Facepalm News (1 Viewer)

[MT15]

Disclosure: I stole this thread title from an old EE thread. Nobody goes to that board so we shall start a new one here. This doesn’t have to be political, I don’t think, if the mods will allow it. But we may start up a political discussion based on entries.

I just saw this one today. I don’t know how people this stupid can breathe, or drive a car even.

 

[SystemShock]

Isn't that entrapment?

 

[insidejob]

Isn't that entrapment?

Not unless he is a cop. (Didn't read the linked article...he a cop?)

 

[samiam5211]

Would it be entrapment if it was a cop though?

How would this be any different from a cop posing as a prostitute?

 

[MT15]

No he isn’t a cop. He made the website for an IT company that was going to specialize in security, which never got off the ground, and then people started sending him emails asking for his “services”. It wouldn’t be entrapment even if he was a cop, that website just sits there, it doesn’t entrap anybody.

He makes people fill out a form online, with all of their contact information, and the contact information of whoever they want killed. Then he gives them an “out” by contacting them and asking if they are sure they want to proceed.

People are just that stupid.

 

[MT15]

Isn't that entrapment?

Asking for a friend, lol?

 

[zztop]

I think this is a perfect time for me to officially request a faceplam emoji reaction for this forum.

 

[MT15]

Okay, I don’t know what the heck Rodgers is doing here, but this is funny:

 

[RobF]

This one made me facepalm:

 

[MT15]

I don’t know, Rob, seems like a perfect cause and effect to me. I know whenever I see certain men playing a lead on tv or in a movie, I want to smash something. Lol.

 

[MT15]

I know another R posted this exact same thing, but I cannot find which thread I put it in. As I said before these are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

 

[MT15]

There just aren’t enough face palm emojis for this one, lol:

 

[MT15]

I was under the impression that Christmas trees were actually pagan symbols. I did not realize they were Christian.

So, yeah, I just checked. Christmas trees were pagan in origin and never part of the Christian faith alone. They have nothing to do with Jesus, and are now observed as a tradition by people of many different faiths. They are extremely popular in Japan, I read.

This deserves a big old

Oh, and police think it was a homeless person who set the Fox tree on fire.

 

[bird]

I was under the impression that Christmas trees were actually pagan symbols. I did not realize they were Christian.

So, yeah, I just checked. Christmas trees were pagan in origin and never part of the Christian faith alone. They have nothing to do with Jesus, and are now observed as a tradition by people of many different faiths. They are extremely popular in Japan, I read.

This deserves a big old

Oh, and police think it was a homeless person who set the Fox tree on fire.

Why does Tucker Carlson always look like he just can’t believe he got caught being stupid?

 

[Saintman2884]

I was under the impression that Christmas trees were actually pagan symbols. I did not realize they were Christian.

So, yeah, I just checked. Christmas trees were pagan in origin and never part of the Christian faith alone. They have nothing to do with Jesus, and are now observed as a tradition by people of many different faiths. They are extremely popular in Japan, I read.

This deserves a big old

Oh, and police think it was a homeless person who set the Fox tree on fire.

Just because certain cherished holiday symbols or religious iconography didnt begin or wasnt originally part of one specific religion doesn't mean it can't be incorporated, assassimilated, or co-opted over the course of centuries. Like people and most political/intellectual philosophes, religions evolve and change. The original Iron Age Hebrews, ancestors of the Jews, were mostly polytheistic 2,700 years ago and didnt completely embrace monotheism until the Babylonian captivity CA. 586 when they began writing what became the Talmud, and nearly 1,000 years of intellectual, literary and creative work began in Babylon for the Jewish community. In fact, many local remote Hebrew indigenious communities were devout followers of a Canaanite female goddess fertility cult. 2,800 years ago, Yahweh had a wife. In the original Jerusalem temple(Solomon's Temple), archeologists have discovered artifacts that proved what many Near Eastern historians, theologians, had always assumed that ancient Hebrews paid lip service to worshipping one deity but were actually in practice, polytheists.

Santa Claus and giving presents in fact the very day Christmas falls on, December 25, Sol Invictus, have pagan origins. The very concept of sainthood prominent among Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodoxy, some theologians have argued, borrows from ancient Greco-Roman form of pantheonism, a strict, rigid hierarchal structure of minor functional deities ruled over by a an-powerful major deity like Zeus, Odin of Old Norse mythology. Some previously indigenious pagan religions even assassimilated into forms of Christianity, like Vodou and Santeria in Latin American Caribbean syncretist religions.

Just because Christmas trees didnt originally begin as Christian symbols, doesn't mean that many centuries later after they've been incorporated successfully that they shouldn't be seen or perceived as not having that deep, significant context now. If we were living 1,000 years ago, this argument couldn't be completely discredited but as Ive stated earlier, religions change. The Reform movement/branch in Judaism didnt even exist 150-125 years ago.

It wasn't until after The Bar Kopka revolt from 132-136 C.E. when Roman Emperor Hadrian finally ended the last major Jewish revolt to Roman rule by banishing all Jews still living in Judea, renamed the official term of the province to Palestine, banned male Jewish circumcision, reading of the Torah, etc. It also marked the further schism of Christianity slowly distancing itself into a seperate, autonomous religion whereas before it was perceived as a Jewish off-shoot and most Christians, even all original Apostles, considered themselves devout Jews and took part in Jewish religious practices, rituals and holidays.

 

[SystemShock]

I was under the impression that Christmas trees were actually pagan symbols. I did not realize they were Christian.

So, yeah, I just checked. Christmas trees were pagan in origin and never part of the Christian faith alone. They have nothing to do with Jesus, and are now observed as a tradition by people of many different faiths. They are extremely popular in Japan, I read.

This deserves a big old

Oh, and police think it was a homeless person who set the Fox tree on fire.

When you look at it in historical context, the Catholic church (the church that spread Christianity to the world) very much mimics any number of pagan rituals, because that's how people worshiped gods back when the Catholic church was established: the robes, the altars, the chanting, the iconography, and so forth... of course, the rites if the Catholic church have the pomp and circumstance of the Roman empire. As time went by, with Rome, England, Spain, and France spreading Christianity further into new lands, the church adopted certain aspects of local religions into their own to make the assimilation process easier.

A good example, in México, most Catholics pray to Mary (and there are a number of "The Virgin of _______"), not Jesus, reason being, the Spaniards understood that the locals revered earth goddesses more than they revered their male god counterparts, so in the 16th century, they got a local to claim the virgin Mary appeared to him 3 times at a hill known as Tepeyac. Of course, the then Bishop of México accompanied him to the hill, and lo and behold, he confirmed the apparitions to be real.

Today, the Basílica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the 3rd most visited religious site, behind only the Vatican and Mecca. (Guadalupe is the village where Tepeyac hill is). Funny side note: so many people visit the site, that there is a conveyor belt in front of the altar, so you have the time it takes for the conveyor belt to go from one side of the altar to the other to ask for your blessing

BTW: 12/12 is the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. It marks the end of the posadas season. There are processions all over the country to different churches, but the Basílica, it is a sight to behold.

 

[bird]

Religion, which is not arbitrarily the same as faith, is a construct created for social control. The use of deity(s) to approve particular behaviors by power holders while proscribing behaviors by those who do not have power is an millennials old tool.

 

[MT15]

Just because certain cherished holiday symbols or religious iconography didnt begin or wasnt originally part of one specific religion doesn't mean it can't be incorporated, assassimilated, or co-opted over the course of centuries. Like people and most political/intellectual philosophes, religions evolve and change. The original Iron Age Hebrews, ancestors of the Jews, were mostly polytheistic 2,700 years ago and didnt completely embrace monotheism until the Babylonian captivity CA. 586 when they began writing what became the Talmud, and nearly 1,000 years of intellectual, literary and creative work began in Babylon for the Jewish community. In fact, many local remote Hebrew indigenious communities were devout followers of a Canaanite female goddess fertility cult. 2,800 years ago, Yahweh had a wife. In the original Jerusalem temple(Solomon's Temple), archeologists have discovered artifacts that proved what many Near Eastern historians, theologians, had always assumed that ancient Hebrews paid lip service to worshipping one deity but were actually in practice, polytheists.

Santa Claus and giving presents in fact the very day Christmas falls on, December 25, Sol Invictus, have pagan origins. The very concept of sainthood prominent among Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodoxy, some theologians have argued, borrows from ancient Greco-Roman form of pantheonism, a strict, rigid hierarchal structure of minor functional deities ruled over by a an-powerful major deity like Zeus, Odin of Old Norse mythology. Some previously indigenious pagan religions even assassimilated into forms of Christianity, like Vodou and Santeria in Latin American Caribbean syncretist religions.

Just because Christmas trees didnt originally begin as Christian symbols, doesn't mean that many centuries later after they've been incorporated successfully that they shouldn't be seen or perceived as not having that deep, significant context now. If we were living 1,000 years ago, this argument couldn't be completely discredited but as Ive stated earlier, religions change. The Reform movement/branch in Judaism didnt even exist 150-125 years ago.

It wasn't until after The Bar Kopka revolt from 132-136 C.E. when Roman Emperor Hadrian finally ended the last major Jewish revolt to Roman rule by banishing all Jews still living in Judea, renamed the official term of the province to Palestine, banned male Jewish circumcision, reading of the Torah, etc. It also marked the further schism of Christianity slowly distancing itself into a seperate, autonomous religion whereas before it was perceived as a Jewish off-shoot and most Christians, even all original Apostles, considered themselves devout Jews and took part in Jewish religious practices, rituals and holidays.

So are you saying that Christmas trees are some sort of uniquely Christian symbol?

If you are, I disagree. They are common in all sorts of households, and are more of a secular convention. There is no deep Christian symbolism, that I can see.

According to the article I read they are very popular in Japan.