The Office of Faith-Based Initiatives will use that $1.2 million to put together a Powerpoint presentation on why they need another $1.2 million to really do some good work in Tennessee.
I recall at one company where a group which wasted millions and didn't accomplish anything on a project threw themselves at company expense a big party at one of the swankiest places in a major American city to "celebrate" that they now knew how much they didn't know. No lie. And, this was going on at the same time that competent people were losing their jobs at this same place.
“thousands of people offer similar prayers, he believes God will impart his favor on Tennessee.”
I’ve seen what happens to those who has god’s favor imparted on them. His chosen people have been nearly wiped from the Earth several times over. Perhaps the people of Tennessee could work to improve their lot in life rather than just pray it gets better.
My parents live in TN and they hate the politics there, and her friend was hospitalized with Covid while her husband died of the same in another room.
This was also where my car was totaled because of the poorly planned and maintained road. Everyone told me there’s an accident or several on that stretch daily and it isn’t even the worst road for accidents in the area. I got my replacement this weekend, went from a Durango to a Jeep Grand Cherokee, hopefully this one won’t catch fire.
This last weekend I did an outdoor adventure race (mountain biking, trail running, and canoeing) that I did not prepare for as much as I should. Afterward, my legs were really sore and I was pretty worn out, but couldn't sleep well. Sometime in the night, I had a really weird dream where I asked the people here if I could borrow somebody's massager. Val offered me hers and wanted to drive it out to me so she could break in her new vehicle, which turned out to be my grandpa's old International Harvester Scout. The massager turned out to be some odd wind up hand buzzer type thing on a stick (no judging). She offered me a ride to my car which for some reason was in NoGodz underground volcano lair/parking garage. When we got there, someone else from the boards (I knew who at the time, I can't remember now) was in the back seat trying to replace my armrests with oven racks for better air flow.
My dad had an international scout for a long while, he did drive it and tinker around on it. I don’t know what happened to it, it didn’t make it to Tennessee.
We (my hubs and I) own a 57 Chevy panel wagon that was used as a small town police paddy wagon when it was new. We’ve also had two Jeepster Commandos.
Dad also had a 40s Willys Jeep when I was a teenager. It was a field find, so we got it running, and the body had large rust holes my dad took advantage of after rainstorms. It was a blast!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, FFS. There are people without food or shelter in TN and this is where the money is going. I don't even have the energy to be disgusted anymore, I hope the young people are paying attention. They can change this, they have the votes.
I think Hemant posted a while back about the Jewish Couple in TN who were trying to adopt a child and were rejected by the religious group the State picked to run its adoption services... because, they were not christian. This is a perfect example of why the Founding Fathers tried to erect a wall of separation between religion and government. TN is working as hard as it can to tear down that wall.
Neither this country nor the world as a whole, faces a single problem that has a religious solution. It is never the job of our secular government to backstop anyone's religion. No religious institution should get a cent of public money for any reason, ever. I sure hope this gets a court test.
It's bad enough when people in office encourage the citizens of their town or state or country to pray for thus-and-so. It's far worse when they waste taxpayer dollars to underwrite such activities. Tennessee and Bill Lee seem determined to squander state funds to accomplish NOTHING, which amounts to the most expensive and least effective virtue-signaling I am aware of to date.
It'd be nice if the FFRF or American Atheists nudged them a bit and let them know that it wasn't just CHRISTIAN taxes being effectively thrown away, but I doubt they'd listen.
Ha! I think I've already said my doctor said my liver is in such great condition you can't really believe it. And considering what I put that through in my youth on a little bit surprised myself. Doesn't do my knees much good though. Running is still okay, but I do tend to wear a brace, and have been at least twice overtaken by someone walking. Uphill mind. 😇
He produces that personally as well. All his own s**t too. Explosive stuff, from what I hear, dangerous in any quantity if it is not contained properly. But man, it burns sump'm fierce.
Seriously, this amounts to stealing in God's name, and nothing else. The lack of accountability here is staggering, and from what I'm reading, likely intentional; after all the taxpayer doesn't need to know where that money's going, right?
At this point, I really am starting to wonder why we don't require government licensing for religious organizations, including accounting oversight from an outside entity to track where all that money is going. Considering how often churches find ways of taking money that doesn't belong to them, we might should apply some sort of vice tax, too. You know, give them something to scream 'Persecution!!' about, as it were.
Ignore that banging noise, I'll be unconscious soon. >.<
OT : just finished, took more than 2 hours with my fucked up ankle. DM has now a brand new clic clac couch and I can get my folding chair/twin bed back.
You know it never works like that, that money is coming out of an already underfunded social safety net program that helps folks who already have nothing.
A little visualization of our collective fantasy. The watermark is from the (demo) software I used to make the likeness (not great, but recognizable I think), we can pretend it's a brand for 'Former Guy'
Love that one. When people think of the Stooges, they think of physical humor. There's was always a lot of verbal wit and wordplay on doors, signage, names, etc.
Yep. A lot of their best episodes were written by the great Clyde Bruckman, whose pedigree goes way back to co-writing and co-directing with undisputed comedy greats like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. And a lot of their other collaborators (including their favorite foil, Vernon Dent) had worked with the great Mack Sennett. People who dismiss the Stooges as minor comedians are missing a hell of a lot.
I worked hard on that rug. I couldn't find any premade hairs for Trump, though I did find a few old models of Trump that looked no better than mine and that the jumpsuit wouldn't fit.
Tax. The. Damned. Churches.
Twice. Gotta make up for lost time.
Interest.
Retroactive interest.
Seize them and have them pay a rent too.
Damned churches indeed. https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/2k/g2/n2/32/village-of-damned-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg?k=cecd469279
I 'own' digital copies of both versions of that story. That one and the remake with Kirstie Alley and Christopher Reeves.
Future MAGAts?
The Office of Faith-Based Initiatives will use that $1.2 million to put together a Powerpoint presentation on why they need another $1.2 million to really do some good work in Tennessee.
This 1.2m is to learn how to use PowerPoint. The next 1.2 is to put together the presentation.
$1.2 million later, they will decide that PowerPoint is the Devil. This will be the best use of the money.
PowerPoint = Microsoft Office = Bill Gates = the Devil
of course they'll reach this false conclusion, unaware PhotoShop is the real tool of Satan
Bill has very little to do with M$ these days, but the other 3 I agree with.
They probably think PowerPoint refers to a tattoo needle.
I recall at one company where a group which wasted millions and didn't accomplish anything on a project threw themselves at company expense a big party at one of the swankiest places in a major American city to "celebrate" that they now knew how much they didn't know. No lie. And, this was going on at the same time that competent people were losing their jobs at this same place.
Sounds like Tyco International circa the fiscal 2002 year (see: Dennis Kozlowski).
It wasn't Tyco but it was about that same time.
Ah. OK.
(My other guess for being around the same time was Enron).
Praise the Lord and pass the collection plate.
A crooked Republican governor is giving taxpayer money to his grifter friends. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along, move along.
It's time to check where he goes on vacation and how.
And on whose dime!
Harlan Crow.
Maybe, though I thought he was spending his money cootchie-cooing Clarence Thomas!
And collecting Nazi memorabilia at the same time.
Wonder if Uncle Thomas knows how Nazis felt about black people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuAKnbIr6TE
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒’𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑏𝑢𝑑𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒, 𝑛𝑜 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ, 𝑛𝑜 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑑 $1.2 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛.
Free money for the 11 people they're hiring to do effectively nothing? Sounds like religion to me.
State sanctioned religion at that.
“thousands of people offer similar prayers, he believes God will impart his favor on Tennessee.”
I’ve seen what happens to those who has god’s favor imparted on them. His chosen people have been nearly wiped from the Earth several times over. Perhaps the people of Tennessee could work to improve their lot in life rather than just pray it gets better.
My parents live in TN and they hate the politics there, and her friend was hospitalized with Covid while her husband died of the same in another room.
This was also where my car was totaled because of the poorly planned and maintained road. Everyone told me there’s an accident or several on that stretch daily and it isn’t even the worst road for accidents in the area. I got my replacement this weekend, went from a Durango to a Jeep Grand Cherokee, hopefully this one won’t catch fire.
" hopefully this one won’t catch fire."
Picky, picky, picky.
We do need to add the tow hitch, and this one has had electrical repairs already.
Completely OT and possibly unhinged:
This last weekend I did an outdoor adventure race (mountain biking, trail running, and canoeing) that I did not prepare for as much as I should. Afterward, my legs were really sore and I was pretty worn out, but couldn't sleep well. Sometime in the night, I had a really weird dream where I asked the people here if I could borrow somebody's massager. Val offered me hers and wanted to drive it out to me so she could break in her new vehicle, which turned out to be my grandpa's old International Harvester Scout. The massager turned out to be some odd wind up hand buzzer type thing on a stick (no judging). She offered me a ride to my car which for some reason was in NoGodz underground volcano lair/parking garage. When we got there, someone else from the boards (I knew who at the time, I can't remember now) was in the back seat trying to replace my armrests with oven racks for better air flow.
I'm sure it all means something.
My dad had an international scout for a long while, he did drive it and tinker around on it. I don’t know what happened to it, it didn’t make it to Tennessee.
We (my hubs and I) own a 57 Chevy panel wagon that was used as a small town police paddy wagon when it was new. We’ve also had two Jeepster Commandos.
Dad also had a 40s Willys Jeep when I was a teenager. It was a field find, so we got it running, and the body had large rust holes my dad took advantage of after rainstorms. It was a blast!
It means you shouldn't have eaten that burrito with diablo sauce before bed.
Diablo sauce sounds yummy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvtvIcKEQao&pp=ygUbQmVjayAtIFNhdGFuIEdhdmUgTWUgQSBUYWNv
Your first-born will lead Israel out of bondage.
Does Israel have a Safe Word?
Shalom? Matzoh? Falafel? And that exhausts my Hebrew. Oy vey!
"And that exhausts my Hebrew."
You should let him rest.
https://youtu.be/g3YD5v9w_3M
Cut the pills in half.
Where this money come from ? Which budgets will be reduced ?
To borrow a page from NOGOD's book. TBN 33th for education, 34th for healthcare. Is the governor jealous of Texas, Louisiana and Florida ?
OT : my ankle decided to behave today. I have my wrenches ready. Time to put myself to work.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, FFS. There are people without food or shelter in TN and this is where the money is going. I don't even have the energy to be disgusted anymore, I hope the young people are paying attention. They can change this, they have the votes.
I hope. But polls/surveys keep showing that young people are getting more conservative. Don't go counting any unhatched chickens.
What is it with kids today? The older I got, the more liberal I got.
Same here. But we older folks have a constitutional right to complain about the young.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3edtd9AkWg
I think Hemant posted a while back about the Jewish Couple in TN who were trying to adopt a child and were rejected by the religious group the State picked to run its adoption services... because, they were not christian. This is a perfect example of why the Founding Fathers tried to erect a wall of separation between religion and government. TN is working as hard as it can to tear down that wall.
Neither this country nor the world as a whole, faces a single problem that has a religious solution. It is never the job of our secular government to backstop anyone's religion. No religious institution should get a cent of public money for any reason, ever. I sure hope this gets a court test.
It's bad enough when people in office encourage the citizens of their town or state or country to pray for thus-and-so. It's far worse when they waste taxpayer dollars to underwrite such activities. Tennessee and Bill Lee seem determined to squander state funds to accomplish NOTHING, which amounts to the most expensive and least effective virtue-signaling I am aware of to date.
It'd be nice if the FFRF or American Atheists nudged them a bit and let them know that it wasn't just CHRISTIAN taxes being effectively thrown away, but I doubt they'd listen.
This is clearly establishment of religion. Seems kinda unconstitutional. But what do I know?
You are an unpatriotic flag burner kneeling during anthem non American.
After burning my fingers trying to burn an American flag, I was content to simply hang it upside down.
As far as kneeling goes, I was torn. I wasn't sure if the gesture was a protest or a nod to Christianity.
These days I'm just a little unsure that I could get up again.
Can't do it out in the open, need a chair or desk or something to get back up.
I *can*, but it's much easier with something shoulder-height and stable.
I can do it just, but the arthritis in my knees means I'm better off with just a little push on the ground from a hand.
In my case it's just arthritis.
Considering my age and what I've put my body through over the years I'm surprised that I'm in relatively good shape.
I've never liked you. 😡
😇
Ha! I think I've already said my doctor said my liver is in such great condition you can't really believe it. And considering what I put that through in my youth on a little bit surprised myself. Doesn't do my knees much good though. Running is still okay, but I do tend to wear a brace, and have been at least twice overtaken by someone walking. Uphill mind. 😇
"TN's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives will get $1.2 million. To do what? Who knows."
I'll tell you what they're doing with it:
Demonstrating that if they really had faith, they wouldn't need $1.2 million.
What does god need with a starship?
Exactly the same thing he needs with millions of dollars.
Or a bible, for that matter.
Have you seen the price of starship fuel lately?
My local supermarket has dilithium crystals on sale this week. BOGO.
My starship manufacturer says my model requires trilithium for optimum performance.
My lithium goes to eleven.
Just take your tablets. You'll be surprised how much better the world will look.
How? Do they make repugs disappear?
Was gonna make a dilithium crystals reference but it looks like I'd have been beaten to it if I tried.
Musk's starship runs on methane. Maybe try something with that. : )
I thought it ran on bullshit – no shortage of that ever.
He produces that personally as well. All his own s**t too. Explosive stuff, from what I hear, dangerous in any quantity if it is not contained properly. But man, it burns sump'm fierce.
C'est vache.
Always wondered why a starship's engine made a long MOOOOOO sound as they went into warp drive in the original series.
Which he produces personally.
It's enough to dilithium for!
Y' get it?
Dilithium - "die-lithium"?
As in "To die for it?"
It's a joke, y'see.
-
...I'll get me coat.
Base or primer?
Most people consider me fairly base.
Except for my acid tongue!
HAR HAR HAR
No treble
I'm not sure I'm adiposed to continuing this joke...
It went up 30,000 credits two days ago.
I don't worry about starship fuel. Two words: Bussard Collectors!
The Bussard Collectors are used to collect matter fuel for the M/AM reaction, but the antimatter still needs to come from somewhere.
Whaddaya mean? Gawd just says "let there be fuel, and there was fuel, and gawd saw the fuel and behold it was good...."
See? Just creates stuff out of nothing like how he created the world.
Religious thieves gonna thieve, I guess?
Seriously, this amounts to stealing in God's name, and nothing else. The lack of accountability here is staggering, and from what I'm reading, likely intentional; after all the taxpayer doesn't need to know where that money's going, right?
At this point, I really am starting to wonder why we don't require government licensing for religious organizations, including accounting oversight from an outside entity to track where all that money is going. Considering how often churches find ways of taking money that doesn't belong to them, we might should apply some sort of vice tax, too. You know, give them something to scream 'Persecution!!' about, as it were.
Ignore that banging noise, I'll be unconscious soon. >.<
I'll be happy when the government makes them follow the same rules as other non-profits (yeah, I know, but under the law that's what they are).
OT : just finished, took more than 2 hours with my fucked up ankle. DM has now a brand new clic clac couch and I can get my folding chair/twin bed back.
Disgusting. Some multi-millionaires will have to go without their tax break this year. Won't somebody think of the rich people!
You know it never works like that, that money is coming out of an already underfunded social safety net program that helps folks who already have nothing.
I posted this late last night (America/Chicago) so I'm going to post it again:
https://www.zentaur.org/memes/Trump_in_prison.png
A little visualization of our collective fantasy. The watermark is from the (demo) software I used to make the likeness (not great, but recognizable I think), we can pretend it's a brand for 'Former Guy'
Bet they'd confiscate that rug of his. Who knows what he might have hidden under it.
Reminds me of a favorite line from Moe Howard: "Why don't you buy a toupee with some brains in it?"
Love that one. When people think of the Stooges, they think of physical humor. There's was always a lot of verbal wit and wordplay on doors, signage, names, etc.
Ever notice the call board in "Men in Black" ('calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard")? The name listed just above the Stooges' is "Dr.Savage."
Yep. A lot of their best episodes were written by the great Clyde Bruckman, whose pedigree goes way back to co-writing and co-directing with undisputed comedy greats like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. And a lot of their other collaborators (including their favorite foil, Vernon Dent) had worked with the great Mack Sennett. People who dismiss the Stooges as minor comedians are missing a hell of a lot.
They outlasted every movie comedy team from Laurel & Hardy right up to Martin & Lewis.
You don't accomplish that without superior talent; without knowing what you're doing.
To add:
Should have said the Stooges outlasted every movie comedy team from Laurel & Hardy to Abbott & Costello. A&C outlasted Martin & Lewis by a year.
I worked hard on that rug. I couldn't find any premade hairs for Trump, though I did find a few old models of Trump that looked no better than mine and that the jumpsuit wouldn't fit.
That looks a little more like Trump's cellmate stole his face.
Why, in the name of all that science has taught us, would anyone do *that*?
Ha! ... That loaded in seconds.