i lol'd

Which is why a ton of religious organizations also run schools and daycares.

But let's take the fundamental premise - that if you're too rich you don't get to criticize others - and apply it to you. You make 10-100x as much as the 3 billion poorest people in the world do, do they get to point at you and criticize you? Or do you get immunity because you're only top 10% but not top 1%?

If you don't want to give money, don't give money. But don't use "they'll just spend it on hookers and blow" as an excuse. They may, but statistically only a little worse than the non-homeless population.

If you want to give money but not to random people on the street (I definitely feel this way, especially in Berkeley/Oakland/SF where being homeless is considered cool or soemthing), find a better way to give. If you're totally lost for ideas, just go up to whoever you'd want to see helped the most, and say, "I don't want to give you money but I want to help people like you, what do you think would help you the most?" And IME people are pretty cool (and honest!) about it.

Poorer people would be right to criticize me if I started telling them that they should be giving their money to help people even poorer than them. I'm the one being critical here; the pope was the one lecturing regular people about helping the homeless.

I don't really think anyone should be telling anyone else how they should give their money away, but I find it particularly hypocritical in this instance. They're also not running their schools and daycares in the actual areas where they have religious services. If the churches start opening up their pews as beds for the homeless at hours when services are not going on, I'll say they they're putting their money where their mouth is.

Wait, wat? Which pope? Our pope or the pope pope?

Pope Francis, the real pope.

That_pope is not one of the richest people in the world, AFAIK.

Most shelters around here are dry and sober. So if you’re not sober you might not have a place to sleep.

hmm, this exact joke was used several years ago by Dennis Leary. Different delivery but same punch line.

Interesting betting idea. The Hammer and I made a bet months ago on whether El Presidente would finish his term. In retrospect, I think adding a doubling cube (ala backgammon) would have been fun.

You can ask for a double, and they either have to pay out or double the size of the bet. Then control of the cube goes to the other player.

Huh - for fun I just looked up what annual salary puts you in the top 1% of US earners. My guess was way, way off.

1% of total income earners or 1% of total income earned? Individual or household?

come on then, what was it?

First google hit says a little north of $465k

The statistics are fun. Real money and old money people know, it isn't all (or even much) about realized income. That just leads to paying taxes. Give me money covered by depreciation and unrealized income, every time.

Talking Stick's troubles are so bad that the rumors include knocking down the building and starting over. And that would mean having to play at Wild Horse Pass for years where the rules include allowing a button straddle (ofc I'm in the BB) from a player w/ less than $20.

That, and they have the absolutely WORST free coffee imaginable.

I'll buy you a starbucks next time I see you.

THANKS!

Went to Nepal this last week.

I didn't go to Chitwan National park per se as it's closed this time of year. I was able to go to the buffer zone, and that was pretty bad ass. Saw two rhinos. Saw multiple types of deer. A **** ton of birds. Different species of crocodile. Also saw some fresh tiger tracks and smelled tiger piss - unfortunately s/he scared off a lot of other animals when we were hiking through the jungle and grasslands.

Canoed through some river for like 10-15k. Hiked back through the jungle/grasslands. Went off roading through various marshes and other stuff. We were pretty lucky with the weather when we were hiking considering it's monsoon season.

I want to head back in the next 12 months during the dry season. If you can make it, you should go.

That sounds awesome. When I was young I studied the eastern philosophies a lot and Nepal is pretty much the spot where they all come together imo. I'm a bit jealous of your adventure.

Pretty sure all free casino coffee is equally terrible

Talking Stick's is drinkable. WHP's is like battery acid.

Many local churches and other faith communities of all kinds of denominations, including Catholicism, are actively engaged in service to the homeless. Typically these services are located where there is maximal demand for the services, which might or might not be colocated with the parishes (specifically in Catholicism).

Are you saying literally anything short of letting people sleep on pews until an hour before the start of mass, or maybe opening up the Sistine chapel for accommodation after the last flock of tourists has left for evening, is hypocritical? Because that's pretty silly.

Yes; what's silly about it? I think it is such a shame that so much real estate in the world is wasted by churches when it could be used to house people. But it just shows the selfishness of religious organizations.

Rather than complain about what others aren't doing, you could always take matters into your own hands. If you are really bothered by this, perhaps you should consider opening your home to people?

He lives in a poker room. Everyone is welcome.

I don't have a home, I have one room I rent; in fact I'm pretty close to homeless myself. I'm not the richest person in the world, the pope is, and I'm not telling others what to do to help the homeless, the pope was, which is why I started talking about it.