It’s no small irony that when Republicans talk about smaller government, this same crippled beast seems to have no problems handing gobs of cash to institutions they have no business helping. Take the recent appropriation of 60 billion dollars for Hurricane Sandy. The Republican controlled House has voted to allow some of the money to be used to rebuild houses of worship, a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking their fellow atheists to contact their Senators today to prevent this disaster from becoming a law. Of course, the cynical side of me thinks this is all a giant waste of time, and the quagmire of American politics makes it impossible for rational and helpful legislation to go through, so perhaps the same tactic can be used to stop the government from forking over money that should be spent on rebuilding people’s homes, rather than the places that typically siphon all their fucking money away.

Consider this: while a non-profit can also apply for a grant if their property was damaged, at least these organizations have some degree of accountability. We can see where the money goes. That’s not true of religions. They get a free pass to spend their money any way they want, and trust me when I say there isn’t one of these places that isn’t swimming in corruption. The system practically invites it!

Remember a few weeks back when over 1000 preachers openly defied the IRS and began politically endorsing Mitt Romney? Well, it certainly wasn’t the first time these guys broke the law, and it certainly won’t be the last. This stunt was in an effort to repeal a law that until now, the IRS has refused to enforce. Gutsy, this was not.

“Pulpit Freedom Sunday” has been staged annually since 2008 by a group called the Alliance Defending Freedom. Its aim is to provoke a challenge from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in order to file a lawsuit and have its argument out in court.

In response to this outrageous affront to a simple rule allowing them not to pay taxes (effectively making us all sponsors of their nonsense), there’s an online petition aiming to put pressure on the Obama Administration to actually enforce this tax code on offending religious institutions.

In recent years, the IRS has turned a blind eye to offending Religious institutions that mix religion with politics. By not enforcing the qualifications & disqualification’s of 26 U.S.C. § 501(c) of the United States tax code, the IRS is doing a diservice [sic] to both the American people & the vision of our forefathers.

I know most of you think petitions aren’t worth the paper they are printed on (especially ones with a typo in a three paragraph pitch), but keep in mind that with the election over, Obama no longer needs to tip toe around Evangelicals anymore. And if he wants a Democratic congress in 2014, the best way to ensure that is to stop preachers from using their immense power to essentially control the vote of their congregation (who almost always vote conservative).

They still need about 21,000 signatures, so if you’re as ass pissed off as I am that religious douche-bags keep abusing their tax exempt status, why don’t you take 3 minutes out of your day and sign the damn thing?

Back in 2010, the American Army got busted for having rifle sites with Bible verses engraved on the side. The company responsible, Trijicon, got in enough shit that they promised to not only remove the offending verses, but also replace the scopes to avoid the appearance that the Army was some kind of invading Christian aggressor.

Well, it’s been over 2 years, and these fucking things are still in circulation. The Army claims it’s made good progress in having the verses removed, but from the reports of actual soldiers in the group, it looks like no action has actually taken place. This is a fairly low priority for the Army, and considering the company has been doing this for 20 years, there’s every chance that the initial effort was simply a PR move by the Army to get everyone off their backs and they proceeded to return business as usual when the news cycle had died down.

You can’t even get the fucking Army to respect the separation of church and state. Kind of gives you an idea of the uphill battle we have to fight, doesn’t it?

Well, finally a bit of good news this week. It seems as though a New Zealand Primary school is no longer offering Bible studies, as no one is actually interested in reading the damn thing. Hey, I speak from experience here: I am, after all, writing a book on the Bible, and trust me when I say it’s often a big snooze fest. It’s certainly not the kind of material I would recommend to kids (how can you even tell the story of Lot and not freak them out?).

What’s also relevant about this article is attendance really started to drop once a small group of about 50 kids started to opt out. This caused a snowball effect, and before you could say ‘bullshit’, the school was forced to pull this unpopular program. I figure this is a small microcosm of what we’re going to see in the coming decades. As more people opt-out of all this religious bullshit, they’ll be quickly followed by everyone else who doesn’t want to be bothered with any of this superstitious nonsense. Trust me, that’s a hell of a lot of people.

In an effort to completely erode any social progress made in the past 100 years, Louisiana, eager to outdo North Carolina and Texas in the crazy department, has decided to undermine public schools by attempting to make education entirely privatized. This serves two roles: it ensures that all education is to eventually be a for-profit industry (your health care should be a good indicator of how successful that strategy is), and it will allow religiously oriented schools the funding they so desperately need to teach children utter nonsense:

Far more openings are available at smaller, less prestigious religious schools, including some that are just a few years old and others that have struggled to attract tuition-paying students.

And what kind of subjects are students going to be “learning” at these private, religious institutions? Why, the basics of bullshit, of course!

Other schools approved for state-funded vouchers use social studies texts warning that liberals threaten global prosperity; Bible-based math books that don’t cover modern concepts such as set theory; and biology texts built around refuting evolution.

Bible-based math books? Are these the same geniuses who thought Pi was 3? Yeah, sounds like a perfect teacher’s tool, with all the answers in the back (hint: it’s something relating to our total annihilation). As for textbooks that “refute” evolution, I’m sure these will include the vigorous scientific research of the past hundred years…condensed into a 2 page spread about how Godless science thinks it has all the answers.

There are some who are arguing that the failing test scores of students in public schools would greatly increase, but the problem with this program is that while private schools may be required to make students take mandatory state tests, but there’s no punishment for schools which do poorly. They only have to make some bogus “accountability” program, something I doubt schools with a program specifically designed to undermine science would give a rat’s ass about.

What else do you expect from America? If something is failing, it’s automatically assumed that a financial incentive will fix it. If that were true, the country would benefit from the best health care in the world, and the most stable economy. Unfortunately, it’s precisely the opposite, but it seems you can’t convince these morons to stop doubling-down on their failing strategy.