Australian Police Confiscate Pastafarian Man's Guns Because He Posed For His ID Card Wearing A Colander
from the half-baked-noodle dept
I have to admit, the whole Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster thing is beautiful to me. The whole concept hits exactly the sweet spot of the irony bat for someone who preaches secularism in the face of a diverse population. If you somehow don't know the history of this "church", go read up on it. It's completely worth it. The point being made by so-called pastafarians is one of keeping religion out of the government and vice versa. It started with combatting a misguided attempt to inject faith into public schools, but it has evolved to mock any attempt to bring religious dogma into the public square.
The latest example comes from Australia, where a self-described pastafarian went about mocking the rules set up for firearm ID pictures by wearing a colander on his head.
Guy Albon convinced the photographer that he was a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster so that he could wear the colander- a symbol of the satirical religious movement whose members refer to themselves as Pastafarians. The 30-year-old said he exploited a law that allows headgear to be worn in photos.
‘The law stipulates you can have something on your head,’ he said. ‘You have to have your entire face uncovered and if the headgear is being worn it has to have some religious significance. I thought ‘I’ve got this one in the bag’ – it was an absolute scream.’
And he's right. After all, when you make an exemption allowing head-dress to be worn in government ID pictures so long as it represents something to do with your faith, the government then doesn't get to question that faith, assuming that government affords people the freedom of religion. Which Australia does. And which this guy used to mock the entire concept of the exemption. But, hell, it's not like the government could actually do anything about it, right? He's following the rules.
Officers came to his home, where they seized two handguns and two rifles and ordered him to see a psychiatrist. According to Mr Albon, the psychiatrist immediately declared him as sane and ‘laughed it off’.It's the one thing they can't do: set up rules based around faith and then persecute a man for following those rules. Yes he was mocking them, yes he wasn't sincere in his religious conviction, but the reaction of the police opens up an entire can of worms that I don't think they really want opened. The government exempting head-dress for pictures in order to keep themselves out of religion is one thing, and an admirable thing, but then going after someone for mocking that process via seemingly protected speech breaks the whole system. No, probably better for the government to just stay the hell out of the faith business entirely. Otherwise, you get stories like this, where a law-abiding citizen has his legally owned firearms temporarily removed because of a judgment call on his faith.
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Filed Under: australia, church of the flying spaghetti monster, guns, pastafarian, religious freedom
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Looking the part
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http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html
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Re: Looking the part
note: this is referred to as sarcasm - just in case you do not understand.
btw, is there a saran wrap story? I must have missed that one.
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And being able to see nuts is rather the point of the Saran Wrap. ;)
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The wife then would be declared insane for questioning if the force used was appropriate or not.
The officers involved get a paid vacation while the "investigation" is run and after it is done, they get a medal for extraordinary heroism and a promotion with pay raise.
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(Joke aside I agree.)
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See how well that goes over.
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As a holder of a ThD...
And they have a MUCH better idea of Heaven than most...
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Re: As a holder of a ThD...
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Religion is not the problem... it has always been the humans, failure to see this has been one of humanities greatest ignorance's. What faith or religion does the Weather Underground subscribe to? They bombed things!
The only thing a Pastafarian truly symbolizes is the puerile stupidity and childishness of mankind, even in their mocking of the very idea!
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That's better and better yet, true.
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I mean what if this "religious exemption" was added by some ass politician and the actual regulators of the photo ID really resisted. This could be a way for them to hopefully get sued and then get said law overturned.
At least I would hope that it is something like that...
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why I oughta!!! :)
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Monster
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Not Serious?
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(Hail "Bob", All Hail Eris.)
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Pull the wool over your own eyes!
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http://www.saintstupid.com/
They tend to worship at financial institutions, The Federal Reserve where they exchange non winning lottery tickets, and the Pacific Stock Exchange where they exchanged socks (OK, it was a number of years ago that I had an opportunity to observe their antics, but I seriously doubt they have changed much).
Showing, and sort of explaining them to out-of-towners was a real treat. Oh, you mean Only in San Francisco?, I guess.
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If a politician doesn't have to listen to his constituents, don't pretend religion is the reason. Stop being an anti-religious asshat and report on something other than the fact that religious people are stupid and you can't believe all it takes is wearing a metal pot on your head to make people think you're of unsound mind. The horrors of a society that requires you to abide by some kind of norm to be accepted are not limited to religion the way this article blindly implies.
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27% of Australians proclaim via our last census that they were absolutely NON religious (athiest/agnostic) and they are the ones who cared to answer the religious question which is NOT compulsory (unlike the rest) so yeah Australians don't really give a flying fuck about religion, most don't ask nor care if you are but if you try to shove it down our throats politically or otherwise we bite back HARD!
The Government just found this out by our High Court only recently (last week) declaring the funding of Chaplains in public schools as not only unconstitutional but also illegal.
Religion itself might not be the problem, but the idiocy of its worshippers certainly are IN ALL RELIGIONS!
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this is what we actually think, and for you to conflate religion with discrimination between women and race means you really ahve no idea.
Discrimination based on Religious is an offense in Australia, it's just that goes BOTH ways not just with the one sided inequity that is currently shown in America whereas if you don't believe in the one true baptist/protestant/catholic/judaic/charismatic deity then you are branded as a muslim -ie:terrorist (which is strange in its own right since Islam is just another offshoot of the Abrahamic religions), a communist (not even a religion), a satanist, or atheist, or 'liberal' (what that means no one freakin knows). And don't get me started on how America treats people of differing sexuality based on the stupid notion of religion.
Can you see the hypocrisy? Probably not, and therein lies the problem. As for your comment on how I might treat people.. I try to treat everyone equally unless they are inherently stupid and have no capacity to understand their idiocy.
So how should I treat you?
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'Liberal', like 'Conservative' when used as an insult in that fashion, simply translates to 'Person who holds views contrary to mine', nothing more, nothing less.
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You mean the "religious practitioners" who claim to be persecuted because they are not allowed to proselytize at work, in public schools or in government?
... and flip a what?
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You won't last three times before someone has went on a tirade about how idiotic creationists are for believing in a make believe man in the sky, or how the religious people are the reason gay kids shoot up schools, or how if it weren't for this damned conservatives we'd finally all be able to smoke pot.
And better- the deragatory attitude won't be towards gays, blacks, or women, it'll be towards you. Then you can at least walk away from it realizing comments like "religious persecution doesn't exist and you comparing it to gay/minority/women suffering proves you're an idiot" are totally ignorant.
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But I imagine you are the type that claims a right to foist your beliefs upon others whilst complaining about their responses.
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Then again, that's the Internet for you.
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The Flying Tentacle Rape Monster is so much cooler.
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An excellent precendent
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The worst part of this story....
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Compare our gun violence and murder rate and violent crime rate per capita to the USA and you might see a MAJOR difference, though sadly only people either outside of the USA, or those who have studied or intelligently understand the idiocy that is your prevalence of a gun culture can understand how strange and wrong that actually is.
Oh and if your reasoning to have a 'right to bear arms' is to either protect yourself or to 'fight the power of govt corruption'... hows that working out for you? lol
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Gun related homicides in the USA yearly: 3K.
People killed in mass shootings in the USA yearly: 200.
Stop spreading FUD and do some research, the CDC and FBI release shit yearly on causes of deaths. Hell, the CDC added a note that the media hyping up gun violence is why they started including homicide, accidental, and undetermined categories. Same thing with the FBI mention of the minimal risk of mass shootings.
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That's not what I was asking about.
You conveniently forgot the other statistic I talked about.
ie: Any Crimes where weapons (in particular firearms) are used to intimidate, harass, coerce, rob, assault, inflict harm, etc.
I wasn't just talking about homicides, though they are still on the high side per capita then anywhere else in the 'western' world. Once again it just shows you cannot see past the biased mindset that you already have against anyone who might take logic and show that the USA is a gun toting egocentric violent place compared to the rest of the planet.
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According to the FBI UCR there are 8-9,000 homicides with a firearm each year between 2008 and 2012.
The CDC lists over 81,000 Americans non fatally shot in 2012.
An additional 19,990 Americans used a firearm to commit suicide in 2011.
All because less than 30% of Americans want to own a firearm...
Homicides;
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-201 2/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_8_murder_victims_ by_weapon_2008-2012.xls
Injuries;
http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html
Suicides;
http:/ /webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_us.html
Ownership rates;
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/04/a-minority-of-americans-own-guns-but-just-how- many-is-unclear/
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Why are people not FLOCKING to the one true pasta?
If you disbelieve in him, explain why all the planets are shaped like meatballs!!!
May you all be touched by his noodlely appendage.
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