This is the statue of Baphomet that Satanists are going to place on the state capital grounds in Oklahoma, next to the ten commandments monument installed there in 2012. When complete, it will be cast in bronze and Baphomet will be sitting under the pentagram, his lap serving as a seat for children. The Church of the FSM also wants to add a monument there.
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Omnes Omnibus
The First Amendment can be fun.
mai naem
I think some musleemy stuff would bother them more. Isn’t Oklahoma one of the states that tried to pass a law against sharia law?
Tokyokie
Sigh. These idiots don’t think government can do anything well, yet they want it to reinforce their religious beliefs to the exclusion of others.
Ruckus
That ought to piss off the god bothers nicely.
Bill in Section 147
Are they fund raising? It would be lovely to donate to sponsor “Tom Coburn, doing His work since 1995.” if they allow inscription level donations.
I would also consider donating at the Silver Fork level for the FSM in mine own name.
Mnemosyne
I can’t say I love it as a piece of artwork, but I would totally take a picture of myself sitting in its lap.
catclub
@mai naem: Except actual Muslim stuff is not allowed to be representative of people, which makes it less likely to be offensive. Mosque decorations are usually just geometric.
Baud
Baphomet has one too many fingers raised up in the air.
rea
@mai naem: I think some musleemy stuff would bother them more
“Baphomet,” a named that first appears in Medieval Franch, is believed by scholars to be derived from “Mohammed.” Phillip IV of France accused the Knights Templar of worshipping “Baphomet” and had them burned at the stake (and confiscated their riches).
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
@mai naem:
Just a flag with the shahada on it. Would that work?
Turner Hedenkoff
Awesome. I’d also suggest a shrine to Bob Dobbs, a place for Boko-maru and a little altar where those so inclined can sacrifice chickens to Baron Samedi. The joint could get a bit crowded after a while.
Amir Khalid
@mai naem:
Slight problem there: you can’t have a depiction of the Prophet, which is streng verboten in Islam.
Turner Hedenkoff
Awesome. I’d also suggest a shrine to Bob Dobbs, a place for Boko-maru and a little altar where those so inclined can sacrifice chickens to Baron Samedi. The joint could get a bit crowded after a while.
Mike in NC
Remember the poor schmuck whose execution in Oklahoma was badly screwed up last week? About half the comments I’ve seen in various media are along the lines of “Good, he got what he deserved!” or “If they executed more people that way, it would lower the crime rate!”. So much for the US Constitution that these clowns claim to care so much about.
scav
@Baud: But isn’t that the Cub Scout Salute? That’d be worth a few howls.
Elizabelle
I love this whole approach.
Do wonder what else will end up in Baphomet’s lap.
Comments on this article are funny, because those who don’t get it really don’t get it.
The founders knew what they were doing.
Suzanne
I want to pose with it. Preferably in some highly inappropriate clothing
Mr. Suzanne and I are enjoying the stomach flu. Argh. We need chicken soup delivery.
Amir Khalid
@rea:
That shit was made up, wasn’t it? Other people just wanted the Knights Templars’ money and influence. We Muslims don’t actually worship the Prophet, of course.
@RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual:
You mean, like this?
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
@Amir Khalid:
Yes, but just the shahada by itself. No sword. Would that suffice?
Cluttered Mind
@Amir Khalid: I believe that is correct. The usual method in that era for ridding yourself of a rival and getting a shot at taking all his or her stuff was to accuse them of witchcraft/devil worship. It worked on the Knights Templar, and later on it worked in Salem.
Villago Delenda Est
This is awesome.
In your face, christianist scum.
Citizen_X
@scav:
So that’s where I went wrong. Thanks a lot, Webelos!
Amir Khalid
@RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual:
I think it would suffice, yes. The pearl-clutchers wouldn’t notice the lack of a sword.
Jay C
Well, I hope they cast old Baphomet in pretty thick bronze, since I’m sure that some of the “offerings” he’s going attract from the good citizens of Oklahoma aren’t going to be so benign.
@Amir Khalid:
Of course, anyone with half a brain knows that Muslims don’t actually “worship” the Prophet (SAW) – but remember, these are (probably Republican) Oklahoma State Legislators. Who can’t be held to the half-a-brain standard.
scav
Next up? Hinduism — a Shiva linga. Please.
Plus, those horns are making me think of Moses.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jay C:
Well, probably not even a 1/10th of a brain standard. Drooling imbeciles are what they are.
MomSense
@Suzanne:
Wish I were closer, I would bring you some homemade. Since I’ve gone veggie, I miss making it.
If you can get some good miso paste (South River Miso is the best) try making some broth. It has lots of nutrients and is very soothing.
shelley
Cause everybody knows all kids love ’em some Satan!
Villago Delenda Est
@scav: “Please do not feed my god a peanut.”
mai naem
I know you can’t have pictorial representation of living animals in Islam but I think the crescent symbol and just a sculpture version of a book with “Koran” on it would be enough to drive the wingnuts over the edge. Also too, a pic of the mosque at Mecca. Maybe some sayings from the Koran. I’m all for some more false outrage from the whackjobs. At least its more entertaining than Benghazi Benghazi 24/7. I wish Colbert or somebody would do some silly Jay Lenoesque-like Ask the Stupid Average Joe piece about Benghazi. I have a feeling it would be so funny it would go viral.
JPL
The Chief Justice in Alabama might disagree with these symbols. It seems the first amendment only applies to Christians. link
sylvainsylvain
@scav:
Supposedly a statue of Ganesh is in the pipeline, as well.
Omnes Omnibus
@shelley: Well, they are listening they all are listening to that Satan worshipping rock and roll with their leather jackets and Brylcreemed hair. Damned beatniks.*
*Adjusted to fit the cultural awareness of an Okie legislator.
@JPL: Roy Moore is and always has been dumber than a bag of hammers.
scav
@sylvainsylvain: Yes! Personally, he is rather my favorite (although I’ve got a nice Krishna on snake bronze too) and there are subtle points on the Elephant metric.
Xenos
For Muslims you just need an arrow on the ground that points along the great circle direction to Mecca . Which in Oklahoma is a bit NE, I think … It will confuse the funnies something awful.
Amir Khalid
@RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual: @Amir Khalid:
Or even better, replace the sword with an AK-47.
Mandalay
Nobody could have predicted this…
Rice can scrub her hands with bleach a gazillion times, and they will still be soaked in blood.
Amir Khalid
@Xenos:
An arrow indicating the direction of the qiblat? That would actually be practical and a helpful thing for any Muslims around. But a little too subtle for the less-than-half-a-brain crowd, I fear.
WereBear
For our Pagan friends, perhaps a nice Sun/Moon graphic to represent the Great Duality?
And our geek friends can come up with a Apple/PC logo to represent the Great Binary.
Of course, the FSM loves us all.
scav
@WereBear: A giant colander would make a dandy fountain and we could all play underneath it on hot days.
Yatsuno
@Amir Khalid: A crescent would do. In the direction of the qiblih. Sorry that’s how I was taught to spell it.
Anoniminous
Considering it is Oklahoma they should put up a statue to Aiolos, the God of Tornadoes.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: The first time I was in Milwaukee (many years ago), I thought it quite nice that they had signs all around pointing toward Mecca. As I later realized, the signs were pointing toward MECCA (Milwaukee Exposition Convention Center and Arena). Ah, youth.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus: And the bag of hammers has some utility, too.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anoniminous: Hmmm. Apparently the Oklahoma Aiolos is in league with Moloch, because it seems to be OK to sacrifice your elementary school age children to him.
Elizabelle
Where’s Stonehenge? Damn druids always get overlooked when planning public buildings.
And don’t try to pay us off with some tiny Spinal Tappy version.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne: I disagree. I really like the aesthetics–very 19th century neo-classical revival American civic statuary going on there. Nothing that screams “joke entry”. The sculptural style is part of the symbolism of the piece (the posing of little boy and girl comes consciously from late 19th century through mid 20th century mass produced color religious images).
I’m interested in the hand gestures as they are reminiscent of the hand posed in blessing of older Christian religious iconography and also of the gestures in Hindu and Buddhist religious art.
Another Holocene Human
@Turner Hedenkoff: I think a ritual circle of smiling Dobbsheads, maybe strung from the ceiling as you walk in, would set the right tone for an Oklahoma courthouse.
Of course, given that the cult originates in Texas, I would expect vandalism. Miserable Oklahomans hate Texans more than they hate themselves.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: I think that the problem may have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus:
Druids don’t get no respect.
Yeah. Math. How does it work?
WereBear
@scav: What a delightful idea!
Of course, I consider any collection remiss if it does not have Bast, the Egyptian cat goddess.
Villago Delenda Est
@Elizabelle: Um, there were two marks. Inches. Not one mark, feet, two. Inches.
rea
@Amir Khalid: “That shit was made up, wasn’t it?”
Well, yeah, but it is not completely clear whether it was made up by Phillip IV or by the Templars.
And of course it’s not real Islam, but it might be based to some extent on the Crusaders’ notions of Islam.
Another Holocene Human
@Amir Khalid: Catholics don’t worship Mary and the saints, either, despite what Protestants claim, although it’s true, we do ask them for favors.
The whole notion is that you ask someone in better standing with the big boss to ask for something for you. The Protestant reformers never claimed as far as I know that there was anything heretical about looking for an intermediary (the communion of saints), so in their rhetoric they mischaracterized the practice instead. Rather, the outrageous part of the whole history was the Roman Catholic Church, on pain of death, enforcing their exclusive “talking to God” franchise and when anybody got too vocal about talking to God directly, they were burned at the stake, or, as in the case of Wycliff, who had frustrated the authorities by dying before they could get to him, they burned his remains posthumously.
I mean, if you didn’t need an intermediary, then you didn’t need a priest, if you didn’t need a priest, you didn’t need the Church, and that’s a valuable enterprise, you don’t just give that away.
Elizabelle
At least discussing all mighty Baphomet is distracting us from talking about tonight’s White House Correspondents Dinner.
Here in DC, some are trying to call it the “Nerd Prom.”
I guess “Suck Ass Prom” wasn’t as flattering. Geek chic and all.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
I thought they did a lot of Arabic inscriptions, too. Some traditional inscriptions like “God is great” and “There is no God but God and Mohammad is His prophet” would get the wingnuts nicely riled up.
Villago Delenda Est
@Elizabelle: Since Ed Henry is involved, the “Shitstain Prom” is more like it.
Another Holocene Human
@scav: Next up? Hinduism — a Shiva linga. Please.
I think I’d prefer a continuously running video of anointing it in honey and milk on the high holidays. I think placing a lingam in a courthouse hallway would probably amount to desecration. Of the lingam.
Although now that i think about it a big yoni on the floor in the centroid of a domed rotunda would be awesome. OK capitol building, anyone?
rea
@Elizabelle: Where’s Stonehenge?
Apparently, in Maryhill, Washington:
http://columbiariverimages.com/Images12/stonehenge_05-29-12_med.jpg
Villago Delenda Est
@Another Holocene Human: Well, the Baptists, for example, traditionally, don’t believe in intermediaries.
However, the Southern Baptists have changed their minds on that, as all their preachers would be out of grifting gigs if that were true.
Elizabelle
@Another Holocene Human:
… don’t need a priest, don’t need a Church, don’t need a Cathedral, don’t need a Pope in Prada shoes and helicopters. And men running around in scarlet dresses.
Don’t want to go down that path at all.
Joel Hanes
What has happened to the Internets I used to know?
Forty-eight comments of comparative religious mockery, and no one has mentioned Scientology.
I imagine that today’s Scientologists would actually go with the dorky “Scientology Cross”, or the even-dorkier S-with-two-triangles; back in the day it would have been a huge bronze bust of Hubbard at which adherents could sacrifice packs of Kools. But for pure restimulative value, nothing beats a grade-school model of an erupting volcano, to remind those immortal Thetans that they’re still Xenu’s psychological prisoners.
Another Holocene Human
Actually, to be honest, there is nothing more irritating religion-wise than Hindu cultists, hare Krishas for an example, tabling with big posters with odd spelling about their hero god and how much of a shit you are to eat meat, sinner, pressing arcane and badly-printed religious literature in your hands and then demanding a donation.
Just make it clear they stay until somebody backs up a forklift to the ten commandments.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
“Please pay for your purchase and get out! And come again.”
Another Holocene Human
@Villago Delenda Est: Sorry if unclear–the RCC said during the middle ages it was heresy not to require an intermediary–you could fall and lead others into error, for example–but the Protestants, depending on flavor, affirmed a right to read scripture for themselves and do away with intermediaries. I’m just responding to some popular anti-Catholic polemic about the meaning of intermediaries. Communion of the saints to me probably as more to do with what Westerners term “ancestor worship” than anything else.
I think more mainline, official Protestant sects depending on a state monopoly on christenings and marriages as well as tax revenues, which was a major reform from seeking out and killing refuseniks.
Origuy
@rea:
I’ve been there; it’s kind of cool. The nearby Maryhill Museum has some interesting, quirky collections.
Elizabelle
@Villago Delenda Est:
re WHCD: I look forward to hearing what wisecrack PBO brings down on their unworthy heads tonight.
Stephen Colbert is now one of the annointed ones. Just got a prime gig.
They’re in a profession that’s fading, fading, fading …
(PS: WHCD could also be what a houseful of corporate dicks? Couldn’t it?)
Another Holocene Human
@Villago Delenda Est:
What the old school Catholic clergy missed, perhaps because they were the third sons of landed nobility, knights, who engaged in continual violent conflicts with each other throughout the medieval period, is that you can fleece people without threat of violence.
The mega preacher phenom is quite amazing, really.
Roger Moore
@Another Holocene Human:
This strikes me as a rather fine point of the type that many people- including many of the people who are doing it- will miss. It gets especially dicey when you realize that a lot of those “saints” are co-opted pagan deities who people used to pray to for exactly the same things. Catholic theology may be properly orthodox, but a lot of Catholic lay practice looks suspiciously polytheistic.
Anoniminous
@Villago Delenda Est:
If they would stop ignoring the gods and build a proper – underground – shrine to Mithras that kind of thing wouldn’t happen.
Origuy
@Another Holocene Human: Those “Hindu cultists”, the Hare Krishna bunch, are to mainstream Hindus what Jehovah’s Witnesses are to Episcopalians.
catclub
@WereBear: Apple/PC logo
if we are talking great dualities then we need an EMACS/Vi logo
Another Holocene Human
@Anoniminous: How about Shango?
catclub
Never hurts to bring up:
In the Church of Aphrodite
Priestess wears a see through nightie,
She’s an awfully righteous sightie,
and its good enough for me.
trollhattan
Remember Cole v. truck-driving douche at the supermarket earlier this week?
SEK parries with hicks v. dyke at the Home Depot.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/05/new-hero-born
Another Holocene Human
@Roger Moore: Well, once you get into miraculous medals and the like, all bets are off. There’s a high tolerance of superstition as long as it’s approved superstition. (Scapulars: in. Palm-reading: out.)
There’s a great scene in Tortilla Flats where a character changes intermediaries after a misfortune. She had been asking Santa Maria for help and when that didn’t work out she switches to Santa Lucia, telling her, “My daughter doesn’t know who the father is either.”
Villago Delenda Est
Since we’re discussing religion in general, I’m not sure what to make of this, from Noisemax:
Late Cardinal O’Connor’s Mother Was Jewish
Which means, traditionally, that O’Connor was a Jew, as “Jewishness” passes through the maternal side.. Not sure how the Noisemax reader base is supposed to react to this…with horror, or with indifference, or with “Go Israel, you rawk, kill some more Muslim kids!” cheers.
Another Holocene Human
@Origuy: “I said ‘ha-ha’.”
Citizen_X
@Amir Khalid:
Are you kidding? Then the rednecks would actually fall down on their knees and worship it!
“So whussat foreign writin’ say, Jim Bob?”
“Why ah believe that says ‘Come and take it,’ Billy Bob.”
Another Holocene Human
@Villago Delenda Est: Although she and he were apikouros. Although it was a voluntary conversation there is a VERY ugly history of forced conversions of Jews, including a 19th century Pope who stole a baby and raised him to be a priest. (He later apostacized–the priest, not the pope.)
Really interesting. A melting pot story.
ETA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abie%27s_Irish_Rose
And this happened because of mixed urban neighborhoods in rapidly expanding cities. Something Wilson halted and reversed with his red-lining scheme, leading to ethnic violence, white flight, and a massive subsidy scheme to suburbs.
Amir Khalid
@Citizen_X:
I love it when a plan comes together.
Citizen_X
@Amir Khalid: So have the monument with its back facing Mecca, and Voila! Instant Secret Muslims!
Villago Delenda Est
@Another Holocene Human: Wilson was an ass on any number of counts.
Anoniminous
@Another Holocene Human:
Works for me.
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
I was traumatized at a young age by some of the creepier works of Lorado Taft and I still dislike that style. YMMV, of course.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, more Noisemax nonsense:
Rep. Gowdy: ‘I Have Evidence’ of Cover-Up on Benghazi
So, fork it over, tough guy. Let’s see your evidence. Make it public, now. Show us the cover up. We’re waiting.
/taps foot
Still waiting, jackass.
Mustang Bobby
@Ruckus: There’s a tribe in the South Pacific that made a god out of a 1937 Chevy. We could put that up next to this statue. That would be a cool shrine if they get the right hubcaps.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mustang Bobby: “Those are NOT the right hubcaps! Heresy! Heresy!”
Anoniminous
@Mnemosyne:
The death of hundreds of thousands in the Civil War was a boon to the committing (with intent and in the first degree) of public eyesores.
Rafer Janders
@Another Holocene Human:
Um, speaking as a former Catholic, but Catholics do kind of worship Mary. That may not be the “official” Church position but in daily practice millions and millions of Catholics perform thoughts and actions directed towards Mary that are indistinguishable from worship.
Rafer Janders
@Roger Moore:
It doesn’t even “look” suspiciously polytheistic — it is, for all intents and purposes. I’m from a large Catholic family, and I know lots of Catholics who when they pray to Mary, for example, aren’t really praying to Mary to ask God to do something — they’re praying directly to her, and they’re asking her to intercede in their lives directly. That’s polytheism in practice, though they don’t admit it as such.
Villago Delenda Est
@Rafer Janders: Well, the “official” position of many American protestants is that they don’t worship Mammon, but in fact, it appears that they do.
So there’s that.
WereBear
Speaking of which, I do adore:
House of The Rising Sun – Musical Tesla Coils
In the sense that it is AWEsome.
Mnemosyne
Okay, since this is kind of a religious practices thread, I have a possibly slightly crazy question for Amir, if he’s still hanging around:
I sometimes make knitwear for boys and girls in Afghanistan through Afghans for Afghans and I’m thinking about this pattern. Is it abstract enough to not get anyone in trouble with the local Taliban, or am I safer sticking with stripes?
Mnemosyne
@Rafer Janders:
Technically, isn’t any non-unitarian Christian who believes in the trinity a polytheist?
Also, IIRC, some of the original Protestant objection to Catholic “worship” of the saints was more that offerings (like flowers, candles, etc.) were being placed in front of statues of the saints, which amounted to idol worship.
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
Yes. I’m up. And nursing a sense of disappointment because Everton failed to take ny points off Manchester City, who now look set to beat my Liverpool for the English Premier League title that had Liverpool’s name on it for so much of this season. Sigh. But we’ve made our original target of a top-four finish to make next season’s Champion’s League, which is the top club competition in Europe, so we’re still good.
Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. That pattern doesn’t have anything on it that even vaguely resembles Arabic script, let alone the names of Allah or the Prophet, so you should be safe on that score. And there are no depictions of people or animals, so that too is good. Also, geometric patterns like it have a long tradition in the Muslim world, so I’d guess that there’s no reason anyone would find it offensive.
Jack Wilson
Isn’t that a young Mary Fallin on the left?
Bob In Portland
This quote:
Maybe six months from now or five years from now, or however long it takes for people here to notice that America threw a coup in Ukraine in order to get their hands on energy and the profits derived from controlling energy sources and lots of people died for someone else’s riches, then maybe someone here will give a nod to me. Probably not, though, because the way propaganda works is that whoever points out the obvious gets a lot of grief for shit-disturbing.
Denial has different levels. Some people actually believed that the US invaded Iraq because there were weapons of mass destruction and we invaded Afghanistan to catch Osama. Some people still believe that but there are fallback positions, like I knew there were no weapons of mass destruction but those stupid CIA/politicians/whatever didn’t know. Or, Sure, it was a scam for the oil but Saddam was a bad man, or, Well, we can’t be in Afghanistan because of Osama because he’s in Pakistan (or dead), but we’ve got to stop the poppies and the Taliban are bad.
But after 12 years in Afghanistan, it’s a little too late. The time to understand about what’s happening now is now. It’s too late for Afghanistan. People are dead, trillions are gone and we didn’t even get the Afghans to mind themselves so we could build a pipeline. When you understand “The Treaty of Fort Hunt” or if you read Christopher Simpson’s BLOWBACK you begin to understand our nation’s 70-year relationship with the Ukrainian fascists in the name of anti-Communism. If you read Simpson’s THE SCIENCE OF COERCION you see the roots of our propaganda machine and why, say, the NY Times takes a day to report on the fascists in Odessa burning people alive. You may even begin to connect the dots back to the death squads our government supported in Latin America. You may see parallels between the lies of the Gulf of Tonkin and lies that got us into other wars.
But maybe you won’t. You won’t read source material because it harshes your buzz.
Ah, people are dying, but Putin is a bad man.
gian
@Villago Delenda Est:
the coverup evidence is in the same safe deposit box as the whitey tape.
and now with the sanctions against Russia he can’t get to the bank, it’s all a conspiracy
trollhattan
@Bob In Portland:
Hodor!
Linnaeus
I don’t mean to be a downer, but I have to vent a little. I just listened to some of the tape of the guy in Minnesota who killed the two teenagers in his basement after lying in wait for them.
It’s. horrible.
I don’t even know what to say beyond that right now.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@mai naem: I suspect just the first page of One Thousand and One Nights in Arabic done in stone would be enough in Oklahoma.
Bob In Portland
@trollhattan: Above or below 100?
Turner Hedenkoff
@Villago Delenda Est: True fact: Not only do Baptists not recognize intermediaries, they also refuse to recognize each other in liquor stores.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Bob In Portland: Hodor!
Just reading about it was enough to horrify me, so I couldn’t listen. I hope the Montana pair is convicted equally decisively (only 3+ hours is a very quick – thus decisive verdict for any homicide).
scav
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Hodor Boy’s just weepy that no-one’s suggested erecting a copy of his bare-chested idol in the OK rotunda to fall down and worship before.
Mnemosyne
@Amir Khalid:
Thanks! I know it’s always hard to predict what crazy people are going to do and the mere fact that the mittens were made by someone in the US may end up being enough to cause trouble for some poor Afghan kid, but if I can avoid offense right from the get-go, I’d prefer to.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bob In Portland: TIMMEH!
WereBear
@Linnaeus: I do blame the NRA, Faux News, and every wingnut that wanted to stir up gun owners for their own nefarious gain.
Heliopause
@rea:
Been there two or three times. I recommend it if you’re ever traveling on US 97 or Washington 14 or I-84 and need a quiet place with a nice view to stretch your legs. Plus it’s a little bit kitsch.
Bob In Portland
Omnes Omnibus
@Bob In Portland: You said that already. By the way, speaking of fascists, how is Rogozin doing these days?
Lurking Buffoon
I never thought I would ever say these words but…. I have to give the Satanists credit. This is hilarious and awesome. There should also be a monument to Mjolnir so Norse Pagans can be covered too. Bonus trollery since Mjolnir has often been depicted as something of an upside-down cross. But since that really wouldn’t go with the neo-classical style, they should instead make a sculpture based on this painting: http://images.tate.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/grid-normal-8-cols/public/images/fuseli_thor_mitgard_serpent_0.jpg
@WereBear: My life is now complete.
Bob In Portland
@Omnes Omnibus: The last notable thing he said was something about US astronauts finding their own way back from the space station. From what little I know of him (and it is very little) he sounds like a Russian John McCain.
Jamey
Up on the hilltop where the vultures perch
That’s where I’m gonna build my church.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bob In Portland: You should read up on your Russian fascists. Just sayin’.
Comrade Dread
If I lived there, I’d raise funds for a statue to Bokononism.
Bob In Portland
@Omnes Omnibus: You should read up on your American fascists. Just saying. After all, it’s your tax dollars and the blood of fellow Americans that is feeding the war machine.
Or maybe you just agree that you as a citizen have absolutely no power to even think about opposing a war. Back into your hive, worker. Er, consumer.
trollhattan
@Lurking Buffoon:
“You think you’re Thor, I’m thoe thor I can hardly pith!”
—Old, old joke.
NotMax
While no doubt structurally necessary, do find it a nice to touch to have a statue for placement at the Capitol designed to include someone with a stick up his butt.
rikyrah
um, they couldnt do better by that statue? not the best looking one.
Lurking Canadian
@rea: got there before I did. It seems pretty clear that the Templars’ real offense was being richer than anybody else, and having all sorts of wealth the king wanted.
However, I think it’s at least plausible that they were up to some sort of heterodox worship. Probably didn’t involve pissing on the cross or kissing the buttocks of Baphomet or the rest of the shit they were tortured into confessing, but some kind of Islamic- and or Jewish- flavored version of Christianity would certainly make sense, given their origins, history and secretiveness.
Omnes Omnibus
@Lurking Canadian: Basically, they were a multinational corporation.
JGabriel
mistermmix @ top:
We’re over 120 comments in to this thread, and no one has shown any love for the Church of the Subgenius yet? Seriously?
Sigh.
Anyway, I think the CotS should really consider contracting out for a JR Dobbs statue to grace the capitol grounds in OK.
WaterGirl
@JGabriel: What the heck is “CotS”?
tybee
@JGabriel:
we’re too slack.
rea
The best pagan temple in the country is the Temple of Athena Parthenos in Nashville:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon_(Nashville)
gene108
@scav:
As Hinduism is the only major religion that is into idol worship, the choices of what idol to put are close to infinite.
Arclite
That. Is. Fucking. AWESOME.
Ken
From an article on the Baphomet statue:
So a monument is OK if it relates to something that Oklahoma lawmakers regularly do?
Hmm. Still not seeing why a monument to absolute evil is ruled out.
calling all toasters
Love the statue, guys, but could you arrange the fingers in the “hook ’em Horns” configuration? Just to help clue in the Oklahomans who can’t quite figure out they’re being pissed on.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: Yeah, the Baphomet thing was basically medieval hate literature. In the Song of Roland, the Muslims are portrayed as worshiping a sort of anti-Trinity of devils, and I think Baphomet was one of them.
(And they’re cast as the enemy in a battle that, in the real world, was Charlemagne’s army getting attacked by Basques on the way home from fighting on behalf of one Muslim leader against another.)
Paul in KY
IMO. there’s no way they are going to place that statue wherever they want it placed. I admire them for trying & it should (I guess) have a place. The powers-that-be will stop putting the statues of anything there to stop that one.
Maybe Oklahoma will surprise me.
Paul in KY
@scav: I would go with Shiva, myself.