The USS Titanic – USS Usury

I browse the news(and marvel!!)  and think of the many times the US has been likened to the Titanic… the ineffable, unsinkable US — the Titanic that was described as the ship that even “God himself could not sink…”  Well… I wonder, had he been alive, what would that man have said on April 15, 1912? So you suppose he would have said, “Hmmm, so, all that happened.”

Well, so, I’ve been thinking about the Titanic… I’ve been thinking about ‘end times’ and the state of the state and it’s hard not to make comparisons.  Really hard.

I remembered reading some bits about the Titanic and so had to look them up – here’s an interesting one: Dr. Charles Parkhurst, of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, preached a sermon after the demise of the Titanic and in reference to society of that day [!!] he said,

The picture that has hung before my eyes ever since last Tuesday morning has been the that of the victims staring meaningless at the gilded furnishings of this sunken palace of the sea… and there was no need for it. It is just so much sacrifice laid upon the alter of the dollar.”

Now, that, to many, might seem malevolent — even disrespectful of the lives lost in that tragedy.  That’s not intended here.  What’s intended is the similarity to these days… the gilded ship that is the US and the (proposed) gilding by Henry Paulson of the US Treasury or the US Usury.  You can’t help but wonder is Henry Paulson… Julius Caesar?

 Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”  text of the proposal [scary!!] in a NYT article – full article here.

So, about the non-sinkability of the Titanic and the US today?  You’ve got to wonder:  What else is going on in the boiler room or the engine room of the ship?  And what about all the passengers? What will the great grandchildren be saying in 96 years?

Our oldest boy woke up Friday morning to his new reality… the gilded ship company he had worked for for nearly 10 years was no longer — O, he still has a job and, in fact, apparently had 3 job offers that very day — but that’s not what concerns me (that son has always been sort of a ‘golden boy’ and seizes the moment and works very hard).  What concerns me is that the taking over of WaMu was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  And what took down the Titanic?

An iceberg.

So, all that happened.

May the Lord God help us.