It has become a common joke that cable channels meant for a particular niche are slipping. MTV used to show music videos, for example. SyFy used to be Sci-Fi… before they started showing wrestling and morons chasing ghosts. And the History Channel used to be about History… and now they show Ancient Aliens (as South Park recently lampooned). So at least theoretically, I shouldn’t be too surprised to see non-discovery-type-stuff on the Discovery Channel. But even so, I got a bit of a shock a few minutes ago.
There I was, minding my own business, working on an article describing a 1960’s hypersonic test vehicle project, with the TV on as background noise. I turned on the guide to see if anything might be on worth watching… and about crapped myself when I saw this listing:
Yeah, it’s a photo of the TV screen. Not a screenshot or a link to a website. So sue me. But the thing to notice… what the hell is showing on the Discovery Channel after “Mythbusters?”
Peter Popoff. Peter friggen’ Popoff. With this intellectual nightmare of a show:
In case you are not familiar with Peter Popoff, he’s a televangelist who claims psychic powers. Psychic powers that, it turns out, come via radio transmitters, as James Randi showed years ago. This sort of rubbish is the precise antithesis of what the Discovery Channel is *supposed* to show.
Now, it looks pretty clear to me that what’s actually happening here is that at 1AM the Discovery Channel runs out of programming, and the channel is given over to paid infomercials. But whoever is selling this space on the Discovery Channel really needs to do a bit more due diligence. Some salesman hawking worthless consumer items is one thing. Some proven charlatan hawking anti-science should be kept as far from the Discovery Channel as possible.
More on Popoff:
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GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR………..
14 Responses to “Oh, no. No, no, no WRONG no, no NO!”
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As a Christian, I say that I utterly despise televangelists. I thank the Lord that I have never heard of this guy, and that I don’t have a TV set, neither broadcast nor cable.
Back when I had cable, all I ever watched was C-SPAN. Comedy Central, and the Weather Channel. Oh, and Turner Classic Movies.
> I thank the Lord that I have never heard of this guy
Watch the YouTube clips. He’s the kind of televangelist who makes other televangelists embarrassed.
He’s also the kind of representative for Christianity that causes Christians to become non-Christians.
He’s also the kind of representative for flim-flam that makes me wonder why in the hell people are so damned screwed up as to get suckered in. As the YouTube clips show, he was exposed in the 1980’s, and eventually declared bankruptcy… and now he’s got a business raking in dozens of millions of $$ per year, doing more or less the same thing. And it’s not exactly difficult to find information about his practices and exposure.
Be glad it was at One AM instead of like 7 pm ( or any of the regular TV hours).
Sadly Discovery is nowdays going down significantly. 10-12 years ago their content was much better. They still do some good content though. Unfortunately it’s now packed between stupid reality shows or UFO/ghost stories which are simply a waste of time.
That’s why I mostly watch it by using REC scheduler.
Histeria channel formerly kwon as Hitler or History channel.
they start annoy me with “Nostradamus Effect” around the clock docu
but they really got me very Mad with this docu “Apocalypse Island”:
A guy called Jim Turner claim he had found Maya buildings on pacific island 10 year ago.
he return with a TV crew and a Free climber (NO archaeologist in Team) to this Island
They try to find fisher men who take them to this far off uninhabited Island.
only on is volunteering to ship there in 4 days (for allot of $US and he has allot of fun during the trip)
the trip is interrupted by clip of so called “Maya Experts” who claim all sorts of things
Turner claims that mayas voyage over 8000 miles from Mexico to coast of Chile
in order to build on uninhabited Island what is link to 2012 and you know: End calendar hype…
they arrive at island get of dramatic and clime the steep slope to the maya site
then show a Map of pacific, were this uninhabited Island lies.
i know that Island from somewhere so look in atlas and bingo!
this mysterious uninhabited Island is Robinson Crusoe Island.
Population around 633,
the main town San Juan Bautista, has a deep sea harbor and one AIRPORT !
that reason why no fishermen wanted to take them there, with a Aircraft you in hours there
Turner & co stumble there way up in three day,
while the TV crew do her best no to film the Roads and Houses on way
by the way: from Airport goes a asphalt road to place they wanted to visit
The Maya monument to turn out to be, natural loose rock formation…
I hate fake Docu, especially if they are so bad made…
> they really got me very Mad with this docu “Apocalypse Island”:
I saw that one. It was pathetic… an entire documentary wrapped around an entire apocalyptic hypothesis wrapped around the idea that the Aztecs had swarmed over some island in the Pacific and made monumental rock carvings… and when they finally showed the damned things, it was obvious that they were just nature-shaped rocks.
As a sinner myself, I do not look forward to standing before the Almighty and accounting for the things I’ve done. Still, I can’t help but imagine how much more terrible divine justice will be for “evangelists” such as Peter Popoff who, in the name of God and the Gospel, cheat and lie to gullible, desperate people. Acts 8:9-24… brrr.
> I can’t help but imagine how much more terrible divine justice will be for “evangelists” such as Peter Popoff
No worse. The least of Hell has been repeatedly described to me as being infinitely bad. The worst of Hell is infinitely worse than that. But the thing is, any multiple of infinity, even infinity, is still just infinity. So Peter Popoff, Hitler, Stalin, you and a whole bunch of children who dared to be born in the wrong cultures will all roast equivalently.
Me, I plan on making my escape to Asgard. All the best people go there. I expect Scruffy is there gnawing on Jotun, Koshka is napping next to a great big roaring fire. Pat Flannery probably showed up there… surprised at first, but eventually got used to the free booze and Valkyrie.
Good point about eternal torment.I hope to avoid finding out about it personally.
As a Christian, I must point out the teaching of the Church that no one goes to Hell except by their own free will. When Christ said He came to save many, He meant “everyone who wants to be saved”. Those who are “born into the wrong culture”,are brought up in a false religion, never hear about Jesus, etc. will therefore at some point by some means (natural or supernatural) be given an opportunity to choose Christ over Self. The details can be found in the encyclical Lumen Gentium (1964) of Paul VI. It’s not terribly long, but if you’re in a hurry skip down to paragraph 16 for the fine print.
> the teaching of the Church that no one goes to Hell except by their own free will.
And yet I’ve been told in no uncertain terms that those who do not accept Jeebus as their Lord and Hamstermaster are doomed to Hell, and even a goodly fraction of those who *do* are so doomed. Something or other about the only way to heaven being through the one guy. Had some enthralling conversations with Christians of various stripes who have confirmed that a Pacific islander born in 600 AD, thus never even having had a chance of hearing word one about Christianity, is doomed to damnation because he did not join the proper fan club.
> at some point by some means (natural or supernatural) be given an opportunity to choose Christ over Self.
Most of humanity has never heard of *most* religions, including Christianity. And once again according to The Experts, if you find yourself dead before learning the secret handshake, it’s too late.
And of course, most Christians throughout history have had little to no knowledge of differing religions, much less the whole zoo of ’em. And since someone who knows nothing of the alternatives to the worldview he knows cannot actually be said to have chosen his worldview, that immediately damns most Christians straight to Hell.
> the encyclical Lumen Gentium (1964) of Paul VI
Ah. Dirty Satanic Papist propaganda, or so I’m informed. Call back when Christianity can even decide on which handbook to use. It’s kinda like the Boy Scouts not being able to decide which of many variants of the Boy Scout Handbook to use. and thus slaughtering each other.
The list of contradictory impossibilities required to get in the door of Heaven – which is described as a place that’s just, well, rather horrifying – is so long and convoluted that even if I did believe in such things I wouldn’t bother trying. “South Park” got it right… hell would have a population in the hundreds of billions; Heaven would have a handful.
And the fact that Peter Popoff and the Holy Roman Pedophile Brigade can continue their schtick *without* even the occasional lightning bolt from the blue indicates to me at the very least a serious lack of interest on the part of the highly hypothetical Management.
Okay, we’re done.
Sorry to shake your faith.
I think “Dirty Satanic Papist propaganda” and “Holy Roman Pedophile Brigade”
brought *that* discussion to an abrupt end! hehe.
Shrug. The first is a not uncommon point of view often expressed by a whole lot of Christians (fundies in particular). The latter… well, hell, who could argue that the Holy Roman Orange Catholic Church has a rather serious problem with not only a whole lot of dress-wearin’ pedobears, but a whole lot of their bosses sweeping it under the rug?
A refusal to accept that other people view your religion in a certain way, and that there are aspects of the bureaucracy of your religion that has some *serious* problems, indicates an unwillingness to face facts. An unwillingness to face facts would seem to fly in the face of Willingly Choosing Your Faith, thus implying that you are – according to the expressed rules of your religion – willingly *rejecting* salvation and suchwhat.
Besides: take a look at the formerly useful Free Republic discussion forum. Any discussion that touches on Catholocism quickly makes “Satanic Papist” look like a term of endearment. And then behold any thread on Mormonism. Yikes. And then any thread on atheism…