All the religions are seething with jealousy now, I’m sure. Look at the nifty present the Russian Orthodox Church got.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was presented with an unlikely gift for a religious leader this week as he toured a factory in Russia’s far-east – a single-seater fighter jet SU-35.
Kirill was presented with the jet after giving workers at the civilian and military aircraft plant icons blessed by himself, the church said in a statement on its official website on Tuesday.
This might be the start of a very bad tradition. Next thing you know, the Vatican is going to want to upgrade their halberdiers, the Mormons are going to want an armor battalion, and the Scientologists will demand their very own laser death ray satellite. Fortunately, Putins are rare right now, but you never know, if we get a Republican president she might think bestowing advanced weaponry on her fave religious organization is a good idea.
Pfffft. The Horde just needs these. At PZ’s lair we can have them armed with custom cyberpistols, to badgersdaughter’s engineering specs.
Perhaps the Russian Orthodox Church could use it to drop pamphlets fighting the War Against Secularism. Apologetics are always more impressive when they fall directly from the sky.
Some people are just so hard to buy for.
What do they think this church is? A US police department?
If we get a Republican president he will probably have a penis. I think they are headed in the opposite direction from gender equality.
That old Stalin line about “Fuck the Pope, how many divisions does he have?” could become a leeeeetle more interesting.
Well, what do you get for the Patriarch who has everything?
When you care enough to send the very best, send military hardware…apparently.
bargearse @ 8;
Some say it with flowers, some say it with chocolates, but at the end of the day nothing says ‘I love you’ quite like… err… firepower?
@ anatomyprof #5
I’m curious. Is there any woman in the Republican party who could run ??
So, we’ve all been reading about the oppression of homosexuals in Russia by fundamentalists with government backing. Are going to be reading about congregations dropping bombs on them, now?
Gregory Greenwood @ 9
I feel bad, all I got him was an itunes gift card.
Single seater? Somebody didn’t think that through.
@corporal klinger,
Sure, but could they win. They could pick up independents, but would they turn off their base of men? Would they turn off some of the women in their religious base? I think they would have a tough road and that we probably won’t see it for a while. I’d say that I hope I’m wrong, but I’d prefer to see a woman from the Democrats become president instead.
The ultimate advantage in any theological debate: air superiority.
Baptism by Hellfire.
Sili:
God is his copilot.
@anatomy prof #14
Thank you.
“…but I’d prefer to see a woman from the Democrats become president instead. …”
Me too, though I’m not a U.S citizen. I was just wondering if there is any Republican women with the potential to run and win. I follow U.S pölitics mainly through Eds blog, and there is (almost) never a republican woman mentioned who could run and win.
This has already been a trend in American education as well – school districts have started their own arms race with armoured cars, grenade launchers and so on.
Moggie @ 17
Best one yet. Have an internet
Sigh, politics !
Pölitics has a funny ring, though :)
Yeah, but does he have an interstellar space cruiser?
Reference gif
The Russian Orthodox Church needs a fighter jet like the Los Angeles Unified School District needs armored vehicles and grenade launchers.
From Tony’s link @ 23
This thread just got a lot less funny.
@Tony @ 23
Something is really, really wrong with the U.S. .
Whats next, Cruise missiles and stealth fighters jets??
bargearse @24:
Oops. Sorry to be the buzzkill guy.
Tony @ 26
No apology necessary. The idea of schools with armoured cars just freaks me out. I’m not an American so I have to ask; are school district police forces a common thing there?
He can photoshop it out of his pictures, like his watch.
Sure!
* Phyllis Schlafly – hates women’s equality
* Michele Bachmann – crazy
* Ann Coulter – crazier
* Michelle Malkin – anchor baby
* Christine O’Donnell – covenless witch
* Condi Rice – war criminal (“alleged”)
* Sarah Palin – ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
bargearse @27:
Before I stumbled upon that article, I didn’t think such a think happened at all. I don’t know how common it is (if indeed, it is common), but reading about one story makes me curious if there’s more.
Curious, and fearful.
@29 usernames
Isn’t that the cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show?
Tony @ 30
My thoughts exactly. Yet another thing google will tell me that I wish I didn’t go looking for I guess.
Ann Coulter reminds me of the velociraptor in Jurassic Park that could open doors.
There’s probably some sort of subconsciously derived metaphor there, but she just scares me.
Don’t the Scientologists already have a “navy”?
@6, ravenred:
Actually, there’s no proof Stalin said that; Churchill attributed the quote to him, but there’s much better reason to believe that it was actually said by Napoleon.
Tony: Maybe they can use that armored vehicle for drivers ed.
I doubt most school districts have their own police force, but I would not be surprised to learn that most urban school districts do. I know that many universities have their own force. Here in SF, we have several different university forces (UC, SF State, CCSF, USF). In addition, Muni (the buses) and Parks & Rec have their own forces. Not to mention the innumerable rent-a-cops everywhere.
What really irks about that armored vehicle for LAUSD is that we have school districts struggling to hire enough teachers and pay them decent salaries, and we’re told that money is tight, yet the Fed can give LAUSD a million dollars worth of junk. I guess it fits the national priorities: build prisons (security) instead of schools (socialism).
Robro@36
Teachers cost money, according to the article the armoured vehicle was free. Gotta prioritize student safety and all that.
bargearse — “Free” to LAUSD, yes, not free to the Fed. But, yeah, safety first. Teachers to the back of the soup kitchen line.
Tony! and bargearse-
For extra headdeskage, try reading the comments on that article. Turns out it’s all a libtard Obamanaut plot. I didn’t get very far, but I’m sure Benghazi(!11!!!!11) is mentioned somewhere.
@The Vicar: In Napoleon’s time, the Pope actually had an army. Not a particularly large one by the standards of the day, but he probably could have mustered one or two divisions.
AnatomyProf @14:
Given that the US is stuck in a two party system, I will continue to vote for the lesser of two evils (whoever get the Democratic nomination), but I’d really like it if we could get a progressive candidate in office, especially if it’s a woman.
illdoittomorrow @39:
I’ll pass.
I get my fair share of bigotry and irrationality in the threads about Harris, Dawkins, and Shermer, thank you.
If they fit one with laser-guns, I’ll start me own religion tomorrow. (What’s the MPG one one o’ them things?)
Daz:
I thought we had the orbital vessel that allows us to ‘nuke ’em from orbit’…
Tony, #41
I’d be cool with Elizabeth Warren. Off topic, but this reminds me of how sick and tired I got of hearing the various forms of bigotry coming from the GOP candidates in the past election (Santorum, Perry, Gingrich, Romney, etc). I started hoping in the next election we have a black, atheist, homosexual female president to give those four assholes a heart attack.
Hey, now that I think of it… 3 out of 4 ain’t bad…
The Queer Shoop 2016!
Tony!
Yeah, but that’s really Ronald Reagan-esque 1980s kitsch. Supersonic laser-mounts are just so much more cool!
The Queer Shoup would have to be a third party candidate. What shall we name this revolutionary third party? Suggestions? I’m far from witty enough to do the honors on this. Take it away Horde!
The Racism Is Too Damn High party, of course.
Morgan, Saad:
Following a social justice focused discussion with a guest at my bar (earlier this year), said guest proceeded to ask me when I was running for public office, bc he’d vote for me. I was quite flattered, but such an idea is scary to me. Perhaps something to consider when I have more than the $30 to my name that I currently have.
For the record, in case any pollsters are keeping score, I’d vote for Tony! in a quick hot New York minute.
Is there a Queer Shoop PAC?
Hate to be a buzz kill myself, but Usernames are Smart @29, WTF?
Because they’re women we don’t agree with, you’re calling women crazy and witches? REALLY?
Are principles principles, if they’re only for those who principally share them?
@CaitieCat #52: They are either crazy either malicious, probably a mix of the two (Ann Coulter?)
The point is that you take a list of options and show that all of them are crazy.
The fact that all the people in the list are women is incidental to their crazyness.
They are not called crazy BECAUSE they are women.
At worst it is an argument that conservatives allow only crazy women to prominence.
@ CaitieCat 52
Since you asked for someone to explain why it’s wrong to call conservative women with bad policies “witch” or “crazy” in the Lounge…
Calling women “witches” is a gendered way to dismiss them. If words that are used for gendered characterizations are a problem (and they are), our principles require us to avoid them for people we don’t like even more. If we can keep ourselves from using good gendered characterizations on people in “our group”*, and bad gendered characterizations on people “not in our group” we can be sure that we are rooting out the biases better.
“Crazy” I’m less sure about, but I think it ends up being a bad one too. As a person that can read about himself in brain science literature my experience of the word is that it is not as much of a problem with ideas and behavior because the context is often a casual “irrational”.
But it’s still pretty useless in that context because ideas can’t really be crazy so I think I’m wrong about this because the connection to people is difficult to avoid. Calling a whole person crazy pretty much makes the connection to mental illness.
*”Group” defined by behavior, not humanity.
Not fond of the crazy stuff, but ‘witch’ has a specific context with Christine O’Donnell:
Campaign ad
“O’Donnell: No Witchcraft Since High School”
Christine O’Donnell In Oct. 1999: ‘I Dabbled Into Witchcraft’
F.O.
But since when do we allow that shit to fly here? Any other thread it’s called out and a hell of a lot quicker too. Would you like the MRAs etc call Rebecca Watson or Anita or CaitieCat such things? Why let it slide and defend it here? Because these are women we don’t like, which is some hypocritical bullshit. Calling someone crazy is ablist and calling a woman a witch is sexist.
There are many reasons to insult Ann Coulter (and all the other women who have been cited in this thread), and many excellent insults to throw her way.
Pardon me for thinking that if your default is “crazy” or “b*tch” or “c*unt” or to imply that she’s trans that you aren’t operating on the assumption that well-behaved women earn the right to not be subjected to sexism and misogyny, and thus that you’re part of the problem.
I think that the better criticism for conservatives and women is the social role they appear to allow women to take as a group. The lack of women in government decision making involving women’s issues is one example.
I need to find the specifics but I seem to remember a couple of years ago (in a DailyKos article I think) a group of Republican congresspersons were criticized because there was only one women in the group. But what I found even more interesting is that her role was more of a “group manager”. She was responsible for making sure that everyone else got along and was not really part of the decision making purpose of the group. Palin is pretty much only there to recite general, content-less, rhetoric about moral issues. A person that only echos social messages does have power, but only of a kind and that power is not involved in the physical “doing” of government and society.
Women are more than just messengers of what men are doing, or a means to keep men “behaving properly”.
@F.O., #53:
Crazy-blaming is bad regardless of gender.
start?
The 1033 program precedes this one by a goodly margin, yes?
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58393675-78/police-lowe-fuhr-utah.html.csp
well, they paid 5000 to transpo it, but the item itself was “free”.
now then…. if the school plans to actually USE this stupid thing instead of sell it immediately….
costs:
-insurance: HUGE. not just accident and liability like for a normal car, but also liability for potential damage to city property (like roads that don’t handle 15 ton vehicles well).
– fuel: this thing doesn’t measure it’s efficiency in mileage, it measures it in gallonage (as in: gallons per mile).
-storage
-things I’m not even realizing.
seriously, this thing is going to cost the school district WAY more than any benefit they could accrue from it.
it’s nothing but stupid, all over.
…and, if the school decides to sell it, are there any rules as to who can buy it?
if not, why is there even a 1033 program to begin with?
hell, the DoD should just sell ALL surplus to the highest bidder, no questions asked.
I’m sure that will work out just fine and dandy.
@ichthyic, #61:
You’re forgetting training.
Everytime a school district or police force or other local gov unit gets one of these things, it’s because some of the people there want to play with it. Training hours are inevitably scheduled, and inevitably some of these will be wasted training for scenarios that are more “fun” [from a certain point of view] than practical.
I’m sure that training costs are in the 10s of thousands, and total costs in the 100s of thousands for acquiring, insuring, training with, and using these things.
I’d support them taking the time & trouble to rip out some of the electronics first, but even a lot of the electronics could stay. It wouldn’t be no thang to sell all this off and donate the cash to schools and to drug prevention/treatment programs which would do a whole lot more for the people of the US than foisting this equipment off on schools and law enforcement does.
yup. I did indeed. I’m sure its something the school district “forgot” as well.
you do realize I was being facetious?
it would, in fact, be an entirely terrible idea,
there are reasons these things are for military use only, or at least, there WERE reasons. apparently, those are meaningless now, and we should all be able to buy tanks just like we buy hummers.
I get the idea we should sell off assets to pay for education, but it’s a much bigger issue than JUST where the money goes.
like I said, these things don’t belong on 80% of the roads that are out there. they are destructive, dangerous to drive, and just not appropriate at all, not for police use, not for civilian use, and evidently not even for military use, since most of them actually weren’t even used before they were stored or given away.
spending less on the military to begin with would be a far better choice, but I suppose that’s kinda obvious.
Don’t people need plow shares any more?
do people in the US even farm any more?
I thought it was all large corporate controlled for the most part.
so, actually, your question is a good one.
probably not!
They don’t use lasers to till the soil!
Melt that big old tank-thingy down!
Duncan, Oklahoma, where I have lived, has a Huey helicopter from our gummint. It may not have laser cannons, though.
Duncan needs a Huey as badly as your average placozoan need a Harley.
Everyone needs a helicopter, many of them just don’t know it.
hey!
Ron Howard was born in Duncan.
Tony for President?
Now I wish I was American.
Queer Shoop 2016, and someone needs to start a Queer Shoop PAC for the Godless. Or something.
As for Russia’s Partiarch and his new fighter jet, well, now he can found his own Vatican-like enclave: he already has an air force for it.
can i trade mine for a pony?
I’m pretty sure I need a pony.
Buffybot says she wants a heavily armed battle pony.
picture provided.
http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv226/Foxdude9/the_royal_special_forces_by_dolphinfox-d5kmpy6.png
Dibs on Rarity!
…what?
Anri
Aw, share with Little One please? Friendship is magic…
I’ll call Twilight. We can geek out about books together. Squee!
The Reuters story link is now a 404. Turns out it was a model (no word yet on the scale), not an actual fighter jet:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/17/head-kirill-russian-orthodox-church-fighter-jet-factory-workers
Great. All those wonderful jokes gone to waste. It was a fucking toy.
I’m now picturing variously-garbed clerics the world over, running around places of worship with Airfix models held aloft, going “Nyowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!”
I bet Kirill was absolutely gutted to find out.
Now if only they could realize the other powerful figure in the sky is a fake too.
Thinking of appropriate presents for religious big-wigs. Obviously, the chappy in the Vatican gets one of these.
Ichthyic:
Yes, they do.