oh good grief...

I may have my problems with the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, especially over money (throughout its history), but the State of Connecticut absolutely needs to get their head out of their ass.  If you, as a government, don't like the financial handling of a church, you have one recourse: revoke the tax-exempt status.  Stepping in and applying a blunt restructuring on them is just asking for trouble, both because of the slippery slope issue (control one church, control them all), and more importantly: it requires tax dollars being spent on managing a church, in GROSS violation of the Establishment clause.

hear hear

*sigh*

Boston's real-life 'Cheers' bartender is laid off:

BOSTON – Eddie Doyle was the guy who really did know everybody's name.

But after tending bar for 35 years at the Boston tavern that inspired the television show "Cheers," Doyle has been laid off.

The bar's owner says the economy is to blame.

Doyle was a fixture at the pub known as the Bull & Finch long before his TV counterpart, Sam Malone, entered the mainstream.

You know, it *really* would be nice if business's first reaction to "bad economy" wasn't to fire everybody, 'cause that just makes the economy worse by having fewer people actually able to pay for anything and thus sales slump even more at other places, they lay off people, then there's even less business for you...