Organized religions rip people off. For example, they don't have to pay property taxes yet they enjoy all the benefits of police and fire protection. Even the "faith-healers" can call 911 for a paramedic!
One big religious rip off that is taking place, in addition to the above travesty of justice, is the kosher rip off. This scam is paid for by unaware consumers who haven't been warned about the rabbinical rip off!
The way the kosher scam works is a group of rabbis sell the "right" to a company to display their particular kosher marking. (The two primary kosher symbols are shown below. Check your kitchen for these labels on your food products to see if you've been taken. The symbols are usually small and sometimes hard to locate. I bet everyone will find more than one food product in their kitchen that is part of this religious scam. Even some non-food items are certified kosher by these greedy charlatans! For example, check your Reynolds Wrap if you have it. Also, some dish soap is also "kosher" as are many brands of zip-lock bags and other non-food items!)
Each item you buy that has a kosher mark on it cost you additional money. The individual amounts are usually small, but the big take is truly BIG! And more important, it's the principle that matters. Why should someone who doesn't believe in the Jewish superstition of "kosher" pay into the pocket of a revealed religionist???
The total dollars these rabbis rake in has to be an enormous amount based of the fact that in just one year, 1999, over $130 BILLION was spent on kosher products!!! And as anyone with common sense knows, the corporations who pay these ridiculous fees don't eat the cost themselves! They pass it on to you and me!
I've searched for exact figures of exactly how much the take is that these revealed religionists are enjoying, but it appears the rabbis aren't in favor of transparency when it comes to this superstition based scam. I did, however, learn that having just one full-time mashgiach, or kashrut supervisor, runs between $40,000 and $50,000 per year! Common sense tells us that kashrut supervisors who get paid decent salaries and also have full job benefits along with 401K plans have significant amounts of money flowing in from somewhere. Add to this that the Wall Street Journal reports in its April 18, 2011 edition that companies "pay from $2,000 to tens of thousands of dollars annually" to the rabbis to declare their products kosher and to allow their kosher seal to be placed on the products' packaging! It becomes very obvious that the take is huge! Reality tells us the source of their cash-flow is the pockets of consumers, the over whelming majority of whom don't even believe in this ancient Jewish superstition!
The cost of making wine kosher is also expensive as is evident by this revelation: "For some small wineries the production of kosher wines can become prohibitively expensive; it means additional staff (rabbinical supervisors, for example) as well as fees to the rabbinical authorities, which can significantly affect the eventual retail price of the wine." And there is even a further expensive step to take to make sure the wine remains kosher even if the wine is handled by an inferior non-Jew as the above link reveals!
This interesting and revealing article regarding the problems and costs required to make fish "kosher" helps to make clear the high cost of the kosher scam. Only a fool would believe the businesses and corporations which pay for the kosher symbols do not pass that cost on to the consumers as they do with all of their other overhead expenses. And the percentage is high despite what some corporations claim. For example, the manager of the biggest kosher food company in America said in an April 12, 2012 article that being kosher adds "about 20 to 30 percent to the cost of production."
The kosher scam is often defended as being harmless. Snopes.com has a page which does this. They take issue with the scam being called a “tax.” Technically they are right, it is not a tax since it is not a government agency charging the extra cash. However, it is without question a hugely profitable scam for rabbis at the expense of Gentiles. The only way for the rabbis to continue it without it being a scam is to have the cashiers at the grocery stores ask each customer if they’d like to donate an additional 1 cent to 10 cents or more per item that will then be given to the rabbis who will keep some for themselves and use the rest to promote Judaism. (The snopes.com kosher article has a factual error which is that it claims the money the rabbis take in by selling the right to use their kosher symbols is only used to keep the business going and to pay the rabbis for their services [which is bad enough solely on principle since the bulk of the money is from unsuspecting Gentiles who don't want to pay any amount to support Judaism and the Jewish clergy] and that none of the money flows “off into some special Jewish fund used to advance Zionist causes.” The Orthodox Union openly brags about using its considerable amounts of cash to promote Judaism and their own logo contains the slogan “Enhancing Jewish Life”! [they should add "At the expense of Gentiles!"].)
One of the programs of the Orthodox Union is Mashiv Haruach, a joint project of the Orthodox Union and the Israeli Defense Forces! The OU article about this Zionism promoting program which is in its 12th year is entitled, “Mashiv Haruach: Deepening Israeli Soldiers’ Connection to Judaism and to the Land.” This program makes it very, very clear that the snopes.com article is profoundly factually wrong in falsely claiming money taken from largely unsuspecting Gentiles through the kosher scam does not go into some Jewish fund used to advance Zionist causes.”
THE CRUELTY
"Revealed religion" leaders are not bound by God-given reason. They have their various "holy" books that they interpret for their own benefit. The inhumane manner in which cattle and fowl are killed to satisfy the Jewish superstition of "kosher" brings out this fact.
According to the Jewish "holy" books, their god wants them to withhold any form of anesthetic from the unfortunate animal. The Jewish "holy" men have the gall to expect us to believe them when they say the kosher method of slaughter, in which the animal, usually strung up by it hind feet and in extreme terror as pictured below, has its throat sliced open and bleeds to death, is the most humane way to slaughter an animal because the blades the Jewish "holy" men use are very sharp!!! Only a moron or a religious fundamentalist would believe that lie!!! Free thinking people refuse to take garbage like that "on faith"!
In a weak effort to appease criticism, some kosher slaughterhouses use a device that envelops, holds and turns the animal upside down while the rabbi slits its throat, as if this will somehow make this barbaric ignorant religious practice acceptable. Here is a link to the PETA site to demonstrate without question that this in no way alleviates the UNNECESSARY suffering the animal is forced to endure. WARNING: This video is very graphic, watch it only if you have a very strong stomach! However, it appears PETA has succumbed to Jewish pressure to the point of propagating their religious lie that cutting the throat of a living fully awake and terrified animal "appears all but painless and quickly renders the animal unconscious." It seems PETA has joined the clergy in thinking people are gullible enough to buy this lie!
Kosher Used For the Separation of the Jews From the Gentiles
I recently received an email from a non-religious Jew who pointed out to me the fact that the original intention for kosher religious rules was to further separate the Hebrews/Jews from their neighbors/non-Jews/Gentiles. Also, the slogan for Hebrew National hotdogs, which brags about following kosher slaughter methods, was for years, "We answer to a higher authority." (Anyone who would believe God/a higher authority wants the barbaric kosher slaughter method used would probably believe the Jewish authors of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament who claimed in Numbers 31 that God commanded Moses to order the Israelite army to commit genocide against their neighbors and to "kill every male among the little ones" but to save the virgin "women children" for themselves.)
What YOU Can DO!
When you examine the food in your kitchen cabinets and find products that have any of the below "U"'s or "K"'s on them (which means they're certified kosher) call the company that is so certified and voice your complaint. The "U"'s and "K"'s don't have to be enclosed in a circle. Sometimes they stand alone and sometimes they're in a triangle or a star.
Also, search for other products that aren't part of this inhumane scam. It's usually difficult to find companies that aren't certified kosher, but it's well worth the effort!