I've only seen Star Trek. I honestly thought that I was one of the cool people that didn't give a fuck about the revisions, only to find that I'm a pissed off Star Trek nerd.
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Billions of Vulcans die and they don't even make an attempt to go back and fix the time line? They disrupt the time line all of the time in this series.
On a side note, if I was visited by my future self and I looked like Leonard Nimoy currently looks, I would have some serious questions about my health habits.
I mean, what if we redid Star Wars as a Woody Allen film? Do you think more than a few lightsaber-wielding 45 year old virgins would have something to say about that? Yeah, it's a nice piece of art and all, but it's nothing without the Star Trek brand attached to it, and it seriously screws with the brand, thus the New Coke comparison.
Angels and Demons is like eating McDonald's, throwing it up, and then searching through it for whole pieces of food to eat again, eating it, then throwing it up again, and then finding out you have Cancer, and then stubbing your toe on a dead person, and then pooping your pants, and then waking up to find out that it was all a dream, but then all of it really happens to you anyway, except it also happened to your daughter, and she hates you, and is addicted to meth, and you're in a wheelchair.
@thetalkinghand: yeah, i'd heard the book was bad. i have no good reason for seeing it except that it was a $6 matinee and i'm currently sans a job.@Uncle_Billy_Slumming: sure!
I once translated a video for a small Catholic church community. It was in Spanish. I had to do the sub-titles. This priest was telling people to report to the church before going to the cops with any allegations levied at church staff involving children. Basically telling the congregation to come to the church before going to the cops.
So considering that swell advice, I guess telling Africa to be abstinent is just par for the course.
Oh and: All religion is evil. (People don't do good because of religion. They're just good people.) I WOULD say Satan created religion, but, well, you know. . .
My head-slapping Pope moment was this week: he warned thousands of people in Uganda against witchcraft. This in a region where they still literally have witch-hunts, last week hundreds of people were rounded up and abused, sometimes killed, on suspicion of being witches. Even children. They try to extract confessions through torture, or 'cure' them by pouring hot pepper-sauce in their eyes.. It's appalling, and for him to pour gasoline on the flames of superstition, where it has consequences, is pretty stupid and vile.
You guys should really hire a Catholic so you can at least consult him or her briefly before you spout off various forms of nonsense. You could even share the Catholic with Jezebel.
This post is innaccurate and offensive in so many ways, I don't even know where to begin, and I don't even consider myself to be Catholic anymore. But hell, I guess I'd better explain at least two points.
1.) The Pope was not speaking in a capacity where the doctrine of infallibility applied. A quick google search or check of Wikipedia would have given you that one.
2.) The Pope's argument against condoms was that encouraging the use of condoms could also encourage promiscuity, which would raise the risk of the disease spreading. It wasn't just condoms = evil. Furthermore, it should be no surprise to anyone that the Roman Catholic Church is against birth control. This isn't exactly news, and no one has to follow it except Catholics, who shouldn't be having sex outside of marriage anyway, and so theoretically shouldn't be catching HIV. Most Catholics I know who throw out the premarital sex bit also throw out the condom bit, so I wouldn't worry too much about those ones.
3.) The bishop in question had his excommunication revoked for reasons that have nothing to do with Holocaust denial. Holocaust denial is not an excommunicable offense. Does it make you a nice person? No. But theologically, that's the way it is. Did the Vatican need better PR handling on it? Sure. But it's hardly evidence that the Pope supports Holocaust denial.
4.) I enjoy the fact that you've ignored everything liberals would love about the Pope's trip to Africa. He condemned violence and war, and sexual violence against women. He has encouraged African leaders to fight poverty. He urged solidarity among nations to more equally distribute resources with the world's poor. He praised democracy and defended the equal dignity of men and women, encouraging laws to be enacted to ensure this if necessary.
But yeah, you know, why acknowledge any of that. Pope evil. End of story.
@Adah: I will never buy the anti-condom crap. It's their oldest trick in the book, just like the Fundies here--read Dr. Laura--it's utter bullshit. People have sex. Period. Condoms save lives. Period.
@Banjo-Sea Kitten: You don't have to - you're not Catholic. I'm all for freedom of religion, and sure, I don't think any church should have enough influence that laws are made banning birth control. But the leader of the Catholic Church is free to preach to a Catholic audience about it, and he's free to recommend to his following that they not have sex. That's kind of a big part of the whole freedom of religion thing.
@Adah: I am in fact Catholic--non practicing of course because I think in this day and age they cause harm, outside of some very cool social justice stances individual priests have taken in central/south America for instance. I'm not a hater. I'm not anti-spiritual, but please Catholic church, get with the times. Please think how your words and actions cause harm. But anyway, Adah...you're entitled to your opinion--we could go all day. Let's not.
I took a tour of the Vatican Gardens last fall, led by a fabulous Italian lady (in an Ungaro suit, Dior sunglasses, Gucci purse and the ubiquitous tan - kind of a slightly younger and less bosomy version of Sophia Loren). And pretty much whenever she was asked about the current pope, she always referred to him simply as "Ratzinger" - which just made me love her all the more.
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05/18/09
THE NEXT PART CONTAINS SPOILERS
Billions of Vulcans die and they don't even make an attempt to go back and fix the time line? They disrupt the time line all of the time in this series.
On a side note, if I was visited by my future self and I looked like Leonard Nimoy currently looks, I would have some serious questions about my health habits.
05/18/09
I mean, what if we redid Star Wars as a Woody Allen film? Do you think more than a few lightsaber-wielding 45 year old virgins would have something to say about that? Yeah, it's a nice piece of art and all, but it's nothing without the Star Trek brand attached to it, and it seriously screws with the brand, thus the New Coke comparison.
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Would you like to grab some coffee sometime?
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03/23/09
I once translated a video for a small Catholic church community. It was in Spanish. I had to do the sub-titles. This priest was telling people to report to the church before going to the cops with any allegations levied at church staff involving children. Basically telling the congregation to come to the church before going to the cops.
So considering that swell advice, I guess telling Africa to be abstinent is just par for the course.
Oh and: All religion is evil. (People don't do good because of religion. They're just good people.) I WOULD say Satan created religion, but, well, you know. . .
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I mean, is he not just truly scary looking? Like night-light scary looking?
Yeah, Mr. Cook. Nicely done. I look forward to the night terrors and the smell of burning horse hair later.
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Wake me when there's a Goosebumps movie.
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[But he's a working writer, so bless him...]
03/23/09
This post is innaccurate and offensive in so many ways, I don't even know where to begin, and I don't even consider myself to be Catholic anymore. But hell, I guess I'd better explain at least two points.
1.) The Pope was not speaking in a capacity where the doctrine of infallibility applied. A quick google search or check of Wikipedia would have given you that one.
2.) The Pope's argument against condoms was that encouraging the use of condoms could also encourage promiscuity, which would raise the risk of the disease spreading. It wasn't just condoms = evil. Furthermore, it should be no surprise to anyone that the Roman Catholic Church is against birth control. This isn't exactly news, and no one has to follow it except Catholics, who shouldn't be having sex outside of marriage anyway, and so theoretically shouldn't be catching HIV. Most Catholics I know who throw out the premarital sex bit also throw out the condom bit, so I wouldn't worry too much about those ones.
3.) The bishop in question had his excommunication revoked for reasons that have nothing to do with Holocaust denial. Holocaust denial is not an excommunicable offense. Does it make you a nice person? No. But theologically, that's the way it is. Did the Vatican need better PR handling on it? Sure. But it's hardly evidence that the Pope supports Holocaust denial.
4.) I enjoy the fact that you've ignored everything liberals would love about the Pope's trip to Africa. He condemned violence and war, and sexual violence against women. He has encouraged African leaders to fight poverty. He urged solidarity among nations to more equally distribute resources with the world's poor. He praised democracy and defended the equal dignity of men and women, encouraging laws to be enacted to ensure this if necessary.
But yeah, you know, why acknowledge any of that. Pope evil. End of story.
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I had to.
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