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falcongrrlI'm curious about how yesterday went with the whole gas buying thing. I must have received an email about it from five different people.
I actually didn't buy gas yesterday, but it wasn't because of the email per se, I just didn't need it. Boycotting gasoline for a day, which I think we use far too much of, is kind of a strange idea to me, even with the high prices. It's like having a day for boycotting cocaine. I mean, yeah, not doing it for that day is good, but not doing it all the time would be even better.
Don't get me wrong, I hate paying the money; but at the same time I keep thinking, well then, walk, or carpool, or take the (admittedly un-user-friendly) bus.
But, conversely, I love it when Internet stuff really makes a difference, love it when average Americans take a stand and really, collectively, decide to make their voices heard. Yeah! Gas boycott! Woo hoo!!
So I'm just wondering if anything significant happened, or if everybody just forgot. :-P
Another thing, apparently Texas has decided that my religion is not actually a religion. Egads!
I'm sure it has nothing to do with our extremely liberal stance on various political issues. Nope, it's because we let in the athiests, or so they say.
*sigh*
Here's the article, in case anyone's interested. Apparently it appeared first in the Dallas-Ft Worth paper.
"Unitarian Universalists have for decades presided over births, marriages and memorials. The church operates in every state, with more than 5,000 members in Texas alone.
But according to the office of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Denison Unitarian church isn't really a religious organization -- at least for tax purposes. Its reasoning: the organization 'does not have one system of belief.'
Never before -- not in this state or any other -- has a government agency denied Unitarians tax-exempt status because of the group's religious philosophy, church officials say. Strayhorn's ruling clearly infringes upon religious liberties, said Dan Althoff, board president for the Denison congregation that was rejected for tax exemption by the comptroller's office.
'I was surprised -- surprised and shocked -- because the Unitarian church in the United States has a very long history,' said Althoff, who notes that father-and-son presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were both Unitarians.
His church is just one of several Unitarian congregations in North Texas, including churches in Fort Worth, Arlington and Southlake.
Strayhorn's ruling, as well as a similar decision by former Comptroller John Sharp, has left the comptroller's office straddling a sometimes murky gulf separating church and state.
What constitutes religion? When and how should government make that determination? Questions that for years have vexed the world's great philosophers have now become the province of the state comptroller's office.
Questions about the issue were referred to Jesse Ancira, the comptroller's top lawyer, who said Strayhorn has applied a consistent standard -- and then stuck to it. For any organization to qualify as a religion, members must have 'simply a belief in God, or gods, or a higher power,'he said.
'We have got to apply a test, and use some objective standards,' Ancira said. 'We're not using the test to deny the exemptions for a particular group because we like them or don't like them.'"
That's all I have for now.
A+
I actually didn't buy gas yesterday, but it wasn't because of the email per se, I just didn't need it. Boycotting gasoline for a day, which I think we use far too much of, is kind of a strange idea to me, even with the high prices. It's like having a day for boycotting cocaine. I mean, yeah, not doing it for that day is good, but not doing it all the time would be even better.
Don't get me wrong, I hate paying the money; but at the same time I keep thinking, well then, walk, or carpool, or take the (admittedly un-user-friendly) bus.
But, conversely, I love it when Internet stuff really makes a difference, love it when average Americans take a stand and really, collectively, decide to make their voices heard. Yeah! Gas boycott! Woo hoo!!
So I'm just wondering if anything significant happened, or if everybody just forgot. :-P
Another thing, apparently Texas has decided that my religion is not actually a religion. Egads!
I'm sure it has nothing to do with our extremely liberal stance on various political issues. Nope, it's because we let in the athiests, or so they say.
*sigh*
Here's the article, in case anyone's interested. Apparently it appeared first in the Dallas-Ft Worth paper.
"Unitarian Universalists have for decades presided over births, marriages and memorials. The church operates in every state, with more than 5,000 members in Texas alone.
But according to the office of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Denison Unitarian church isn't really a religious organization -- at least for tax purposes. Its reasoning: the organization 'does not have one system of belief.'
Never before -- not in this state or any other -- has a government agency denied Unitarians tax-exempt status because of the group's religious philosophy, church officials say. Strayhorn's ruling clearly infringes upon religious liberties, said Dan Althoff, board president for the Denison congregation that was rejected for tax exemption by the comptroller's office.
'I was surprised -- surprised and shocked -- because the Unitarian church in the United States has a very long history,' said Althoff, who notes that father-and-son presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were both Unitarians.
His church is just one of several Unitarian congregations in North Texas, including churches in Fort Worth, Arlington and Southlake.
Strayhorn's ruling, as well as a similar decision by former Comptroller John Sharp, has left the comptroller's office straddling a sometimes murky gulf separating church and state.
What constitutes religion? When and how should government make that determination? Questions that for years have vexed the world's great philosophers have now become the province of the state comptroller's office.
Questions about the issue were referred to Jesse Ancira, the comptroller's top lawyer, who said Strayhorn has applied a consistent standard -- and then stuck to it. For any organization to qualify as a religion, members must have 'simply a belief in God, or gods, or a higher power,'he said.
'We have got to apply a test, and use some objective standards,' Ancira said. 'We're not using the test to deny the exemptions for a particular group because we like them or don't like them.'"
That's all I have for now.
A+
