My Dad gave me his boat, and I never used it. Too bad, it was a good boat, but I simply live too far from the water to make it work.
Instead of selling it, I donated it to American Atheists through Action Donation Services. They picked up the boat, and they will fix it up and sell it. Then they cover their expenses and the rest goes to American Atheists, and I get a tax deduction for the whole amount.
Check it out, and please consider donating your car, boat, RV, truck, yacht, jet, etc! It’s easy and a great way to show your support.
Having today received Ed Buckner’s letter to members describing the state of American Atheist finances, I would say that the organization desperately needs the proceeds from that boat donation! Deficit spending in 2008 of almost $207,000 and projected deficit spending in 2009 of $327,000. What do you think you are, the federal government?
I am amazed that AA is just now getting around to applying for a property tax exemption?! $29,000 for 2009 alone – my goodness, what is the point of being a nonprofit, tax exempt organization if you don’t apply for the tax exemptions?
I will send in my membership renewal tomorrow, and maybe a few extra dollars, but it will have to be very few, I sincerely regret. I see that the AA staff is doing building and grounds maintenance to save money; maybe you need to have a bake sale, too (just kidding).
First Ellen Johnson gets axed under very opaque circumstances and now this. I don’t think anyone should donate a cent to AA without knowing how AA, with 2200 members, got into such a huge financial hole.
I’m not clear on the details (and I don’t know if anybody truly is) but I do know that when the O’Hair family members were murdered in the mid 90s, some half a million dollars or more of American Atheists funds was also found missing. Regardless of the circumstances – if that money had been been sitting in an investment account all the time when the stock market was doing so well, one presumes that the organization would be in somewhat better financial condition right now. Also, I understand that large amounts of money were needed in the past year to repair the roof and preserve the library holdings. Can’t keep spending all the cash, though. Even in these harsh economic times, there needs to be a core investment fund that can’t be used for operating expenses.
Personally, and this is only what I observe as an outsider, I think that American Atheists is in much better hands these days than under Ellen Johnson. The financial news may not be great right now, but at least there is more transparency and there doesn’t seem to be all that soap opera drama going on anymore.
As an aside, I’ve been meaning to comment also that the quality of the American Atheist magazine has greatly improved since Ellen Johnson left. She was a disaster as an editor. Still a couple of annoying typos here and there, but it is vastly better in production quality and content.
Tarma
Transparency? This AA? Sorry, not even close. AA is being mismanaged and will not survive under its current leadership.
Let’s see a before and after picture
Yikes…deficit spending for 2009 projected to be $327,000 and the board at AA believe’s that they are making a dent in the revenue shortfall by raking leaves…
OK…let me see. $20.00 per membership…AA will need 16350 new members…
Such an easy task. Of course, I’m not going to bring up all of the past threads laughing at such groups as Focus on the Family because of financial difficulties…
Freedom, donating a boat is a big move. Just to clarify, I was merely interested in seeing the boat before and after being fixed up and sold.
Of course, I’m not going to bring up all of the past threads laughing at such groups as Focus on the Family because of financial difficulties…
You’re bringing it up with this sentence. Very snarky and passive aggressive. Not shocking, but still – not qualities I think a “good christian” would want attributed to them.
my renewal is on the way also.what do those who like to claim AA is moneymaker say now.the state of finances really drives home the point of picking our battles.given the bleak economic forecast top priority must be the budget.it turns my stomach that rational people struggle to raise funds while religious frauds rake in the cash.
It’s far easier to rake in the cash when you offer an afterlife as a reward for your donation, er, devotion.
[...] I Just Donated My Boat to American Atheists « No God Blog [...]
Hey…just follow GS’s lead under Barry’s leadership…if this doesn’t make your blood boil and show how we’re all being used, I don’t know what will…
http://tinyurl.com/mh5r9p
As usual Phreeky shots himself in the head.
Goldman Sachs became the monster that it is because deregulating GOP legislation – the Grahm-Leach-Bliley Act. Obama had no part in that of course. Obama’s only mistake was to bail the financial sector out – a necessary evil – without fundamentally changing how Wall Street is allowed to do business. Those of us that were screaming for that fundamental change were right. Phreek is right on one account – we were suckered. At this rate the witless Phreeky will realize who suckered him by 2020.
Ah…”What do I know?”
As usual…you miss the entire point. You still stuck on “my party is better then your party”…
Get a grip…BOTH PARTIES ARE TAKING US DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So vote independent third party!
For years Phreeky has been cheering the GOP on as they destroyed our economy and foreign policy. Now he wants to claim that he has “a grip”. Like a true sucker he never knows he’s being played until it’s too late and even then doesn’t understand who played him. One born every minute.
Godless
In due time. In due time.
I dont care for Glenn Beck but obviously there is allot of truth to this Goldman web thing…..a circle jerk of fed dollars making it to goldman bonuses is criminal….
on another note phreedm….here,s proof that there is no god:
http://atheistnexus.org/video/atheist-melon
What, we are being suckered by ethanol, solar, and wind energy.
Oy vey!
I give ya ethanol …..but certainly wind and solar have to be huge investments in this country…..
as the Pickens Plan would say…..”I was an oil man all my life….this is one problem we cannot drill our way out of….please buy my wind and my friends compressed natural gas”
Ethanol is a sucker.
Wind and Solar, right now, are like marijuana.
They can’t figure out how to control it so it is still taboo.
They are starting to though. They at least know they have to do it.
But until they can make sure all that money goes into the special peoples’ hands, it won’t become common.
One of the great benefits of these should be to lower energy costs significantly for all.
So what happens? The oil companies have bought these companies that manufacture solar cells and raised the prices rediculously high. A computer which is truly far more complex and pricy than a solar panel is MUCH MUCH cheaper. And the true demand for solar would be much higher (as in everyone) if it were affordable.
I heard somewhere that it takes more heat energy to purify the silicon semiconductor material in the solar panels than you’ll get out of the life of the solar panels at the current efficiencies. Also, rechargeable battery storage has a very low energy density and thus it takes many many batteries to run appliances and many many hours to charge up those batteries with solar….this is expensive and unlikely to change anytime soon.
However, there are descent prospects for vast arrays of solar panels in orbit around the Earth where the solar intensity is 1600 watts/m^2 beaming microwaves down to a power reciever station on the ground, as compared to the 100 watts/m^2 we typically get here on the ground. Of course that is a huge collateral damage liability if one or more of the many orbiting satellites misses it’s power reciever station target and ends up frying a fellow citizen or perhaps somebody’s pet .
Wind energy is just plane inefficient. California has huge arrays of those windmills (Palm Springs) where the wind is almost always blowing coming in from the Pacific Ocean, that generates 1% of California’s total energy.
….and government run healthcare, government run auto industry, and government run banking too. What next? Government run Microsoft and Google? Hell, perhaps the government can run fast food too, it’s healthier for people to recieve their rations than to overeat you know.
And to think, if the GOP hadn’t destroyed the Glass-Steagall Act none of this would have happened.
Damned GOP!!! We really need more libertarians at a local level.
….my theory of “trickle up politics”
Those darn Republicans.
Grahm, Leachy and Bliley – all three rethuglicans. Nice try though.
The stupidity is strong with this one.
AR
If you want to blame the dems for sometimes going along with the rethuglican death wish you will get little argument from me. But any way you slice it it’s conservative ideology that produced our f’d up economy.
I think the government saved whats left of our manufacturing industry (the auto industry)…if the government did nothing, GM and Chrysler would still be in bankruptcy and we would definitely be on our way to depression like unemployment….
Bingo!
Charlie,
I think you touched on a very important point. The loss of the American auto industry would have been a huge leap towards an entirely consumption-based state. Personally, I believe making sure America still makes something goes further than patriotism — it’s important to national security.
In the end, at least in the case of GM, I believe they will emerge a much better company. From what I’ve heard thus far, they are making significant strides in that direction and do appear committed to not just going about business as usual. Maybe once (and if) they’ve got their act together, I’ll consider buying one of their vehicles. : )
the new GM and chrsyler/fiat will be history next yr.we are looking at a so called jobless recovery it is hard to buy a car without a job.we have still too much debt both consumer and corporate and too much capacity,inventory.it isn’t hopeless though the system will correct itself overtime.
I’m actually tired of saying it. American companies pay unemployment insurance, social security, union pensions, worker’s compensation, medical insurance, dental and optical. They deal with OSHA which keeps the workplace safe. They deal with the EPA that prohibits them from poisoning our water and air with industrial waste. Now, add to that the highest corporate income tax on the planet. Guess what folks, those are all good things that called us out of the era where moguls made millions and workers couldn’t keep shoes on their kids.
But, here’s the present day reality. American businesses are forced to compete on a one to one basis with foreign industries that have no unemployment insurance, no medical coverage, no dental or optical, no OSHA to keep their workplace safe, no EPA to keep the corporate moguls from dumping industrial waste in other people’s drinking water. No social security, no worker’s compensation. Just a sweatshop job making pennies a day, and American businesses are supposed to COMPETE??? INSANITY!!!!!
What has happened was bound to happen. Those who built this standard of living now have to compete with third world sweat shops in order have a job. America has been sold to global corporations for a very cheap price, a campaign contribution under the table. Now, we have nothing to give our children.
NeoWolfe
well said neowolfe but don’t give up hope.What regarding goodman the fact doesn’t change israel has a right to exist.
If the entire planet collapses, I see Israel as the last man standing.
NeoWolfe
BOTH PARTIES ARE TAKING US DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!! If only they would place their trust in Jesus, think of it folks, with Jesus we send our enemies to hell while feeding the population fish and bread. We eliminate education and replace it with faith, superstition and praise!
Oh glory! Jesus for president.
Nice irony, gary.
NeoWolfe
Interesting video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUGVPBO9_cA
Amy Goodman deserves a Noble Prize.
godless,
Wasn’t it convenient after the first sentence, the subtitles end. Well, okay, you can convince yourself that jews are bad, and I could convince myself that fags are bad. You see how that works. The kkk think that jews are bad, but you don’t want to know what they want to do to pillow biters. So, you can introduce your “interesting” articles, but the fact of the matter is the Nazi’s would have buryed you in the same mass graves, but face down.
Your self righteous crap makes me puke.
NeoWolfe
I never said that jews are bad (no worse than other religious people anyway) but only that zionists are bad, both jewish and xian. This video makes my point for me-any criticism of zionist/israeli policy is twisted into a hatred of jewish folks. As someone with jewish family members I think they would be surprised indeed to know that I am a raving anti semite.
BTW us fags dont steal peoples land and then kill them.
If my self righteous crap makes you puke then why oh why do you keep reading and repsonding to my posts?
Puke away! Maybe you can purge yourself of some of the zionist propaganda you have binged upon.
Homer says something smart and dumb at the same time.
Now, I’m going to end this mindless debate. At the end of World War 2, just as ever other spoil divided by the victors, Berlin, Germany was devided between Russia and the Allies, thus the Berlin Wall. Stalin tried to starve the west side of the city, it didn’t work. The divided Germany stood, as it should, because it was legal.
The establishment of the state of Israel was equally as legal, not because of some promise from an imaginary god to Abraham, but because it was a legal mandate from the world court. The united nations made it a legal state, and all the jew hating idiots can’t change that fact. And those who propose that the jews drove the palestinians from their family land are liars. No Palestinian was ever driven from their land, the were never asked to do anything except register their ownership with the new government. Those who proved they owned land in the new nation of Israel were not only welcomed as citizens, but given the right to vote.
The Fatah movement, and Hamas were not driven from their land, only those who refused to be ruled by Jews. They abandoned their land on the promise that was given by Yasser Arafat that the Jews would be driven into the sea. It didn’t work out so well for him. Tough, their title to the land is legal. And any asshole like godless wants to argue it, lets go through the treaties with the american indians. Fucked is fucked ,and legal is legal, you learn to live with it.
NeoWolfe
“Fucked is fucked ,and legal is legal, you learn to live with it.”
What a sad and hopeless philosophy to hold.
If I and other gays adopted this defeatist attitude we never would have won marriage equality in six states (and soon to be more).
Tell it to the American Indians, Godless. The sad truth is that the lines on the map keep moving, and have since recorded history. And you being a pissy bitch, might have some issues with Jews. I don’t care. The fact is that the Jews took that land from the inhabitants in the Book of Joshua. They had no right to it, and played hell making god’s promise come true. I don’t care about that either.
A legal mandate by the United Nations gave that land to the Jews after world war 2 and that is a finding issued by the world court. It’s legal, and the jews did everthing right when they assumed possession. No one was ejected. All were welcomed as citizens. The ones who abandoned their family heritage, moved into refugee camps in the West Bank, lost thier family claim. Bad bet.
It’s all history, and idiots who still blame jews for what the world court did are idiots. They were given an opportunity, and have exploited it in a way that no one could have foreseen. Israel is actually ranked as a world superpower. And, I suspect they always will be.
NeoWolfe
Neoplasm
You are right about one thing – “the lines on the map keep moving”. Israel has caused enough trouble and it will soon be removed from the map and your zionist dreams will come to a deserving end. Enjoy.
What
israel is not going anywhere and why would you want to see it destroyed millions of israeli citizens who haven’t hurt anyone would suffer.wouldn’t it be more productive to focus helping the refugees in west bank,gaza strip.
Neowolfe
israel a superpower hell they would be dead if not for american aid.the jews wanted a country they got one and now they should go there or become atheist if they want to stay were they are.