Former Popemobile Going Up For Auction 68
Zothecula writes with an amusing article in Gizmag. From the article: "The greater share of the value of any significant collector car is in the provenance — who sat in the seat before you, and experienced the same vehicle, can make a massive difference to the price the car commands. What then of a car that was built for and used by Pope Paul VI? It was subsequently the centre of numerous other ticker tape parades with dozens of dignitaries, most notably the first astronauts to orbit the moon (Apollo 8's Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders), the first astronauts to set foot on the moon (Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, plus Command Module Pilot Michael Collins) plus Apollo 13's Lovell, Mattingly and Haise and Apollo 15's Scott, Worden and Irwin, President Lyndon LBJ Johnson and VP Hubert Humphrey."
How many does it seat? (Score:1, Funny)
This thing must seat 10 or 12. Altar boys aren't that big.
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Re:How many does it seat? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The people who are still in that organisation are so ignorant they probably believe in God.
FTFY.
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I don't see how this could be considered bigoted, he did not even close to call all Catholics pedophiles just the old pope.
And it is a undeniable fact that at the very least he would of been aware of the cover ups of priest pedophiles.
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I'd happily concede if it was an "undeniable fact", but this sums up my feelings rather well: "It's always simple. There's no mystery
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Well unless I am mistaken the current pope used to be the guy in charge of the coverups? Ergo the leadership of this organization knew about the cover ups and were somewhat involved with them.
And the pope did not just descend from heaven one day and get appointed pope, he would of worked his way up (at least I have never heard about the position being a hereditary one).
He would of held most of the positions of a priest and most likely worked in many churches in a variety of locations.
But the whole Catholic
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Well unless I am mistaken the current pope used to be the guy in charge of the coverups? Ergo the leadership of this organization knew about the cover ups and were somewhat involved with them.
You're making too many assumptions. First, there was only a central organisation to investigate abuse since 2001 [wikipedia.org]:
Prior to 2001, the primary responsibility for investigating allegations of sexual abuse and disciplining perpetrators rested with the individual dioceses. In 2001, Ratzinger convinced John Paul II to put the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in charge of all investigations and policies surrounding sexual abuse in order to combat such abuse more efficiently.
Pope Paul VI - the one we're talking about - died in 1978 [wikipedia.org]. So while it's not impossible that he knew something, "undeniable fact" is stating the case too strongly.
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Painting a whole religion with millions of followers into the pedophile corner is bigotry.
And calling someone a bigot because they made a joke based on ridiculous stereotypes is called "taking things way too seriously."
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So now it's okay to bigoted, just so long as it's against catholics?
Didn't say anything of the sort. Whining about bigotry is only justified when there's discrimination going on, which there's not for catholics. Jokes about priests and altar boys is just flat out -not- bigotry.
I'm atheist but fuck, that's unbelievably hypocritical.
It's debatable whether I'm catholic, but no, I don't think it is.
the word you are looking for (Score:2)
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WOW. So now it's okay to bigoted, just so long as it's against catholics? I'm atheist but fuck, that's unbelievably hypocritical.
Bigotry is irrational hatred of a group simply for possessing an attribute you don't, such as dark skin, a pair of tits or an insatiable urge to gay-rape innocent straight men's bottoms.
Whereas, there are many rational reasons to mistrust and fear the Catholic Church.
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Making pope jokes and altar boy jokes does not make one a bigot. Had he said something about needing a lot of space for his hundreds of children because every sperm is sacred, that's maybe very slightly bigoted, but not worth calling out. Save the bigot card for racism, sexism, or gaybashing.
Why would it count as any sort of bigotry to point out the absurdity of the Catholic church's views on contraception? It's not like calling all Muslims terrorists, which is simply incorrect.
If you don't want people to laugh at you, don't hold laughable beliefs.
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Interesting to point out the contraception issue in a story about the pope who actually published the document at the height of the sexual revolution that reaffirmed the Church's teaching on the issue in the 1960s, Humane Vitae (which I agree with). Of course, there were two other popes who were notable for their statements opposing contraception in the last century, Pius XI (Wrote a document opposing contraception less than two years after the Church of England became the first Christian organization to al
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Because Astronauts rode in it too. Or... Because Slashdot is filled with a bunch of fake atheists who somehow feel connected to the pope and see him as a holy man, even though they wouldn't publicly admit it.
Part of the reason why there are so many Catholic Sex Abuse jokes out there is that there were a lot of people non-catholic who still saw priests and bishops as being people who were better then everyone else, and these jokes (which are not funny) are ways to make them feel better that these people are
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Couldn't he just pray that he don't get shot at? I'm working under the assumption that Catholics believe prayer works, even if I don't.
Maybe prayer can't contradict free will? I'll buy that. let's say that we can't pray away somebody's desire to shoot at the pope. how about the bullet. it has no free will, it just has to follow physics. Can prayer change physics to alter the path of the bullet? If it can, we're set. if it can't.. um... what CAN it do?
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From my Catholic upbringing, I was given to understand that prayer isn't a magical spell that puts up a force field around you or alters physics, its a request to someone who can do those things: God.
However, very frequently the answer to the request is: "No."
Or perhaps in this case: "You're the Pope, you can bloody well afford a bulletproof car."
Re:some random crap up for auction (Score:4, Insightful)
So prayer is, at best, a +1 to your saving throw roll, but you don't know what the difficulty target is, nor what you rolled, so you'll never know if it actually helped at all?
It's a "maybe it'll help, can't hurt" sort of thing?
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It's a "maybe it'll help, can't hurt" sort of thing?
It does help on a purely psychological level. You lay out your problems, identify whats going well, whats not going well, note the problems of others, and ask for a steering hand to help you do your best to keep the good things good and do your part to make the bad things less bad. Its basically like having an honest closed door chat with your SCRUM master. It's relieving just to talk through whats going on.
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So prayer is, at best, a +1 to your saving throw roll, but you don't know what the difficulty target is, nor what you rolled, so you'll never know if it actually helped at all?
It's a "maybe it'll help, can't hurt" sort of thing?
More of an "eight year old child's magical thinking" sort of thing IMHO.
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"I hope that God exists; that there be order in the world. I pray that an exception be made for me just this once."
I don't know who said that but it sounds like Carlin. Personally I think if anyone governs the cosmos it's not God; it's The Lady.
Some people pray for the favor. Some don't. (Score:1)
For many people, the prayer for help is less for intervention than for teaching.
Part of the purpose is for the person praying to at least think far enough to figure out what kind of help is really necessary, and the usual result is help figuring out what to do.
Atheists can argue that meditation should be sufficient without having to brown-nose some non-existent supreme being, but that kind of misses the point.
Sometimes there are other things that happen, too, usually people (friends, strangers, even enemies
Re:some random crap up for auction (Score:5, Insightful)
Speaking of holey men, why does the Pope, the holiest of holes, need a bulletproof car? Doesn't he have faith in the lord to protect him?
There's some part about not testing your Lord. Also common sense, and the fact that crazy people try to kill popes [wikipedia.org].
Just some questions to ponder. "No better than the rest of the population" indeed.
I don't recall that being a motto of the pope. Declaring yourself the infallible speaker for God would kind of shoot that to hell.
There's plenty of room to mock religion, the hats, dresses, opulent bling bling, and the whole Hitler youth thing are ample ground. You really don't need to go suggesting the pope is a hypocrite for not inviting assassination attempts.
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You really don't need to go suggesting the pope is a hypocrite for not inviting assassination attempts.
The argument is still valid. God loves you, he knows everything that happens to you and has the power to intervene. Unfortunately he doesn't work that way and will happily stand by while you are murdered. Therefore you can conclude:
A) He is an asshat, allowing people to suffer instead of helping them.
B) It doesn't matter how much you pray, dedicate your whole life to him, become his no. 1 guy on earth. He still won't do anything to help you, so there is little point worshipping him.
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Why would he need faith like that? God rarely takes part in human's lives any more. That's what the entire sacrifice of Jesus was supposed to be about. But to answer your point, how do you know that creating a bullet proof car and getting the pope inside it wasn't the lord protecting him?
There is a story about a preacher in a rural community. One day after a lot of rain, the weather man said more rain is coming and it's likely the river would flood. Well, everyone in the community started evacuating and sev
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Speaking of holey men why does the Pope, the holiest of holes
Jesus tittyfucking Christ, I'm spoiled for choice between making an "altar boy arse-holey" or a "full of bullet-holey" joke.
I leave it as an exercise for the reader.
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Dude, it's the frigging Popemobile. Get a grip.
Where Tech and Celebrity meet. (Score:2)
and this is relevant to the /. community how?
The 20 ft. stetch limo conversion was completed in ten days.
In time for the Pope's vist to the UN, a Mass at Yankee Statium and a vist to the Vatican Pavilion at the New York World's Fair (where Michelangelo's "Pieta" was on display.)
This early Popemobile is quite interesting as an example of the intersection between technology and celebrity --- and surprisingly, in the wake of the Kennedy assasination, it doesn't appear to have had any significant armoring.
The stretched wheelbase is a massive 160" with an overall length of nearly 21 feet. Exterior step plates and handrails for security, additional interior seating for aides and prelates, a special seat for the Pontiff that can be raised and lowered, supplemental interior lighting, public address system, auxiliary power from a bank of seven batteries were only a few of the many detail changes.
Segway of Mother Theresa (Score:4, Funny)
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I'll bet that one is balance-challenged.
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It's a highly customize automobile which means there's a lot of cool stuff that went into making it. Taking apart would be a dream of any gear-head nerd.
Or did you think that "nerd = computer stuff"?
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Slashdot is all about IT these days. Or so a certain crowd has come to believe.
And the IT people don't even realize they don't 'own' computers or hardware in any way. But they think anything posted here has to be about their crappy job 'programming' web pages and putting more toner in the fucking LJ4 over in accounting.
Fuel? (Score:1, Funny)
Does it run on prayers? How many miles does it get per Hail Mary?
I don't think anybody really cares? (Score:1)
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I, personally, and I am guessing you too are not interested in seeing it, but I assure you, Rule 34 still applies. Somewhere out there, someone enjoys that.
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You're drawing attention to something that you profess not to care about. Ignoring it and saying nothing is usually a better response.
Another famous Car (Score:1)
All i saw when i read the title was... (Score:1)
Faith in ... ? (Score:2)
Nothing says "faith in god"
like bullet-proof glass.
What bullet-proof glass? (Score:2)
Nothing says "faith in god" like bullet-proof glass.
Look at the photographs. The Pope has no protection.
Following the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981, the popemobile was fitted with bulletproof glass on four sides. However, it was sometimes driven with open windows.
Popemobile [wikipedia.org]
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So you go out of your way to point out that he has no protection, and then link to an article that shows the vehicle with bulletproof glass.
Not the same vehicle and16 years later.
Faith is not belief in magic. (Score:1)
It has been noted above, but faith is supposed to be something that gets people to think about their problems and see what they can do for themselves first.
To the extent that atheism also helps people try to solve their own problems, atheism has value in God's universe.
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If faith is not magic, why am I told to have faith that god will make things come out OK? It is "his plan" and all, so the predeterminism negates people thinking what they can do for themselves, does it not?
If it wasn't belief in magic(more or less) wouldn't religious people be saying "have faith in yourself because you will figure it out"?
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If the president of the United States is truly the representitive of his people, he should take criticism of all types from the people, even if it is a bullet telling him he is doing it wrong.
Perhaps the Pope hated the bullet proof popemobile too, but his "secret service" (swiss guard) forced it on him to preserve him.
Well, you know the Vatican (Score:2)
Burried the lead (Score:2)
This is /. I'm sure that there are far more people who are impressed with the fact that Apollo astronauts (including Apollo 11) rode in this car, than the fact that a religious leader did.
Why on earth did the pope angle get first billing here?
I swear officer . . . (Score:2)
The soiled little boys underwear was from the previous owner!