Item 1: Karl Rove reportedly said "Just get me a f__king faith-based thing," to the number man in charge of faith-based initiatives, according to this article. Amazing.

Item 2:
How they work, in a nutshell. The U.S. government collects mandatory taxes from the citizens. They give some of those taxes to some church organizations, who they see fit to carry out the work of helping the poor. In essence, this means that some churches have the U.S. government putting large donations into their offering plates, courtesy of the tax payers. Those same tax payers, having already paid their taxes to caesar, have less money to put into the offering plate at their own church, temple, mosque or synagogue, which if its not an adherent of some type of relatively conservative type of Christian theology, are not getting any taxpayer dollars toward their coffers. Do you trust that the groups that the Bush Administration would choose to feed the poor are going to do the best job? In essence, if the most-active church organizations (WRT feeding, housing and clothing the poor) are not getting any of the tax dollars, then the faith-based initiatives actually steal from the poorest, and give money to church organizations who may do a lackluster job or even just sit on the money and smile [shudder].

lyrics: Are you hep to the jive? - Cab Calloway

colors: red and white

mood: just waking up

chant/prayer/mantra: wake up.


pax hominibus,
joel