Slashdot Mirror
Former Popemobile Going Up For Auction
Zothecula writes with an amusing article in Gizmag. From the article: "The greater share of the value of any significant collector car is in the provenance — who sat in the seat before you, and experienced the same vehicle, can make a massive difference to the price the car commands. What then of a car that was built for and used by Pope Paul VI? It was subsequently the centre of numerous other ticker tape parades with dozens of dignitaries, most notably the first astronauts to orbit the moon (Apollo 8's Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders), the first astronauts to set foot on the moon (Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, plus Command Module Pilot Michael Collins) plus Apollo 13's Lovell, Mattingly and Haise and Apollo 15's Scott, Worden and Irwin, President Lyndon LBJ Johnson and VP Hubert Humphrey."
This thing must seat 10 or 12. Altar boys aren't that big.
Trolling is a art,
For sale now, no reserve.
Gently reply
Does it run on prayers? How many miles does it get per Hail Mary?
Everybody's talkin' at me...I can't hear a word they're sayin'...just drivin' around in Jon Voight's car...
Because Astronauts rode in it too. Or... Because Slashdot is filled with a bunch of fake atheists who somehow feel connected to the pope and see him as a holy man, even though they wouldn't publicly admit it.
Part of the reason why there are so many Catholic Sex Abuse jokes out there is that there were a lot of people non-catholic who still saw priests and bishops as being people who were better then everyone else, and these jokes (which are not funny) are ways to make them feel better that these people are no better then the rest of the population.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
And yet, he cared enough to let it be known that he doesn't care...
Couldn't he just pray that he don't get shot at? I'm working under the assumption that Catholics believe prayer works, even if I don't.
Maybe prayer can't contradict free will? I'll buy that. let's say that we can't pray away somebody's desire to shoot at the pope. how about the bullet. it has no free will, it just has to follow physics. Can prayer change physics to alter the path of the bullet? If it can, we're set. if it can't.. um... what CAN it do?
Speaking of holey men, why does the Pope, the holiest of holes, need a bulletproof car? Doesn't he have faith in the lord to protect him?
There's some part about not testing your Lord. Also common sense, and the fact that crazy people try to kill popes.
Just some questions to ponder. "No better than the rest of the population" indeed.
I don't recall that being a motto of the pope. Declaring yourself the infallible speaker for God would kind of shoot that to hell.
There's plenty of room to mock religion, the hats, dresses, opulent bling bling, and the whole Hitler youth thing are ample ground. You really don't need to go suggesting the pope is a hypocrite for not inviting assassination attempts.
From my Catholic upbringing, I was given to understand that prayer isn't a magical spell that puts up a force field around you or alters physics, its a request to someone who can do those things: God.
However, very frequently the answer to the request is: "No."
Or perhaps in this case: "You're the Pope, you can bloody well afford a bulletproof car."
I hate it when people use that obviously flawed "argument." If a guy was running around showing off his turd, I'd tell him "nobody really cares about your turd." The fact that I responded doesn't mean that I necessarily care.
Poopmobile!
I guess by simply looking at it you tacitly agree that it's worth looking at or something...I think that's the gist of the argument.
Dude, it's the frigging Popemobile. Get a grip.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
It's a highly customize automobile which means there's a lot of cool stuff that went into making it. Taking apart would be a dream of any gear-head nerd.
Or did you think that "nerd = computer stuff"?
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
So prayer is, at best, a +1 to your saving throw roll, but you don't know what the difficulty target is, nor what you rolled, so you'll never know if it actually helped at all?
It's a "maybe it'll help, can't hurt" sort of thing?
and this is relevant to the /. community how?
The 20 ft. stetch limo conversion was completed in ten days.
In time for the Pope's vist to the UN, a Mass at Yankee Statium and a vist to the Vatican Pavilion at the New York World's Fair (where Michelangelo's "Pieta" was on display.)
This early Popemobile is quite interesting as an example of the intersection between technology and celebrity --- and surprisingly, in the wake of the Kennedy assasination, it doesn't appear to have had any significant armoring.
The stretched wheelbase is a massive 160" with an overall length of nearly 21 feet. Exterior step plates and handrails for security, additional interior seating for aides and prelates, a special seat for the Pontiff that can be raised and lowered, supplemental interior lighting, public address system, auxiliary power from a bank of seven batteries were only a few of the many detail changes.
Nothing says "faith in god"
like bullet-proof glass.
"I hope that God exists; that there be order in the world. I pray that an exception be made for me just this once."
I don't know who said that but it sounds like Carlin. Personally I think if anyone governs the cosmos it's not God; it's The Lady.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
It's a "maybe it'll help, can't hurt" sort of thing?
It does help on a purely psychological level. You lay out your problems, identify whats going well, whats not going well, note the problems of others, and ask for a steering hand to help you do your best to keep the good things good and do your part to make the bad things less bad. Its basically like having an honest closed door chat with your SCRUM master. It's relieving just to talk through whats going on.
is illiterate not atheist, since there is no bigotry involved in the statements.
Nothing says "faith in god" like bullet-proof glass.
Look at the photographs. The Pope has no protection.
Following the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981, the popemobile was fitted with bulletproof glass on four sides. However, it was sometimes driven with open windows.
Popemobile
Slashdot is all about IT these days. Or so a certain crowd has come to believe.
And the IT people don't even realize they don't 'own' computers or hardware in any way. But they think anything posted here has to be about their crappy job 'programming' web pages and putting more toner in the fucking LJ4 over in accounting.
They're never ones to keep something old that was no longer relevant.
For many people, the prayer for help is less for intervention than for teaching.
Part of the purpose is for the person praying to at least think far enough to figure out what kind of help is really necessary, and the usual result is help figuring out what to do.
Atheists can argue that meditation should be sufficient without having to brown-nose some non-existent supreme being, but that kind of misses the point.
Sometimes there are other things that happen, too, usually people (friends, strangers, even enemies) who provide just enough help, once the person praying has started solving the problem on his or her own. Atheists can argue that such people would likely help anyway, but that's also kind of missing the point.
It has been noted above, but faith is supposed to be something that gets people to think about their problems and see what they can do for themselves first.
To the extent that atheism also helps people try to solve their own problems, atheism has value in God's universe.
I seriously doubt anyone would buy the popemobile just so they can destroy it, I imagine it will cost a fair amount of cash. And even if they did, it's just a fucking car, not some sacred idol, it can't be desecrated. Your persecution complex is cute though.
Why would he need faith like that? God rarely takes part in human's lives any more. That's what the entire sacrifice of Jesus was supposed to be about. But to answer your point, how do you know that creating a bullet proof car and getting the pope inside it wasn't the lord protecting him?
There is a story about a preacher in a rural community. One day after a lot of rain, the weather man said more rain is coming and it's likely the river would flood. Well, everyone in the community started evacuating and several stopped by the church to ask the preacher if he needed a ride or help with anything. the preacher always replied, "that's ok, I'm fine, the lord will take care of me".
Well, sure enough, more rain came and the river started flooding. Some people were about in boats looking for stranded people and they passed the church asking the preacher to jump in so he would be safe. Again the preacher would reply "that's ok, I'm fine, the lord will take care of me". The water rose and eventually the preacher had to climb onto the roof of the church.
Well, the next day, a helicopter came around and the people inside lowered a harness down to the preacher. They said, get in the harness, we will take you to safety. The preacher once again replied "that's ok, I'm fine, the lord will take care of me". And the flood waters kept rising until it eventually topped the roof of the church and the preacher drowned.
So the preacher is dead now, and he is in heaven and furious. An angel came to him and asked why he was so upset. The preacher said, I believed in god, I believed he would take care of me, and yet I still died. The angel said, don't be silly, he sent warning to your the river was going to flood and you ignored it. He sent warning to you and a ride out of trouble when it first started to flood and you ignored it. He sent a boat to pick you up after it was flooded and you ignored it. Finally, he sent a helicopter to rescue you and yet again you ignored it. You have free will, he cannot make you do anything.
The point is, just because something doesn't work the way you want it to work, doesn't mean divine intervention didn't play a hand in it. Of course it doesn't mean it did either, but it's a bit disingenuous to propose such a specific set of requirements else his faith is somehow in question.
This is /. I'm sure that there are far more people who are impressed with the fact that Apollo astronauts (including Apollo 11) rode in this car, than the fact that a religious leader did.
Why on earth did the pope angle get first billing here?
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
You're drawing attention to something that you profess not to care about. Ignoring it and saying nothing is usually a better response.
You really don't need to go suggesting the pope is a hypocrite for not inviting assassination attempts.
The argument is still valid. God loves you, he knows everything that happens to you and has the power to intervene. Unfortunately he doesn't work that way and will happily stand by while you are murdered. Therefore you can conclude:
A) He is an asshat, allowing people to suffer instead of helping them.
B) It doesn't matter how much you pray, dedicate your whole life to him, become his no. 1 guy on earth. He still won't do anything to help you, so there is little point worshipping him.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Speaking of holey men why does the Pope, the holiest of holes
Jesus tittyfucking Christ, I'm spoiled for choice between making an "altar boy arse-holey" or a "full of bullet-holey" joke.
I leave it as an exercise for the reader.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
So prayer is, at best, a +1 to your saving throw roll, but you don't know what the difficulty target is, nor what you rolled, so you'll never know if it actually helped at all?
It's a "maybe it'll help, can't hurt" sort of thing?
More of an "eight year old child's magical thinking" sort of thing IMHO.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I, personally, and I am guessing you too are not interested in seeing it, but I assure you, Rule 34 still applies. Somewhere out there, someone enjoys that.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
The soiled little boys underwear was from the previous owner!