Ramesh, when I was, briefly, the token conservative on this thing called the Spitfire Tour , the issue of abolishing the tax exempt status of churches came up constantly. I was fairly bowled-over at first because I had no idea so many people felt so strongly about it or could be so ignorant about the financial or constitutional issues (I’m insinuating no such thing about Brainbridge or anybody involved in that debate, by the way). The speakers, most especially Jello Biafra, and the kids in the audience routinely asserted that elimination of the tax exemption would raise more than enough money for [Insert huge socialistic public policy here]. Moreover, whenever I mentioned that there were constitutional hurdles involved in expropriating the assets of various religious institutions, they looked at me as if I had said, “not everybody thinks it’s cool to smoke pot.”

So, while I agree with you that it’s outrageous, I don’t really find it that shocking.

[Note: for some reason in the original post I’d said “financial and technological issues.” I changed it to “financial and constitutional issues.”