Why is the Vatican angry with Ireland?

"SO, ROME is miffed at “excessive reactions” in Ireland following publication of the Cloyne report. This State has spent millions unearthing what has been available to Rome all along. In October 2005, there was the Ferns report, costs to date: €2.3 million.

In May 2009, the Ryan report, estimated costs to date: at least €126 million. In November 2009, the Dublin report: costs to date €3.6 million. In July 2011, the Cloyne report: costs to date €1.9 million. Total costs so far of the four statutory inquiries? €133.8 million [US $190 million], with more to come.

None of this would have been necessary had the Catholic Church here and in Rome co-operated fully in establishing the truth. Instead, those that could be were dragged, kicking and screaming, into disclosing what they desperately wanted to keep hidden."

Read the whole thing here.

Quote of the day

"I fear that those of us who stand up in front of America’s children every day have made a Faustian bargain. In accepting history courses shaped by war and structured around war, we allow our students to internalize war as normal, constant, at times attractive. In telling stories about war, we fall back on noble explanatory devices and encourage our students to appreciate high moral outcomes over bodies on the ground." -- Dwight Simon

BC mayors can't agree on TransLink funding

BC mayors agree on one thing: TransLink’s two week period for input in July wasn't enough, and TransLink must give the public more of a chance to respond to a new funding plan that includes an extra two cents per litre in gas taxes.  However, mayors remain divided on TransLink's proposal for paying for new transit projects.

Vancouver mayor Gregor "Extreme Green" Robertson and Surrey's Diane Watts support the plan, while the mayors of Burnaby, Delta, and Richmond are among its strongest opponents.  If this proposal fails, The Globe and Mail notes, "it will be the latest in a long string of failed efforts over the past two years to find a solution to TransLink’s $400-million share for the long-awaited Evergreen line to serve the region’s northeast cities – and ultimately, to find a formula for paying for future transit projects."

Besides the new gas tax, which would see Lower Mainlanders paying 17 cents per litre in local taxes alone on gas, TransLink is also pushing for extra property taxes.  The plan would only cover new projects, and would require the provincial government to pony up additional funding as well, potentially leaving mayors on the hook if the government doesn't come through.

Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan, who leads a group of mayors opposed to the plan, said he will never support the TransLink supplement: TransLink is continually forcing local taxpayers to pay extra taxes because its board and bureaucrats make all the decisions about what will be included in the base budget and then go to local politicians for extra money.  According to Corrigan, mayors have no say in the choices the TransLink board makes, and TransLink has many times spent money in its base budget on things the mayors would never agree to fund through taxes if they had a say.

TransLink is known for forcing stupid and widely hated policies on its users, for mismanaging money, and for then coming up with loony ideas for raising more of it, leading Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon to call it a "disaster circus."

Anti-gay group calls gays Nazis

Is this starting to sound familiar?

In a post on OneNewsNow, a "news" site run by homophobic hate group the American Family Association on August 1, Becky Yeh writes:

"Goal: Bringing end to Gov. Brown's 'Nazi state'"

Regular readers of this blog will recall that this is the third incident in as many weeks in which gays have been compared to Nazis. 

The article concerns efforts to reverse a new state law requiring public schools to teach students about LGBT people's contributions to history.  The group must collect 505,000 signatures within 90 days to place the repeal on the ballot for June 2012.

It is worth reposting (again!) the chairman of the Australian Anti-Defamation Commission Anton Block, originally made in response to the Rudd scandal:

"It is completely unacceptable for anyone to co-opt and trivialise the name of . . . the Nazi machinery for their own political purposes. To use [it] in this context shows a level of ignorance and insensitivity that has no place in contemporary political discourse. It is highly offensive."

US hate group's charitable status revoked

According to Ex-Gay Watch, the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of US hate group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH, headed by notorious homophobe Peter LaBarbara) in 2010 for failing to file the forms required for review by the IRS and the public.

"While the current incarnation of AFTAH appears to have been active since 2006, we found only one form 990-EZ on file — for the year 2009 (PDF).  In this, total receipts are listed as $110.000, out of which Peter LaBarbera received a salary of $75,000.  For perspective, this is approximately the same salary plus benefits claimed by Exodus president Alan Chambers.  Exodus lists eleven employees and a million dollar budget."

While the donations section of the AFTAH website no longer claims tax-exempt status, as of this posting their About page still claims that donations are tax deductible (see screenshot).

AFTAH is one of a small number of anti-gay organizations classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, due to LaBarbera’s homophobic lies and constant attempts to vilify gays and lesbians.