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Britain's First Jedi Member of Parliament

Posted by timothy on from the sad-funny-or-just-bizarre dept.

earthlingpink writes "In his maiden speech to the House of Commons, the Hon. Member for Copeland, Jamie Reed MP, announced that he is a Jedi: "as the first Jedi Member of this place, I look forward to the protection under the law that will be provided to me by the Bill" (the quotation is a fair way down the page; search for 'Jedi,' not surprisingly). How long before we have a Congressional equivalent?" Update: 06/29 23:15 GMT by T : Reader JE_Hoover adds a correction: "Although the previous MP for Copeland was the Hon. Member for Copeland, the current MP for Copeland is not a member of the privy council. Debretts make it all clear."

28 of 1,165 comments (clear)

  1. The Force is *retarded* with this one... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    This whole Jedi religion dreck has now officially gone too far. To those misguided simpletons out there who insist on calling themselves 'Jedi knights', I offer you this chance to prove yourselves:
    • Just build a lightsaber. A real one. That's all.

    What's that...you can't? Don't have suitable raw materials, you say?
    OK...that's fair...how about this, then:
    • Force choke me. From where you are right now. Go ahead...it's OK.

    Are you doing it? I'm not feeling anything...
    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    1. Re:The Force is *retarded* with this one... by eggz128 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Did a jedi hit you as a kid?


      I think you mean "Youngling". :)
    2. Re:The Force is *retarded* with this one... by Aggrazel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The jedi religion is just as real as any other, IMO, except perhaps better written.

    3. Re:The Force is *retarded* with this one... by homerules · · Score: 5, Funny

      Most Christians, if not all, do not believe they are Christ. On the other hand most Jedi think they are Luke Skywalker.

      --
      Get a FREE Sony PS3
    4. Re:The Force is *retarded* with this one... by mbrewthx · · Score: 5, Funny

      I find your lack of Faith disturbing!!!

      --
      __________ Leave me alone I'm compiling a RPG II program on my S/36...Thanks to metamucil I'm a Regular Meta Moderator
    5. Re:The Force is *retarded* with this one... by Phillup · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's no such thing as the force, and there never will be

      And, this is different from other religions how?

      --

      --Phillip

      Can you say BIRTH TAX
    6. Re:The Force is *retarded* with this one... by niew · · Score: 5, Funny
      Also, watch this post be modded down promptly as a troll, which should tell you something of the power of long entrenched religions.

      ...Mod me down and I shall become more powerfull than you could ever imagine...

    7. Re:The Force is *retarded* with this one... by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Even in asia, fery few people believe in chi these days. The entire chi meridian system has been explained through the nervous system.

      There are several physiological theories about the meridians and points of acupressure. Nervous reflexes are one; there are others involving the electrical properties of fascia, and another involving a network of less-differentiated cells throughout the body. It's possible that different points work by different mechanisms. The explanation is far from complete.

      Most pracitioners of Chinese Medicine don't care much about trying to find a Western Medicine explanation for why acupuncture, Asian bodywork therapy, and Chinese herbs, are effective; any more than most musicians are deeply interested in the physics of sound, or the physiology of hearing.

      As for "believing" in qi, qi is not something one has to "believe" in. Qi is something that is experienced. If you get up in the morning as say "I feel full of energy today!" - you just made an observation about qi.

      "O genki desu ka?" - "How is your ki (qi)?"- is the Japanese version of "How are you?" (Specifically, "genki" is what the Chinese call "yuan" or "original" qi, a specific type.) It doesn't require a voltmeter or any objective observation to answer. :-)

      It's unfortunate that many practitioners of CM and of Asian martial arts have latched on to the idea that qi is some sort of electromagnetic like energy field. This is a misinterpretation, attempting to fit Taoist concepts of the Universe into a Platonic/Aristotelian grid.

      Like other aspects of Chinese Medicine's model of the human being, qi is best understood not by what it is but by what is does. The CM model is very much a functional, not a structural, one.

      I recommend Tad Kaptchuk's The Web That Has No Weaver to those interested in learning more.

      Bruce Lee explained his one-inch punch's power as comming from his body's fluid motion and rapid muscle expansion rather than "chi".

      The two are no more incompatible than the description of a certain sound in terms of a time-varying frequency spectrum, versus "that's an A chord played on a steel-string guitar". The former description may tell you why, when you play it through your amp, it makes your speaker buzz because of some resonance; the latter tells you how it works in the music. They're both correct.

      Forest C. Adcock 3rd degree Tae Kwon Do 4th degree Shinjukki-Jin Jitsu

      (Tom Swiss, NCCAOM Diplomate in Asian Body Therapy; Sandan, World Seido Karate Organization)

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    8. Re:The Force is *retarded* with this one... by NoMoreBS · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't think you spent very much time thinking about this. Saying you don't believe in Chi is like you saying "I don't believe in love". If you have never experienced it, you won't believe in it, or have any hope of really understanding it. If you have experienced it, you don't need convincing.

      Sure, doctors and scientists might be able to describe it in bland chemical and physical terms, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And when you do, you are missing most of the point.

  2. Scared by islandrain · · Score: 5, Funny

    Am I the only person who doesn't see the Jedi belief system flawed? I could only imagine the devestation to the republic if this became popular.

    --
    Peace out, homies.
  3. There is nothing to see here. by dstewart · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is not the article you are looking for.

    --
    Not every argument requires reduction to absurdity.
  4. Answer by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Funny

    How long before we have a Congressional equivalent?

    Oh, but we have. Problem is... they're all Siths. And the greedy kind.

  5. They get Jedi by MECC · · Score: 5, Funny

    "How long before we have a Congressional equivalent?"

    They get Jedi, we get Sith...

    --
    "We are all geniuses when we dream"
    - E.M. Cioran
    1. Re:They get Jedi by BiloxiGeek · · Score: 5, Funny

      Please use a spell checker next time. I think what you meant to post was:

      They get Jedi, we get Shit...

      --
      Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, For you are crunchy and go well with ketchup.
    2. Re:They get Jedi by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Funny

      If we have sith, then why is our president JarJar binks?

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  6. Good for him by Richie1984 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm glad that he's paying attention to this ridiculous bill by showing how daft the implications of it would be. Hopefully, along with Rowan Atkinson's recent attack, the bill will be defeated

    --
    I'm not stressed. I'm just terribly, terribly alert.
    1. Re:Good for him by ettlz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Spot on. For those posters who don't understand, this MP isn't making a mockery of Parliament or taking the mick. He's pointing out stupidity in currently proposed legislation that would make a crime of "incitement to religious hatred". A lot of people here in the UK are quite rightly worried that this will put religions (which, let us not forget are lifestyle choices and private members' clubs) beyond questionability, and allow New Labour to cry "yoink" on yet another freedom.

  7. Re:Does Darth Hillary count? by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 5, Funny


    I think Darth Frist and Lord Cheney sound good. Grand Moff Rumsfeld has a nice ring to it, too.

    -B

  8. Wrong Claim by Mr+Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not really.

    It's entirely different to claim to believe in Jedi and to claim to BE a Jedi. According to the books I've read and the movies, a Jedi is capable of performing these actions. They all have their "talents" but to be a Jedi you have to be able to manipulate the force in some tangible and demonstrable way.

    The water to wine thing doesn't hold. It's not a commonly held dogma (leaving backwoods ministers from crazyville out) that Christians are given controllable powers. If they were claiming to be Jesus, on the other hand, by all means, ask for proof. Thomas did, and got to stick his fingers through the nail wounds.

    --
    Never confuse volume with power.
    1. Re:Wrong Claim by phpWebber · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ok fine.
      Than as a Christian, prove you are _like_ Christ.

      - Treat all people no matter what their sickness or sexual conduct as God's children.
      - Suspend your criticism of other's sins unless you are without
      - Put other's well-being before your own
      - Live a life of spirituality, not wealth
      - Openly critize the leaders of your religion and texts
      - Refrain from any anger at any time except in the case when someone is profiting from your religion
      - Be willing to sacrifice yourself for what you believe in

      Lots of people claim to be Christians. How many really are?

  9. Re:Insult! by Narchie+Troll · · Score: 5, Funny

    +1 Funny, use of word "Muslimism"

    Also: there's been a religion based on sci-fi books for decades.

  10. Re:They Voted Him In by Angostura · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds to me as if he went straight over your head. He is opposing a bill that would outlaw the the stirring up of hatred against members of a religion. That includes jedi, sith, scientologist, whatever. The bill is very loosely worded as to what could be considered stirring up hatred. "Yoda was an arsehole, it all Jedi should be done away with" might qualify.

    So this is a smart guy using satire to ridicule the bill in a fairly subtle way. So yes, I suppose you could say that it does give insight into the type of people who get voted in.

    And in case anyone is wondering about the obsequious thanks to Jack Cunningham in the speech, it is traditional to thank your predecessor in your first speech to the commons.

  11. May the Force be with nobody by pickapeppa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We'll have a Jedi Senator years before we'll have an atheist one.

  12. That wasn't a Christian by brownpau · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fish-out-of-thin-air guy wasn't a Christian. He was a Jew.

  13. Re:Oy vey by mbrewthx · · Score: 5, Funny

    A strange green man lying in a swamp handing out Lightsabers is no basis for a system of Government.
    Help!!Help!!! I'm being opressed..

    --
    __________ Leave me alone I'm compiling a RPG II program on my S/36...Thanks to metamucil I'm a Regular Meta Moderator
  14. Waddayathink.... by howardcohen · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...you're doing waving your hand around like that?

    I'm a Congressman. Mind tricks don't work on me. Only money.

  15. Re:Insult! by AuMatar · · Score: 5, Funny

    All of which qualified for Darwin Awards.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  16. Re:What about Scientology? by Le+Marteau · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think his name was "LaFayette", which explains why he went by "Ron".

    Ah. I see. For a second, I thought his mom gave him a weird name.

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    Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs