May the LB force be with us.

[rob69in]

I hope this cut & paste works.

This article was taken from todays Yahoo's news!

We are not alown, the LB force is with us.



"Pair Use The Force For Jedi Religion Thursday November 16, 10:29 AM      

Two self-styled Jedi Knights are stepping up an intergalactic campaign for formal recognition. Umada and Yunyun, also known as John Wilkinson and Charlotte Law, want the UN to acknowledge "The Force" is worthy of being called a religion. The couple claim to be part of the UK's fourth largest religious group, after 400,000 people recorded their faith as "Jedi" in the 2001 Census.

They say that as a religion, they deserve tolerance and respect. November the 16th is the annual International

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Day for Tolerance.

And as part of a global battle worthy of Luke Skywalker's efforts against the Empire, the band of self-styled Jedis want the UN to re-name the day as Interstellar Day of Tolerance.

More people claim their religion to be Jedi in England and Wales than those who follow Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism. And the cause has global support.

There are also 70,000 Jedi knights in Australia, 53,000 in New Zealand, and 20,000 in Canada.

This is Umada and Yunyun's letter to the UN Association:

To whom it may concern,

For the last ten years the United Nations has marked today as the International Day of Tolerance.

While we support this important work, we feel the UN needs to move with the times.

In the 2001 UK census, 390,000 people identified themselves as Jedi Knights, making us the fourth largest religion in the country.

We have a proud heritage dating back 195,000 years to our first Jedi, the blue haired, blue eyed Kaja Sinis, who was born on Coruscant.

Like the United Nations, the Jedi Knights are peacekeepers, and we feel we have the basic right to express our religion through wearing our robes, and to be recognised by the national and international community.

We therefore call upon you to change the 16th November to the United Nations Interstellar Day of Tolerance, to reflect the religious make-up of our twenty-first century civilization.

Tolerance is about respecting difference where ever it lies, including other galaxies. Please don't exclude us from your important work.

May the LB Force be with you."


OK I doctored the last line.

[stogie bear]

Fantastic... I too, am now a Jedi Knight!

[andre459]

I remember when this came up a few years ago in an Australian census.

In Australia more than 70,000 people declared themselves members of the Jedi in the 2001 census. The Australian Bureau of Statistics issued an official press release[3] in response to media interest on the subject. The ABS announced that any answers that were Jedi-related in the religion question were to be classified as 'not defined' and stressed the social impact of making misleading or false statements on the census. However, an ABS spokesperson said that "further analysis of census responses has been undertaken since the release of census data on 17 June to separately identify the number of Jedi-related responses".[4]
It is believed that there is no numerical value that determines a religion per definition of the ABS, but there would need to be a belief system or philosophy as well as some form of institutional or organisational structure in place.[5] [6]
In the leadup to the 2006 census, there were some reports of the ABS hinting (without humour) that writing Jedi on the 2006 census could lead to a fine for providing 'false or misleading' information. This is despite previous admissions that they were 'fairly relaxed' about the issue in 2001 and that nobody had been prosecuted in at least 15 years.[7]

Just think there are ABS people researching this, a nice waste of government money.

[stogie bear]

Is it true that in Australia it is compulsory to vote in national elections but no one really gets in trouble for not doing it?

[rob69in]

Our numbers are growing, may the LB force be with us all.

[andre459]

Basically you get a $20 fine if you don't get your name marked off at a polling boothe, you can then write a letter with an excuse but it has to be pretty bloody good. Basically you have to be having a baby, on your death bed or out of the country it's not good enough to say you don't like any of the candidates. If you don't pay the fine they can take you to court.
The stupid thing is they don't always ask for ID - my Dad has marked my name off before for a local election when I was away for work. Once your names mark off you can put a blank form in the box if you want. I still think compulsory voting is a good thing.


This Jedi thing might have merit

Under subsection245(14) of the Electoral Act the fact that an elector believes it to be a part of his or her religious duty to abstain from voting constitutes a valid and sufficient reason for not voting.

That's good you don't want the religious nutters voting anyway.

[post-op lover]

I'm Sith!

Seriously, what kind of bullcrap is it that a religion has to be institutionalized? I think the religious people need to be institutionalized. Goddamn nutcases.

I suppose there's not a sufficiently large anti-atheist sentiment, so they need to stir the pot to get it going.

As if Australia and the UK didn't have enough problems with fuckwits like John Howard and Tony Blair. Little clones of the Party of Satan in the U.S.

Ps. Don't tell Lord Sidious I think his days as Bush's political advisor are numbered.

[andre459]

When George W says jump Little Johnny says how high. We'll be the 51st state soon.
Kyoto agreement, Afghanistan, Iraq better ask George W first. Howard's agenda from a few years ago was the Free Trade Agreement with the US but surely we could strength our ties in Asia.
That's the one thing I admire about NZ they don't take it up the ass from the US.


Sorry Rob - may the LB Force be with you.

[rob69in]

(post-op lover @ Nov. 17 2006,16:27) I'm Sith!            

Seriously, what kind of bullcrap is it that a religion has to be institutionalized?  I think the religious people need to be institutionalized.  Goddamn nutcases.

I suppose there's not a sufficiently large anti-atheist sentiment, so they need to stir the pot to get it going.

As if Australia and the UK didn't have enough problems with fuckwits like John Howard and Tony Blair.  Little clones of the Party of Satan in the U.S.

Ps.  Don't tell Lord Sidious I think his days as Bush's political advisor are numbered.        

As daft as the following of this "religion" maybe its probably considerably less of an extremist generating farce than one i could mention.

[Guest]

(stogie bear @ Nov. 17 2006,06:27) Is it true that in Australia it is compulsory to vote in national elections but no one really gets in trouble for not doing it?

They tried this out in a local election in the UK - apparantly the most popular response was the word BOLLOCKS written across the voting form.

As this much used word sums up pretty much all politics in the UK at the moment perhaps the voice of the people was really heard for once!

Cheers

[post-op lover]

(riteguy @ Nov. 17 2006,15:26) the voice of the people was really heard for once!

It says a lot about the recent state of affairs, that that is a rare triumph.

I feel sorry that Brits can't vote for their masters over here. At least we'd get better voting pool. Any chance more could move into Florida?