First! Ha, ha, ha, ha.....

Why is Howard Hughes coming to mind?

For the love of money
People will lie, Lord, they will cheat
For the love of money
People don't care who they hurt or beat
For the love of money
A woman will sell her precious body
For a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weight
Call it lean, mean, mean green

Almighty dollar

I know money is the root of all evil
Do funny things to some people
Give me a nickel, brother can you spare a dime
Money can drive some people out of their minds

OJays - For The Love Of Money

Saw that coming........

Why is Jim Jones coming to mind.

R U refering to North Naples FD tomato snatcher?

Cause that's just too funny!

I wonder if Tom Tom is kicking himself for nixing his original idea to simply build a Catholic college in Naples. You know, before the Barron Collier Boyz upsold him the dream of a Catholic theme park-meets-Village Walk in the middle of a dry swamp 30 miles from anything, connected by a hideously narrow strip of pot-holed death traveled mostly by speeding tomato tankers. They assured him the market would absorb all. They'd all pocket quick, dirty bucks. And there'd be plenty of room to erect as many oversized religious monuments as he could afford, and perhaps the Bishop would allow him to run amok and rule supreme.

And Tom Tom bit.

They say that salesmen are often the easiest sell. The better the salesman, the easier the sell. And Tom Tom is nothing if not a great salesman. How else do you explain an empire built of greasy cheese, bad dough and 30-minute delivery drivers infamous for running down cyclists and pedestrians? Respecting a good pitch and wanting so badly to believe, Tom Tom was like a wild deer eating from the Collier's hands, tail wagging and brown eyes batting lovingly.

"Oh yeah, and Tom, we'll need that billion upfront."

Tom Monaghan must be selling this to pay for his bigger and better big Jesus hanging cross

The man must have a size compensation issue, a new drug comes to mind called "Supersize it"

Good luck Tom but this pizza ain't sellin

Dominos anyone? Any takers!

“After the rezoning...", wonder how that happened??? BCCos? County Commissioners in somebodys pocket?

If Catholics knew just a few of the warped and bizzare beliefs behind their weak minded cult, most would leave after realizing the greatest con job story ever told.

But as long as they continue to keep their heads (pun intended) buried in the sand, this knuckle dragging cult will continue it's painful journey to the dust bins of history.

And as an ex-brain washed Catholic ( not by MY choice at a young age but by my parents - who were brain washed by their parents at a very early age - who were brain washed by their parents at an very young age, etc, etc,) it is very easy to see why all the hocus pocus simply can in no way in hell be truthful or actually during the last thousands of years.
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Holy Prepuce - Circumcision of Christ or Holy Foreskin (Latin præputium or prepucium) is one of several relics attributed to Jesus. At various points in history, a number of churches in Europe have claimed to possess it, sometimes at the same time. Various miraculous powers have been ascribed to it.

Modern practices
Most of the Holy Prepuces were lost or destroyed during the Reformation and the French Revolution.

The Holy Prepuce of Calcata is worthy of special mention, as the reliquary containing the Holy Foreskin was paraded through the streets of this Italian village as recently as 1983

on the Feast of the Circumcision, which was formerly marked by the Roman Catholic Church around the world on January 1 each year.

The practice ended, however, when thieves stole the jewel-encrusted case, contents and all. Following this theft, it is unclear whether any of the purported Holy Prepuces still exist. In a 1997 television documentary for Channel 4, British journalist Miles Kington travelled to Italy in search of the Holy Foreskin, but was unable to find any remaining example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Pre...
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Circumcision of Christ
de Friedrich Herlin de Nördlingen, 1466
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ci...

Sad, sad and envious people!

Regardless of who it was built for or why, the accomplishments or Mr. Monaghan and Associates to build in six years what they have in Collier County rival those of Barron Collier himself and he owned the place back then!

Ave Maria is top drawer in every respect and is and will prove to be a plus in this area!

All you bad whackers, try to get out and do something positive!!!

If Catholics knew just a few of the warped and bizzare beliefs behind their weak minded cult, most would leave after realizing the greatest con job story ever told.

But as long as they continue to keep their heads (pun intended) buried in the sand, this knuckle dragging cult will continue it's painful journey to the dust bins of history.

"And as an ex-brain washed Catholic ( not by MY choice at a young age but by my parents - who were brain washed by their parents at a very early age - who were brain washed by their parents at an very young age, etc, etc,) it is very easy to see why all the hocus pocus simply can in no way in hell be truthful or actually during the last thousands of years."
---Agreed. I went through the same exact thing growing up. Catholism is a scary cult that is ruled by guilt. I'm allowed to say that after attending Catholic school and going to mass twice a week for 18 years. I think churches are a good support network for those who may need it because of instability in their lives. However, those who follow the Bible should realize that it is an early book of laws, meant to keep people in line long ago, and not a device that should be interpreted literally for its meaning. The Bible is a fictional early book of laws that is outdated.

If I could positively refunnel the $1.6 BILLION ($1,600,000,000.00) in hush money the Catholic Church has paid out to forgive itself of it's past sins then I would.

Maybe the $1,600,000,000.00 would be better spent on education or medical research.

Only God knows.
Only Allah too.
and all the other head dudes.

Post #7 above is brilliant! Not only because it is unusually coherent -- but that it provides such a crack-sharp look at what likely led to the construction of that little theocracy in the swamp.

The Colliers actually pulled off another big league scam -- this time on the county commission, convincing it to build a $300M superhighway into their squishy wasteland on the pretext that another million people were waiting at the gates of the St. John River to start paying property taxes into their soon-to-overflow coffers.

Yeah, salesmen are easy to sell -- but not quite as easily as public officials panting to rub elbows with the rich and famous.

Isn't the Tree Farm Property SE of 951 and Immokalee?

I still have yet to comprehend the logic behind building a temple and small town celebrating a religion that is in rapid decline due, among other things, to its antiquated rulings on birth-control, abortion and priesthood gender.
A religion that is on the verge of financial collapse due to court settlements paid to the victims of its pedophilic priests.
I agree with bsdetector in that ecoterror hit the nail on the head:
So often an entrepreneur who lucks out in one type of venture falls victim to a sharp salesman who convinces him that anything he pumps enough money into will turn to gold.
How many millions for the crucifix?

I really liked the bald eagle...now I really love the bald eagle...thank you bald eagle!

All these theocrats end up with their compounds "out there" somewhere...

congradulations chickendog on your intellectual courage and honesty.....

When all of these crackpots who are envious of anything Catholic are long dead and buried (their eternal fate known only to the Almighty, but I wouldn't wager any of my money on it being a fortuitous one) the Catholic Church will still exist. Jesus promised his followers (the first Catholic priests, deacons, bishops, and laymen) "I will be with you all days, even unto the consummation of the Earth."

And then the Catholics proceeded to consume the Earth.

Beetlejuice, I am sure he ment the cult leader from the late 70's not
"North Naples FD tomato snatcher" which is pretty funny.jzj

there is nothing like an ex-Catholic to rail against what they turned their backs on........because they will always question their decision they have to slag, demean, insult the Catholic faith at every opportunity to try to convince themselves they are right.....they really are a depressed lot

the blasphemer in post #13 has tried every forum on this site to push his lie about the finding of Jesus' burial site......debunked by the Israeli authorities and experts all over the world....the blasphemer posts the movie trailer from Cameron's miserably failed movie as proof of the finding
again very pathetic

GOD,
Go Away. Does not seem to matter if the writers here are religous or not, we all want you to go away.
Go try to walk on water somewhere. Deep water.

is god not dog backwards?
Or
is dog not god backwards?
That is the Truth to the UnKnown!
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Names of God

Conceptions of God can vary widely, but the word God in English—and its counterparts in other languages, such as Latinate Deus, Greek Θεός, Slavic Bog, Sanskrit Ishvara, or Arabic Allah—are normally used for any and all conceptions. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, Yahweh, harking back to the religion's henotheistic origins.[8] God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which emphasize the personal nature of God, with early references to his name as Krishna-Vasudeva in Bhagavata or later Vishnu and Hari,[9] or recently Shakti. In the Bible, when the word "Lord" is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the personal Hebrew name of god, Yahweh.

It is difficult to draw a line between proper names and epitheta of God, such as the names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, the names of God in the Qur'an, and the various lists of thousand names of God and List of titles and names of Krishna in Vaishnavism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God#Name...

It appears that the declining economy and declining catholic faith have affected even the mega rich as well....

I would think that the Tree Farm Land would be considered by some woodstork habitat and an important piece of land in the Cocohatchee Watershed. I guess he already sent his "mitigation" check in.

Interesting.

Does Ave Maria have a homeless shelter? I wonder how much these "righteous" men concern themeselves with their community, or if they are more concerned with wasting donations on glitz and glamour (like the tallest crucifix). It seems that any profits from the sale of the land already have a destination in mind ... and not to anyone's benefit who truly needs it.

I'm not saying that they don't undertake community projects, I just want to be reassured that their blessings aren't falling out of the basket to spoil instead of hatch.