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Category Archives: Writing
The Revolution Begins at Home: A Clarion Call to Join the Wall Street Protests
Our system is broken at every level. More than 25 million Americans are unemployed. More than 50 million live without health insurance. Perhaps 100 million Americans are mired in poverty, using realistic measures. Yet the fat cats continue to get tax breaks and reap billions while politicians compete to turn the austerity screws on all of us . . .
At Liberty Park, the nerve center of the occupation, more than 500 people gather every day to debate, discuss and organize what to do about our failed system that has allowed the 400 richest Americans at the top to amass more wealth than the 180 million Americans at the bottom. Read more . . .
Engle: “God Has Something To Say To Us In Walmart Parking Lots”
This man is an idiot!
Essay: “A Call to Revoke the Religious Tax Exemption”
By Madison S. Hughes (02.25.2011)
Abstract
It is time; nay it is long past time, to revoke the religious tax exemption. Granted, this proposition may instantly be viewed as yet another untouchable “third-rail” of politics; however, there are numerous economic arguments to be made against continuing this exemption. Past arguments against the religious tax exemption have largely fallen on deaf ears. Changing conditions, especially economic conditions, can place old arguments in a new light. The current government-funding crisis—at all governmental levels—is sufficiently dire, and it is long past time for a call to revoke the religious tax exemption. This paper will demonstrate that the religious tax exemption is responsible for considerable revenue loss, and has a negative impact on: school funding, public library funding, revenue generation, the U.S. Federal Budget Deficit, fairness, and equity. Additionally, the tax exemption: is not transparent, lends to corruption, does not hold persons or religious organizations accountable for corruption, and, therefore warrants a call to revoke the religious tax exemption.
Keywords: church, religious organizations, revocation of religious tax exemption Continue reading
Poem: A Humanist Manifesto
By Curt Systma
In every age, the bigot’s rage
Requires another focus,
Another devil forced on stage
By hatred’s hocus-pocus:
The devil used to be the Jew
And then it was the witches;
And then it was the Negroes who
Were digging in the ditches.
The devil once was colored pink
And labeled Communistic;
Now, all at once, in just a blink,
The devil’s humanistic.
Essay: “The Faith-Based Initiative: Flawed in Concept, Constitutionally Threatening, and Ineffective”
By Madison S. Hughes (11.07.2010)
Abstract
The Faith-Based Initiative (FBI) is a poverty-stricken solution to boosting the nation’s capacity in social services. The idea resonates especially in the current economic climate. Regardless of the economic conditions, the FBI is not a solution to the problem of providing necessary social services. At the same time, the substitution of religious institutions for putatively secular functions represents a clear and present violation to the Establishment Clause regarding the separation of Church and State. This paper will argue that while the objective of providing social services should be a paramount concern, the FBI fails to deliver on this objective on two counts. First, it remains a threat to our most vulnerable citizens because they represent a vehicle to impose specific religious creeds from their social service provider. As such, this initiative, while politically expedient, poses a substantial constitutional infringement, and is unacceptable as public policy. Secondly, to date the FBI has not produced a measurable gain in social service capacity. Continue reading
Thank You, Tony Bennett
By Michael Moore
Thank God for Tony Bennett. He spoke the truth on Howard Stern and now the forces of hate are after him. He said that his fighting in World War II made him a pacifist. He said that perhaps had our behavior in the Persian Gulf been different, 9/11 might have been avoided. And he told Howard something George W. Bush told him privately at the Kennedy Center Honors: “I may have made a mistake (invading Iraq).” Here’s the interview on Stern. Thank you, Tony Bennett. Always a hero to me. See video and blog comments here . . .
Elizabeth Warren on Debt Crisis, Fair Taxation
Elizabeth Warren is the greatest!
Quote: Elizabeth Warren
Quote: Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903)
English Philosopher, Biologist, Sociologist, and prominent
Classical Liberal Political Theorist of the Victorian era
There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
Always Question Authority 