yayyyyyy God

[d_rawk]

I read a couple of reviews, and apparently it sucks as a game even if you can get over the subject matter. Might be worth a download for the novelty.

For the record, I'm not of the camp that thinks this thing should be pulled from the shelves or anything. I am uncomfortable with its popularity though, just as I'm uncomfortable with the popularity of the Left Behind series in general.

[ollie]

For the record, I'm not of the camp that thinks this thing should be pulled from the shelves or anything. I am uncomfortable with its popularity though, just as I'm uncomfortable with the popularity of the Left Behind series in general.

Yeah, I'm with ya... was just having a Beavis and Butthead moment. What made me uncomfortable was hearing about the Columbine video game. I don't know why but I don't find Left Behind as odious in comparison.

I imagine there are some pretty nasty anti-USA games being sold in parts of the middle east. Heck, parts of the world for that matter.

[SmoothedShredder]

I read a couple of reviews, and apparently it sucks as a game even if you can get over the subject matter. Might be worth a download for the novelty.

For the record, I'm not of the camp that thinks this thing should be pulled from the shelves or anything. I am uncomfortable with its popularity though, just as I'm uncomfortable with the popularity of the Left Behind series in general.

I hear ya... I'm also uncomfortable with Zombies! But it makes for a good game. Wonder how many people get the game to see what happens when you try to be as evil as possible! I checked... there are no known 'cheats'!! Ha! Musicians also seem to be prevelant in the whole game as they "lift the spirits of people around them..."

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

That game - and the whole subculture behind it - reminds me of the comment from Thomas Aquinas (and I wish I could remember where it was from) about how excited Christians would be one day to be sitting up in heaven looking down on the writhing of the infidels in the flames of hell.

Hey bartender, over here

Two more shots and two more beers

Sir, turn up the TV sound

The war has started on the ground

Just love those laser guided bombs

They're really great for righting wrongs

You hit the target, win the game

From bars 3,000 miles away

3,000 miles away

We play the game

With the bravery of being out of range...

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

- check this out.

Ten Verses Never Preached On.

You have to like no. 1:

If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity. (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)

[d_rawk]

I like #3 --

"Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their genitals - as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions" (Ezekiel 23:19-20)

:laugh:

Good find, thanks DEM.

[Kanada Kev]

UGH ... those things were parodied so well on South Park a few years ago when Cartman started up the christian rock band. See that episode if you haven't ... you'll love it. We could make tons of $$ vending shit at these things

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Rock_Hard

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=south+park+Rock+Hard&search=Search

You can see the entire epsidoe here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/7m47ndrjAifdb19cp

Cartman: Token, you have a bass, you're black! Check your basement ....

[d_rawk]

Anybody catch Mark Kelley's piece on the National Tuesday night? He spent 7 days with 7 different evangelical organizations. He was delightfully smarmy, I thought :laugh:

In other "yayyyyy God" news, Secular Ontario is threatening legal action against 18 Ontario municipalities that continue to open their council meetings with the Lord's Prayer.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Thanks, d - got it streaming right now. Nice way to start the day .

[Kanada Kev]

Right on. Thanks for reminding me that the Mark Kelley piece was on. I had forgotten about it. Here's a more accurate link (for today at least):

http://www.cbc.ca/ondemand/news/thenational.asx

Gonna start it up now with my morning coffee. I can't get in trouble for watching the National while I'm at work at the CBC right???

Later . . .

Kanada Kev =8)

[Birdy]

In other "yayyyyy God" news, Secular Ontario is threatening legal action against 18 Ontario municipalities that continue to open their council meetings with the Lord's Prayer.

*waves bye to yesterday!*

[color:purple]onwards and upwards, i suppose.

[Kanada Kev]

Anybody catch Mark Kelley's piece on the National Tuesday night?

Just finished watching it. Great piece. Thanks for sharing it. Now, i've gotta find the strength to survive 3 days with born-agains up in Parry Sound

[d_rawk]

"Now, i've gotta find the strength to survive 3 days with born-agains up in Parry Sound"

[Kanada Kev]

THANK YOU for that reference. I took a look at it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Evangelicals-Their-Habitat/dp/0060836962/sr=8-1/qid=1166645756?ie=UTF8&s=books&tag2=strangebrew02-20

Looks hilarious ... you can "read" some of it online. I think i'll be ordering this one for those in my family who are going to Hell and are quite happy about it .

Later . . .

Kanada Kev =8)

[timouse]

is that the crystal cathedral in the background?

that's brilliant.

see that, dr evil? there is a market for your thesis

[d_rawk]

You'll probably like it, KK. I'd been eyeing it after listening to an interview with Kilpatrick and meggo surprised me with a copy a little while ago (thanks meggo!).

It's fun. He (Kilpatrick/LarkNews) is also the source of that "Jesus loves me, but I just want to be friends" t-shirt that has been popular on the forums lately ...

Next up:

[timouse]

i think dr evil mentioned this somewhere else, but maybe not. our dear departed friend marcel had a sticker on his guitar case that said "jesus was my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and i had to eat him."

appropos to nothing.

on with your discussion

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

. A propos to everything.

I do wish this book -

still resonated as loudly in the evangelical world as it did when it came out, about ten years ago.

The point Noll makes from the first page, about "the evangelical mind", is "there isn't much of one." Coming from an evangelical himself, you'd think that was a pretty hefty indictment, but they seem to have contented themselves with staying turned in on themselves and exercising their logic no further (unless you count yelling louder and voting in bigger numbers as something somehow intrinsically more logical).

I think evangelicals work along the same lines as SUV drivers, in that for the most part, you can't really get their attention unless you appeal to their craven self-interest.

That said, I can't wait to get through the Field Guide - thanks for the ref. .

d_rawk - what's the gist of the other?

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Check this out. Whoever said the witch hunt was ancient history?

Campaign to pardon Britain's last convicted witch

LONDON (Reuters) - The granddaughter of Britain's last convicted witch has launched a fresh campaign to gain a posthumous pardon for Helen Duncan, jailed at the height of World War Two as a threat to the nation.

"I will carry on fighting to clear her name," said Mary Martin who still vividly remembers being taunted in the playground in 1944 as "witch spawn."

"The memories are still fresh. It was so unfair. She was totally innocent. It was ludicrous she was ever taken to court," the 72-year-old told Reuters.

Duncan, a medium who conducted seances across the country, was arrested at a time when officials feared details of the upcoming D-Day landings in France could be revealed.

She disclosed -- allegedly through contacts in the spirit world -- the sinking of two British warships long before the news was officially made public.

She also told the parents of a missing sailor that his ship, HMS Barham, had sunk. That was true, but to preserve morale, the sinking was not announced.

Found guilty of witchcraft, Duncan was jailed for nine months.

Martin said wartime leader Winston Churchill called the conviction "tomfoolery".

When re-elected in 1951, Churchill repealed the 1735 witchcraft act but Duncan's conviction was never quashed. She died in 1956.

Martin petitioned the Home Secretary in vain in 1999. Now she is determined to try again, bolstered by support from Gordon Prestoungrange, holder of a mediaeval Scottish barony.

In 2004 he used his position as the local baron in the coastal town of Prestonpans to pardon 81 women and men executed for witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries.

"When Mary Martin was growing up as a youngster, it was a real stigma," he told Reuters. "The wound is still open today."

He said the campaign on www.prestoungrange.org/helenduncan/ had taken on an international dimension with backing from the Witch Museum in the Massachusetts town of Salem, where in 1692 20 girls, men and women were executed for witchcraft.

Prestoungrange says the time is right for a pardon in Britain: "The 300 soldiers executed for cowardice in the First World War have been pardoned... we are now also apologising for the slave trade...

"This was a bizarre decision. They were looking at some way of silencing the lady. They actually thought she was on the inside as a spy with information from somewhere. They were fearful she had access to official secrets. The case was ridiculous."

There's plenty of literature out there that suggests that most people (at least those with any power) way back in the day were never as gullible as to believe in witchcraft per se, but were perfectly happy to use it to get rid of undesireable people that they had no other way to get rid of. Apparently among favourite targets were tavern owners and bartenders, who were privy to lots of people's secrets.

[d_rawk]

It's absolutely interesting how in retrospect we imagine these things as just the product of 'those zany pre-modern religious folk', when, as you say, so much of it seems to have been socially and politically calculated -- even if shrouded in the moral language of the day.

One could draw easy parallels with the 'satanic cult' hysteria of the 80's and to the 'dangerous muslim' hysteria of the present day, I imagine (though the latter is more palpable, for obvious reasons). It's always interesting to look back and see who were the voices proclaiming loudest that the witch trials were not only unjust but unconscionable, and to find that many of those voices were Christian ones, despite the language of their beliefs being usurped by the authorities in the interest of opportunistically inflaming the masses.

Duncan, a medium who conducted seances across the country, was arrested at a time when officials feared details of the upcoming D-Day landings in France could be revealed.

"This was a bizarre decision. They were looking at some way of silencing the lady. They actually thought she was on the inside as a spy with information from somewhere. They were fearful she had access to official secrets. The case was ridiculous."

Convicted in the 40's on a 1735 law because it was convenient to do so at a time of war. The more things change, the more things ...

As they say.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Yes... .

I picked up V for Vendetta recently, and was struck by the moment that one of characters was executed for having been found in possession of a copy of the Qur'an. It's not entirely unrealistic, all things considered.

[d_rawk]

Putting this here just because I thought it was funny, and the other appropriate threads have some discussion going on at the moment that I didn't want to hijack. May as well revive a dying one for the purpose.

You'll probably have to click on it in order to be able to get it large enough to read.

[Kanada Kev]

i like it ... thanks for posting

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

- Thanks, d_rawk - pure gold!

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Check this out -

State Constitutions That Discriminate against Atheists

Which would be more acceptable - a "Supreme Being", the "Supreme Being", or just plain old "God"?