Quote:Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

(12-04-2018, 04:32 PM)grampahol Wrote: This really isn't about anyone who is actually awesome, just those who occasionally do something decent then pretty much expect a parade and 21 gun salute because they did something that they probably ought to be doing regularly anyway. 
An example could be someone who once a year gets hoodwinked into putting on their Sunday best and going to a homeless shelter and dipping up a few plates of green beans ONLY on Thanksgiving , taking a video of themselves actually dipping up a plate and insisting for weeks just how awesome they are because there's video proof of their once every five years awesomeness..
Now don't get me wrong.  I have some admiration for people who actually do volunteer their time and effort and sometimes money, but really, does anyone really need the over the top congratulatory recognition for actually doing something decent once a year? Do they really need to post multiple videos of themselves and their ultimate awesomeness?
I'm not going to tell you that nobody should volunteer once in awhile or that they never deserve some recognition, but I'm not quite sure they really need to plaster their awesomeness all over the web for gratuitous facebook likes either. 
Years ago I  used to drive a taxi and every morning at about 4am an elderly woman would take a taxi to the hospital to volunteer her time and effort and had been doing it for over 40 years. There were no videos of her efforts, no gratuitive Facebook likes, just a very appreciative hospital and years worth of taxi drivers who loved the early morning $1.40 trip and the very soft spoken elderly woman. She always paid in nickels and dimes and always insisted that we count the change to be certain it was the correct amount and she had no sense of humor about even suggesting that she might be a nickel short. The one time I tried she dug out another nickel and wouldn't take no for an answer. I still feel guilty about that extra nickel.. lol

(12-07-2018, 12:53 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: I once helped a lady out in church. Feeling pretty good about 'me', I went and told the pastor about it. I'll never forget his response. He said, "Oh, no! Don't tell anyone about it! That ruins it!". I retained the wisdom of that.

(12-08-2018, 02:58 PM)grampahol Wrote: Among professional athletes and other celebrities the philanthropy is just a portion of their marketing strategy which to me amounts to just about nothing at best since I assume it's all written off as tax write offs meaning that we as tax payers actually foot the bill in the long run. So you make a gazillion bucks a year and "donate" a small portion to charities or whatever and at the end of the fiscal year you go to the IRS and say, "I want it all deducted from my tax bill .." In essence it's saying that what you are really doing is getting Uncle Sugar to actually donate the money in your name and it becomes little more than an accounting game to lower your tax liability and of course the big "charities"  have millionaire administrators paid to play even more accounting games to make us all think they're such altruistic souls when in fact I have a strong hunch they are not. 

Quote:Quote:Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Quote: Wrote:, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 

(12-08-2018, 02:58 PM)grampahol Wrote: Among professional athletes and other celebrities the philanthropy is just a portion of their marketing strategy which to me amounts to just about nothing at best since I assume it's all written off as tax write offs meaning that we as tax payers actually foot the bill in the long run. So you make a gazillion bucks a year and "donate" a small portion to charities or whatever and at the end of the fiscal year you go to the IRS and say, "I want it all deducted from my tax bill .." In essence it's saying that what you are really doing is getting Uncle Sugar to actually donate the money in your name and it becomes little more than an accounting game to lower your tax liability and of course the big "charities"  have millionaire administrators paid to play even more accounting games to make us all think they're such altruistic souls when in fact I have a strong hunch they are not. 
Now this isn't to say that there are no altruistic people with celebrity status. I'm sure there are some and actually do good things using their own money instead of tax dollars, but the cynical side of me says the majority are doing it merely for marketing and accounting purposes . On the same token a lot of philanthropy occurs because we have politicians who want to completely defund everything that helps anyone from lower social statuses and instead give all the breaks to the privileged class and make it into a world in which only those with connections get anything from our tax system other than a bill. 
That's an argument for another day and topic, but the bottom line is we as a society ought to be doing everything we can to benefit every citizen regardless of social status, race, religion, national origin, etc. 
Well there's my rant of the day that I'm sure will ruffle more than a few feathers. I'll get over it..  

(12-07-2018, 05:24 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: That's the thing; despite not having much myself, I twice have helped my friends (who truth be told, due to their parents, indeed had more than me) out with financial instances of hardship, where they were in a bind or because they did something stupid.

To this day, just they (2 girls and no, I was NOT trying to get in their pants; they were and still are, my good friends) and my wife (only because I used the exact same point of this thread, in a speech to her about blabbing about things), know about these instances of assisting and I wish to keep it that way.

Let the world know when you accomplish something that YOU are proud of... but only if you want.

Let the world know when you want to shed light on someone close to you's accomplishment... but only if you want.

But if you do a good deed, THAT EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET IS EXPECTED TO DO (if you believe in any religion), whether you want to or not, you shouldn't blab it to the world, as it is your duty that you have undertaken.

As much as I love Whitworth and that he's my favourite player ever, I certainly did NOT like that he blabbed to the world on social media, that he was donating his cheque to the firefighting; same with Chris Long.

Do it in private, feel good about it, but keep your pride in check; you guys are already professional athletes with more money than any of us could ever dream of. Keep it in your pants.

(12-13-2018, 07:36 PM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: i am very weird, i talk a lot at work, i talk more than most people i've ever met. i think i'm funny half the time, but maybe i'm not. at the end of the day i'm the one laughing and I guess that's all that matters, lol.

Based on your posts grampahol, I think you are probably an awesome person.

(12-10-2018, 03:17 PM)fredtoast Wrote: You never make back as much in tax saving as you give away.  All you do is shelter some income from tax.

If you donate a million dollars to charity all you save is the amount of tax you would have paid on one million dollars.  You don't get a full one million taken off your tax bill.