Results matching “not dead”

United States: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has set a new record for opening day takings, and is third, behind Spider-Man and Shrek 2 for all-time opening weekend takings. In comparison, The Passion of the Christ is eighth in the all-time US opening weekend chart, proving less popular than any of the Harry Potter films, The Matrix Reloaded and X2: X-Men United. All three Harry Potter movies thrashed Mel Gibson's vanity pic on the opening day as well. Fundies who think Harry Potter is the work of Satan may draw their own conclusions.

New 'Potter' sets June box office records - Detroit Free Press, 7th June 2004; All Time Box Office Opening Weekends and All Time Box Office Top Opening Day Grosses - Box Office Mojo, 7th June 2004 (this latter chart disagrees with the press reports, and places Spider-Man top).

The loony fundie party running in the European Parliamentary Elections in the UK on Thursday is funded with royalties from a song deliberately aimed at the gay market. Sinitta's So Macho was written by George Hargreaves, a songwriter and promoter who subsequenty turned Christian, and he has donated his royalties from that song to Opearation Christian Vote.

Ironically, he says he penned 'So Macho' not just for women but in a deliberate attempt to appeal to gay men's sense of humour...

It was a caricature of the medallion man, Hargreaves said. It was for women to dance round their handbags to and for the gay scene to go mad to on poppers, he admits. Despite this, Hargreaves does not accept the idea that his new vocation, which involves preaching on the sin of homosexuality, is hypocritical.

Those of us old enough to remember suspect the Buddhist Sinitta will not be impressed with her biggest hit being used to suppress women. Reverend's disco hit funds electoral bid—Scotland on Sunday, 6th June 2004 [BugMeNot] (thanks to Novice Nun the Wiser, OPI); see also Fetch the swingometer—Pagan Prattle, 28th May 2004.

It's rare for Neopagans to be marketed at - the Pagan Pound just doesn't have the buying power of a Pink one. But where there's a niche, there's someone willing to sell into it. Take Rhiannon's Realm: Celtic Mahjong Solitaire, for example, or more precisely, the blurb:

The first release by Evil Genius Games, Rhiannon's Realm is a Celtic take on the classic mahjong solitaire game. Tackle more than 65 challenging levels of stunning Celtic-themed artwork, to save the seasons of the year from an evil spell. Take your pick of 13 beautiful images to use as desktop wallpaper.

In its favour, it's quite pretty, and available for Mac OS X 10.2 or higher as well as various Windows.

United Kingdom: The Bishop of Manchester has expressed his opinion that the racist British National Party is incompatible with Christianity.

In a statement, he said Christians should not vote for those who would deny the... equal rights of others...

Rt Revd McCulloch said: Needless to say, we further urge all followers of Christ to use their vote wisely, and not to vote for any political party or candidate promoting division, exclusion and blame, or in any other way seeking to stir up racial and ethnic hatred...

We do not presume to advise which party or parties Christians should vote for.

However, we do affirm our conviction that genuine Christian discipleship is incompatible with actual support for racist and fascist parties, such as the BNP or the National Front.

In response, and apparently without irony, a BNP representative called the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch fascistic. Christians urged not to vote BNP - BBC News, 3rd June 2004.

United States: George W. Bush's election campaign might lead to some churches losing their tax exempt status because of the way it is trying to recruit support among churchgoers. E-mail sent by the campaign invites members of congregations to to serve as a coordinator in your place of worship, a task which involves distributing general information/updates or voter registration materials in a place accessible to the congregation.

The Internal Revenue Service prohibits political campaign activity, for or against any candidate, from taking place at all organizations that receive tax exempt status under a section of the federal tax code -- including most churches and religious groups. Violators could lose their tax breaks and face excise taxes.

Those who keep an eye on church/state issues are not impressed.

The director of a nonpartisan watchdog group called the campaign's church appeal a breathtakingly sad example of mixing religion and politics.

I have never in my life seen such a direct campaign to politicize American churches -- from any political party or from any candidate for public office, said Rev. Barry W. Lynn of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. By enrolling churches in an election scheme like this, I think the Bush-Cheney campaign is actually endangering those churches' tax exemptions without even the courtesy of telling them that they run a risk.

Bush Push May Cost Churches Tax Breaks - AP (via Yahoo! News), 2nd June 2004.

United States: A conference of health workers is examining a very interesting problem. It seems that there are health and safely issues unique to the Amish, and similar groups.

The conference topics ranged from the best way to mark and light a horse-drawn buggy to food sanitation, screening for hereditary diseases and manure management. The centerpiece was the release of a federally funded study of 1,200 injuries in 2002 to Old Order Amish and Mennonites -- who refer to themselves as Plain people.

Like other aspects of Amish life, many of the things that can hurt them are, to most Americans, unfamiliar remnants of an agrarian past -- kicking horses, tubs of boiling water and buggy crashes.

Conference focuses on Amish health problems - Centre Daily Times, 3rd June 2004.

United States: Fundie group the Focus on the Family want to hear your views on how wonderful marriage is, so they can publish a book calling for it to be denied to pooves.

E-mail us your anecdotes, stories and observations about the value of marriage to you -- and to society. How has being married made you a better man or woman? How has seeing the marriage of a friend or relative helped teach you valuable lessons about life? How did the unique contributions of each of your parents shape who you are today?

Those are the kinds of thoughts we'd like you to share in a message of no more than 400 words. Send it to citizenlink@family.org with the subject line Why Marriage Matters -- and be sure to include your name, address and phone number, in case we need to contact you.

Hmm...

I have only been married for eleven months, and we only bothered because of the legal and tax benefits. I admit I'm surprised how good it's been—our relationship is exactly the same as it was beforehand and we didn't start arguing like my married parents did throughout my childhood. So wonderful is it, that I would be more than happy to let my friends who happen to have same-sex partners share the joy (and especially the tax breaks).

I don't think that what they want, somehow (via Ex-Gay Watch).

No dungeon could possibly be complete without this charming Crystal with Cross embedded inside with Lights:

Crystal Cube comes with small platform. Platform shines flashing lights through crystal making the Jesus on the Cross embedded in the crystal cube come to life. Makes a very great gift. Bidding starts at one penny.

United States: A sect of loony fundies in New York, obviously of the belief that there's nothing more important to worry about in the world, have their knickers in a twist over crusteceans in their drinking water.

Orthodox Jews in New York have become concerned that the city's drinking water may not be kosher because it contains tiny crustaceans known as copepods.

The organisms, which measure about a millimeter long, pose no threat to human health, according to the city Department of Environmental Protection. But Orthodox teaching bars the eating of crustaceans — aquatic animals with skeletons outside their bodies, including shrimp, crab and lobsters.

The organisms first came to the attention of Jewish leaders in Brooklyn two weeks ago, The New York Times reported Tuesday. An Israeli produce company that exports kosher vegetables to New York alleged that its products had become infested with insects after being washed in the city's water.

If you're a company involved in water filters or bottled water it looks like scaring the insane is a great way to boost business.

Orthodox Jews Worry Water Isn't Kosher - AP, 1st June 2004.

England: 21 people have been injured, five seriously, during an annual cheese-rolling contest in Gloucestershire.

Some 20 men and women, including a streaker, pursued a 7lb Double Gloucester cheese in each of four races at Cooper's Hill near Brockworth.

Competitors came from all over the world and included one of Belgium's leading footballers, Leo Van der Elst.

The race is believed to date back about 2000 years. Cheese-rolling gets back on track - BBC News, 1st June 2004 (thanks to blame Mike Holmes).

Ghana: Two 'witches' have appeared in court on charges of assault, after they had a disagreement over a human body they were eating.

Prosecuting, Police Inspector K. Kpoafa told the court presided over by Mr Jacob Boon that in March 2004, a former policeman accompanied [Adwoa] Fosuaa and reported that Vida [Tiwaah] claimed she is a witch and that Fosuaa is also a witch and that they had moved together spiritually to practice their witchcraft.

He said the police was told that Fosuaa is alleged to have killed her sister through witchcraft and shared the meat with Vida, adding Vida claimed that she had repented and no longer practices witchcraft and therefore, wanted to return the meat to Fosuaa.

Inspector Kpoafa said because the ex-policeman wanted to make a formal complaint against Vida for disgracing Fosuaa who was his niece, however, he was told that police could not investigate such a spiritual case. Fosuaa and Oti Awere were advised to institute civil suit against Vida, but they did not heed to the advice, but rather resorted to casting insinuations as well as insults against Vida, which generated into a family feud with Vida on one side against Fosuaa and Awere on the other. Inspector Kpoafa said on April 29, Vida met Fosuaa and told her that since she had refused to come for the meat, they had to resort to physical means to resolve the issue.

The two allegedly began fighting at this point. Two witches clash over human flesh. - GhanaWeb, 31st May 2004.

Vatican: As if pimping the film first time around wasn't bad enough, the boys in the frocks and silly hats have set the wheels in motion to offer up a sainthood to the mad old broad who wrote the book that inspired Gibson to inflict his drivel on the world.

The 19th century German nun whose blood-soaked visions of Jesus's death inspired Mel Gibson's film The Passion of The Christ will soon be put on the path to sainthood, Catholic Church officials have said.

Anne Catherine Emmerich, a sickly mystic who lived from 1774 to 1824, has already reached near cult status among traditionalist Roman Catholics for the book that gave Gibson the grisly details the Gospels did not provide.

Australia: The Anglican Church in Adelaide has had the wind put up its skirts after an independent inquiry into its habit of not only turning a blind eye to kiddie fondling priests, but actively protecting them from prosecution, was released. The head sherrang has made a weak apology, but refuses to resign.

An independent inquiry into the Anglican church's handling of child sex abuse allegations in South Australia has found the church was uncaring towards victims.

The inquiry was conducted by retired Supreme Court justice Trevor Olsson and social work lecturer Donna Chung, after claims that a former youth worker abused up to 200 boys.