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*snicker*Yeah, the gods I most resonate with are two bastards and a pretty boy. No wonder I'm so confused... LOL.
Heh. Raised Lutheran, at various times in my life I have been an atheist, and agnostic, a Buddhist, and a brief flirtation with Daoism. Currently Lutheran again, but extremely liberal and all-inclusive, which gets me some grief from the establishment. Although I do not preach (I am a teacher at a religious school, and I can't be fired for my liberal, heathen views...TENURE, BITCHES!), I do occasionally substitute for preachers in the area. It's a good deal. An hour of work for $120 (tax-free) and a free meal. They usually pay in cash. Once they liked my sermon so much they gave me the contents of the collection plate: $234 and a coupon for a free oil change at Lube Stop. Score!Due to a theology degree from a religious university in Ann Arbor, I am technically a member of the clergy, a Lutheran Pastor, which means I end up having to pay my taxes quarterly rather than on a pay-check by pay-check basis, and I have to pay 14% in FICA rather than the normal 7%, which sucks. It also means I am allowed to take direct deductions for any housing expenses such as utilities, maintenance, mortgage, and any durable household goods. With a little creative (and legal) accounting, I typically wind up tax-free on about half of my yearly income, which doesn't suck. My basic tax rate seems to work out to between 11% and 14%. All ministers and clergy do their taxes this way....which I kind of hate. I wish it was the same as everyone else since the laws are so arcane I have to hire a CPA to do them for me. Heh. I only mentioned that since in other threads people are talking about taxes, and I thought you would like to know that the tax code is stacked in favor of clergy. If I were to go out and buy a $300,000 house....the tax code would let me deduct 100% of my mortgage payments right off the top of my income. I know pastors who get their taxable income down to 25%-30% of their actual earnings, dropping them into a 5%-8% tax bracket. I know one pastor who has worked it so that the church technically owns (and pays for) their ($140,000) home and (Cadillac) car, and pays them a "living wage" stipend each week of however much money he wants/needs, which by following the technicality of the law, is not a salary, so this person pays a personal income tax rate of 0%. Or probably less than that since they have managed to arrange things to qualify for both food stamps and the Earned Income Credit, which means he gets a refund when he paid no taxes. And he has the balls to be proud of it. He calls it "good stewardship."The system. Don't you just love it?
Ok Loki I get but....Baldur? A guy who's mommy went to everything in the world save one thing and made it promise to not hurt him?Ironbite-also any god who gets to be played by Anthony Hopkins is awesome in my book.
Quote from: ironbite on March 19, 2012, 06:28:49 pmOk Loki I get but....Baldur? A guy who's mommy went to everything in the world save one thing and made it promise to not hurt him?Ironbite-also any god who gets to be played by Anthony Hopkins is awesome in my book.I was more surprised that it was Loki AND Baldur. Didn't Loki trick Hod into killing Baldur?
Pardon the interruption, good sir/lady; there are aspects of your behavior that I find quite unbecoming, and I must insist most strenuously that I be permitted to assist in resolving these behaviors through the repeated high-velocity cranial introduction of particularly firm building materials.
GIVE ME KNOWLEDGE OR I WILL PUT A CAP IN YO ASS!
