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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."
For sale now, no reserve.
Gently reply
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.
Painting a whole religion with millions of followers into the pedophile corner is bigotry. Pointing out a problem that is, in some parts, indeed institutional, would not be. Painting with the broad brush is. Stereotyping in general is. I am as atheist as they come, but I definitely see bigotry here. I do agree that in broad terms the group you mention are worth of far more attention, since they are still institutionally persecuted, which the catholics are not, but the mechanism is the same here, the state of mind behind the joke is the same as the one behind a nigger joke - only less severe due to the more privileged nature of the group attacked.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
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?