I'm back. I have an idea that you can toss around in your head. The US government should no longer allow contributions to churches to be tax deductible. The idea that giving to the church is a valid form of charitible contribution is weak. Any charity is subject to the scrutiny that analyzes what percentage gets to the needy and what percentage is used to operate. Churches come off poorly when looked at from this angle. Although some may do better than others, I would venture to guess that very, very few shine.

I invite you to reflect on how the church of Jesus Christ in the US would be transformed were the cash to be pulled out of the enterprise. (You surely must agree that its coffers would be reduced significantly).

Another way to state this proposition: We should dismantle the institution (i.e. make it such that it requires no money to operate) so that our monies can be directed to the poor via charities that have a good record handling it. In this way, we could quit wasting our hard earned cash.

If you like, you can await a later article wherein I will talk about my position on "tithing".

Is this daily bondage or what? I gotta write something everyday? Well, it may not be so hard. These little "spits in the wind" can be very brief. And so they will be. One thing I can predict is that most people will disagree with me on most of the opinions I write. Basically, I am a cynical b%#@**d. (No offense, mom).

An experiment in photograph uploading. This is a statue of the first "native American" woman to be made a saint by the Roman church. From what I can see, I think I would have liked her.

If you visit Sante Fe, New Mexico, you can see her (statue) up close and personal.

I was just trying to make a comment on my sister's blog and before I finished I had a blog. I remind myself of my dad so much sometimes, it scares me.

So now I have a blog. And I had to make up a name for the thing on the spot. Under great time pressure, "I-Need-Sheet-Music" is what I came up with. (Maybe if I had known I was gonna' have one of these, I might have come up with a name that made some sense).

It may not matter. If I don't pass out its birth announcement, this blog will never be read.

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system.