California

San Francisco: Pope owes millions in taxes

by Karen on January 22, 2009

This should cause great wailing and gnashing of teeth:

San Francisco will try to collect up to $15 million in taxes from the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which is refusing to pay certain taxes on properties the church is transferring from one Catholic nonprofit organization to another.

That tax bill would be the second largest of its kind in San Francisco history. But the archdiocese has appealed the charge, saying the church should be exempt from property transfer taxes for a variety of reasons – primarily because the properties are being moved among groups that all are a part of the same overarching organization: the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

The church, as you can probably guess, has decided to take the position that it is being persecuted for it’s involvement in stripping the gay and lesbian community of California of their civil rights.

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FFRF sues Rancho Cucomonga over billboard

by Karen on November 26, 2008

The Freedom of Religion Foundation has filed a lawsuit against Rancho Cucomonga in the wake of their billboard being taken down after someone in city hall made an inquiry about taking it down.

Though the city is denying that they had anything to do with it, the Daily Bullinten quoted Linda Daniels, the Redevelopment Director, as saying:

“We contacted the sign company and asked if there was a way to get it removed,”

If “we” doesn’t mean the city, someone needs to step up and explain exactly who these “we” are.  Because as it stands, Linda Daniels is listed on the city’s site as an employee of the city.

The city’s official response seems to be that the billboard company just up and decided to take the sign down itself as you can see from the following email I recieved after complaining about their involvement.

Thank you so much for your inquiry regarding the “No Religion” billboard and the media’s coverage regarding its removal.  For the record, we would like to inform you that the City of Rancho Cucamonga did notsuggest, nor did it request, that any billboard content be removed from the billboard.  Advertising content decisions rest with the company that sells the advertising space, not with the City.  The placement and removal of advertising content is a private business decision.

The City of Rancho Cucamonga supports freedom of speech and expression. It does not have any authority over the content of any billboard, and
does not involve itself in private business transactions between
companies that provide billboard advertising and companies/organizations that desire to utilize billboards for advertising purposes. The City of Rancho Cucamonga has NO role in controlling billboard content.

I don’t buy it. Daniel’s was either misquoted or the “we” in her statement refers to the city (aka: her employer). IMHO, any request she makes of a private company in her official capacity is a request by the city. The FFRF should win this one.

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This is what censorship looks like

by Karen on November 24, 2008

imaginenoreligion One week after being put up in Rancho Cucamonga, California, the Imagine No Religion billboard, shown to the left, by the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been taken down.  It would be one thing if the company who owned the billboard had taken it down on their own.

However, it’s another thing when the company does so after city hall asks if there’s a way to get it removed.

A billboard with the message “Imagine No Religion” is no more.

Sign company General Outdoor removed the sign by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on Thursday after it received a request by the city to do so.

According to Redevelopment Director Linda Daniels, City Hall had received 90 calls of complaint since Wednesday.

We contacted the sign company and asked if there was a way to get it removed,” Daniels said.

This is the first time the sign has been removed since the campaign started and I think it’s pretty obvious that the sign would still be up if the local government had not gotten involved.

If you’d like to send a complaint (a polite one, of course) you can send it from this page on Atheists United.  The FFRF has issued a statement and has also put up the address of the billboard company if you’d like to send a complaint to them also.

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Olbermann on the passage of Prop 8

November 11, 2008

While I do not like Keith Olbermann, his recent special comment on the passage of prop 8 in California is excellent, to the point and, dare I say it, a throwback to before the primaries when Olbermann actually seemed to give a damn about something beyond his own reflection.

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Religious leaders upset over Prop 8 Protests

November 8, 2008

Just days after succeeding at removing the civil rights of gay people, the Mormon church has issued a statement calling for “mutual respect” and declaring that “no one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information”. This from the group that donated $20 million of a total of [...]

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Boycott the Mormons

November 7, 2008

While much ado is being made about the overwhelming support of prop 8 by black voters in California, there is little ado being made about getting even with the Mormons (aka: that huge group of white people who donated $20 million to passing Prop 8 ) for seeing to it that gay Californians lost their [...]

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Good News: The Obamas. Bad News: Those Damned Initiatives

November 5, 2008

You’ve probably heard the good news.  Michelle Obama will be our next First Lady and those precious little girls, Malia and Sasha, will be the First Kids come January.  Barrack Obama, of course, will be the 44th President of the United States. Just look at ‘em.  Aren’t they adorable? The bad news is the initiatives. [...]

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Kieffe & Sons issue apology for bigoted ad

May 29, 2008

The owners of Kieffe & Sons Ford dealership out in Mojave that I recently wrote a post about have issued an apology for the bigoted ad they aired on a local radio station: “For 15 years, Kieffe and Sons Ford has run ad campaigns that focus on current events. We have chosen to do this [...]

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Ford Dealership to Non-Christians: STFU

May 27, 2008

Kieffe & Sons, a Ford dealership in California, has been running a radio ad since approximately February telling people who support the separation of church(es) and state and atheists to “sit down and shut up” . The ad, found at The Consumerist, has a man saying: Did you know that there are people in this [...]

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