- Prayers & Promises
-
- The privateers and the puppet masters want to have their
promises both ways. Bush is set to announce his Budget for the coming year,
and it contains some Draconian cuts into major parts of American society.
These are serious times, and tough budgetary decisions are called for;
the question now is how much prayer, and which promises are really at issue?
-
- In addition to this, Bush & Company are offering
a raise to the military while failing to show the real costs that his military
fantasies have created. He also promised to restructure the tax code and
cut the deficit in half. This might seem like sheer madness, but there
is a way he can do everything: believe it or not, there is a way that all
of the above can be done. The price however - involves the true status
of religion in all of American society.
-
- Since his first day in office, back in 2001, Bush has
tried to remove health and welfare from government responsibility and has
attempted to give that to the churches, along with the tax dollars to pay
for it. That has not succeeded yet. This was then followed by other outrageous
violations of the provisions of the First Amendment to the US Constitution,
especially the part that calls for the clear separation of the church from
the state.
-
- "Article One, The First Amendment to the US Constitution:
-
- Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
-
- The First Amendment, as anyone can see has lost most
of its powers. Being "At War" we now have government censorship
and control by the corporatocracy over free speech. The press should be
answering for the lies they mouth from the jaws of this government without
even the bare minimum of questions from the Fourth Estate. As for the right
of free assembly, tell that to those who have tried for years to confront
this president anywhereósee the free speech zones miles away from
any cameras. If the petition for the redress of our grievances has anything
to do with the results of elections here, then the last two election thefts
certainly obviated that final part of this most important Amendment to
the US Constitution.
-
- Bush has basically rewritten the Constitution by presidential
fiat ñ but in doing so he overlooked a major revenue resource. Because
the churches and religions of the USA were initially separate from the
functions of government (by law) and by way of compensation they have enjoyed
a tax-free status. Now however they are heavily involved in all phases
of politics, political and partisan speech, and the use of the airwaves
for political purposes. Those who have done this are no longer a religious
group; they have become an illegal political party. Hence all religious
groups and churches must now be taxed, and taxed retroactively back to
2001 ñ when this new status became effective.
-
- If this is not done, then the body politic will be supporting
a huge and illegal political machine ñ one that obviously has a
political agenda, and one that is not paying for its real part in this
society. As churches or religions, this aspect of life was exempt from
taxation, because they were supposedly apoliticalóin the sense that
they were concerned with higher mattersóor at least in matters that
lay outside those of the state's interests. Once that boundary was crossed,
then all religions became political and now must pay their own way. Their
'books' have be opened, for all the world to see, and they should be assessed
and taxed heavily because of a few that now seek to replace the laws of
this land with the Bible, a document that has nothing to do with governing
a land as diverse as this one is.
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- http://www.oldamericancentury.org/kirwan00039.htm
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- When the status of religion changed, so did their exemption
from taxes. The taxes that are owed by the churches, from this legal and
necessary correction of the tax burden could more than offset the national
debt. Given the many interests of all religions (their land & real
estate holdings, their tax sheltered ventures, the art and treasures in
the Vatican, their silent partnerships throughout the business world, both
here and abroad; as well as all their divergent business interests): All
of that which is held and made possible by their exemption from taxesówill
have to be taxed; whether or not the particular churches were part of the
Evangelistaís world view or not. Given the penalties, the fines
and the compounded interest going back the full four years, on top of the
assessed taxes - this amount could indeed be staggering. The only way this
might be avoided is if the other religions came together and declared the
Evangelistas to be a political party and not a religion.
-
- Is this all just a part of some secret weapon that Dubya
will use to cut the deficit in half, in order to have his way with the
current budget as well? After all, the puppet cannot run again so his fair-weather
supporters are no longer needed. Technically he and his true masters can
just throw them to the taxman with impunity ñ Yes?
-
- It's one thing to co-opt these faux religions for political
purposes, but it's another thing altogether to allow them to remain tax-exempt
in their newfound status. The Evangelista's cannot have it both ways. Either
they can be religions, interested in the beliefs and spiritual health of
their followers, or they can play Messiah to the wider world, garbed in
robes fashioned from the American Flag. They cannot do both and pay for
neither.
-
- Some of us in the world do not relish having our thoughts
dictated to us through the mouth of the government, especially when those
thoughts are actually coming from a pulpit that we do not recognize as
having any value whatsoever.
-
- But the transgression of this extreme right, religious
aberration goes far beyond just outlandish behavior. The very tenets of
their so-called faith call for them to convert everyone else to their world-view,
while simultaneously denying all others the right to choose what they want
to believe in. This contravenes the entire point raised by the First Amendment
ñ which implies freedom FROM any religion, to those who seek that.
In effect the very existence of the Evangelistas is an affront to the laws
of our non-sectarian society, and must, by the wording of their own claims
be outlawed!
-
- When these aggressive imposters try to hide behind "religious
freedom" in order to attack those who refuse to crumble before their
onslaughts: then something is not right. When the Evangelistas seek the
protection of the First Amendment, while they hack their way into the halls
of government, and into the bedrooms and boardrooms of the country ñ
then it is time to review this bizarre behavior: because when they do this
for their petty political aims, they corrupt all religious efforts of all
the churches and religions of which they are technically a legal part.
-
-
- Free people have the right to be free from any interference
by unwanted religious convictions - especially when that comes from eccentric
zealots of any stripe.
-
- Part of the beauty in this nation, was the idea that
each of us was free to think what we choose to think about, so long as
we were not plotting the overthrow of the nation ñ then our thoughts
could always be our own. Under this "new government" the bible
is about to become something that all citizens will be forced to live by:
that was never the intent behind this nation. In fact the First Amendment
was designed to prevent this very thing from ever becoming part of life
in the USA. That is why it was written to grant the people freedom FROM
religion, and not as a license to force, any particular religious belief
system upon the whole nation.
-
- Congress needs to hold public hearings, and send the
Treasury Department out to look at how much we have coming from all the
churches, for this outrageous theft of our rights, our privileges and the
even the very foundation of our government. That sounded good, but everybody
knows that congress has been pre-paid, so stuff like this will probably
never happen. This whole affair has become about promises to be kept, or
promises to be broken: How this goes down in history will determine what
kind of nation we really are.
-
- Can we all now look forward with pleasure to the Bush
PROMISE to cut the deficit in half; (knowing that he always keeps ALL his
promises) and 'knowing' that in the bargain we shall rid the nation of
this curse of the religious zealots among us? The drawback of course is
that someone big will need to lead this charge, and in this sold-out government,
that now seems doubtful.
-
- kirwan
-
-
-
- Comment
- From CM Ross
- To Jim Kirwan
- 2-8-5
-
- Greetings,
-
- ( Miss Ross) I am really ever so tired of you in the
media trotting out that canard of "separation of church and state,"
which is NOT in the US Constitution. It is in a letter that Jefferson wrote
to a group of concerned Protestants who were concerned that another Protestant
sect was going to be named the state religion. Jefferson stated that the
church ought to be protected from the state by a wall of separation. WILL
YOU PLEASE GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!
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- (kirwan) I really do not care what you think, my facts
are straight. The First Amendment was added to the Constitution so that
this matter would never be misunderstood - and that is something that you'll
just have to learn to live with. The intent was so that all people would
have the choice to choose a religion or they could choose to have no religion
- that was to be their choice. This was necessary because of the relgious
tyranny that had become a way of life in many of the countries from which
those early settlers had come from, so when they were trying to create
a document that could guide their new republic, they wanted to be sure
that as Americans they would be forever free FROM religious tyranny, of
any and all types.
-
- (Miss Ross) With regard to taxation, I remind you that
the income tax is the Second Plank of the Communist Manifesto, and here
is what Lavrent Beria, of the Soviet KGB, had to say about it in his lecture
on Psychopolitics:
-
- http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/7006/psychopolitics.html
-
- The masses must at last come to believe that only excessive
taxation of the rich can deliver them of the "burdensome leisure class"
and can thus be brought to accept such a thing as income tax, a Marxist
principle smoothly slid into Capitalistic framework in 1909-1913 in the
United States. This, even though the basic law of the United States forbade
it and even though Communism at that time had been active only a few years
in America. Such success as the Income Tax law, had it been followed thoroughly
could have brought the United States and not Russia into the world scene
as the first Communist nation. But the virility and good sense of the Russian
peoples won. It may not be that the United States will become entirely
Communist until past the middle of the century, but when it does it will
be because of our superior understanding of economics and of psychopolitics.
-
- (kirwan) This has nothing to do with ideology, especially
not between communism and capitalism - if you understood what we now have
better, you would realize that the Corporatocracy is nothing more than
communism in shreds of capitalistic clothing and that this transparency
is what is now coming under the glare of brighter lights than have heretofore
been shed upon this obsenity:
- http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10820193.htm
-
- If this makes you uncomfortable then so be it. The current
goal of this corrupt pile of horse shit is to restore the egis of the Robber
baron days of massive profits without any need to cover the concerns tht
most people experience in their everyday lives. That's not even something
that can be dignified by calling it an ideology - that's just pure unmitigated
greed intermixed with the lust for absolute power.
-
- (Miss Ross) The Communist agent skilled in economics
has as his task the suborning of tax agencies and their personnel to create
the maximum disturbances and chaos and the passing of laws adapted to our
purposes and to him we must leave this task. The psychopolitical operator
plays a distinctly different role in this drama.
-
- I really do not understand your complaint about churches
and politics because Lyndon Johnson saw to it that they were effectively
gagged in the 1950s when he was a Senator. He authored a bill that withdrew
their income tax kickback if they didn't play ball with the government.
Which means the leftist churches have run amok and the conservatives are
too gutless to stand up for anything meaningful.
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- (kirwan) Left - right - center - they are all the same
bunch of pirates. The "churches" for their part were accorded
the tax-exempt status because they were supposed to remain within the spiritual
realms of their followers - and were not to play an active role in the
governance of the state. LBJ did begin this game of fools, but it has only
increased. Reagan added his two cents, which was about all he was ever
worth, and of course Newt added his obscenities to the fray - and then
came Bush with the death blow to freedom FROM dark side of reason.
-
- (Miss Ross) And you are probably right in that it does
indeed appear that we are too far along now to ever derail this bloodstained
path that the Evangelista's have carved out for this nation - however that
does not prevent those of us that still care from trying to remove this
cancer that religious zealotry has become, from taking over whatever is
left of this threadbare country: A place that once upon a time pretended
to be a nation both separate from and open to all religions.
-
- Finally, Thomas Jefferson would twist in his grave to
hear your suggestion that the churches ought to be taxed. He himself wrote
in Title 57 of the Code of Virginia on Religious Freedom that it is "sinful
and tyrannical" to compel a man to furnish contributions for an opinion
with which he does not agree.
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- (kirwan) When any "church" attempts to dictate
law and government to an American, you'd be lucky to only be "taxed"
and not prosecuted for that offense. You see that last line concerning
what is "sinful and tyrannical" applies directly to those who
would make their primary mission in life to convert all others on the planet
to this screwed up and inhibited but fossilized belief system that those
who peddle this snake oil are trying so desperately to sell to the whole
world - as to all things Christianity. Especially when the tenets of that
neo-con imitation of religion believes in mass murder, in lies of all kinds
and reconizes nothing of the sanctity for life, or in the Christian principles
regarding coveting the property of others. But perhaps worst of all there
is none of the compassion, none of the basic humanity, none of the joy
that is part of being alive, in any of that boiler-plate gaarbage that
is being dregged up as a model for all to live by.
-
- Sincerely,
- Miss Ross
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