@AskTheDevil It's pretty shocking how open and egregious they are.

The more violations are left unchecked, the more difficult it will be to check them later.

What's brewing is pretty sinister. The reasons those rules are in place are good, and charities running over them haphazardly without restraint is really dangerous.

@singlemaltgirl You're right. There must be stats directly relevant out there somewhere.

Sometimes it's difficult to go after a charity for this regulation specifically because it requires proof, and matters like this are decided in complex, drawn-out legal proceedings.

Sometimes financial collapse is just the fallout of a charity caught in court proceedings.

While it's true that Covid defiance isn't *directly* related to partisan politics, as you say, the two now share a strong bond.

@singlemaltgirl I haven't heard much either, but there were churches who lost their status when they lost their minds and started defying Covid mandates.

Some were fined into oblivion. In some cases, that's the same thing -- the charitable status was eventually lost due to financial collapse.

A quick search let me to this article: https://carleton.ca/panl/2023/church-closures-and-the-loss-of-community-social-capital-by-don-mcrae/

Highlght:
"The data from 2022 shows that 299 Christian Churches were registered as charities while 364 were revoked."

As election expectations ramp up in Canada, here is a thing to know about charity organisations:

"Organizations that devote any part of their resources to the direct or indirect support of or opposition to any political party or candidate for public office will not qualify for registration."

That is at the registration stage, but it's true of maintaining charitable status as well. Charities cannot be politically partisan.

It's more difficult to restore charitable status than to initiate it.

I just took in a rather extensive zine exhibit at the big art gallery in our region.

One of the things that caught my eye was a request for content from the mid-70s -- anything but poetry. I forget how it was worded, but the intent was clear:

"We're all good on the poetry for the time being, thanks anyway."

I'm getting the sense that my cat *really* likes the taste of my hair conditioner.

I wonder if someone put some catnip in it. If so, great prank!

Commentators at the Olympics talking about how "effortless" so many of the winning athletes were is the tip of a huge societal problem.

Not only is the amount of work it takes to do anything invisible, its apparent invisibly is celebrated.

A friend of mine is a successful photographer. Something he says has stuck with me: "Don't be envious of the destination if you don't envy the journey."

The journey is the real story. Each journey matters more than a shiny award.

@feloneouscat My only quibble with this: I'm not sure he legitimately knows how to look up to anyone.

If he looks up to anyone, it's violent, authoritarian dictators, and that to me is the single most dangerous thing about him.

Everything else is general incompetence, wilful ignorance and bluster.

Stirring up zeal for violent supremacism is bad news for the world.

@BenA There is no changing course now. To me, it looks pretty clear that he's going to lose his second presidential bid in a row, this time by a bigger margin.

He's just keeping that "unprecedented" vibe going as long as he can, isn't he?

The Republican party's credibility is in the same freefall as his. When is that likely to sink in?

@BenA The Democrat candidate's poor performance at his presidential debate sparked him shutting down his candidacy.

Is anyone with any level of influence suggesting tfg do the same?

Or is everyone just going along with the two Republican frontrunners stepping on as many rakes as they can until November?

@tyghebright @th3j35t3r Some people seem to think that the old James Bond movies are documentaries.

The fault-lines running through western (esp. US) civilisation have a lot to do with celebrity worship.

The entire culture was founded on and is perpetuated by the cult of personality. Which follows -- its history all converges at the British monarchy (head of state & church).

The echoes are still being felt. Determining for and against is easy: "I am for Celebrity X. People for Celebrity Y are my enemy."

Thus, "Celebrity X is worthy of all money & power. Celebrity Y is worthy of none."

Have you been procrastinating about saying no to something you know you've needed to stop saying yes too for a long time?

I just did it. I feel so much lighter now.

It keeps catching me because I find myself feeling the stress and weight of the thing, and then I get to remind myself that I'm free all over again!

@FrankCannon I'd argue that it was caused by the right (Bush said this out loud about 9/11), but that sparked an opposite reaction on the left. (Is it equal? Debatable.)

When allegiance is more important than developing ideas and policies that make sense, we face a glaring existential problem.

Devotion to an ever-evolving (though consistently antagonistic) Rorschach test has been the right's latest foray into absurdism. What the left has tried to counter this with has been a bit bizarre, too.

@IrelandTorin Interests of their members, and society at large.

Banks being for-profit is a similar kind of vibe to a king also being the head of the religion.

It ensures that the system will become corrupt, and when it does, there will be no recourse.

Indeed, there are few things more dangerous than an entire financial system being run by greedy profiteers.

What's your relationship to precedent?

Within organisations, and even with families, sometimes good initiatives grind to a halt out of a concern for precedent. ("If I do this for one, I have to do it for all, so I can't do it for any.")

I don't give much credence to on the receiving end, as long as people feel mutually valued. On a motive level, I definitely feel the concern stronger. Should I?

In retrospect, I should have reconsidered ending my vacation on the same day as the people in my house going back to school.

We're all *so* tired.

@00pi This mouse has a built-in rechargeable battery. That's a better solution for me.