The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

There are a lot of fics that need to be killed. I'm just not sure if having a list of garbage in a c2 would lower any possibly reputation I may have dragged up from the tatters of my pre-delete fanfiction life.

Who's Dawkins?

*continues weeping*

He's about the most militant atheist you can get. Your library should have a copy of The God Delusion; read it. And then read The Blind Watchmaker and The Selfish Gene.

Leviticus 18:22 states "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination." It's fairly clear (and also leaves room for lesbians - if a lesbian reads it then it pretty nicely affirms that she should stay away from penises. Funny how homophobic Christians tend to miss that one).

Also, I'm not sure the Old Testament could be fanfiction, given it's written rather earlier than the New Testament. So far as I understand, the God of the New Testament, and his teachings through Jesus, supposedly supersede the Old Testament, but then you have to wonder why they keep the Old Testament in there.

And as for the incest bit, you have to remember that when that creation myth was coined, there was no concept of genetics. Fertility itself was surrounded in mystery - look at all the Greeks who were fathered by Zeus in his guise of a swan or a bull or a vase of flowers; look at Rerir's wife being pregnant with Volsung for six years in the Volsungasaga; look at Henry VIII steadfastly refusing to believe his inability to father a son could have anything to do with him; look at the eighteenth century notion that the womb caused hysteria. It wasn't even all that long ago that a firm link between sex and pregnancy was understood and recognised in scientific literature. Look at Darwin too - many of his children suffered congenital illnesses, and this helped inform some of the ideas he later set forth. But a few thousand years ago? It wasn't known. For a start because it's rare - women would be married out to someone of a neighbouring tribe, not to members of their immediate family, because the latter had no point. And if a deformed child was born of an incestuous union, it would be presumed that the parent(s) had angered the gods, or were under a curse, or whatever, rather than being a simple matter of genetics. Adam and Eve, and Noah, were God's chosen, and therefore not cursed (except for the original sin thing), and so would not have deformed children.

Uh, that was rambly. The point is, it's myth, not legend. When you start throwing the supernatural into the mix, rules of genetics no longer apply.

That's it. Lock me away from keyboards until I'm dripfed coffee.

And yeah, Revan's awesome. I can make up a rancor for you now if you want? :P Come to think of it, one of my characters for a non-Star Wars fic is essentially a mini-rancor. His name is Marek and the name evolved from Malak. I think it went Malak, Malek, Marlek, Marek.

It'll be the former I hope. Otherwise, my word's not exactly good for anything, is it? I'll be like *whispers in horror* a politician.

But yeah, chances are I will have a mental debate and I'll hate myself regardless of my decision.

Mini-mini? You misspelled mini-rancor, wonder if this makes a smaller mini or a misspelling of 'rancor'.

And... lucky. I want a Revan typo, just because the early Old Republic wins more than even the original. Apparently, the SW-verse canonically suffered from degradation in technology and Force techniques.

"Excuse me while I weep in the name of Dawkins."

Who's Dawkins?

And you'll have to forgive me, I'm not greatly familiar with the Bible. Leviticus is the Old Testament, correct? If so, the OT is fanfiction (*wonders if he'll get flamed for that*). God was a bloody psycho in the OT. Frankly, I ignore it completely. After all, Genesis: Eve is Adam. Then they have lots of children. Who have sex with each other. If that's true, then humans are all deformed monsters of what we once were (especially since the gene pool was again destroyed with Noah). So, really, the Bible promotes incest. But that's another rant.

So if you turn out gay you can either never have kids, or decide that gay adoption isn't so bad after all. That's going to be a fun mental debate for you to have.

"it's not like every gay person in the world is going to immediately want to adopt a child."

Sometimes, it does seem as if they are. *shrugs*

And the other options you all pointed out come back to the same issue that adoption has.

well, you work it out.

It's still a gradual change though - it's not like every gay person in the world is going to immediately want to adopt a child. And the hope wouldn't be ruined in the slightest - there's adoption, surrogacy, fostering, etc.

I keep reading it was 'Ungoliant'. You wouldn't happen to be a giant spider, would you? Because I'm arachnophobic.

But yeah, minis are awesome. I think I adopted a Mini-rancon months ago called Darth Raven.

Remember that, in some cases at least, Humans Are Bastards. Case in point: A certain long and brutal witch-hunt in Europe, involving torture until death... or death.

religion is not a problem in the slightest

Excuse me while I weep in the name of Dawkins.

As for anti-homosexual Christians, I refer you to Leviticus 18:22. They're taking their word of god a lot more seriously than Christians who preach love and tolerance for everyone. And fair play to them for that. (Which does not, of course, change the fact that they are stark raving bonkers severely misguided.

I think it's still too big a change for now. I'm praying that I can see it happen in my own lifetime as children are a major, major hope for my life. I've wanted them since I was twelve. If I find out I'm gay, that hope is ruined for me. The way things are going, I'm beginning (and praying) that we could see it happen within the next decade.

Best grab my MJOLNIR Mark VI armour so I can easily dual wield the P90 and a phaser compression rifle. :P

I think that there must have been some reason other than oil (though that would have been a big motivator) or false WMDs. I also think that Britian should never have been involved.

One crucial difference though, is that the US and the UK have never killed civilians on purpose (or at least without good reason). The Taliban do on a constant basis.

But yeah, religion is not a problem in the slightest. It's idiots using it for their own agendas. Those people who spread anti-homosexual progaganda in the name of Christanity? They're not Christians. How can they spread hate in the name of a religion that is all about love and tolerance?

Well, same-sex adoption is a change. You want more change, that's one more bit of change. Surely by your argument here it's therefore a good thing?

I'm finally doing research for my essay on John Wilmot and his most excellent play Sodom, or, the Quintessence of Debauchery. This has involved looking up attitudes to homosexuality during the Restoration. We're talking 250-350 years ago. Interesting points of note:

Homosexuality was viewed as having great potential in theatre, generally as a means of social commentary or satire. Rochester goes a bit beyond most (and there was a whole lawsuit about obscenity), having sodomy equated with Catholicism.

However, sodomy wasn't viewed as a sin, or against Church doctrine. (That'd be the Anglican church; the play passes comment on Charles II's motives for pushing religious tolerance in Protestant England.) It was just viewed as not the best way of expressing sexual desire.

Plays were generally seen by the upper classes, but there was worry that the themes and ideas within would trickle down to the lower classes, and warp the thinking of a lot of unsophisticated young men.

So there wasn't the "omg sin not normal get it away like NOW!" response, but there was still the idea that youngsters might be getting ideas.

Just thought I'd throw that in, since it's an interesting parallel.

They have one-handed weapons so you can hold another in the opposite hand. An alternative would be dartgun ammo coated with especially painful and invariably lethal poison. That way, you can tell them just how far they stretch the definition of failure before they bite it.

I'm not suggesting everyone's opinion be changed, because that's just stupid. Just most of them, and definitely the mainstream media. But gradual change is coming all the time. This Home and Away thing. The garbage Fox talked about the Shepard/Liara relationship in Mass Effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MassEffect#FoxNewsonthesexscene). The Star Trek books with gay characters. Every fanfiction author who writes slash (good or bad). It's all helping. Slowly, maybe, but the more things change, the quicker change can happen.

On one hand, Muslims who are extremists and all-around nutcases love mass murdering and ransoming people for no good reason.

On the other hand, we have- err, had- George Bush and his dubious motives in Iraq. There's the off chance he really was just after free oil. And there are some militant non-Muslims who would like nothing more than to have the whole Middle East glowing greener than the Hulk on a bad day.

We basically have two large groups trying to destroy and/or sabotage each other. Assholes are assholes. And assholes are just bigger assholes when they use religion as an excuse. Religious groups are not the problem. Idiot followers are.

That theory about homosexuality emerging as some sort of failsafe against us overflooding the world with people actually sounds plausible. And now that you mentioned the children as a response to the extinction comment, it sounds like the person thinks worldwide gayness would kill people with an immovable 50-year countdown. It's actually downright hilarious when you think about it in that context.

Yeah, but the thing is, it already just happens. And it doesn't automatically lead to children being bullied to the point of suicide. Might be handy to hear Trojie's perspective here, on how her bloke coped having three mothers.

Anyway, half the problem is that gradual change is bloody hard to effect. It sounds like you're suggesting we need to eliminate homophobia in every parent, in every media outlet, in everyone who might at all affect a child enough to make them bully other kids based on their parents' gender, before gay adoption can be allowed. That sort of blanket acceptance is pretty much impossible, and one way to work towards it is to expose kids to the idea that there's nothing wrong with it from a young age. Having schoolmates with same-sex parents is an excellent way from children to learn that. Sure, later on they'll some of them likely pick up homophobia from other sources, but not all of them will. Some who'd never really think about it, not be opposed to the idea per se, but would be mildly uncomfortable about the idea, would have some basis for reference and would have examples, from an early age, of perfectly normal and healthy same-sex relationships. Takes away the mystery, takes away the difference, takes away the fear, and so takes away the hate.

"you could just as well argue that my parents shouldn't have been allowed to have me, because a child who's a) ginger b) fat c) bespectacled d) socially inept and e) the smartest kid in the class is going to get a lot of shit."

I fit everything but a).

I'm not saying that we should shield children from gay people. That's ridiculous and will make the problem worse. I'm saying that it can't just happen. It has to be a gradual thing, slowly introducing them to concepts that the current generation finds distasteful. As time goes on, we'll introduce these concepts faster and faster until it can by a child from birth that people are all different and that's nothing to be afraid of. That's what I'm aiming for, slow gradual change. Fast change could possibly do more harm than good.

One with somewhat extremist views? If memory serves, he wasn't allowed in thanks to laws about inciting racial hatred. I forget the specifics. Anyway, we're reasonably good at not letting utter dickheads in the country. Or at least, not letting really vocal and high profile ones in.