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Falwell Declares Teletubby gay!
sidhi sent us a link
to a CNN article where you can read that
Jerry Falwell has declared that
one of the Teletubbies is gay. You can read a bit on CNN about it.
I'm amazed he managed to deduce that much from the show. I watched
a whole episode and couldn't get that much out of it.
But what is apparent that these teletubbies are dangerous. Between kids
hugging their TVs and being crushed, to this blatant attempt
to subvert our children's minds. I think the only thing
more threatening then murderous homosexual teletubbies is
Jerry Falwell.
There is a God. I'm sorry you don't see him.
Why do you think we are worshipping the wrong one? Do you have a personal relationship with God, has he told you that Christianity is wrong? No, Atheists believe in no God. Christians have a personal relationship with God. There is an extreme difference. In fact, I'd have to say that Athiests are the opposite of Christians. Ha. YOU know what is right and wrong? Silly mortal.Have you ever read much by C.S. Lewis? In The Last Battle Lewis conjectures that those who repent of their sins to God, trust in God, and believe that God has forgiven them are saved. Regardless if they call Christ by name.
Now, I don't know how right Lewis is -- although I find his works to be fairly right-on in general -- but it does say what is more important and what is less important in Christianity... going to church is less important than realizing your shortcomings and bringing them to God for forgiveness.
Anyway, I can see why you don't think Christianity is all that... we humans tend to muff up God's glory. Sorry about that. And I'm sorry you haven't seen God at work. Try to get outside once in a while.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
Doesn't talking Po say "faggot, faggot, faggot, bite my bum"?
Anyways, I sure am glad I don't believe in that insane Christian stuff. Else I wouldn't be allowed to watch Kids in the Hall, on top of Teletubbies.
(why are the others posting anonymously???)
:-)
The teletubbies probably are evil (if not gay), but it's a tad bit pathetic of Falwell to do this, and even more pathetic that it's infesting an excellent site like Slashdot.
For those that are thinking it's a Christian's "job" to bash gay people, I'd like to clear a few things up. Engaging in such activity is indeed a sin, but so is pride, greed, and merely thinking for a picosecond that you don't need God. And how many of us (especially Christians) are innocent of all that? Jesus said "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
The point is that there is so much sin in the world that it is ridiculous to single out homosexuality. Jesus wants you to come to Himself just as you are. You don't need to change your sexual orientation, stop using drugs, or anything else first. When you make Him Lord of your life, He will convict you of whatever needs to change in your life. In fact, He spent most of His time on earth with people that the religious leaders of the days considered sinners. Did he condemn them? NO! He offered them salvation, and affirmed them when they had a tiny bit of faith.
Sorry...I'm not a preacher...really. I'm a Linux and Perl hacker. But, hard as it may be to believe, there is Someone even higher than Linus Torvalds and Larry Wall.
Falwell is just pissed that the Teletubbies are more popular than him.
One example, albeit extreme, of what happens when God is removed from the way we live and what we think is Hitler. It is a well-known fact that Nietzsche's writings became the cornerstone of the Nazi Party and Hitler's personal philosophy. And we all know what atrocities he did in killing millions of people. But again with no God, life really has no basis for value./i.
That's a completely invalid arguments. You're saying that since Hitler liked Nietzche's philosphy, and Hitler killed people, therefore Nietzche's philosophy causes people to be murderers. Take a logic class, please.
By your reasoning, all religions (especially Christianity) would be likewise invalidated, as Christianity is what caused people to kill others (Crusades, Reformation, etc.), knowingly send innocent children to their death (Children's Crusade).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
One example, albeit extreme, of what happens when God is removed from the way we live and what we think is Hitler. It is a well-known fact that Nietzsche's writings became the cornerstone of the Nazi Party and Hitler's personal philosophy. And we all know what atrocities he did in killing millions of people. But again with no God, life really has no basis for value.
That's a completely invalid argument. You're saying that since Hitler liked Nietzche's philosphy, and Hitler killed people, therefore Nietzche's philosophy causes people to be murderers. Take a logic class, please.
By your reasoning, all religions (especially Christianity) would be likewise invalidated, as Christianity is what caused people to kill others (Crusades, Reformation, etc.), knowingly send innocent children to their death (Children's Crusade).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Umm....where does it say libertarians want to outlaw labor unions? This one doesnt.
Try reading up on something before you cluelessly bash it.
Posted by Ms. Donna:
You are quite right that Tinky-Winky is not gay. He is transgendered and crossdressing is but one of many forms of transgender expression.
Because he carries a purse a times, he is assumed to be gay, the (faulty) logic here being all gay males exhibit overtly feminine qualities.
He has exhibited no signs of a homosexual orientation (or any sexual orientation for that matter). The inference that he is gay stems from a profound lack of knowledge about transgender identity on the part of society at large.
It's a matter of ignorance, nothing else.
For some more insight into Tinky-Winky, as well as other information about transgender / transexual identities, check out:
http://www.transsexual.org/Teletub1.html
Love and Stuff,
Donna
Posted by OGL:
;))
Do you have room for one more in the UK?
(I just hope I don't get sick there due to an overdose of exclamation points!
-W.W.
Posted by Mr. Assembly:
Just remember you read it here first.
With what sort of bizzarre reasoning did you come to the conclusion that not> being Christian is somehow 'going with the crowd'? I was ostracized for not being Christian all throughout my childhood years and I still refused to pretend to belive in a god that has no evidence, even though that would have been the easier path.
So go take your "testicular fortitude" and shove it where the sun don't shine. I've got plenty of it, or I would have given in long ago.
And since when are slashdotters liberal? We're not sheep, if that's what you mean, but there's Republicans and Libertarians aplenty here.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
No. "Asking forgiveness for things you've done wrong" means "asking forgiveness for things you've done wrong." It does not require a God to do so.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
No, but if it happens often enough it *does* prove that the operating system in question isn't as great as it's egotistical proponents claim it to be.
A parellel can be drawn here to Christianity.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Thank you. In once post you managed to singlehandedly combine most of the invalid Christian apologists' arguments concisely. Let's go over them, whall we?
Circular reasoning: You say it is invalid to claim that God does not exist, because he's the moral underpinning of everything in our lives. (He can't be the underpinning if he doesn't exist, thus your argument is nicely circular.)
Hitler quoted Nietzsche some, but one aspect he did not share with Nietzsche was atheism. Hitler was a Catholic. In "Mein Kampf" he claimed to be doing the work of God. You can say that he wasn't really doing the work of God and he was mistaken, but you would be lying if you claimed he was an atheist.
Oh, Puh-lease. Pascal's Wager is bunk. To keep it short, the problems with it are:
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
I've been unable to get down to the 'second level' hierarchy of posts on slashdot - they sometimes come up empty. There is no pattern to it. It's random. This thread is not the first place it's happened, either. Something is broken. This sucks, but not as much as censoring would suck if that's what were really going on (which it isn't).
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Let me suggest that the one true religion cannot be corrupted. We know that the Inquisition was corrupt religion and so was the Children's Crusade. This invalidates Christianity as being the true religion in my eyes.
Does a BSOD invalidate all of computing?
God can't be adequately "solved" or grasped via some sort of scientific study or legal cross-examination. If He created everything, his existence lies outside of everything (does Woz live inside of a Mac ROM in Peoria?), outside of our mundane temporal/spatial existence. Scriptures are a starting point, but to just stake one's belief upon dead-trees-and-ink will not be adequate either.
Christianity is not, first and foremost, about science and cross-examination. You're barking up the wrong tree. The diversity of expressions of Christianity is, despite doctrinal differences on the periphery, a Good Thing®, not an invalidation of the "user manual" - I would be somewhat turned off if it was all some Southern Baptist thing (Baptists, please don't take offense; I'm just talking about styles of, and cultural differences in, expressions of faith).
There may come a time when you get tired of the BSODs in your life. I hope you will, someday, rm -rf your preconceptions, and fdisk and install an open mind on the matter. Don't let media whores like Falwell drive you screaming from the notion of belief. I think he means well, to some extent, but he does get on one's nerves with thought-police garbage like this. Leave Tinky-Winky alone, Dr Falwell!
Disclaimer: I am neither a theologian, an evangelist, or an eloquent spokesperson for Christianity.
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Agreed. I'm a Christian who detests Falwell's politics, but I find him a very charming individual. The U.S. is a secular republic, and gays and lesbians (and bisexuals and transgendered individuals, etc, etc, etc...) are due the same protections under the laws of the nation as everyone else has. If we are to hate anything, it should be the smear-and-obfuscation campaigns ("militant homosexuals are demanding special rights!") by Falwell, Bauer, Robertson, and Dobson - and a bunch of politician-lemmings and voter-lemmings - to deny the humanity of a segment of the populace.
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You should have read my post before spewing. The things you've mentioned are obviously not good things, and I never said they were. The rest of your post damns the religion of a billion people (and religion in general) by selecting a bunch of wacko items and incidents dating back to the 6th Century.
But here's the riddle, here's the clue: I wasn't talking about religion.
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Just as Jerry Falwell and his peers tend to make a mockery of Christianity with their petty non-Christian agendas, the various horror stories you've cited were incited by utterly bogus motivations - it would be inaccurate to attribute them to a religion. I don't condemn Islam because of the fatwah against Rushdie; I don't condemn Hinduism because of the sectarian violence in India - the same goes for Christianity and Ulster. The wrong-ness doesn't come from the religion; it comes from the mob of adherents who are trashing their own religion in order to achieve a secular "greater good" - the elimination of mob-defined (not God-defined) "infidels".
Just as you shouldn't let an insistence on rational thought or scientific proof get in the way of your relationship with God (...if I may be allowed a bit of Xian jargon), you shouldn't let politicians^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hpreachers like Falwell get in the way either. They don't speak for all of Christianity, and, even worse, it's a rare day when they're on-topic enough to be able to speak for Jesus. Even Gandhi had a good word or three to say about Christianity; I'm sorry if things have happened to you to prevent you from being so charitable.
I would much rather have someone like Thomas Merton, Mother Teresa, John Paul II, or Francis Schaeffer be the "public face of Christianity". Yes, they were/are flawed individuals. No, I don't always agree with their actions or writings. But at least they were on-topic, and none of them were/are the utter embarassment that people like Falwell are.
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Back to a distant, earlier point: You shouldn't attribute the actions of despots to religion. A despot uses whatever is at his disposal to control his subjects, be it religion or something totally unrelated.
A million prayers never put a single loaf of bread on a table. God doesn't help people, people help people.
There's tons of examples of God helping people through the works of people. There was an orphanage in England, I believe, that never asked for a dime from anyone; the head of the place just prayed for the resources to be supplied. And for years those resources were supplied, no matter how obscure the request. People brought the money, food, materials, etc, in answer to the guy's prayers. I've seen and heard similar, though usually less spectacular, stories throughout my travels.
Instead of wasting your time going to Church once a week, donate some time to a charity instead. It's exceedingly easy to pray it's a lot more difficult to actually get off your self-righteous ass and do something.
You don't even know me. I've wheedled and schlepped produce to soup kitchens, I've given to charities, probably above and beyond the giving of most people; I've hung out with the homeless and counseled drug addicts (and aspiring drug addicts); I've even broken the law in attempts to help others. God doesn't necessarily just do spectacular things on his own to help people (e.g. things like unexplainable physical healings) - he often works through the actions of people like you and me. You don't even have to believe in God to be an unwitting tool for His purposes.
You call me selfish, look in the mirror you sanctimonious twit.
When did I call you selfish? You may have me confused with someone else. I've tried to keep the discourse on a somewhat polite level.
I already told you that I didn't endorse her 100%; I'm not Catholic, and my views on birth control are the same as most others - it doesn't take away my admiration for John Paul II and Mother Teresa; I don't necessarily have to like everything about a person I admire. I think you're letting your anger override your reading skills.
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Apparently so.
What did you do? Bomb an abortion clinic?
I'm pro-choice, actually.
I once took in a drug dealer after he got arrested by the cops. The cops stole his cash, his stash, and put a shotgun to his head, never charged him with anything and threatened to kill him. He works as an Oracle DBA now, of course he was just selling pot to get through college and sold to only those that wanted it. Like me.
I kept 2 people housed for 1 entire year. I was making very good money, they were still struggling through school. Does this make me a good person? NO. I receive similar help, from my parents, and I know how much it sucks to be really really poor.
I've done the same sort of things that you have, plus some hack^H^H^H^Hcracking (after a great deal of soul-searching) that I'm probably not at liberty to discuss. I don't do "good works" in order to prove myself to be a "good person" or to earn some place in heaven or something. That's not part of Christianity. The "good works" are simply part of one's responsibility as a Christian ("For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat..."); I've only scratched the surface of what I could or should be doing. If God provides the wherewithal and the venue (as He has done in the past), I'll do 1000x more. And I would still be only scratching the surface of what I could or should be doing. That's something I learned from the "evil" Mother Teresa, even though I'm well aware of dozens of complaints (often valid ones) about her - and not just in Calcutta.
I have done a great deal of "soul" searching you haven't done any.
Bully for you. I was born into a family that includes an Anglican minister and several church organists. Church stuff bored me and I became a 6-year-old atheist. Many years later, through studying Zen and Hinduism (and almost becoming a monk), I decided to look into the Bible after reading Gandhi's autobiography. I've done my homework; I've taken the Leap. I've been amazed; I've been disappointed. To this day, I'm annoyed at the Culture of Christianity here in the States - I feel, in some churches, like I'm crashing the party. There is a great deal of daily soul searching that goes into being a Christian. If you think there's some sort of blind, unthinking component to faith, then you haven't done your homework, you are the one being irrational. Faith != Sheepfulness. I think some pop-Xian theologian once said "Faith is a verb" or something like that; there's a grain of truth to it.
Note: previous use of the word "charitable" had nothing to do with money or charity-giving. It was in relation to being generous in terms of finding a good thing to say about one's enemy or foe.
My time's run out. Flame away. I wasn't trying to convert you or anything; I just get annoyed at times at both secular culture's lack of understanding about Christianity and (U.S. evangelical) Christian culture's lack of understanding about the secular world. It's been fun, and I hope you live a long, long time and revisit these issues. Have a nice weekend, fellow /.-er. I gotta go bomb an abortion clinic :)
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I think you're missing the issue in part; Creationists and Fundamentalists don't speak on behalf of all Christians, and they don't speak for me. If I regard the creation or flood accounts in Genesis as poetry (instead of scientific fact), it doesn't mean that I'm a heretic, and it doesn't mean that there isn't a truth or two to be gleaned from that poetry. Obviously the world isn't 5,000 years old - and I'm not sure the Bible explicitly says so (but I'll defer to you on that one).
On the future *cough* "Saint Teresa of Calcutta" *cough*: I've been described, in an Everything node as a Pinko Commie Bedwetter. That's probably not far from the truth. My qualms with the Mother were politically-oriented (no, I don't have insider info about her, if that was what you were asking about). But my point was, if I had any point at all, that I could take the Christopher Hitchens version of the truth about her (which is an account that I respect) and still use that as material with which I could teach a Sunday School class.
Gotta go! In the words of St Ahnuld: "I'll be back!"
(Unless Rob's database totally craps out in the interim :)
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Try "I'll tell you what I kneejerk".
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Xenu loves you!
IMHO, irrational behavior is the default setting for humanity. Rationality must be practiced.
Much of modern scientific thought comes from people who believed in God (Newton, Einstein).
Well, first of all, being irrational doesn't imply being incapable of discovery. Oh, and by the way, Einstein has this to say about god: "It was, of course, a lie that you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called 'religious' then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
Dogma literally means the teachings of the Catholic church.
Confusing the etymology of a word with its meaning is a symptom of irrationality. Be careful not to bolster the original poster's position. If you cannot admit that natural languages are in a constant state of flux, then there's no firm ground for rational discourse.
In short, matters of faith are non-rational, by definition: accepting a non-falsifiable hypothesis as truth is a leap that is not supported by structured reasoning. You'll have to attack that point directly if you want to make any headway in this thread.
The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...
Falwell is just like Hitler. If he were to come to power under similar circumstances, he would be just as bad.
I don't have a problem with people believing that I am a sinfull person for being bisexual, but it is necessary to forcefully speak out against people (like Falwell) who want the goverment to use it's power to eliminate "devient" speach and behaivior. It is people like Falwell who are directly responsible for inciting the hatefull attacks on gays, lesbians, and bisexual people.
For the record, I don't believe in so called "hate crime" legislation, I think it is unconstitutional to punish thought and speach. Fortunately, there are already laws against assult and murder, and a "hate crimes" law wouldn't make a difference in the case against the killers of Mathiew Shepard, since they are already facing death.
My philosophy on this is informed by the Bob Dylan song "Only a Pawn in Their Game", to summerize, the song is about the killing of Medgar Evers', who was a black civil rights leader. The song makes the point that the gunmen were not the only ones responsible, as they were raised from birth to hate blacks, and were simply used as a political tool in the hands of those in power. While I don't think Shepard's killers should go unpunished, I think we need to condemn (through forcefull speach, since we can't bring the law down on speach) those who were using them as a tool.
Ultimatly it is the thirst for power, the desire to pronounce ones will over other people, that leads to this evil. Even members of oppressed groups are not immune (or even less prone) to this mindset, one only has to look at how the Palistinens are treated by the Isrealies to see this. There was an incident recently where a gay Mardi Gras group denied membership to several people, simply because they were bisexual, and not gay.
Anyway, I'm rambling, so I'll shut up now.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
Actually, from what I understand, Islam doesn't condemn Jews or Christians, and actually holds them in a sort of respectful position as kind of "sister faiths", since all three religions were "revealed" by the same God (according to Islam), who is called "Allah" under Islam.
Of course, different Islamic people and governments may have different policies in that department, but it is they who are in violation of Islam, not the Christians.
Islam does call for pollythiests to be put to death, however, especially if the pollythiest in question converted from one of the "revealed" faiths.
This is all from memory of a high school class nine years ago, so I may be a bit off on the particulars.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
The point is that there is so much sin in the world that it is ridiculous to single out homosexuality.
:)
I reject the idea that homosexuality is a sin. God made me bisexual, and did not do so in error, as I'm sure you'll agree. It would be a sin for me to not accept who I am.
If you say that it is ok to be queer, but not to "be a man who lies with another man" or whatever, then I say horsehockey! It has been shown time and time again that the relivent portions of The Bible that get quoted all the time are either simply not relivent within context, or are mis-translated, probably deliberately by Falwell like people who wanted to exert their power over other people, or use homosexuals as a scapegoat to focus their followers attention.
See my previous post on Falwell for more info.
I just can't shut up, I guess.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
OK, lets disect this, shall we?
Now this is interesting. Well, not really, it's the typical narrow mindset of homosexuals in general.
Starting with a broad, bigoted generalization is a great way to flag yourself as a dumbass.
This guy implies he's openminded and thinks for himself, yet is so closeminded that he can't fathom people actually coming to the conclusion that they oppose homosexuality of their own accord, by their own reasoning.
People don't form bigoted views on their own, they are tought by people like Falwell. A good example of this process is what hapened in the south with white laborers who identified with the black slaves more then with the slaves' masters. The white laborers were treated little better then the slaves, and they, and of course the slaves as well, were getting adgitated. So the masters pitted the white laborers against the slaves by breading fear and hatred, and soon enough a revolutionary coelation between black slaves and white laborers was imposible due to the bigotry.
It's not POSSIBLE that anyone has either been gay and is no longer, has read up on the subject in both spiritual and scientific texts, or has possibly just sat down and thought about it and now opposes the lifestyle
The ex-gay movement is a sham and nothing more. The largest ex-gay ministry, "Exodus", was founded by two men who ended up falling in love with each other and leaving the ministry. They have detailed how they were responsible (when they were running the program) for falsifing studys that touted how successful the program was. For more information, rent the documentary "One Nation Under God", it details theirs' and others' stories. Furthermore, you could check out the website Anything That Moves for a Bisexual perspective on the whole ex-gay thing. The basic gist of it is that those who are held up as "success stories" of the ex-gay movment are most likely really bi, therefore it is unremarkable that they are able to function in a heterosexual monogamous relationship. People who are totally homosexual, on the other hand, simply can't be "cured", or even made to look cured in the long term.
I swear, talking to gays is like talking to irrational children.
This would be another one of those "dumbass flag" thingies I was talking about earlier.
I oppose homosexuality because not only does it contradict biblical values, but because my brother is a psycholgist and my other brother and father are doctors, and i've seen/heard of the evidence of it's destructiveness
Why do you care what I do in my bedroom? How can that posibly dammage you? Do you believe that God erred in making me bisexual? Are you aware that pretty much all of the professional psychologist and psychietrist(sp?) orgainizations have universally condemned the concept that homosexuality and bisexuality are diseases, or for that matter even, in themselves destructive? Are you even listening to yourself talk?
OH MY CHEESE, I'M THINKING FOR MYSELF BASED
ON INFORMATION AND ARRIVING AT A DIFFERENT CONCLUSION THAN YOU.
Oh my cheese? Huh? What the h e double hockey sticks is that supposed to mean? Oh yeah your really thinking for yourself. Open up your eyes, and you will see that you are being manipulated by those in power so that you pick on gays instead of realizing what a looser you are.
I won't say anything about teletubbies, i dno't know anything about it. But i can't help but think cmdrtaco, whom i'd respected till now, is furthering an agenda of his.
Well, it's his website, he can do what he wants. It's called freedom, and if you try to take it away from us, there will be h e double hockey sticks to pay.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
The only thing I have to say is... I couldn't of said it better myself!
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
Clearly, Falwell has it all wrong. He's not gay, he's bent on world domination!
Can't you see it? Purple is the color of royalty. The triangle...the trilateral comission! And he "sees" television with it...the eye in the triangle!!! Must be Illuminati!! The purse! That means he controls all of the world banking organizations! Finally, Television....A perfect tool to lull the masses into a stupor.
For Sale lakefront property in Fl, what a bargain!
The red teletubby, Po says "faggot" when you squeeze it. :) Now, Mr. Fallwell revels to the world why!
Why is this on slashdot?
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
I guess the Americans never will get the British sense of humour (with an "o-u-r"). This goes along the same lines as Captain Pugwash (with "Seaman Staines" and "Master Baites") and the magic roundabout. These are subtle jokes, and even if it is about homosexuality, we don't care - it's only adults that care, and even then, only US adults apparently.
Matt.
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Matt. Want XML + Apache + Stylesheets? Get AxKit.
I keep wondering if all you people are closet homosexuals. I mean no "gay propaganda" in the world can make me gay and I never had any such feelings in my childhood either. The only reason I can see you being so against "it" must be that you aren't comfortable in your chosen sexual preference.
/mill
Heh, hmosexuals shouldn't be mistreated or discriminated, but you fear kids will fall for their "gay propaganda" and therefore might "burn in hell".
Oh, btw, if you fear procreation is threatened rest assure that I will save the world if it comes to that. I am sure I am not the only one that knows one will always be heterosexual - propaganda or not.
PS. "standard for a way of life"? Need of authorities to tell you how to live your life? DS.
At least as a cow one would be loved by the GNOME developers AND sacred :).
/mill
Maybe someone should start a US version of the British show "Tiswas", complete with Phantom Flan Flinger, and invite this guy to speak on it. :)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
From what I've read here, it's a tv show that's on in the mornings. Sounds like I'm lucky that I don't know what channel it's on. I don't know what channel Falwell is on either.
I guess I'm extra lucky.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
I watched the show over christmas break to check out what all the controversy was about. The only thing I think they are guilty of os throwing around a pretty psychedelic world view. Or maybe that is how one year olds perceive things? Most likely, though I cant remember. I really wonder why anyone is making a big deal about the show, that crap just makes me like it more and more.
I am not too worried about it messing up kids either with the babblespeak the tubs engage in: kids will learn how to talk dont worry.
There is a psycological term for his behavior: projection.
An esoteric scratched itch:
Homeworld Map Maker Tool
> Why do you have to be Christian to get blanket
> forgiveness? Why can't you ask Allah, or the
> Goddess, or Zeus for forgiveness?
Because their religions are somewhat different on the concept of forgiveness. If you ask for forgiveness from a ancient Greek god, then you should expect whatever the ancient Greek religion entitles you to after you die. Similarly for Christianity--you have to practice the Christian acts of asking for forgiveness to get the "Heaven" thing.
> Second, why does anyone not forgiven get an
> eternity in hell? That's mean, unfair and
> unjust. Punishment should fit the crime, and I'm
> not sure any crime deserves an eternity of
> torture.
There isn't anybody perfect. We've all committed some wrong in our lives. Until all of it is forgiven, we cannot enter the presense of God (ie. Heaven).
The crime is that we've all failed (or sinned), in some way or another. As long as we continue to have this sin in our lives, we deserve a punishment (ie. Hell).
<tim><
> How can ANYTHING happen for eternity? That's
> like saying you CAN reach infinity.
Think of the concept of space--to us, it will always be infinite in size (ie. we cannot prove that something can walk past the edge of it). Time, now long regarded as the 4th dimension is sorta like this. Just because it's always been there in our existence doesn't mean it has and always will. Eternity can be possible, simply because there is no way we can comprehend the full capacity of time.
> And even if I do go to hell, I'll just sit
> around and laugh at the devil when he tries to
> make me do something.
Why do people kill themselves? To end suffering. That means, death is preferable to suffering. Think of Hell as suffering, rather than death, and you'll see what I mean. Trust me--it won't be boring.
>I'll [...] raise an insurrection against the
> devil
That would not be advisable...Satan is not greater than God.
<tim><
Ok, I'm going to start some serious religious ranting here b/c this is the only way I can explain it...desert the topic if you want.
...we have to end up somewhere. There's only Heaven or Hell in the afterlife. And since we've all sinned (ie. crossed that line) we deserve to end up in Hell. Now Jesus, the only "perfect" person to have ever been born died on the cross...the way it works is this: He didn't have to die, because he was without sin. But He did, making Him the ideal "sacrificial lamb" (previous to Him, people [ie. Jews] could only redeem themselves worthy with sacrifices), and in so doing made it possible for Man to live with God after death. That is, he died for our sin.
Now as to why Hell: God cannot bear sin. God is in Heaven. That means sinners (who haven't asked forgiveness yet) have to go somewhere else--that is, Hell.
Hope this helps straighten out a few things.
<tim><
> Why do we have to end up anywhere? And if we
> can't simply be destroyed, an omnipotent god
> could certainly make something besides Heaven or
> Hell, couldn't he?
Sure, he could. But then why? Reward those who obey him, punish those who don't...makes sense to me.
> As I said before, I'm not sure anyone, however
> evil, deserves Hell.
Your definition of evil is different from what God sees as evil. To Him, it is totally unbearable. Think of something totally unbearable to you. That's what God thinks when somebody sins--any sin.
> Perfect => sinless, right? The Bible records a
> couple places where Jesus sinned - Luke (?)
> records an instance where as a child he wandered
> off at church, and when his parents came back
> looking for him, he gave a smart-alek responce.
The child you're referring to was actually Jesus, who went to the temple because it was where he could be with God. His exact response was, "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" This isn't a "smart-alek" response, imho. It was neither sarcastic nor in contempt of his parents. You can find this passage in the second chapter of Luke if you want to see for yourself
> He is also recorded as having told his disciples
> to take (i.e. steal) a donkey.
He didn't steal the donkey. If you're referring to the beginning of Matthew 21 then you'll see that there is nothing that said the disciples stole the donkey. The disciples could've asked permissions, or not. It just doesn't say.
> I hate to say this, but I'm in this just to kill
> time and becuase I enjoy taking part in
> religious arguments.
Hey, I'm in this for the "debate" factor too. Don't worry, I'm not here to convert you. Just inform you to make more accurate judgements about what christianity really is. As long as you don't take it personally, then I won't either.
Cheers,
<tim><
I meant to hit preview, and instead hit submit. :)
It doesn't look like URL's longer than a line get interpreted correctly--remove the spaces from the URLs to get teh correct page.
<tim><
> Good. Actually, this is has been my best debate,
:) So nice to be able to log in and track your own discussions.
> judging by the actual communication. Neither of
> us seemed to miss any points. Since it appears
> this is about over (this board will get closed
> sooner or later, and we've about worked it to
> death), I'll thank you and bid you goodbye.
I was surprised you revisited the topic
Thank you for your point of views--it's difficult to carry on debates like this w/o people being offended.
<tim><
I have despised this sorry excuse for a man ever since I can remember hearing about him. After watching all these kids' shows, he still hasn't figured out that barney is a child molester.
--
-- Knowledge shared is power lost. -- Aleister Crowley
What relevancy does this have to "News for Nerds?" I read /. for my daily tech news, not to get insight on the gay rights movement or toddler's shows on PBS. I can get that on any other news site. Please, keep us posted on tech issues, esp. as they relate to Linux/*BSD/Un*x, not social/political ones.
Jerry Fallewll is completely insane. Let's see: he's decided Tinky Winky is gay because: he carries a purse, he's purple, and his antenna is a triangle? Let's see:
1) while men who carry purses are still a rarity, they do exist. It's not even supposed to be a purse anyway, so the point's academic.
2) OK, so he's judging a Teletubby because of the color of his skin? Gee, doesn't that shed a new light on Fallwell's character?
3) Let's see. A triangle... considering that the antennae are supposed to be all different shapes, and you already have a straight line, a circle, and a curlicue. You need some other type of shape. Perhaps Fallwell would have preferred something closer to Dipsy's rather phallic straight line, which has become the subject of more jokes than TW's bag ever did)?
By the way, the Teletubbies do, in fact, have definite genders (as someone who worked in a store which carried way too much Telletubby merchandise for its own good I know this). But that doesn't mean anything at all.
Leviticus 20:13 states that homosexuals must be put to death. Do you agree with this? Would you carry out the sentence?
I saw a TV documentary recently which interviewed convicted gay-bashers. The testimony of one convict (who said that he did it because he was taught that that's what the Bible commanded) is an argument that the Bible (or parts of it) should be kept out of the hands of those prone to hatred.
Anyway, does anyone really expect loony right-wing pious twits from Bible-Belt-land to actually understand Teletubbies!?!??!?! After all, the show's aimed at young toddlers whose minds are developing and are open to new ideas!!!!! It's not aimed at old fossils whose minds are withered and are closed shut!!!!!! ;)
Anyway, it's old news- it's part of a developing Teletubbies urban myth in the US, a bit like the gerbil-up-the-rectum story...
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Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
http://surf.to/seniordads/
Hmmm, this seems to have gone on a bit longer than I thought it would!!!! Still, hope you get my point.....
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Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
http://surf.to/seniordads/
Hmmm, interesting point, but I dunno if I agree with it... I would agree that a lot of society is sex-obsessed, but sex in the Teletubbies?!?!?!?! I mean, come on!!!!!!! I think it's more a case of people not understanding the programme, and picking out things that mean something to them in their lives, but are not neccessarily actually part of the programme!!!!! In other words, some of the Teletubbies prog is so completely open-ended that you can put any interpretation into the diverse stream of wierd ideas that it chucks out!!!! I think Jerry Falwell's statement tells us more about his state of mind than it does about the makers of Teletubbies!!!!!
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Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
http://surf.to/seniordads/
With the greatest of respect, postings like the one above are the reason why people in Europe tend to think that Americans are stupid!!!!!!
I honestly cannot believ that this crap is for real!!!!! Do you actually strain your braincells for one minute to think how incredibly stupid your post is??!?!?! I mean, Barney The Dinosaur is purple- by Jerry Falwell's "reasoning", he must be gay!!!!! And he's nice to people- obviously he's a God-fearing "Christian" Right person then!!!!!!!!
Forever shying away from imagine "tendancies", "supersititions"- what a paranoid attitude to a life you have. I really feel sorry for your children...
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Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
http://surf.to/seniordads/
... and it can be treated- by education!!!!!! ;)
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Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
http://surf.to/seniordads/
Excuse, but I should point out that when the Nazis misappropriated Nietzsche's writings, it wasn't exactly with his approval!!!!!! (If I remember, it was his sister, who was a bit anti-semtic, in contrast to Nietzsche's own views- I think "vile" was the word he used for anti-semitism: not exactly the words of a Nazi supporter, is it?!?!?!) And if the Nazis supported Nietzsche's "God is Dead" statment (I'm not too sure you're taking it in it's proper context anyway!!!), then how come Hitler mentions God (in favourable terms) an awful lot in Mein Kampf?!?!? And how come a lot of the Christian churches actually supported Hitler!??!?!?! And why are you as "Christian" going to such lengths to FUD against athiests by attempting to link them with the bloody Nazis?!?!?!??!?
BTW Pascals Wager is only valid if there is only one God to choose from!!!! You cannot logically believe in the Gods of all the Christian denominations and Islam, and others, all at the same time, (More so since in most cases each require you to believe in only one God- theirs!!!) so you have to not belive in at least one God, in which case, the whole thing falls down!!!! I think the wager was just clever answer by Pascal , but as a serious reason for actually believing in a diety, it's just an excuse for lack of faith!!!!!!!!!
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Old Fart!!! Of tha SENIOR DADS!!!!!
http://surf.to/seniordads/
I'd take the replies a whole not more seriously if people I know who are gay didn't say it first.
Just my $0.02.
PS -- I feel this site should be devoted ONLY to tech news, MicroDuff or otherwise. That's why we have CNN for the other news.
Sanity.html - Error 404 not found
Ah yes. This explains it all:
do not presume to know what illnesses I have overcome through the grace of God
You've lived a BAD life, haven't you? (At least that's what they told you, and you believed them, because you were feeling lost, alone and unloved, and were willing to sacrifice your self-esteem in return for group approval).
And now that you have come to see your self-denigration as a WISE and LOVING and WONDERFUL thing, you want to share it with everyone else. Because you want them to be happy too? Nope. Because if you can drag them down to your 'humble' and 'repentant' level, you'll gain more approval from your new friends, and your faith in the brand new lie that is your life will be strengthened.
Oh the joy! Show us the way!
If the life you've lived is so bad, go to the cops and turn yourself in. If you're feeling unwashed, take a good hot shower and change your fscking underwear.
TOMORROW'S ANOTHER DAY!
**>>BELCH
> He turned kinda green, and never mentioned creationism again while I was around. (Though he did try to exorcize me a month later...)
Did it work? (the exorcism, that is)
Eric
Falwell is a DICK-head, and he appears on his own TV channel.
....
Showing a DICK qualifies for pornography, does'nt it?
IMPROVE YOUR IQ BY 80 POINTS,
AND YOUR SOCIAL LIFE BY 300%
THROW YOUR TV OUT OF THE WINDOW!
Plus it will make a nice pop noise when it hits the floor.
1st of all .. gay or not .. this show has 0 redeeming value. A good friend of mine has a 2 year old that had been watching Teletubby's everyday for a few months. Instead of learning how to talk, he babbles like the characters on the show.
... a couple mornings ago while getting ready for work I flipped on the TV. They had a girl and a boy teletubby. The girl was in a skirt, and dancing and having a fun time in it... then they boy said "My Turn". He took the skirt and began prancing around like a girl.
.. but definatly had female personality traits .. and with all the "political-correctness" garbage that's been going around, I wouldn't be surprised if the characters creator intended this character to be gay.
As far as one of them being gay
I wouldn't go as far to say the boy was gay
Adolf Hitler did kill several million Jews by himself. He had people - and a nation - help. Interestingly enough, those people and that nation were Christian.
Please look up Pascal's wager in the Alt.Atheism FAQ sometime. One point is that there is many religions that will send you to hell for being a Christian, and some that will send you to hell for being a Christian but not an atheist.
As for Jesus being perfect, which I assume means sinless: (I don't have a Bible at hand, so I apolgize for the paraphrases)
1. He had his disciples steal a donkey when he was coming in for Passover.
2. He dishonored his mother and father, when he was a child, by not going home with them after church and mouthing off to them when they came back (a day's travel) to find him. (This is in the first part of Luke.)
3. He did it again when he was an adult, and his mother and siblings came to see him.
4. He destroyed some pig farmer's herd of pigs. (Luke and the legion of demons.) (I'm not sure this was technically a sin.)
I've read the Bible. It really makes me wonder about those who would worship a god like that. Try Job's kids. Why did they deserve to die, just because their father was a good guy? And what answer did Job get - roughly, "who the hell are you to speak to me that way! I am almighty, you pipsqueak." The context usually terrifies more than the details, because the context implies motives for God, and those aren't love.
Why do you have to be Christian to get blanket forgiveness? Why can't you ask Allah, or the Goddess, or Zeus for forgiveness? Even if they don't exist, your act was as right as any Christian act of forgiveness, and a great god, a loving god would accept that.
Second, why does anyone not forgiven get an eternity in hell? That's mean, unfair and unjust. Punishment should fit the crime, and I'm not sure any crime deserves an eternity of torture.
Do to others as you would have them do to you is _not_ sound advice. It's a shallow aphorism, that assumes a non-existant symmetry. Anytime the symmetry breaks down, the golden rule breaks down.
For instance: You're a bum. You want people to give you money. So you give them money. Or: you're an immature adolescent male. What you want most in the world is for a girl to strip for you. So you find a beautiful girl and strip for her.
Where on earth is evidence that all these deities are the same? The only reason to believe something like that is because you want to. It's the ultimate in feel-good religion.
Why would atheists like this idea? God is real is the antithesis of atheism, no matter how it's dressed up.
And effeminate is better?...
My wife said that very thing that Jerry Fallwell...only she said it months ago, before all the hoopla.
I do consider myself a religious conservative and we do not allow our children to watch Telebubbies because of Tinky Winky's effeminate tendencies, homosexual leanings (like either is good) and psychic (witchcraft) overtones.
It must be true b/c he said so...
"I am Linus Torvalds, I am your god..."
Hallelujah!! Praise Linus!!!
--Rick
My mom-in-law told me about this, and I thought she was kidding at first -- I laughed and laughed! When I realized she was serious, I said, "Well, you know, I wonder if he's ever thought about Kukla, Fran and Ollie -- an interspecies menage a trois. And what about that strange relationship between Buck Smith and Howdy Doody -- as wholesome as it seemed on the surface, didn't those too seem kind of clingy? And Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and Capt. Kangaroo -- who's to say what the hell's really going on here? (Raised a Catholic, I can remember a time when nobody would dare *imagine* a priest doing anything unwholesome with a child.)
For anyone cursed with a sex drive, the world is a dark, evil, frightening place. That's what Jerry's tapped into.
Just my thoughts.
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
Funniest thing I've heard since Pat Robertson went on the Today Show about ten years ago pimping his then current book where he claimed that the breakup of the Soviet Union was a communist plot.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I saw Mr. Fallwell on Politically Incorrect one night. I didn't know who he was at first, he just looked like a kind, fairly jolly grandfather. He was charismatic and made you want to like him whether you agreed with him or not.
Then I realized who he was, and I became very, very afraid.
Brothers and sisters, there is a devil among us and he lives in Lynchburg. How ironic is _that_?
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
Those whacky Christians...when did 'treat others as you would have them treat you' turn into 'torture and burn those who aren't you'?
And although I did laugh loud and long at our amazingly silly Rev. Falwell...uhm, where's the nerd/geek angle here?
An Anonymous Troll^H^H^H^H^HCoward diligently typed:
"Gary Bauer for Prez and Elzabeth Dole for VP!!"
I'd like to see G. Bauer get the Reptilian nomination too, because he'd get trounced. That would let the conservative zealots know how far they are out of step with the ordinary people.
boethius sez,
"Dogma literally means the teachings of the Catholic church. A very large percentage of Christian believers are not Catholic and therefore not 'dogmatic.'"
Wrong. Dogma are normative and fundamental teachings, so that to deny them is to cease to be a member of a particular body of believers. It is a much narrower realm than "teachings" of a church, and certainly narrower than pious beliefs not officially taught. The Orthodox have dogmas, Anglicans have dogmas, many Protestant denominations have dogmas, though they might not use that term. A purported Lutheran who denied the divinity of Christ would be in heresy, and no longer a Christian or a Lutheran. So it is not the case that only Catholic Christians are "dogmatic".
Let's see, the Rev. Falwell has decided that a nonhuman character on a children's TV show is gay because:
Well, gee, Mr. Falwell, why can't we say that this is obviously a Christian character?
And Po? Obviously a commie. She's Red. "Po" rhymes with "Ho", and surely old Jerry hasn't forgotten Ho Chi Minh?
I hardly think this character is a role model. The character certainly won't be the decisive factor in whether anyone at all is gay or straight. If some gays have adopted the character as "theirs", so what? I understand that Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand are big icons for some gay men, but that doesn't make them lesbian and didn't make their fans gay.
Get a life, Jer.
Even though I feel that this discussion is beneath the minds of most /. readers, I am proud as a parent and /. reader at the majority of the responses to this posting. Yeah, I'm kinda concerned that my 2 year old stops, drops, and tunes into the teletubbies whenever they happen to appear on the screen, but hey, I grew up with PBS programming, and I would rather have my daughter watch some mindless,passive show that may have some social applications hidden in their midst than a violent badly drawn animated waste of time, when I do happen to have the television on. I seem to be blessed however, since my daughter would rather sit on my lap while I'm programming or work on her Macintosh 6100 while dad is trying to work out networking issues, than watch TV.( My hope of hopes is to get her to be the first kid in her kindergarten class to reprogram the schools PC's to run Linux...:^))
Anyway... television is pointless at best and a waste of time that could otherwise be spent reading Either books or a monitor. Let's all remember folks Television is entertainment. Lets keep the learning flowing, and not try to limit the aspects of social growth with censorship and predjudice... Once again.. good to see that the same people I go to for help with my computer system seem to agree with this philosophy....THANK YOU ALL
"Here's 50 bucks, take this in case I get drunk and call you a bitch later." - Ricky (Vince Vaughn)Made (2001)
Think that Falwell is nuts. But then even though I'm conservative doesn't neccessarily mean that I'm Christain though either. I'm a Shingon Buddhist and prefer to make my own decisions as I don't really believe that people like Falwell have the moral authority to make decisions about what my kids will and will not watch. Besides, my kids range in age from 1 to 14 and except for the youngest..... we all like Scooby Doo!
I've have to tell you though...a Buddhist priest once told me to "beware of those who seek to divide, they only want people to join them to re-enforce the dogma they themselves are unsure of." It makes scense to me so....
My 2 Cents
Nick
LSG
So he's outed one of the teletubbies. Thats interesting, from what i've seen, they seem more asexual than homosexual. One has to wonder, who's next? Bert and Ernie? Mr Rogers? Big Bird? Kermit? Everyone but Jerry Falwell? Where will the madness end?
0 1 - just my two bits
Way down at the bottom of the page in very small type is a "Comment" link...
A brainless bastard. He is the one hurting our children, not purple smurfs with tv's on their stomachs. 'nuff said about that.
Can we dispel the myth that geeks tend to be conservative republicans?
Where did this come from? Did I miss something? Most geeks I know are pretty apolitical, areligious, etc. I know *two* Christian geeks, and a few that are religious but not Christian (myself included). I don't know of very many geeks that even give a flop about politics (although I do).
Just my personal experience. Perhaps it is different in other places.
This sig is false.
There is a very fine line between finding some sexual content in the Teletubbies or the Lion King and being sexually attracted by a pre-teen boy.
If he sees a sexual content in those TV shows, it must be really looking hard for it. What a waco...
M.
Many others have thoroughly refuted your utterly bogus statements, so I just thought I'd mention this one.
The only thing I will say is Christianity hinges on the man Jesus who lived about 2000 years ago. If he was God, lived a perfect life, was crucified on a cross, died, and rose back to life, then you would be a fool not to be a Christian.
And I say that you have got even this very wrong. Say, for the sake of argument, that Jesus was God, etc. Also for the sake of argument assume that the Christian fundamentalists are right, and that Jesus' teachings have not been completely corrupted/ignored/twisted by the very people that call themselves his followers. Given then that I will surely go to Hell if I do not repent my sinful ways and become a good God-fearing Christian - will I do so?
No. I proudly choose to go to hell. I will not do what I know is immoral, under threat of torture in Hell. I will not take your Heaven, your pieces of silver, in return for selling my own morality. You may buy and sell your beliefs, your morals, but I will not. Now, that may make me stupid in your books, but then I guess you think that the German citizens that spoke out against the Nazis during the war were "stupid". (you started with the bloody Nazis, not me).
Anyway, this whole thread is bogus. Goodwin says you lose.
- "I never could learn to drink that blood and call it wine" - Bob Dylan (Tight Connection to my Heart)
A healthy percentage of us are Libertarians (including myself).
Libertarianism is probably the only political belief system that is entirely consistent, and that makes it appealing to computer types.
Basically, the upshot is: "Government is totally incompetent and restricts our freedoms; let's have as little of it as humanly possible in all respects".
How little that is, of course, is one of the biggest controversies in Libertarian circles. All Libertarians, however, agree that government is out of control in our present society and desperately needs to be reined in.
D
And what have you been smoking?
Your dogmatic Christianity is only causing trouble, so why not shut your pie hole? Religion per se isn't a bad thing, but anything that you can use as an excuse to preach senseless hate and destruction just plain sucks.
Why not be obedient to god and kill yourself.
The revolution will be mocked
And you are a virus. 'Nuff said.
The revolution will be mocked
Thanks for posting that. I'm a Christian too, and it upsets me when people promote their conservative agenda under the guise of Christianity. Christ only had one agenda -- salvation. People should not promote their own agendas in His name.
Great post.
I know these messages are kinda off-topic, but so is the teletubbies article, so touche. =)
An ex-professional wrestler ;-)
i don't know if Tinky Winky is gay or not; i've seen episodes where he does indeed carry around a purse, though. (my year-and-a-half old son loves the show, so we taped a few episodes to pacify him when there's nothing else on...)
i rank the question of Tinky Winky's sexuality right down there with the Gay Rights activists proclaiming Bert and Ernie (of Sesame Street) gay. that is SOOOOOO stupid! who the heck CARES? they're MUPPETS for crying out loud! kids shouldn't have to care whether or not characters on their shows are gay or not!
...and yes, i consider myself a "religious conservative".
_______
When politicians are involved, everyone loses.
Can we dispel the myth that geeks tend to be conservative republicans?
/. poll. I think Jerry Falwell is...
I for one would be much more uncomfortable with my (hypothetical) kids watching the 700 club than with them watching a gay teletubby.
Maybe this could be a
This is a subject for psychiatric examination. A detailed one...
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
I, along with many other geeks I know, tend to be a "fiscal republican". Fiscal republicans are conservative when it comes to your wallet, and liberal when it comes to your bedroom.
I'd rather not dick over anyone, personally. Remember, when someone makes money, it isn't _always_ at someone else's expense. Admittedly sometimes it is, especially with the very rich, but of the friends that I have that are "well off" none of them can claim that they got there by beating down someone else.
Wow, never thought that among the "intelligent" people that frequent Slashdot that there would be such bigoted schmucks in the crowd....
Being Christian is about loving your fellow man, NOT judging their lifestyle.
I'm no butch dyke. I look like every other "straight" professional female out there. But I'm still hurt by these remarks.
Jerry Falwell is not a TRUE Christian. He has a bizarre, Klannish agenda all his own. Whatever happened to "loving your fellow man"????
Makes me sad that people judge me without even knowing who I am. Guess that's just the way it is, but I don't have to like it......
Cybergrrrrrl
Who is Jerry Falwell?
I was kind of forced to wonder if this was News for Nerds or not. I don't think the musings of the religious right, unless they are explicitly trying to take away some of our rights, is really Nerd-worthy.
:).
Having said that, it was the funniest thing I've read today
I remember reading a little snippet in TV guide about the show. It has a quote from the creator about how Tinky-Winky shows kids that "It's OK to be Gay". Personally I think Jerry AND the creator of the show are off their rockers :)
ahhh-men, brutha!
...suckling from the sweet amnion of life...
How in the hell can you be "against" homosexuals? Are you also against black people? How about Chinese? Perhaps you are also against people who like ketchup on their scrambled eggs?
And speaking of homosexual destructiveness...the major argument I've heard is that we don't want them "gays" influencing our children. But hey, it's perfectly fine for teachers, preachers, parents, and other leaders to pursue destructive heterosexual lifestyles. That's an ok influence. If the male gym teacher harrases all the girls in the senior class, that's fine, but hey...if he hits on the boys...well, that's just sick!
Geesh...some people just really need to get their priorities straight.
And as for the Bible...hey, nice piece of fiction, but that's about it. Don't expect me to live my life by it. I don't look to the "Great Gatsby" for moral direction either.
Jerry Falwell, hmmm, lemme think... ;)
/. should not waste it's time, or add to the publicity.
Isn't this the man that lost his virtue to his own mother, and in an outhouse??
What is HE doing watching children's programming? Shouldn't he be out predicting the wrath of God that shall befall all sinners at the turn of the millenium? Or begging for money, so that God would not "bring him home"?? Or maybe molesting a secretary, to help her start up a phonesex/psychic career??
Really folks, we've already seen it all, from Jessica Rabbit's underwear to the castles in the Little Mermaid. When will mainstream society realize that THEIR brand of 'religion' boarders on fascism, and is a bigger source of FUD than the whole computer industry put together? Nice try, but this won't distract people from the Clinton 'thing'.
And really,
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
Or does the aging, bloated Falwell bear a more-than-subtle resemblance to Tinky Winky in the two photos in the CNN story?
MOO;IANAL.
There used to be a picture linked here.
I'll put my fiscal values toe to toe with any Republican, any day. I believe in Corporate Welfare even less than I do individual. My (Republican) governor is a tax-and-spend conservative. What's yours?
Just for fun, let's substitute the name of another minority where you said "gay" etc:
But if ( mind this if ) there was a kids show depicting a Jewish character I would be so very against it, up to the point of commiting terrorist acts.
I mean, I completely agree with the point that Jewish people are not supposed to be mistreated or discriminated for being Jewish. But [being] Jewish is NOT IN ANY WAY A STANDARD FOR A WAY OF LIFE
I wouldn't go as far as calling it a perversion although I wouldn't disagree with anyone calling it that, exception and making it a role model is dangerous for the society cause it prevents normal procreation. This country has enough Jewish propaganda as it is, but if we start subverting children of preschool age this is gonna be something for which all of Americans who do not yet deserve to burn in hell will win a free ticket to the ninth circle. That's all IMHO.
Feel free to substitute "black" or "asian" or whatever where I put "Jewish".
See my point yet? That sort of thinking just REALLY pisses me off.
=moJ
- - - - - -
Member in Good Standing,
=moJ
- - - - - -
Member in Good Standing,
I'm questioning him right now.
No god worth believing condemns anyone for just being who they are.
I'm so tired of this shit. Why can't you just leave people alone to lead their own lives?
PS: What do you call someone who does believe there is a god, but believes him to be one evil, calculating, malicious son-of-a-bitch?
=moJ
- - - - - -
Member in Good Standing,
unless you're talking about how this homophobic society oppresses, persecutes, harasses, and sometimes kills gay people.
i could see how that's destructive & has a destructive force on people's lives.
=moJ
- - - - - -
Member in Good Standing,
Well... here we go again.
Belief in God "by definition" is irrational? By your definition? Why are billions of people "irrational" then? Much of modern scientific thought comes from people who believed in God (Newton, Einstein). I'd say Einstein was a geek. But... he's irrational too, isn't he? By definition, of course.
You've read books, essays, and various tracts by Aquinas, Augustine, Martin Luther King, Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis, Simone Weil, and determined that these people were irrational nutcases blindly attached to an "invisible, magic, and all-powerful superbeing?" By definition, right? J.C. Penney, John Rockefeller? They were irrational believers too?
Dogma literally means the teachings of the Catholic church. A very large percentage of Christian believers are not Catholic and therefore not "dogmatic." And many are not formally adherents to any religion. Belief in and committment to God isn't a codified system of rituals and detached faith that comes from a prayer book. It's a lifestyle that involves God daily in what you do.
Perfectly reasonable, rational people believe in God, including geeks, even if, by definition, you think they can't be. Believing in and trusting God *is* difficult for even the most devout believer. Not believing in God is much easier than believing. Dismissing believers as "kooks" and irrational sets you up on a platform of imagined superiority where you can look down on those whackos who actually believe the Bible is Holy Scripture. Perhaps you'll never permit yourself an iota of supposed irrationality and enforce the defiantly right belief that God does not exist, that the churches and believers and Bible-thumpers should all just shut up and leave you alone.
Here's the thing though -- people do believe and those who do believe will likely invade your comfort zone many times in your life. They'll disrupt your blissful intolerance, your hatred of the supernatural and irrational, your indignance that nobody sane can possibly believe in God, your stewardship of egoism. You *do* believe in something after all, even if it is lack of belief, and you're going to have to stand up and proclaim that to those nutcases.
I can understand why people are against religion and God. They'll point to the Crusades, the repression of women and minorities in and out of the church, the Inquisition, the hypocritical televangelists, the repression of literature, movies, and the arts, fatwas on Rushdie, terrorists who kill people "for God". It's much easier to point to the exceptions rather than acknowledge that most believers are reasonable, intelligent, loving, caring people. Few of us look at the crime, drugs, violence, and hatred that exists in our world and automatically assume that every human being is that way. Most believers don't want to stuff God down your throat. They'd rather you come to God. They'd rather your heart accept God rather than dismiss where you're coming from -- your disbelief, your skepticism, your certainty that it's all just irrational nonsense anyway. Believe it or not, perfectly rational people permit that acceptance in their heart. They perceive something that is beyond themselves, their egos, their selfishness.
Even if it appears "irrational."
Tinky Winky, the biggest of the tubbies, the purple one, is effeminate. He likes to wear a skirt, he usually carries a handbag. He likes to dance. This makes him possibly a crossdresser, but certainly not gay.
The other "male" tubby, Dipsy, runs away from the skirt, and prefers to wear a big silly cow-print hat.
When will these religious conservatives begin to understand that there is a difference between gender expression and sexual preference?!?
...Nothing interesting here. Just move along...
If you are into following the letter of the Bible, Leviticus says something to the effect that "a man shalt not lay with another man as he does with a woman, it is an abomination". Of course Leviticus outlaws selling food at a profit, charging interest on loans, shaving your sideburns, etc. etc. etc.
Paul rails against homosexuals in a couple of letters in the New Testament. I personally regard Paul as a bigot and a madman, and try to study the gospels and John's work instead.
Is there is any biblical condemnation of men who disregard the strict gender dress codes of the day? I haven't found it. Am I breaking God's Law by wearing a cloth briefcase over my shoulder instead of a leather briefcase with only a handle? How high can my heels be before I end up with Eternal Damnation?
...Nothing interesting here. Just move along...
... and I'd rather he grow up gay than grow up listening to idiots like Jerry Falwell.
Actually, I heard that they established that Bert was already gay and he died from AIDS.
Of course, this is only what I heard, but I still thought it was funny.
These ppl need to get a life. A 1 yr-old isn't going to know the thing is gay, let alone know what gay means, so what's the difference.
Apparently Falwell is under the impression that these kids are "going to catch gay" from watching the show. (everyone remember that from the movie In and Out?)
Let the kids have the show.
-Jae
-Jae
Well, while I'll agree that Libertarianism does make SOME sense, I'm fairly geeky, and definitely NOT a liberal.
.02
/dev/nul and save me the time,
I know that the parent article makes good flame bait, but I'm pretty disgusted with the whole thing.
1. Just because someone identifies themselves as a Christian doesn't mean that all other Christians agree with them.
2. Whether Falwell is a kook or not, our culture is completely sex-saturated. It doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to see that. Those messages DO go into much of the so-called entertainment programming, including children's programming.
3. Christianity is not a check-your-brain-at-the-door religion, it's a thinking man's religion that involves a personal relationship with the God who spoke, and the universe leapt into existance. You ought to look at it critically before dismissing evangelicals as wackos.
Just my
Send flames to
serious inquiries: tom_cooper@bigfoot.com
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
You claim that a friend has a 2-year-old who doesn't talk, and rather babbles like the characters on Teletubbies. Assuming that this child does not have congenital brain dysfunction, you should recommend that your friend get the child to a neurologist right away.
2-year-olds should be way past the babbling stage. At 24 months, a child should be speaking with sentences, albeit simple and occasionally strangely ungrammatical ones.
Now, once the neurologist has seen the child, I'd then recommend that the child be taken to Steven Pinker or another language-acquisition expert at MIT or Stanford. If a child, surrounded by speaking people, loses the ability (or never acquires the ability) to speak simply from watching a half-hour of television every day, then every single theory about how language is acquired is dead wrong. Linguists would love to examine the child---he or she is clearly the key to shattering forty years of research.
"gay propaganda," eh? Well, you know, every homosexual act is merely brought about by peer pressure. And once we all submit to the gay culture, we just won't be able to reproduce anymore. God knows gay people never have children, even by adoption or artificial insimination.
Do you have a personal relationship with God, has he told you that Christianity is wrong?
Yes, the Christian God came to me, and said 'All the people that believe in me are wrong.' That makes sense, buddy.
The Teletubbies, which were actually originally named the TeleEvilAlienChristianCloneBastards, were sent by the gay pride movement to take over the world and ensure a gayer lifestyle for all of us. Fallwell has happened to get in the way of the great Pink Manifesto, and now he must die. Our crack team of SniperBots(AKA Furbies) will be starting their decent to Fallwell's montana anti-gay compound at 2359hours, at which point they will infultrate the compound, despose of Fallwell, and replace him with the one of our evil gay clones, which BTW will be making their TV debute next fall. The Tinky Fallwell will then join our other clones, including Tinky Heston, Tinky Gore, and even Tinky Gates.
I'd love to get drawn for Teletubby. Imagine the feeling of being the first person on your block to bag a Teletubby. That's gotta be good eating on a Teletubby...
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
I reallly care about being conservative, and I don't care about either republicans or that second party whatever their name is demo...something I pretty sure it is not demoversion. Now I think that this pseudo-christian guy is a fairly smart and extremely evil person playing a moron for the general public to forward some cause of his. And surely those telethingies are just plain cute stupid TV characters for kids. I mean, I hate barney but I don't see him as evil. But if ( mind this if ) there was a kids show depicting a gay character I would be so very against it, up to the point of commiting terrorist acts. I mean, I completely agree with the point that gay people are not supposed to be mistreated or discriminated for being gay. But gayness is NOT IN ANY WAY A STANDARD FOR A WAY OF LIFE I wouldn't go as far as calling it a perversion although I wouldn't disagree with anyone calling it that, exception and making it a role model is dangerous for the society cause it prevents normal procreation.This country has enough gay propaganda as it is, but if we start subverting children of preschool age this is gonna be something for which all of Americans who do not yet deserve to burn in hell will win a free ticket to the ninth circle. That's all IMHO surely
Everybody Lies. But it doesn't matter since nobody listens.
Yeah, right. Hell, all I can get out of the show is some freaky-ass psychic communication thing going on. Hell, if I could communicate with someone through some wierd device on my head, and show trippy stuff on my stomach, I would be the life of the party.
Gotta lay off the acid...
Didn't they also threaten to boycott
Sesame Streem (sp?) unless it was made
clear that Ernie and Bert are not "living
in sin"?
I used to live in Lynchburg VA. My apartment wasn't that far from Falwell and Liberty U. And you want to see a bunch of fucked up individuals, you go there. Not a bit of free thought or expression.
It's a shame cause alot of the people who go to Liberty are very nice and decent. Alot of them only go there cause it's the only place there parents will let them. But Jerry and a small minority of the screwed up students make that town a living hell. You can'g go anywhere without being scared of someone drilling you about you're religious orientation; and damning you if you don't follow theirs. Hell they even interefere with public schooling. 2 years ago, a bunch of LU students and that guy that runs Operation Rescue went to the local high school, E.C. Glass, at the beginning of the day when all the school buses were arriving. They started mingling with the students trying to convert them. When the teachers started asking them to leave, the LU students told them that they were all going to hell for not spreading the word of God. The teachers had a hard time keeping them out, cause they looked just like reg students; couldn't tell who was LU and who was high school. They finally crossed the line when they told all the handicap kids that God had made them that way because they'd done something wrong. A bunch of cops had to called out to pull them off school grounds and prevent them from returning. My wife and I left that town because of them.
BTW; I've lived alot of places, and I've know a lot of gay men and women, and Lynchburg had the LARGEST proportion of gay people then anywhere else that I've know. Two of my best friends were gay. I was amazed at how many people were 'secret' gays there. Hey Jerry, you think the world's such a bad and dirty place. Look how nasty and perverted your town is!
J Phillips
Jeremy
"Opinions are like assholes; everyone's got one..."
... is he gay. This is really stupid.
--
You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
Imagine if Hustler did a photo layout with Falwell and the teletubbies engaged in hardcore prison sex! Ouch.
-Signed Me
-- Infatuated with the fact that they can, software developers usually don't stop to think if they should.
Er, the pink triangle is used as a symbol for homosexuals in a strange twist on the requirement in Nazi Germany that homosexuals wear them at all times (Jews were required to wear stars). I guess it was supposed to make it easier to tell whom to beat up.
Purple is not the gay pride color to the best of my knowledge, but lavender has been associated with homosexuals for a long time... this probably dates back to the Foppish atire popular in England a few hundred years ago.
Now lets see... the original superman wore a triangle on his chest with the letter S in it... ballet tights, a cape, and his underwear on the outside... his costume was red and blue, which mixed together make purple... and he was always hanging out with that Jimmy Olsen kid! Sounds like a plot to trick children into acceptance of gay lifestyles to me! Quick, get on the hotline to Falwell -- we've found another one!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
It seems a bit contradictory to me that you'd commit a terrorist act in response to something on television. For one thing, the airwaves are public domain. No one forces you or your hypothetical children to watch. And what kind of example would you be setting with a terrorist act? "Hey kids, don't like something? Blow it up!"
I understand fully that these are all simply statements of opinion. But what makes your moral barometer so superior to those of others, say a gay person? Your opinions may be based in religious doctrine; that's a whole other can o' worms*. But if you are simply basing your opinion off of what was taught to you by your parents, or a memory of the way things "used to be" (a conclusion I half-draw from your emphatic endorsement of "conservatism"), should you perhaps question your views, from time to time? After all, if we were still as "conservative" as our political predecessors wished, anyone who believed capitolism was anything short of mana from heaven would be exiled to a small desert island. With no net connection.
Sorry, but this one's silly. Standing by and not objecting is no diferent than saying it yourself. There is no "No Comment" checkbox (something which you implicitly agree with in your "ninth circle" comment").
Actually, the world is currently facing a crisis of overpopulation. There is no danger, whatsoever, in "not procreating." We, as human beings, are breeding like the proverbial rabbits.
I think we can come to a general consensus that the anti-homosexual propaganda machine vastly overpowers what gay propaganda there is in sheer terms bulk, resources, and foot-soldiers. I've been stopped on the street by men with flyers espusing the evils of "the gays among us" (a clearly inflammatory statement designed to evoke fear and paranoia). And yet I have yet to meet any gay people that tried to convert me to their lifestyle or cause. Ever.
In closing, I'd just like to say that I think any, any viewpoints that propose hatred and intolerance of ANYTHING must be constantly reviewed and questioned. The price of [moral] freedom is eternal vigilence.
*Note to christians: somehow I have trouble seeing Jesus Christ preaching hatred of homosexuality on a street corner.
Saying that I don't have the depth to grok an argument based upon your belief in God, because I disagree with your belief in God, is a bit circular, don't you think? "You don't like X? That just shows you don't have the depth to see why X is better. I like X, so have that depth."
Guess my expectations of a geek's ability to reason and debate were a bit overblown