English communities secretary, Eric Pickles, has proposed that the government may want to withdraw tax breaks for the Church of Scientology — noting controversies over the Church’s activities and alluding to the general view in England that it is more of a cult than a religion.
Scientology is not treated as a religion in England but still receives financial benefits as a charity. In 1984, the organization was described as a cult by a high court judge.
Yet, the City of London Corporation has asked Scientology to pay only one-fifth of the tax rates for its London headquarters near St Paul’s cathedral.
Pickles questioned whether Scientology can be described as beneficial for society to justify the saving of millions in tax payments: “The Church of Scientology is not a registered charity, since the Charity Commission has ruled that it does not provide a public benefit. Nor are its premises a recognised place of worship.”
Indeed, in 1999, the Charity Commission ruled that the church did not pass the “public benefit” test required for advancing religion as a charitable purpose. He also cited the negative views of Scientology by a majority of English citizens.
I am not familiar with English law on the subject but such a basis for rescinding tax exemption would be rejected in the United States – particularly the unpopularity of the Church with the majority of citizens. Such a test would invite a dangerous level of subjectivity and majoritarian control in the denial of benefits.
Source: Guardian
Ay I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. Being the one is like being in love. No one can tell you your in love, you just know it, through and through, balls to bone.
SwM,
Well they come in all sizes maybe he could service Rubio just for the fun of it….some don’t care about age I hear…but then again…some like a daddy figure…You know what I am saying…
B. DaHamster, Bdaman….Are you trying to tell us something…do you still partly freeze them…before insertion…or…how do you stuff them in…Not that I wanna know your perverted lifestyle…you are in Florida so the Sheep are safe in Missouri….do your brothers still fondle them…Do they still go Baaaaa or is that BHaaaaaa at family reunions…..or are you still not welcome since the last one when you brought a date out side of your immediate family…I heard that it was a cousin…legal in some states but still…you do have some standards….right…
So why do you think that is. Is it history or is it push back against the one.
bdaman Your party is winning so I thought you might get a patronage job in the new congress or a job with Rubio. Maybe Carl Rove might have something. The presidential campaigns will be hiring soon. There are all kinds of possibilities. Ay I think he is too old to be a page and I think Mark Foley quit.
Oh hi B.DaHamster
Swathmore mom I remember a couple of months ago you were trying to rally the troops cause you said come on guys it looks like Bdaman is winning. Well, “it’s not a matter of win or loose it’s a matter of what you do with your dancin shoes” Grease.
I think i’ll dance the jig with them 😉
SwM,
Oh you are cold…..truthful…maybe he may get a real page job…I am sure he can service well….He can blow through the threads like…well…like…a Hoover and Eureka combined in one…
bdaman Are you going to get a promotion when the election is over?
Surely a self proclaimed Christian wouldn’t leave out creator unless he was really trying to hide his real faith.
During the past two months, I’ve read several articles about Obama omitting the phrase “by their Creator” when quoting from the Declaration of Independence. Most of these articles have pointed out three examples. I’ve found a few more which I’ll quote from below. I went to http://www.whitehouse.gov and clicked on “Briefing Room”. I searched the site using the words “Inalienable“, “Unalienable“, and “Creator“.
I also tried searching under “endowed” and got back a whole lot of entries using the phrase “National Endowment of the Arts (NEA)” (Yosi, you are missed…) while very few contained the word “Creator“.
Note: that Obama likes to use “inalienable” instead of “unalienable” (see bottom of this post)
http://c5c5c5.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/obama-omitting-creator-from-declaration-more-examples/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/20/naacp-tea-parties-nationalism-racists-bigots_n_769443.html
Buddha,
I couldn’t get that last Koch link to work so copied and pasted and ended up at Huffington … read the article like I’m reading all the other Koch info you post
I’m just checking to make certain I went to the right site ..
Elaine:
what a schmuck he must be. That was a ridiculous thing to send to anyone, let alone even think of.
And anyway there are more whites on welfare so it doesn’t even make sense.
More News For Koch Suckers:
Justices Scalia And Thomas’s Attendance At Koch Event Sparks Judicial Ethics Debate
Remarkably, the most offensive part of the story is not using “ethics” and “Scalia and Thomas” in the same sentence.
Ahab,
All that means is you acquired just enough reasonableness to appear not be a totally unreasonable ass, however, reasonable in cosmetic appearance and reasonable actually are two different things and 99% is still quite a high concentration. You’ve got that going for you. Which is nice.
So how’s that not using persuasive speech thing working out?
@Buddha: Right, because nobody is arguing that the pissed off liberals voting for Nader cost Gore the election, or that the pissed off Republicans voting for Perot handed Clinton the Presidency, or anything like that.
Those people, like Greens and Libertarians and others, voted their conscience, they did not make a cynical computation and choose the lesser of two evils. I will vote my conscience, which is to not vote for EGREGIOUS liars and the obviously (to me) corrupt.
If the are not egregious liars or obviously corrupt (and SwMom has pointed out the error of my ways re Kucinich), they have my moral support, and possibly financial support.
I know, that is sooooo illogical. The only logical thing to do is to reward and perpetuate the lying and thievery and with docility and hopeful pleading accept our inevitable tyrranical future.
Correction on my previous comment: That article was from Talking Points Memo DC–not Huffington Post
From TPMDC
Racist Email Flap Blows Up Virginia Beach GOP
Evan McMorris-Santoro | October 20, 2010
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/racist-email-flap-blows-up-virgina-beach-gop.php?ref=fpa
Excerpt:
Virginia Beach is the biggest city in Virginia, and the hometown of the state’s current Republican Governor, Bob McDonnell. Now it’s also home to the latest example of a racist email forward destroying a prominent conservative’s political credibility and possibly career.
As the progressive Blue Virgina blog reported Monday — and I independently confirmed from one of the recipients Tuesday — Virginia Beach Republican Party chair Dave Bartholomew forwarded a racist email comparing African Americans to dogs. The email, subject line “my, dog,” consists of a racist parable about African Americans and welfare. In the first 24 hours since the email came to light, Democrats condemned Bartholomew and he resigned his position with the Republican Party.
The text of the message, in full:
MY DOG
I went down this morning to sign up my Dog for welfare.
At first the lady said, “Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare”.
So I explained to her that my Dog is black, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and has no frigging clue who his Daddy is.
So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify…
My Dog gets his first check Friday.
Is this a great country or what?
From Huffington Post (10/20/2010)
Buddhadow:
“Some may believe I’m an extraordinary pain in the ass,. . . ”
Who would think that? You are one of the kindest most gentle posters here. You need to have some confidence in your people skills 🙂
Buddha:
“Some may believe I’m an extraordinary pain in the ass,. . . ”
Who would think that? You are one of the kindest most gentle posters here. You need to have some confidence in your people skills 🙂