Marc Perkel Rantz

Is this a Victory? Where is the Outrage?

Letter to the Editor

Sometimes it's easier to tell what isn't a victory than what is a victory. The current government of Afghanistan has a constitution that says anyone converting from Islam to Christianity is to be put to death. That ny friends is NOT a victory. Bush says that he is deeply troubled that Christians can be executed for their faith. I was expecting Bush to be outraged rather than just troubled because after all, he is a Christian, isn't he?

I thought we liberated Afghanistan?

Letter to the Editor

I thought Afghanistan was liberated. I thought we won the war there, gave them freedom and democracy, and that victory there had been achieved. Now we find out that under their laws that a person can get the death penalty for merely being a Christian. Under the new Afghan constitution being a Christian is a death penalty offense. How is it that we can liberate a country and have them bless killing Christians in their Constitution? Is this what we sent our Christian soldiers there to fight for? I'm an Atheist and this even offends me! Only Bush and his ilk could call this a victory.

Impeachment will bring troops home sooner

Letter to the Editor

President Bush said today that it will be up to a future president to bring the troops home. So I think we should impeach him and bring the troops home 2 years sooner. Is there going to be anything left of America if we don't accept the fact that our president is a failure? Impeach Bush Now!

Church of Reality requests IRS Exemption for Privacy

Dear news organization,

I - marc Perkel - Founder of the Church of Reality send the following email to the membership of the church asking them to write the IRS to ask for a religious exemption to not allow our tax returns to be sold to marketers. The Church cited the Religious Freedom Restoration Act anking that its Sacred Principle of Privacy be respected. Here is the letter:

Dear Church of Reality Members,

I just read an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about an IRS plan to allow the accounting firms that do your tax returns to sell them to marketing firms. Just when you think nothing more can shock you, they take it to a new level. Here's the article, you read the story.

Thanks to dvorak.org for the link.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/14147002.htm

Disclosure of personal information such as one's tax forms is in direct violation of the Sacred Principle of Privacy and undermines the concept that we own ourselves and that our tax information is not to be marketed. Our information is something that it ours and I think I speak for everyone when I say that none of us want marketers calling our home phones while looking at our tax returns trying to scam us.

Last month the US Supreme Court upheld the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which allowed a religion to use a Schedule 1 drug in a religious ceremony. The case is /Gonzales v. O Centro. /The decision upheld that the federal government cannot impose a "substantial burden" on an individual's or group's free exercise of religion unless the burden: "(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest."

I am declaring by edict that the marketing of our Sacred Principle of Privacy and that such disclosure imposes a substantial burden on our free exercise of our religious beliefs. Such a ruling violates use to the core of our being. We also contend that the government has no compelling interest in allowing accountants to market our personal information to scammers. So, in light of the RFRA we demand an exemption for members of the Church of Reality to prohibit anyone from disclosing any of our members information to anyone.

So - here's what I want you all to do if you can find a little time. I want as many people as possible to write a letter to the IRS stating that you are a Realist and that you want them to make a ruling exempting Realists from any regulation that involved tax return disclosure. I don't know how many letters it will take but the more the better.

The other think I need done is that this message should be posted in as many places on the web as possible. I want it to reach new people who didn't realize that they were already Realists and that they are entitled to privacy.

Who does this apply to? Who is a Realist? What does it take to be a member of the Church of Reality? Well, you may already be a Realist if you accept the axiom of our religion. Do you believe in reality? are you willing to make a religious commitment to believing in reality the way it really is? Is reality important in your life? Is it so important that you often tell your friends that they should take reality into consideration when making their important life decisions? If you answered Yes to these questions then you are a Realist and welcome to the real world! You are now entitled to assert the Sacred Principle of Privacy and tell the IRS that you support the exemption.

To write the IRS send a snail mail to this address:

CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG-137243-02)
Room 5203
Internal Revenue Service, Box 7604
Ben Franklin Station, Washington, D.C. 20044

Write the letter in your own words, but feel free to use anything in this email or from the article it links to. One of you might come up with a better letter than me and these letters shouldn't be just copies of the same thing. The reason I think this will work is that the folks at the IRS probably don't want to do it either and need a good reason to say they can't. This letter gives them that good reason. This idea is so stupid that it can only come from one place.

And - spread it around the web. I think there are a lot of Realists out there who want their privact protected.

This has a good chance of making a difference. Your email worked last time with Zogby. I noticed on the last survey I get that it included Atheist/Realist/Humanist as one of the choices. We are now at least worthy of being counted.

In other news, I have significantly expanded the "Why we are Different" section.
http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/different/

And - added some new fun vocabulary, Futurism vs. Dogmatism!
http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/terminology/terminology/dogmatist.html

Made significant progress on the Self Ownership section:
http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/self_ownership/

So - feedback appreciated as always.

Marc Perkel
First One
Church of Reality

San Bruno California
866-666-3211
marc@perkel.com
03/21/2006

New Video Seriously Questions 9-11 building colapse

Was the world trade center building destroyed by the plane crashes or were they blown up? I just cam across this video that is very pursuasive raising the question if this wasn't yet another Bush plot. The things that got me in particular were:

1) The center support columns sholdn't have collapsed even if the building pancaked.
2) The third building that collapsed that wasn't hit by a jet totally looks like it was being blown up.
3) No other skyscrapers have ever collapsed from fire.

I'm still in denial and the only thing that heeps me from believing it is denial or that I'm somehow being suckered. You watch it and see what you think.

We lost the war

Letter to the Editor

We can pretend that we are winning in Iraq but we have already lost the war. The reason is that there is no insurgency. Iraq is in a civil war and the own way we can win the war is to defeat the people who we are trying to liberate. You can't win a war when you don't know who the enemy is. And who is the enemy? Bush is America's enemy.