I Had A Random Thought...

[tegan]

[Zeusthecat]

Thank you for that tegan! Those cheerful tunes and toad sounds made my day.

[Twig]

As I was lying in bed last night, I laughed out loud at the fact that I frequently use "God" and "Jesus Christ" in vain, despite being an atheist. And I know I'm not the only one. I've also known both Muslims and Jews to similarly use "Jesus" like that.

[Zeusthecat]

As I was lying in bed last night, I laughed out loud at the fact that I frequently use "God" and "Jesus Christ" in vain, despite being an atheist. And I know I'm not the only one. I've also known both Muslims and Jews to similarly use "Jesus" like that.

 

On a related note, someone in Tennessee recently named their child Messiah and a Tennessee judge ruled that she had to change the child's name. In the ruling the judge stated that only one person was allowed to have that name: Jesus Christ. I wonder what the legal basis was behind that ruling. Should every Hispanic person named Jesus also have to change their name?

[I Saw Dasein]

I wonder what the legal basis was behind that ruling.

There wasn't one. It sounds like the ACLU is helping fund an appeal of that decision and the trial judge will almost certainly be reversed.

[Zeusthecat]

There wasn't one. It sounds like the ACLU is helping fund an appeal of that decision and the trial judge will almost certainly be reversed.

 

Yeah, but what's sad is that that judge will continue to sit on her bench despite the fact that she used her position to impose her religious beliefs on others.

 

Zeus be praised.

[Twig]

That's dumb.

 

But I think naming your kid "Messiah" is even dumber, so I'm not sure whose side I'm really on.

 

EDIT: Actually I take it back, the more I say it, the more I think of it outside the context of Christianity, and it doesn't sound that bad, meaning aside. Still, probably not the best decision to bog your kid down with that kind of name.

[Zeusthecat]

It's apparently one of the fastest growing names in the US.

[Twig]

Yeah I read that and was confused. But hey whatever give your kids weird names.

[tegan]

DIDST THOU KNOW? People with uncommon names are more likely to be incarcerated. I believe "Ivan" is the most disproportionately frequently-jailed.

 

The Messiah kid story reminds me of that family that named their kids Adolf Hitler and Aryan Race.

[syntheticgerbil]

As I was lying in bed last night, I laughed out loud at the fact that I frequently use "God" and "Jesus Christ" in vain, despite being an atheist. And I know I'm not the only one. I've also known both Muslims and Jews to similarly use "Jesus" like that.

Oh yeah, "God damn it," is my goto phrase for everything and it's more a habit from partly my dad's way of swearing with growing up and that lots of other people love to god damn it. I figured there's no point in stopping even though I'm not religious because I like the way, "GOD DAMN IT" rolls off the tongue.

 

Also, Messiah is going to have the coolest fucking nick name: Mess.

[Twig]

Yeah it feels real good, goddamnit.

[miffy495]

If Messiah turns out to be a particularly conventionally attractive person, the amount of "hot Mess" jokes will no doubt be infuriating.

[SecretAsianMan]

One of my friends growing up was Mormon.  While he never took personal offense at my saying "God" and "Jesus", I knew it made him uncomfortable so I eventually started saying stuff like "Jebus" instead and it's just sort of stuck.

 

Also, the Messiah name story reminds me of a Seinfeld joke about how naming your kid Jeeves means he's destined to become a butler.

[elmuerte]

"People who don't believe in Jesus will go to hell"*

 

was on a sign some old guy was holding last week near our office.

 

*) believing is hell is a requirement.

[brkl]

[Zeusthecat]

I imagine hell would be filled with Maenads and Satyrs. 

[I Saw Dasein]

na it's three french dudes in a room.

[Roderick]

"People who don't believe in Jesus will go to hell"*

 

was on a sign some old guy was holding last week near our office.

 

*) believing is hell is a requirement.

 

In the actual Netherlands? When does that happen? Who does that? Any proselytizing Christians I encounter are usually extremely meek and non-confrontational.

[osmosisch]

If memory serves Elmuerte is kind of in our version of the Bible Belt.

[I Saw Dasein]

wow, I had no idea Dan Simmons was competing with Orson Scott Card for craziest right-wing sci-fi hack! 

 

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/28/137621172/one-rant-too-many-politics-mar-simmons-dystopia

[tegan]

wow, I had no idea Dan Simmons was competing with Orson Scott Card for craziest right-wing sci-fi hack! 

 

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/28/137621172/one-rant-too-many-politics-mar-simmons-dystopia

 

Have you heard Card lately?

 

Where will he get his "national police"? The NaPo will be recruited from "young out-of-work urban men" and it will be hailed as a cure for the economic malaise of the inner cities.

In other words, Obama will put a thin veneer of training and military structure on urban gangs, and send them out to channel their violence against Obama's enemies.

Instead of doing drive-by shootings in their own neighborhoods, these young thugs will do beatings and murders of people "trying to escape" -- people who all seem to be leaders and members of groups that oppose Obama.

[elmuerte]

In the actual Netherlands? When does that happen? Who does that? Any proselytizing Christians I encounter are usually extremely meek and non-confrontational.

Yep. There's also this other guy which I've seen more often at the central train station (which is near the office) who is yelling various religion things (in English). He usually holds a bible in one hand, and a goat horn (I think) in the other.

 

This stuff starting about a month ago. I think in about a month or so there will be a guy wearing a sandwich board with the text "The end is nigh"

 

If memory serves Elmuerte is kind of in our version of the Bible Belt.

But I work in Rotterdam, and that's where this happens.

[Roderick]

Were you ever in Eindhoven in the last 20 years? You might've encountered Arnol, the local street shouter for Jesus. A remarkable figure, passionate and amusing at the same time. He'd yell all these bizarre phrases at everyone. My favorite was "I just drank a coke with Jesus, and did you know what he told me...?", repeating that over and over.

[Twig]

I clicked on "View new content" and read "Sorry, no new food found." as I immediately closed the tab, recognizing a lack of... food.

 

What the hell did my brain just do to me. The words "content" and "food" don't even look alike!