(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

Busloads of Kids Visit Jackson's Neverland Ranch -- You know, I've come to realize that I don't hate Michael Jackson because he might be a child molestor. I hate him because he's a fucking idiot. I'm being accused of child abuse, so I'll invite some kids to my house. Tomorrow, I'm going to commit an ax murder and then have the Lumberjack Olympics on my front lawn. Sheesh.

Gay Teen Expelled From High School -- Oh, for fuck's sake.

In U.S., 44 Percent Say Restrict Muslims -- ... the hell?! You know what stories like this remind me of? I think it was Patton Oswalt who pointed out that the average IQ is 100, which means that half of the population has a double-digit IQ. *sigh*

EDIT: Also, I listened to Bill O'Reilly again yesterday, and he seriously needs to have someone explain to him that liberals aren't going to outlaw Christmas and burn down every church in the country or something. No, really.

Comments

[wal-lace.livejournal.com]

The world is a stupid place.

Seriously, they expelled him for being gay? What next? People expelled for liking blondes?

[budclare.livejournal.com]

"People expelled for liking blondes?"

Better to expell people for that than for being gay. ;)

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

sounds like s good idea to me.

*does so*

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

I imagine under the circumstances the Neverland trip has been carefully monitored and they probably never even got to meet or see Michael. More than likely if he was there, they didn't let him alone with anybody.

I seem to recall this being an annual thing they do with kids every year.

It might even have been calculated by his spindoctors to show what a not-child molestor he is.

Not that I'm defending it. I just know the fucked up way the media and PR works.

[guinwhyte.livejournal.com]

He came out and said a few words to them while the bus was coming in, but didn't get close to them.

[whispersinink.livejournal.com]

1) This isn't really surprising. The man is PR Deaf, and he needs to be declared handicapped for the lack of common sense.

2) I am REALLY not surprised by this. It was a Christian school, and Cal Lutheran in California has had issues like this I think (along with several Baptist colleges). If you're gay, and Christian, most of your religion hates you. Sorry, but the major Christian institutions go out of their way to discriminate based on their faith.

3) I love that by the second paragraph they point out that the Repubs and "Moral Majority" make up the lion's share of the 44 % in favor.


Lewd comment (sorry): Why do you watch Bill O'Reilly? Don't tell me your really waiting for the new Factor rectal massager! Could you imagine though, that if good ol' Bill weren't as deviant as he is, how anal he might be then? Maybe the Liberals need to get together and buy him the John Holmes version, so he'll lower his inane ranting to Limbaugh level.


**This is me being snarky first thing in the morning.**

[lots42.livejournal.com]

What pisses me off about O'Reilly are his talking points. He's SAYING stuff, why do we need simplified text next to his pineapple-head?

"In other news, I have decided that my viewers are idiots who need help with my opinions. Also, I am ugly."

Text: Viewers = idiots. Bill = pineapple-head.

[dorei.livejournal.com]

Eh. The gay expulsion doesn't surprise me. He attended a Christian school and Christian dogma states that his orientation is wrong, per some silly verse in Romans. (I find that amusing, as everyone knows that the only way to separate the men from the boys in Rome is with a crowbar.)

And it's also terrible that they told his parents, but unless James was the one paying his tuition, I can't see how they could avoid it. They're going to expel him; what the hell WOULD they tell his parents who have shelled out over $10k a year that their son isn't going to graduate?

It would be wonderful if this school could decide that homosexuality is not a sin. Unfortunately, they view it that way, their religion states it is, and they don't want to go against their religion. And they shouldn't have to. And really, what sort of experience would the remainder of James's senior year be like? The entire school would treat him as some sort of pariah. Other parents would view his being allowed to stay in the school as tacit approval of his "sin" and would likely pull their children out of the school.

[wal-lace.livejournal.com]

Okay, but would they have kicked him out if he'd been caught masturbating, for example? It's all sin from that kind of viewpoint (and technically, so is wearing cotton/polyester blends, eating non-kosher meat, and speaking to a woman when it's that time of the month).

[dorei.livejournal.com]

Actually those last things you mentioned are from the old testament, not the new one, but in regard to masturbation? I honestly don't remember if that's listed in the new testament or not, but either way, I imagine it depends on how conservative the doctrine at the school is.

[drewbeartx.livejournal.com]

Referring to Old Testament passages is apt in this case, as most (not all, but most) anti-homosexual Christians cite Leviticus as the Biblical grounds to hate homosexuality. Leviticus is essentially a book of ecumenical "dos and don'ts" couched in religious terms in order to make the believers follow these "sanitary" rules. It's also the book that has prohibitions against wearing clothing made of more than one type of thread (no blends), against eating fruit of a tree less than (I think) 5 years old, and has a whole list of non-kosher (forbidden) foods, including owl.

At the time, many of these rules made sense, as they were sanitary rules: you couldn't trust certain meats to not spoil or be disease-free, so don't ever eat them. As for the rest of them? I don't know where they came from or what their purpose was.

But from a Christian interpretation of the Bible and the Testaments, it doesn't matter! Jesus Christ himself said that the prohibitions and restrictions of the Old Testament were void and that (essentially) people should follow the Golden Rule. (I'm trying to look up the verse reference right now, but my connection is slow. I'm repost when I find it)

[drewbeartx.livejournal.com]

Nevermind. I didn't see your response to the post immediately below this one. I was actually unaware of the Romans reference. Do you have a verse number?

[dorei.livejournal.com]

Rom 1:26-27.

[seferin.livejournal.com]

They mistranslated. Greeks did not have a word for Homosexual, since the entire culture was Bisexual.

[seferin.livejournal.com]

1> The rules from the Torah apply to Jews only, thus the Almight does not seem to mine NON-JEWISH Homosexuals.

2> Masterbation refers to Onan, the son of Judah, son of Israel/Jacob. He "spilled his seed" so as to not give his sister in law a child after his brother died. The spilling of the seed was never the crime, it was the refusal to give his sister in law a child.

3> What bothers me the most about the comment like "Old Testament" is that Jews did then, and still now, constantly debate what the Almighty meant, just in case they are wrong. Their logic is that while the Torah may be perfect, the interpretation may change, as it is interpreted by man. Thus, it is perfectly acceptable to change the rules under the theory that it was the MEN interpreting the rules which made the mistake. When did these fundamentalists ever think for themselves? Did God give us a brain, which he never wanted us to use?

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Silly, our brainpower should be used in making up new song lyrics and rhymes for Jesus.

[whispersinink.livejournal.com]

I thought Leviticus was the big chapter that was used in justification against gays. (?)

[dorei.livejournal.com]

Many do, but really, you can't use old testament to argue christian doctrine as they have a new testament. The law was made unnecessary by the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth. So really, anything in the old testament isn't valid for being "right in the eyes of god".

That would mean great things for homosexuals, except for that pesky verse in Romans, which basically means, sorry guys, its still wrong for christians to have sex with another person of the same sex.

[wal-lace.livejournal.com]

Romans as in, the Epistle to the Romans? Written by St Paul? Who as a matter of historical record was actively homosexual?

Wow.

[dorei.livejournal.com]

Yep.

Rom 1:26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Maybe the due penalty was chafing

[budclare.livejournal.com]

"its still wrong for christians to have sex with another person of the same sex."

What about having sex with two other people of the same sex? You can't tell me that Romans has an anti-orgy clause. ;)

[dorei.livejournal.com]

LOL Funny you should mention that.

Rom 13:13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

Well that's...thorough. Pooh.

(Not that it has anything to do with me one way or the other, but still.)

[guinwhyte.livejournal.com]

Divorce (and especially remarriage, which is adultery) are not okay in the New Testament either. And y'know, these things never happen among Christians or in a Christian church. *twitch*

[budclare.livejournal.com]

I think that the unspoken consensus is that those people aren't true Christians...unless they happen to be, you know, a family member or close friend, in which case all is forgiven. Behold the power of in-groups and out-groups and tremble.

[sesana]

My pastor (at a conservative, Missouri Synod Lutheran church) was divorced and remarried. I remember that we had very, very long discussions over his worth as a pastor.

[spyderqueen.livejournal.com]

I love how followers begin misinterpreting Jesus so quickly after his death. Jesus never said the vast majority of things in the Epistles

[seferin.livejournal.com]

Except that Jesus was Jewish. And if the rules were good enough for him?

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I freaked out and grabbed my letter-writing pen of doom, but then I read that it was a private Christian college. THANK GOD.

But the last article? *twitch*

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

You know, I've come to realize that I don't hate Michael Jackson because he might be a child molestor. I hate him because he's a fucking idiot. I'm being accused of child abuse, so I'll invite some kids to my house.

You know - I agree with you - but I have to say that if I were a parent there is no way in hell I'd send my child there. I think the parents are more stupid than Jacko.

"Hmm... let's see... honey, why don't you go play with Michael Jackson today?... Oh I know they say he's molested children several times, but he's really a very nice man..."

Seriously... what kind of parent would put their child in that situation?

[lots42.livejournal.com]

One who wants a ten million dollar settlement

Because I Never Can Resist a Chance to Use This Quote

[catystorm.livejournal.com]

President Josiah Bartlet: Good. I like your show. I like how you call homosexuality an abomination.
Dr. Jenna Jacobs: I don't say homosexuality is an abomination, Mr. President. The Bible does.
President Josiah Bartlet: Yes it does. Leviticus.
Dr. Jenna Jacobs: 18:22.
President Josiah Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I have you here. I'm interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of Staff Leo McGarry insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police? Here's one that's really important because we've got a lot of sports fans in this town: touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those questions, would you? One last thing: while you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building, when the President stands, nobody sits.

Re: Because I Never Can Resist a Chance to Use This Quote

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

*claps gleefully* I love that quote. Some day I'll memorize it and recite it to anyone who cites Leviticus at me.

[spyderqueen.livejournal.com]

About O'Reilly though, if you see him on more reasonable shows you get to realize "He doesn't believe this shit EITHER!" He's pandering for ratings.


For some twisted reason I respect that a little more. Maybe because I firmly believe in the right to make money off of stupid people.

[the-lizard-rat.livejournal.com]

*shuffles his Tarot cards and grins like an idiot*

Lizard Rat out.
Tarot Reader in New Haven CT

[ficangel.livejournal.com]

As much as I want to hug the gay kid and tell him that it's all going to be better (and kudos to him for the way he handled it-sucess is the best revenge), I'm not sure what the ACLU can do. Private school, not accepting federal money...it's back to the dance between infringing upon one group's rights in order to protect another's. Doesn't stop me from wanting to kick his principle right in the balls, though. Sure, outing the legal adult against his wishes is clearly the best way to show that you're part of a religion of compassion. Uh-huh.

Restricting the civil liberties of Muslims: I want to tell myself that we've moved forward from the place we were at immediately after Pearl Harbor, but the 'Hulk, smash!' urges are overwhelming me.

[pescivendolo.livejournal.com]

My junior prom date got kicked out of a Christian high school for being gay. To me, it's hardly newsworthy. It's sad and terrible, but not surprising or even new.

Funny, though, how you wouldn't get kicked out of a Christian school for lying. Or having heterosexual premarital sex. Even though both are sins.

Also funny how these are the people getting upset over that UCC ad, claiming that it wrongfully paints them as bigots. Hmmmm.

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

It always makes me laugh that as a Christian Liberal aparently I am attacking myself....

[budclare.livejournal.com]

Kinky. ;)

[fyrdrakken]

Oh, groovy. The school that booted the gay kid and made him drop his website first and made a special point of telling his parents since he'd specifically asked them not to was right here in Dallas. Lovely, lovely. (And I'm especially peeved by that bit where it notes that he pointed out his age and non-minor status and explicitly requested that the principal not tell his parents, which the principal ignored with no doubt equal amounts of self-righteousness and of disdain for the wishes of a youth. Meshes well with a post I read today by chuthulhu linking to three articles and bitching about the way children are treated in today's American society.)

[fyrdrakken]

Sorry, chuthulu and the post was here.