Tithing, Taxes and Tags

My friend Rowena had reached the conclusion last week that her daughter, Danielle, would not attending St. Andrews Catholic School in the fall. This did not sit well with her husband who groused that the reason they'd had only one child is that they couldn't afford to put more than one through a Catholic school.

But that was four years ago, and times change.

"They want $6,500 payable over 10 months." For kindergarten. Plus the money they'd have to pay to Bobby Noonan Child Care Center for two months over the summer. Plus they have to pay for additional Catechism classes on Sunday, and attend church at St. Andrews.

"They give you little envelopes. They want a least $25 a week, but they want to know how much you make because they want to you Tithe...I forget how much."

"10% of your gross income." Unlike the federal government, the church does not give a break for having a cafeteria plan or socking money away in a IRA.

And unlike the federal government, you don't get anything back for the money. No army, navy, air force or marines. No government funded programs. No road work crews, prison system, police force, fire fighters. Nope, nothing.

Except the assurances that you are on the fast track to heaven - if there is such a place.

Yet it amazes me the number of people that will pony up that 10% weekly to the church, but then crab and complain and even resort to cheating on their returns to get our of paying their fair share to Uncle Sam.

I'm paid tax preparer. I see a lot of this go on.

(Morality Question: If you're cheating on your taxes, doesn't that constitute a sin? And if you're not really repentant of it - and can't be since you do it year after year - is all the tithing in the world still going to get you into heaven?)

Frankly, I can't say I feel sorry for Danielle. I HATED Catholic school and would not wish it on my worst enemy. She needs to get her on the waiting list for the target school, but she can't even register her for that until she gets out of Kindergarten. Ah well...

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A couple of tags I made for challenges over at the Butterfly Lounge. The first challenge was to make a tag using the Summer Morning Add On freebie from Reineke Designs.



Part of the challenge was you had to put the name of the person who had participated in the challenge ahead of you - in this case Liana.

I am using one of the Sultry Summer posers by MediEvil Creations. I wasn't until this week end that I realized that "MediEvil Creations" and "Medi" from the Poser Emporium were one in the same. Sometime, I'm a little slow on the uptake.

This used three masks - two from Wee Scots Lass and the final one which went over the completed piece, by Cameron. The alpha is from a page kit called "Princess" that I'd download a while ago and resized. When I went to look for the credit for the alpha, I discovered it did not come with a TOU file, and so I have no idea who the designer was.

If you'd like to take credit for this alpha, please do. And maybe next time you could put something into your kits identifying you to the rest of the universe at large?

The second challenge was "show us a fairy tag".

If you've followed me for any length of time you know I do fairy tags all the time, but this time around I did one with twist - going for the Urban Goth Fae look.



"Jass on the Street" is part of the awesome work of Joseph Corsentino from his Time of the Fairies collection. It is licensed through MyPSPTube.com. The scraps are taken from my Bike Night taggers kit which is available in both Stargazers Scraps and Sophisti-Scraps. The "I Hate Sarah Palin" alpha was created by Humbug Graphics Galore.

I'd really love to have some extra cash to blow over at MyPSPTube.com, but money is a little tight right now, especially after I've found out they changed the deductible on our health insurance from $1,250 to $2,500. I've already met the $1.25 K. At this point I'll get no benefit what so ever from our friggin' insurance. Or at least, the only benefit is because I have insurance, I can walk into a doctor's office and they'll see me. Even though I end up paying the fee by myself.

Stuff and bother.