The Hobbit is racist!

Well Peter Jackson must be anyway. And I'm probly going to come off as a racist by the time I'm done with this. A British actress of Pakistani descent was turned down for a role as a Hobbit based on her skin colour.

She tells the Waikato Times, "It's 2010 and I still can't believe I'm being discriminated against because I have brown skin. The casting manager basically said they weren't having anybody who wasn't pale-skinned. I would love to be an extra. But it just seemed like a shame because obviously hobbits are not brown or black or any other colour. 

Apparently, there are no brown-skinned Hobbits. I never read about any in the books. I never saw anything but short, pale Hobbits in the previous Lord of the Rings movies and in the old animated Hobbit movie. It would make sense for the sake of storyline continuity that they only have pale skinned Hobbits. Isn't that how they are described in the books? I don't think this constitutes racism, though I guess they could have had a make-up artist paint her white. Doubt that would have been acceptable.

Humphreys has now created a campaign group on Facebook.com titled "Hire Hobbits of all colours! Say no to Hobbit racism!"

I haven't found it yet, if anyone does, please drop me a link.

I'm finding this to be ridiculous. Seriously, I've never seen nor read about a Hobbit that was anything other than short and white. While we are playing the race card here, why don't cast Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming as Hobbits as well? And, in the name of equality, have Gandalf played by a fat black woman. I got it! Tyler Perry's Madea as Gandalf! That's got some serious comedy potential and will keep blacks, fat people and transvestites from complaining. Also, they need to add some flamboyantly gay Asian Hobbits. And some Hispanic Hobbits, bot gay and straight, maybe a drag queen or two. I mean who cares if J.R.R. Tolkein's work get's totally butchered, we need diversity!

In fact, some movies should be remade to include more racial and cultural diversity. For instance, Roots should be redone with Caucasian, Hispanic and Asian slaves. Pocahontas should have more people of colour because Native Americans clearly were not one colour. Same goes for 300, the Spartans couldn't have been all white. Let's just throw continuity and keeping to the story out the window in the name of diversity. Come on people, it's 2010!

About Pastor Adam C. Briggs

Normally I wouldn't waste my time with or give attention to this righteous troll. Normally I'd consider myself above attacking someone that is so witless and cowardly. But sometimes you just have to put someone in their place and this someone has been a thorn in my side for some time. It's time I get this off my chest like I've been meaning to. By the way, I'm hoping this gets back to Adam. I want it to. The invite is open from him to come here, on my turf and show me I'm in any way wrong or make some attempt at defending himself. I seriously doubt he will.

I'm going to pose a similar question to what he posed a while back when he took a few of the things I said in my online profiles out of context. He asked if I should be teaching children. I now ask if Pastor Adam is the kind of person you want leading you in prayer.

In fact, let's start with that. Why is it that he found it important to leave out my educational background (right there in the same profile), yet bold "drag queen?" Is being an artist/entertainer a bad thing when one is also a teacher? When I was in school, I had a teacher that was a drummer in a band, did that somehow make him unfit to teach as well? I'd like an answer to that. I think Adam was making an attempt to discredit me in some way, which makes leaving out facts that go against your point OK.

Adam likes to totally dehumanize and demonize people that may not agree with him as evidenced in his own blog. Such as this post accusing someone he quite obviously knows little about of being a eugenicist. Watch what you say on Twitter folks, there's no telling what he may accuse you of. The response to his post from the author of that Tweet was epic pwnage. Do you really want someone that makes these kind of accusations leading you to Jesus?

There's also this older post where he says things about a grocery store clerk that I can only guess he didn't have the balls to say to their face. He's pretty insistent that they are insistent on insulting him. Maybe it was too much for his narrow mind to ask "why all the questions?" If the conversation went verbatim as he typed it, I would have to say the clerk was either being nosey or maybe really did want a big family. I've been know to ask similar questions because large families are not very common. The national average is what? 2.5? What I also don't get is if he was offended, why didn't he say something to the store manager? Should someone that cowardly condemns another person for asking what may very well be innocent questions be on the pulpit?

Adam has also made some comments on a mock site for his favourite homophobic cookie shop. Not quite sure what he said, but it was too naughty for them to approve. Wow, a pastor that says offensive things on the internets and/or uses bad words? This guy is really digging a hole for himself.

Adam Briggs says:
September 30, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Isn’t it funny that my comment supporting “Just Cookies” has not been approved for publication. I thought this website didn’t support discrimination?

admin says:
September 30, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I reserve the right to censor comments that I would not want my children to see. The wording you chose to utilize in your comment fell into this category. I do not censor based on views, obviously.

Adam Briggs says:
September 30, 2010 at 4:59 pm
The word I used is in every major dictionary and is acceptable even in law books here in the U.S. You have now shown that you discriminate as much as the next citizen does. Discrimination is part of every day life, get over it.

How's that for Christian love?

Now if all that isn't enough, well, look through my blog where I've pointed out more of his idiocy.

http://persephone66.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-was-going-to-lay-off-fundies-for.html
http://persephone66.blogspot.com/2010/09/one-pastor-decides-not-to-burn-qurans.html
http://persephone66.blogspot.com/2010/04/yeah-this-guy-puts-mental-in.html

Do I really need to say more? I could, but I've said enough for now.

Was I the only one that noticed how he clams up when confronted? I wonder why.

I was going to lay off the fundies for a while, then I saw this -

No really you can't be this stupid.

Christians aren't an offense to society at large. The homos on the other hand are spreading their disease in murderous fashion in city and country alike. Also, they are decreasing our population leaving us open to a future Muslim takeover.

That being said folks, you should stop being gay and get to breeding! The Muslims are coming! THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING!!!!!! Pastor Adam Briggs of Damascus Road Bible Fellowship said so!

A few muslims are terrorists, so let's burn a Quran!

Let's not.

Before I get started on what I know is going to be a long rant, take a look at these links-

http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68592

http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Burn-A-Koran-Day/134718123226530?v=wall

Yeah, I know the first one is a forum post that links to the second, but there are quite a few people there that are all for this. If I were not currently banned from that forum, I'd post a link to this if not just post the whole thing there. If anyone would like to do that on my behalf, I'd be pretty cool with it. I'd like to get some comments from those that support burning the Quran or any other book. You know, have like a discussion?

I'm very against this. I know not all Muslims are terrorists. The people behind what happened on 9/11/2001 were, but they only represent a relative few that are extremist fanatics. Nearly all Muslims I have encountered are pretty nice. Aside from that I am against book burnings in general. Nearly all books serve either a purpose of education or entertainment. I think it's completely asinine to to burn a book because you don't like it or don't agree with it. Burning a religious text carries a bit of added weight as that text hols a pretty special meaning to those who are members of the religion that is attached to that text. Burning a holy text is purely an act of hate and ignorance.

From the Facebook link -

On September 11th, 2010, from 6pm - 9pm, we will burn the Koran on the property of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!

Did I read that right? In remembrance? That alone is something I've got a pretty big issue with. There's a lot better things one can do in remembrance of those that died that day than commit a blatant act of hate. It's total disrespect! Why not have a big group prayer for those that died, their families they left behind and the soldiers still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan? I don't believe in praying as I am an atheist, but I do understand that most people that belong to one religion or another do. That's at least respectful. Or how about some big charity fund raiser for the families of the victims? Or send care packages to the soldiers? Or just do something positive and respectful?

But there's other problems I have. As I said, not all Muslims are terrorists. Islam is the second largest religion and accounts for 23% of the worlds population, about 1.57 billion people. At least that's what Wikipedia tells me. It's only a relative few, pretty much their equivalent to militant fundamentalist Christians, that do commit terrorist acts. It seems rather asinine to burn Qurans over a few when many of them are not bad people at all. It would be like burning KJV's because the members of Westboro Baptist Church are total fucking douchebags. In other words, committing a hateful act toward a large group is just ridiculous when only a few are the problem.

And about burning the Quran. It's a religious text. Just a book to anyone else, but to a Muslim it's pretty special. Burning it is only going to make the terrorist fanatics fell justified in their actions and at least annoy the rest. Not to mention make those doing the burning and anyone even remotely associated look bad. Great move there folks, you are doing America a real solid. If any reading this is planning on participating in burning Qurans, before you do, think about how you would feel if it was your holy text that someone was burning.

Another thought on this, where are they going to get the Qurans from? If they are going to acquire them legitimately, well that's a lot of sales of Qurans. The people publishing them and the bookstores I'm sure will appreciate your money. Heck it may even look like a lot of people just converted to Islam. And if they are acquired not so legitimately? Well isn't there something in the Bible that says "Thou shalt not steal"? Hmmm Exodus 20:15, Matthew 19:18, Romans 13:9. And it's usually in the front of the Bible with the rest of the 10 Commandments. So if you are not purchasing your Quran before you burn it and you believe what the Bible says, you are going to Hell. Why not give that money to a charity? You know, do something positive with it? A Quran costs between $8 and $40. You could feed or clothe some people with that. Heck if a large enough group gave that each, they could probly put a child of one of the victims through college, if not a few. Just another thought.

Another thing to those that are planning on burning a Quran. Have you read it? If you are going to buy it, you might as well read it before tossing it in to the fire. If anything so you really know what you are burning and why you are burning it. You might learn something. I suggest you not burn it. Read it and keep it as a reference. It may come in handy in a theological debate with a Muslim. It's why I keep a Bible handy as well as having BibleGateway.com bookmarked. This quote from Sun Tzu's Art of War comes to mind.

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

Not that I consider Muslims or Christians to be enemies of mine, but I do get into debates with them, mostly the latter. Getting back to the point, burning any text without reading and understanding it is just ignorant.

In closing and to sum it up, anyone that is participating in a Quran burning is only exposing their hate, ignorance, disrespect and just being a total douchebag. I feel like for the most part I'm preaching to the choir here, but if I change someone's mind or cause them to think, well them my time wasn't completely wasted. At least I got it off my chest.

I guess he does have a point.

And this is why I love TheologyOnline, only there can I find people that think this is a completely logical argument.

Originally Posted by Nick M You must be one big retard to say Boeing 777's just devolp into working machines if left in a pile of parts over billions of years.

Source.

I really wish he was joking.

More fun with Fundies

I think the PM I just received is pretty self explanatory.

Dear Persephone66,

You have received a warning at Theology Forum | Theology Online.

Reason:
-------
Unnecessarily disruptive

If you have nothing to add please stay out of the thread.

In fact... if you have nothing to add to the forum in general, please find another forum to participate on.
-------

Original Post:
http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2287705

Quote:

Umm look it up on wikipedia?

Warnings serve as a reminder to you of the forum's rules, which you are expected to understand and follow.

All the best,
Theology Forum | Theology Online

Well excuse me for giving you a pretty valid suggestion!

He wanted to know what legalism meant. Perhaps he fears that spending time on sites like wikipedia might enlighten him. He could have done a fucking google search too. Or at least rephrased his question a little differently. Like maybe said "What does legalism mean to you?" Is that really so hard?

Christians say the damnedest, and the funniest, things

Here's a wonderful gem from TheologyOnline.com -

You could put 50 pieces of paper in a hat, each with the name of a state on
it. Pull one out and that you tell you which state the new king is going to be
selected from. Then you could put all the counties in that state in a hat and
pull one out. Then you could put all the cities in that county in a hat and pull
one out. Then put all the streets in the city in a hat and pull one out. Then
pull a house number, then choose the youngest adult male in that household as
the king.

That doesn't have to be the method. Any random method whatsoever would
work just fine.

Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the
lap,But its every decision is from the LORD.

Source.

This is how a Christian thinks a leader should be chosen. Not just any leader mind you, a king. And at that a single monarch, no judiciary or legislature. Just pluck someone at random and give him all the power. You know, because the "Lord" really chose him because it was at random.

Does this make sense to anyone? It sounds like something that would take epic levels of lunacy and stupidity to think it's a great idea. Random chance isn't how you make a decision as important as who should rule and represent your country.

So happy I was smart enough to realize the Bible is poorly written fiction used to control masses to stupid to know better. Christianity is a cancer on human existence that needs to be cut away before it does more damage.

One of my more amusing quotes as of late.

At least I think so.

On arguing with conservative Christians online -

Arguing with conservative Christian windbags is fun. But if you are doing it on the interwebs, make sure your spelling and grammar are absolutely perfect. This is more important than your actual argument, especially when they are wrong or have no real argument and are too full of themselves to admit it. Eventually they will resort to some form of childish name calling, that's when it starts getting funny.

I don't think I have ever said anything more true.

Some people are just fucking despicable

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I feel like I should have done something. But my options were limitted and I doubt my saying something would have done anything. If I had a cell phone, I would not have hesitated to call the police. I didn't really have time to run to a pay phone.

Here's what happened. While I was waiting for the bus, a woman and her son came to the stop and sat down. Judging by their bags it looked like they were shopping at the local K-mart and Wal-Mart. Really no big deal until the boy runs off and comes back with a board game in it's box. I wasn't paying that close attention. Kathy was at the stop with me and we were talking about stuff, mostly Warhammer 40K stuff. We started paying closer attention and saw that they went from the bus stop to the drop containers for the local Goodwill and Salvation Army that were nearby and proceeded to loot them. I was a bit shocked. I could see a kid that didn't know any better doing this, but an adult? A parent? Really What they fuck!?!?!?!?!?

And after they were don't looting one, they just when on to the next, their bags from the stores getting more full. They even grabbed a TV. They loaded it and the rest of the loot in a shopping cart and took off. At that point they were across the street and I could see the bus coming.

Just annoyed me so much. How low do you have to be to steal from a charity? What is her kid learning from this? Even if they were poor themselves, that's no excuse. Those drop boxes are not there for people to loot. I really wish I could have called the cops.

Another thing that makes me wish I had a car.

Fucked up people like the one I encountered tonight on my way to work. I've seen this one guy before. Every time I've seen him, he seems drunk and just really annoying. He never has his money or bus pass ready. He is always bothering somebody, usually the nearest woman. Also, he just looks really dirty, unkept and has kind of a creepy look about him. Tonight he took it a step further. He didn't seem to care too much that his shorts were way too loose on him. I'm not making this up – there was a few times that his manly bits were exposed. I didn't care to see that. Or his ass for that matter. Maybe it's just me, but I think I'd be a little too embarrassed to talk to anyone after accidentally flashing them, save for an apology. Not the case with this guy. Just went right into trying to flirt with the lady near him. After she got off he went on to talking to anyone with in an earshot about some nonsense regarding conspiracy, cameras, Scientology and cell phones.

I wanted to say something to this rather disgusting lunatic. However, I know it would have gotten me nowhere. So instead I ignored him the best I could and now I'm trashing him in my blog. It may have been a bit more amusing if I had a camera to get a picture or two of him with. I doubt anyone would want to see it though. I'm glad I was looking about as masculine as I get. Last thing I need is for this creep to be flirting with me.

Not really eventful day, but some things are on my mind

Got up this evening and hit the fitness center for an hour. Had a pretty good work out. I'm going to continue to do this every day. Saw some of the other tenants there. They all seemed like nice people. Property manager was getting a workout there too. Cool. I'd like to meet more people in the complex.

On my way to the bus stop, I stopped at the K-mart to pick up something to eat while at work. Got a little annoyed at the cashier when I was told that next time I have to leave my backpack at the counter. They said it's for their protection to keep things from being stolen from the store. I told her I like to keep it on me for my protection from things being stolen out of it. Seriously, I keep my laptop and my MP3player in there and I am not about to have either disappear in the care of K-mart employees. Besides I keep my money in there, so that's rather inconvenient for them. And finally, no other stores want to hold on to my bag, why does Kmart?

While waiting for the bus there was a few people their that were pretty downtrodden. At least one of them did have a place, I'm not sure about the others. They kept asking me for change and cigarettes. I'm once again attempting to quit smoking, so no cigs. I don't really have the money for them and I really should quit anyway. The fact that they jacked up the taxes on them again is enough to make me not want to smoke. If it's not obvious, I didn't give them any money either, though when the bus came I did pass another guy a quarter that came up a little short on bus fare. Another thing about these people, they has some items that they were taking to the stores (there's a Walmart across from the Kmart)to be returned. No receipts for the items though. I guessed they were stolen or bought somewhere else at a discounted price. They were even joking with each other about what excuse they were going to use for the receipt.

In my browsing of the different blogs I read, I noticed that a fundie pastor pulled his dick out of a choir boy long enough to put words in my mouth in response to some comments we have been throwing back and forth at each other. His actions remind me of something Voltaire was talking about in his most recent blog. It amuses me how quick people are to pass judgement on someone they know little about. And, yes, the reference above was an example of that.

At this point I'm expecting to have a long, boring night ahead of me. I think I'll do some writing and some design work.

I hate card people

In case you don't know what I mean by card people, it's an asshat that was issued a frequent buyer type card by a business and thinks that said business owes them everything.

Earlier tonight a diamond level card person throwing a fit because the Starbucks at the hotel was out of the tea he wanted. I didn't handle the issue. I'm glad I didn't. I would have had trouble containing myself. The guy told the front desk clerk he was complaining to that Starbucks was closing early and refusing to serve him. Not the case, they were just out of a particular type of tea. That's all and his diamond status isn't going to fix that. It can't fix the fact that he's a total asshole either.

I guess being a diamond member makes it OK to lie to get what you want and get people that work at the hotel in trouble. Because the other night auditor was ready to yell at the baristas until he found out the real story.

The customer is not always right, in some cases the customer is a lying sack of shit, especially if they have a card. And that's the problem, card carrying assholes like the one in this story ruin it for the good card carrying frequent customers. They are like spoiled bratty children, but worse because they are adults.