Televangelism and the tax code....

[Gerard]

See this:

By John Oliver

Gerard

[Baruch]

I love it when the English or other non-Americans try to explain us ;-)

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Wait!  Are you suggesting that these guys aren't truly blessed by god himself?  I mean only god could give them the power to suck that much money out of stupid bastards..
This is why I truly believe that the atheist movement should start televangelizing and take these stupid shits money and invest it into doing some actual good with it. Sure,  we can stand on principle and say it's wrong and the ethics are horrible, but the money is still going to pour in to them so I say we get someone charismatic enough to play the role and instead of syphoning the money off it goes toward information and housing.
There is absolutely no reason some charismatic atheist couldn't play the part and make damned sure there are well run homeless shelters without the religious mumbo jumbo..For that matter we could start entire cities funded entirely out of the money one really good con job could bring in..

[drunkenshoe]

This never gets old.

'Lupus you foul devil, you bow to the name of Jesus! You bow to the name of Jesus!..."

[Baruch]

It's all a con, all of it.  You get people to believe something ... that takes effort, so you deserve to get paid ... politicians, salesmen, preachers.  And everyone wants to get rich at someone else's expense, usually by demanding free lunches.  But if you want to push the Communist Manifesto, give it a go ;-)

But don't bother with the tax code, unless you want to get your hands dirty.  The tax code is the septic tank of past political bribery ;-(

[SGOS]

The IRS as the Godfather, with the scam artists providing comic relief.  I'm not sure who is the most unethical.

[Baruch]

The IRS as the Godfather, with the scam artists providing comic relief.  I'm not sure who is the most unethical.

Government isn't an exercise in ethics, particularly taxation.  We could have had tax simplification, short form only, with almost all deductions eliminated ... but people wouldn't go for it.  They love their deductions and paying a tax accountant to do their taxes for them (for liability ... you can do your own, but then you are unprotected).

[Gerard]

Oh.... there's a sequel to this. It includes a preachers wife with big hair!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUndxpbufkg

Gerard

[Gerard]

Turns out John's church has been disestablished:

Gerard