanks, Roger D

common sense and the knowledge of pouring pee out of a boot are not in either greenspans or bernankes qualifications. OR, as i suspect a definite plan was followed and is successfully working.

greenspan ,bernanke ,and paulson should be hung for treason. and throw rumsvelt and wolfowitz in for the opening hanging.

greenspan, bernanke ,and paulson are all carbunkels on the ass of the american people.

Today’s Commentary piece on Foreign Students by David North challenges the analysis in IIE’s Open Doors: Report on International Education Exchange, that international students contribute $14.5 billion to America’s economy annually in tuition & living expenses. Our figures are quite close to ones developed independently by US Department of Commerce, and to figures provided by US campuses to the Department of Homeland Security’s SEVIS. IIE’s Open Doors’ website www.opendoors.iienetwork.org provides full details on how the $14.5 billion figure was derived. The Open Doors analysis, unlike North’s, fully captures the complexity of funding sources, which vary by academic level, fields of study, and type of host institutions. It accurately reflects the substantial economic contribution international students make to US communities & campuses, in addition to their important intellectual contributions to US classrooms, enhancing academic dialog & widening global awareness of American students.

Regarding REAL ID, this decision fits both the previous mold of how REAL ID came about (top-down bureacratic decisions that ran roughshod over state's rights)and reinforces the concern that many have about the way this program would be run in the future. REAL ID is an edict, pure and simple, and mandates a new set of rules for not just now, but for ever as long as the Department of Homeland Security changes its minds. Putting AAMVA in charge of the information hub is a great example. AAMVA is an international 501c3, unaccountable to the voters of the United States. By putting AAMVA in that position, and by unilaterally dictating which water carries now get paid off by DHS, DHS continues to prove that they have not learned from past mistakes and plan to continue to make them in the future. If you never envisioned how a bureaucrat from Washington, Missouri, Canada, and Mexico was going to make your state's drivers license decisions on RFID, biometrics, well, here it is.

I would like to point out to the author who wrote the article that Ireland's rejection leaves a few options, the the percentage figure quoted on the turnout was incorrect as the turnout was in fact over 50%. Again I think if the author researched this topic at any length I think she would find that a large number of people are concerned regarding the level of democracy within the EU. The previous version of this Treaty was opposed by both France and Holland in 2005 with the people's choice not been respected . Do you think that if the treaty was put to other member states that they would reject it to but that's right the political figures knew it would so they choose to ratify it through parliament. If your author examines the situation between the EU and the current situation in Zimbabwe it is quite similar you can vote but either we will not respect it or we will threaten you until you make the right decision.

Thank you this is why more than ever we must vote for younger folks. he feeble minded people like Byrd etc and others are racing toward the end of the empire

Wrong. We survived hurricane Katrina, which passed the city a weakened Category 2 storm, but we have yet to survive the US Army Corps of Engineers. The city flooded because their levees failed. Those levees failed due to engineering malfeasance. Please do your homework and stop perpetuating this lie. I suppose as well that you might argue that the Nazis simply had bad press. Your writing recalls Goebells and the way he would describe a successful German ghetto program. Another lie you proffer is the one about homeowner's blissfully ignorant of government corruption. Come on, who are you trying to kid. New Orleansians simply can't afford to ignorance. You apparently have not met any post recovery homeowners. Hardly blissful. Your population figures are wildly biased to exlude the Top Down Government decision HUD made to deny Americans their "right of return" Your article is misdirecting at best, neoconservative dogma white'wash at worst. Your faux compassion is not appreciated

You forgot to mention that farmers expenses have soared also. It costs more to produce a crop and loan levels were increased for some crops to help cover those increased costs if the price of that crop drops enough to use the Loan Deficiency Payment tool. It only applies when a crop gets to a trigger safety net price. Just because it has been budgeted doesn't mean the farmer gets is as long as prices are high. Can you guarantee the prices will stay up? Wheat has dropped over 50% in less than three months yet you are reporting that prices are record highs. The expenses continue to increase yet crop prices have dropped and you are out of date stating record income for farmers. Take time to study it and you will see it isn't true. It takes millions to be a farmer but that doesn't mean they are rich.

The notion that deadbeats should get renters' tax money because "homeownership encourages responsible citizenship' is insane. My decision not to enter the real-estate market the last five years was based on responsible citizenship. The people who bought with no money down and interest-only loans are not, and never will be, responsible. "Homeownership' is not a virtue. It's elitist to say so. And untrue. In SF, the Bayview has one of the highest levels of owner-occupied properties, and it's a cesspool of violence.

As Christians really study the new Covenant and early Christian history, we find that tithing was required onlty in the old Covenant, where Priests were solely responsible for interceding and praying to God on behalf of all Jews. Priests were required to share excess tithes with the poor and were forbidden from any and all ownership. But, in the new Covenant we have Jesus to replace the priests and we can talk to Him ourselves. This is why institutional tithing was not practiced for the first 800 years of Christianity. Now, and particularly in America, church is just another capitolist (worldly) entity and callings have morphed into careerism, requiring salary and benefits, but no taxes or accountability. Likee the drug trade, the only way to save the church from careerist leaders is to take the Prophet motive out of it, teach the truth that soliciting tithes is out of Christian order. Then we will cease to attract church leaders in need of worldly self-enrichment and ego-stroking.

No License if you dont vote... End of story

NCLB was doomed from the beginning. Education in the 1950's was completely dummed down to accomodate the desegregation of the public schools and to make sure the black students were not overwhelmed by the white schools' advanced curriculums. What should have occurred at that time was to start integrating the schools beginning with Kindergarten. The old reliable method of teaching would have continued thus at the end of the senior year of high school, the diploma would represent a real 12 year education instead of a high school diploma in this day and age only representing the equivalent of a sixth grade education at the most. Compared to today's standards, my 1952 high school diploma is equivalent to a four year college degree. Common sense was not the rule when desegregation took place.

It is amazing how the wearers of the tinfoil hats protect yourselves from sunburn,just stick your head down a hole,and let the world and reality pass you by. The trouble with your naive "Chamberlin "like "attitude is that when Osabama etal.,arrive on our shores, as they surely will if we tuck tail and run, is that your ilk will be the first to go. Your lack of social and moral values will excite his need to slowly saw off your heads to improve his surroundings!

Your Aug. 15 “Scoop” remind us that Cameron Diez was making Chinese propaganda in Peru, at the time of the last immigration debates in congress in June/07. Latin Americans won’t pay to see her movies, no chin-chin and no moral support.