From the NSS newsline letter, 2006 Sep 29, http://www.secularism.org.uk

SPAIN CUTS FUNDING FOR CATHOLIC CHURCH (Abridged)
In a move that took many by surprise, the Spanish government has announced that it will cease
paying a subsidy to the Catholic Church, which last year totalled about 30 million euros. In addition, the church will lose its exemption from value-added tax (VAT) on purchases of goods and property, as required by the European Union, and will have to supply the government with an annual report to justify the spending of monies granted to them through the voluntary income tax levy.

The new measures will not affect the hundreds of millions of euros in payment to religious school teachers and in subsidies paid to maintain Spanish cathedrals.

Since taking power in April 2004, the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has had a stormy relationship with the Catholic Church, introducing legislation making divorce much easier, legalising gay marriage and eliminating the requirement that religion be an obligatory subject in schools.

The pope attempted to chastise Zapatero during a recent papal visit to Spain, but the Prime
Minister shrugged off the criticism and then compounded the “insult” by not attending the Pope’s mass.

Tags: europe, religion, roman catholic church, secularisation, spain
Current Location: Afghanistan
Listening To: Original Batman theme tune

Over the last week, the Sun (not the "newspaper" called The Sun, but the Star (not the "newspaper" called The Star, but rather the object at the center of our solar system once described as a Mass of Incandescent Gas, a Gigantic Nuclear Furnace (in the words of They Might Be Giants))) has been showing it's face... I wouldn't say we've had "sunshine" as such, but the sun has been visible.

(I recommend you reread the first paragraph but ignore the parentheses. Anyone who needs to open parentheses on a first sentence should probably give up straight away. Not that I will (because I can program in LISP, which is big on paranthesis.))

And today... this is truly amazing (and please note, this is England, not Hawaii or even Spain), the rays of the sun coming through the window have been warming things up.

Amazing!

At first I thought our central heating was malfunctioning.

In other news... the Sluts meet yesterday was great, lots of people, I recognized most names even though I haven't met everyone before. Was good to see you all :-)

Tags: england, hawaii, sluts meet, spain, spring, sunshine, they might be giants
Current Mood: okay
Listening To: "Transformat" by Klute