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To: Solon who wrote (25391)4/24/2012 1:25:27 AM
From: average joe  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 69300
 
I wonder how The Angry Potter voted? If he lived in Ireland his house could be turned into a shrine and he could evade taxes.

-edit- NDP four seats? Must be some kind of record!

Irish bishops' palaces are exempt from homes charge

By Ken Foxe

PUBLISHED: 23:05 GMT, 21 April 2012 | UPDATED: 23:05 GMT, 21 April 2012



Controversy: Phil Hogan

It may have the country’s largest private property portfolio but despite owning thousands of houses, the Catholic Church does not have to pay a cent in household charges.

The Church, which at one point owned or occupied at least 10,700 houses, schools, halls, churches and shops around the country, has an exemption from all property taxes because it is a charity.

With 1,368 parishes in Ireland – many containing several parochial homes and other properties – the Church may be getting off the hook for up to €500,000 a year in Environment Minister Phil Hogan’s new tax, despite its massive wealth and land interests.

The charge may be just €100 a year at current rates but the Government is expected to introduce much higher fees, which could rise to €1,000 for certain properties.

Archbishops and other senior church figures sleeping in their luxurious palaces can rest easy however, as their homes will not be subject to the charge.

This could mean a shortfall in excess of €1m per year in the tax take the Government would have hoped for as the full charges are introduced over the next three years.

'They are all exempt from tax'

The revelation is sure to put pressure on the Fine Gael/Labour coalition to end the exemption for Church buildings. A similar controversy in Italy – where the Catholic Church owns nearly a fifth of all Italian properties – ended with the Church having to pay up for its property.

A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Ireland said that all properties held by it in the Republic of Ireland were effectively exempt.

He said: ‘The Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011 provides for exemptions from payment of the ­household charge to “certain ­charities”.

‘To date, charities who have obtained a CHY number (ie charity number) are exempt from payment of taxes. Church property in the majority of Irish dioceses is held in a diocesan trust, has a CHY number and is regarded as a charity.’



Palace: Archbishop Martin

The spokesman added: ‘Where it is held under another structure the title holders clearly hold the property in trust for the diocese and the property has the same status.’

‘All Church property – which includes churches, schools and priests’ houses – are the ­property of parishes and ­dioceses. As such, they are exempt from tax.’

The Church has sought clarification on whether it would ever be subject to household taxes but has not yet received an answer, according to the spokesman. He said: ‘The Irish Bishops’ Conference established a Diocesan Advisory Committee some years ago to help prepare for the introduction of the Charities Act 2009.

‘In the context of the household charge, the bishops’ committee has sought clarification on this matter. There has been no official reply to date.’

Mystery surrounds the extent of the Church’s land portfolio but one survey estimated that at one stage the Catholic Church held 1% of all properties in the State.

'Nobody knows how much Church owns'

In the 1970s, the Church owned or occupied more than 10,700 properties around the country and controlled almost 6,700 religious and educational sites.

Its vast property bank included schools, houses, halls, churches, convents, parks, sports fields, hospitals, farms, warehouses, shops and empty sites.

Included among those figures were several thousand private homes, retained for use by clergy and religious, such as the Drumcondra palace where Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin lives.

A spokesman said: ‘You are looking at more than 1,300 parishes around the country, some very small and some covering a much larger area. While there might only be a single residence in one parish, in others, there could be 10 or 12. The truth is nobody knows.’

Religious orders have sold land worth €667m over the past 10 years but are still regarded as the country’s second largest landlord, with only the State itself owning more property around the country.

Ten years ago, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern signed a controversial deal with the Catholic Church that indemnified it from compensation claims from clerical abuse ­victims.

In exchange the Church agreed to hand over land and property to the State worth an estimated €80m before the property crash.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133331/Irish-bishops-palaces-exempt-homes-charge.html#ixzz1syI5JWB5



To: Solon who wrote (25391)4/24/2012 11:43:06 AM
From: longnshort  Respond to of 69300
 
Earth Day 2012 Fizzles — Badly April, 24, 2012 — nicedeb

In what should be seen as a hopeful sign that global warming/climate change hysteria in the United States has finally, mercifully, all but petered out, none but the most die hard Gaia- worshippers convened on the National Mall, Sunday, for the big Earth Day festivities. Organizers reportedly had expected “tens of thousands”, but in reality the event attracted only – tens.

Newsbusters reported:

Monday’s Washington Post gave the badly-attended Earth Day rally on Sunday a whitewash on the front page of the Metro section. “Earth Day stands up to the rain,” was the headline, as reporter Tara Bahrampour said rain “didn’t stop the die-hards.” Online, the headline was funnier: “Rains don’t water down Earth Day enthusiasm.” The Post offered no attempts at a numerical estimate.

But at Examiner.com, ‘DC Green Business Examiner” Douglas Canter was more straightforward: “ Earth Day Networks, which sponsored the event, expected tens of thousands of people. By midafternoon, about 40 people, including [Frisbee-throwers] Nick, Antonio, and a CNN crew, hovered near the stage awaiting the remainder of a long list of scheduled speakers and bands, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson and R&B singer Ledisi.”

He added: “About 50 yards away, several hundred people walked on the muddy grass and stopped under about 20 partially covered exhibits. Many were operated by companies that promoted their products.”

So let’s review: Earth Day organizers expected “tens of thousands” and drew 40. It received a large color photo (mother with child, avoid the “crowd” shot) and a front-page Metro story. In January, the March for Life turned out tens of thousands and it received two large color photos (one of an opponent) — one of and a front-page Metro story (and avoided a crowd shot). Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton nudged this quote from Post local editor Vernon Loeb: “In retrospect I wish we had given readers a better sense of the overall magnitude of the march.?.?.it was far larger than 17,000.”

Actually, it was nearly 500,000.



The March for Life is always massive – and it’s always massively ignored by the MSM.

As Newsbusters reported, CNN barely Covered the March for Life, but hyped the much smaller Earth Day rally…

CNN prides itself on being a serious news network, but it submitted itself to being a simple megaphone for the Earth Day organizers. Correspondent Josh Levs admitted as much after airing a YouTube video that laid out the goals for the Earth Day movement.

“We have really stunning images to help you understand the extent to which the world has changed. So we want you all to know all about this. The kinds of things that they’re calling for on Earth Day, the kinds of things that are going on out there, and what the events are,” said Levs, who also directed the audience to links about the day on Facebook and Twitter.

One of the goals laid out by the movement, that CNN relayed to its cable news audience, was “trying to build a green economy and getting more green policies up there.” Such a goal could be considered a political agenda, but CNN had no problem carrying water for the movement.

“Earth Day 2012 activists want to pressure world leaders to address pressing issues like endangered wildlife, Arctic melting and air pollution,” noted anchor Don Lemon later on during the 6 p.m. hour.

Even with nodding approval and encouragement from the MSM, Earth Day Failed abysmally.

You get the full gist of how badly it failed from the Green-friendly blog, Freetaste: Celebrating Earth Day 2012 in Washington D.C. (photos) where you can view pic after pic of tens ones of people “mobilizing” to “save the earth” by building a “green economy”, etc. etc…



Always popular with environmental types, Captain Planet would have been a “crowd pleaser” if there had been a crowd.



Tents were set up but hardly anyone was around to check out the Green wares inside.



“The wet weather may have discouraged people to attend,” the blogger speculates.



“A band performs despite the small turn out of audience at the National Mall,” he reports.



“Earth Day celebrants braved the cold and wet weather.”

Okay, ENOUGH. It’s APRIL. How cold can it be? If Pro-lifers can get hundreds of thousands year after year in January, what does it tell you about the excitement and dedication of enviros that hardly anyone showed up for what was supposed to be a massive rally, because of a little rain. “April showers” are not wholly unexpected events, you know.

One Saturday, last April, in fact, I had the opportunity to tour DC with my oldest daughter, and guess what – it was raining cats and dogs for the whole day. Did that stop us? No, it did not. We just put on our rain coats and toured the Capitol in the rain – and had fun doing it.



Feb of ’09 saw the birth of a new conservative, grass roots movement in US politics – the Tea Party. It was in its infancy all across America.

In Kansas City, we held our very first tea party in a snow storm. The weather could not have been worse – really. And we were conservatives – we’d never protested anything in our lives… But we believed in what we were doing.





I’ll never forget this grim faced girl:



History has proven us to be right. The Dems’ massive Stimulus did nothing to improve the economy, Obama’s spending on one boondoggle after another has been a disaster for this country. His “investments” in green energy have been particularly egregious.

With increasing numbers of people finally becoming aware of the Malthusian and Socialistic nature of Climate Change fraud, coupled with Obama’s massive Green Energy failures (at taxpayer expense), it’s no wonder even Greenies allowed the rain to give them an excuse not to participate in Earth Day, this year.



To: Solon who wrote (25391)4/24/2012 12:08:37 PM
From: average joe  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 69300
 
Did Cold Weather Cause the Salem Witch Trials?

Natalie Wolchover, Life's Little Mysteries Staff Writer
Date: 20 April 2012 Time: 11:57 AM ET

An engraving depicting a scene from the Salem Witch Trials. The central figure in this 1876 illustration of the courtroom is usually identified as Mary Walcott, 17, one of several girls in Salem with a psychological disorder known as mass hysteria, and whose condition was blamed on witchcraft..
CREDIT: Public domain image. Artist unknown.

View full size image

Historical records indicate that, worldwide, witch hunts occur more often during cold periods, possibly because people look for scapegoats to blame for crop failures and general economic hardship. Fitting the pattern, scholars argue that cold weather may have spurred the infamous Salem witch trials in 1692.

The theory, first laid out by the economist Emily Oster in her senior thesis at Harvard University eight years ago, holds that the most active era of witchcraft trials in Europe coincided with a 400- year period of lower-than-average temperature known to climatologists as the "little ice age."Oster, now an associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago, showed that as the climate varied from year to year during this cold period, lower temperatures correlated with higher numbers of witchcraft accusations.

The correlation may not be surprising, Oster argued, in light of textual evidence from the period: popes and scholars alike clearly believed witches were capable of controlling the weather, and therefore, crippling food production.

The Salem witch trials fell within an extreme cold spell that lasted from 1680 and 1730 — one of the chilliest segments of the little ice age. The notion that weather may have instigated those trials is being revived by Salem State University historian Tad Baker in his forthcoming book, "A Storm of Witchcraft" (Oxford University Press, 2013). Building on Oster's thesis, Baker has found clues in diaries and sermons that suggest a harsh New England winter really may have set the stage for accusations of witchcraft.

According to the Salem News, one clue is a document that mentions a key player in the Salem drama, Rev. Samuel Parris, whose daughter Betty was the first to become ill in the winter of 1691-1692 because of supposed witchcraft. In that document, "Rev. Parris is arguing with his parish over the wood supply," Baker said. A winter fuel shortage would have made for a fairly miserable colonial home, and "the higher the misery quotient, the more likely you are to be seeing witches."

Psychology obviously played an important role in the Salem events; the young girls who accused their fellow townsfolk of witchcraft are believed to have been suffering from a strange psychological condition known as mass hysteria. However, the new theory suggests the hysteria may have sprung from dire economic conditions. "The witchcraft trials suggest that even when considering events and circumstances thought to be psychological or cultural, key underlying motivations can be closely related to economic circumstances," Oster wrote.

Weather patterns continue to trigger witchcraft accusations in many parts of Africa, where witch killings persist. According to a 2003 analysis by the Berkeley economist Edward Miguel, extreme rainfall — either too much or too little — coincides with a significant increase in the number of witch killings in Tanzania. The victim is typically the oldest woman in a household, killed by her own family.

Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @ nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @ llmysteries and join us on Facebook.

livescience.com