Faith based initiative

I'm on Greg's mailing list, you know Greg, the one who researched and whistle blew the Florida voting scandal in 2000 - likes kick up a stink over voting fraud and political shenanigans, that's right, Greg Palast. Unfortunately the US media didn't report it until way too late (doubting the credibility of your electoral system is unpatriotic right?) so only the Brits got to hear about it while it still could have made a difference to the 2000 election.

Anyway, Greg is like a dog with a tasty bone and just wont let go of anything in the least bit related to Bush, Republicans and the whole screwed up nature of this country (which is probably a relief for other countries he might otherwise have time to criticize). Hi latest little tid bit was Bush's boner for cutting inheritance taxes (wrongly labeled "death taxes"). A few years ago I heard a talk about this lead by Bill Gates Senior, just Billionaire Bill's dad. He had joined forces with several other very wealthy people and stood against Bush's tax cut plans. Unfortunately it didn't work.

Hence Greg's latest bash against Bush goes like this: Congress' vote last week would eliminate only 74% of the taxes on America's wealthiest. Our President is not satisfied. Mr. Bush will not rest in peace until we emulate one of the only nations on the planet without any death taxes, Saudi Arabia. There, our president could point to the example of the billionaire bin Laden family, whose scion, Osama, unburdened by estate taxes, has donated his entire inheritance to "faith-based initiatives."

Its typical Pallast writing, hold no prisoners, punch bellow the belly, etc. But my point is nothing to do with inheritance taxes - Greg just gave me the most extreme example of a faith based initiative. I mean flying a plane into a building because you want to hang out with a bunch of virgins in heaven - that really is putting your faith ahead of everyone else's right to live and believe whatever they want to (or not) to the point of exclusion of all others.