Can’t sell your soul even if you wanted, at least not on eBay

So, the economy is in a recession and alternative modes of selling has gone rococo – pawn shops, garage sales and layaway has even made a strong comeback.

I can imagine people are looking under the bed and in-between couch cushions for extra change, so naturally, this bizarre story would be the next progression of things from the Independent in England.

A musician fed up with his life was today barred from selling his soul to the highest bidder. Dante Knoxx, 24, offered the “used” item for a starting bid of £25,000.50 or a buy it now price of £700,000 on the internet auction site eBay. But eBay pulled the listing today with about two hours to go and no bids because it breached one of the firm’s policies.

Evidently, you can’t sell items that are not “physical” on America’s fun loving home office Web site.

Despite the obvious concerns about theology, evangelism and salvation, this dude seriously needs to get his tail into Church!

Here is a guy who has no care for what exists a spiritual battle thundering in the skies above all in an interest for a quick buck to make his rent and keep his Star Wars DVD collection in tact. Huh?

“Unfortunately where I live there are hardly any jobs to keep a creative person like myself employed in anything other than boring, mundane office jobs.” Mr Knoxx was planning to use the money to get his experimental music group, Paradigm, which he created with his friend Zakk Altair, up and running. He quit his “shoddy job” as a laptop repair technician and said: “I leave it to you, the denizens of Earth, to purchase my actual soul and in return allow me to acquire some tasty capital.”

So, this fool has a hankering to not make a decent living in an effort to get the band back together? Seriously? Man, give up the Fender strat and pick up the classifieds. Maybe your soul is worth a little more if you have a career plan. Just a thought.

Apocalypse Watch: The Pope can’t pack ’em in like he used to

Maybe some slick political advertising would help?

Not so long, the man who occupies 1 Vatican Circle at St. Peter’s Basilica could really pack in a portico. The throng of Catholic devoutees hurling their Papal foam fingers in the air just to catch a glimpse of Il Papa fanning a blessing downward.

But alas, those were the good John Paul days. Today, a new regime of Benedict looms and the people… well, they seem to have scampered according to this story from Reuters.

Data out this week shows that 534,500 people attended his 42 general audiences in 2008 — or about 12,726 people each audience. That compares to 729,100 people at his 44 audiences in 2007 – or about 16,570 people per audience. More than a million people attended his general audiences in 2006, his first full year as pope.

So, you don’t think the ECONOMY has anything to do with this, do you? Regardless of how little people spend on a round-trip ticket to Rome, it’s still five hundred friggin’ dollars. You know how much gas and groceries that’ll buy?!

MEMO to all Roman Catholics in this country: Make it a “stay-cation“. These are usually terms reserved for those who don’t have the discretionary income to travel to a resort or, you know, the homeless. Make the best of it in your own backyard.

So make it a day – get all lathered up, dawn your bleached robe, bling out your rosary, visit your local diocese and have a “Get to know your Bishop day”. That’ll put some fun back in the Catholic Church, right? Ah, good times.

The Amish takes building codes back to the 90s, the 1890s

Yawn and stretch! Fresh from a luxurious Christmas getaway, I was looking around my own humble abode thinking if I had the rich crown molding in here that was in my hotel room, my resale value would go through the roof (ok, pun intended). But I’m not the most handy person in the world, despite whether they can help or not,

So, here I troll the Intertube finding a story in the Town of Franklin, Wisconsin that makes me green with envy, and a little red from laughing out loud.

Daniel Borntreger’s home looks like hundreds of other Wisconsin farmhouses: two-story A-frame, porch, clothes on the line. But his home could cost him thousands of dollars in fines. Borntreger, an Amish farmer, built the house himself according to Amish tradition—but without a building permit.

His case is among at least 18 legal actions brought against Amish residents in Wisconsin and New York in the past year and a half for building without proper permits, according to court records, attorneys and advocates for the Amish.

So, these persnickety Amish building homes according to codes. Of course, the only boorish codes they are familiar with is the pesky Hammarabi code of “an eye for an eye” fame and choose to rest on their laurels. You see, to obey the laws of the land is sacrilege to them.

It’s understandable to stand firm on religious conviction, but when you do it by breaking the law, is it biblical?

“They just go ahead and don’t listen to any of the laws that are affecting anybody else. It’s quite a problem when you got people next door required to get permits and the Amish don’t have to get them,” said Gary Olson, a county supervisor in central Wisconsin’s Jackson County, where Borntreger lives.

Yeah, and then there’s that whole witnessing thing of which to be concerned. Amazing how God just gets in the way all the time. Sigh.