Ahhh, the Holy Roman Church -- time for them to pay their taxes

When I first came to San Francisco, I went to the historical collection room of the Main Library and read through old newspapers. I was appalled to see some of the late 19th century headlines:

PAPIST PLOT TO TAKE OVER CITY GOVERNMENT!

I attributed it to moronic thugs of the (only incidentally) Protestant variety.

I thought about that this past autumn as the Catholic bishops followed the lead of the Falwell, Robertson et al coup of the last 20+ years (Reagan, Bush, a brief hiatus during Clinton's embattled administration, and the Bushy-Bush again) and crossed the line from religion into politics.

"Don't vote for anyone who is pro-choice," they said, thereby giving up their right to be tax-exempt organizations, if not the entire Church, then the diocese whose bishops pushed their crucifixes into our ballot boxes.

Of course they have no sympathy for a woman who finds herself unhappily, terrifyingly, and quite possible life-threateningly pregnant -- they spend too much time either putting it up the bums of little boys or covering up for the ones who do.

They don't impregnate their sexual targets with fetuses -- just with spirit-destroying terror that somehow identifies god with horrible hiney-pain from the swollen member of some Holy Joe guy wearing a basic black dress. Try ever untangling THAT Gordian psyche-knot.

So -- whoa -- before you put away that checkbook that you're using to pay of the little boys with whom you interefered, it's time to pay off the electorate with whom you interfered. You know the rules --- if you meddle in the affairs of state -- guess what? We get to meddle in the affairs of Church. Sounds good to me? How about you?

Or you could pay your taxes and learn to keep your religion to yourself. Which, I seem to recall, is pretty much the way Jesus said it should be practiced.

Income taxes, property taxes -- the whole deal. Wow -- it should pay off both the deficit AND the debt. Enough to finance public schools for everything they need. It's going to be a BIG bil because -- oh, we're hiring every kid any of you ever buggered as Tax Assessors. Wait till you go in for THAT audit.