Phantom Stranger

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Posts by Phantom Stranger

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  29

  Mental health issues

  by YellowLab in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  how many of you have experienced or are experiencing any mental health related issues?

  were/are any of these issues related to you being a jw?

  do you feel many dubs still in "the truth" have mental health issues but are afraid to seek treatment from a "worldly" psychologist or psychiatrist?.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Mother and grandmother diagnosed as depressive as JW's.

  I was diagnosed as an 18-year-old. Like franklin, eventually handled it w/o ending up depending on antidepressants. (NOT saying they're bad, but my mom has been on them for 20 years and uses them as a reasons to not do any therapy - so that's dependence).

  I don't think it's the rules per se, YellowLab - I think it's the conditional, performance-oriented love/acceptance. Having rules is just having rules - many cultures and subcultures have that. But feeling doomed if you screw up once - that's where insecurity comes from, IMHO.
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  13

  Designating The Kiddies

  by Valis in

  1. forum
  2. suggestions

  i was thinking today that it would be usefull and most definitely appropriate to have some kind of designation for an underage user here, besides the birthday thing, which obviously could be used and abused by someone.

  i was thinking maybe a small icon .

  sincerely,.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Glad to see that's the direction this is going...I was starting to seriously think that it was OK to bushwhack the adults.
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  43

  A question to the English and Canadians about tipping?

  by Maverick in

  1. social
  2. current

  in the quentin tarantino movie reservoir dogs, steve buscemi's character argues against tipping.

  and a very good discussion ensued on this topic.

  it is the only thing i liked about that movie, but anyway this came up yesterday.

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  Phantom Stranger

  But the machine must be programmed to create the tip line on the slip. Starbucks, for example, has a tip jar but avoids printing the tip line on CC slips. Reduces their paperwork.
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  32

  Higher Educaton

  by franklin J in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what is the current thinking of the watchtower society concernng higher education these days?

  in 1977 i entered college from a full pioneer status and was duly criticized from the local elders.

  back at that time, higher education was actively discouraged.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Herk, unless Joker is Penton, those aren't Joker's comments - I think Joker was including them for the statistics.

  Are there any hard numerical stats cited in the book, Joker?
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  31

  Explain your politics

  by logansrun in

  1. social
  2. current

  political threads seem to be the one which generate the most vitriolic arguments on this board.

  please stay away from arguments in this thread.. i'd like to know what type of political philosophy you enodorse, not just some results from an on-line test.

  furthermore, i'd like to know why you feel the way you do and what criticisms could be laid against your philosophy.

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  Phantom Stranger

  "Adam Smith believed that there should be limitations on what corporations should and shouldn't be allowed to get away with. He thought that the English South Sea Bubble scandal of 1711 was an outrage and exactly the kind of thing the public should be protected from. During its run of power, members of parliament took bribes, and members of the corporation got rich, and members of the public got bilked while the worthless stock rose from 128 pounds to 1700 pounds and plummeted back down to 128 pounds again in a single year, purely from speculation urged on by the South Sea Company. The South Sea Company was one of the first corporations ever founded and one of the earliest examples of manic greed speculation. The company was supposed to have been preparing to trade with the new world, when in fact the treaty rights it held with Spain only allowed for one or two cargo loads per year. The company had grand schemes, but really nothing to do. So the worth of the company existed on paper and in the hype of its owners, trading and reissuing new stock, much like Enron today.
  
  Smith also believed that monopolies were the death of the free market, and that the government should do whatever it could to step in and break up monopolies when they formed to insure just competition for the worth of labor. But even more than government regulation, which he believed should be kept to a minimum, Adam Smith was a deep believer in something he called "the unseen hand" - a magical force that would somehow curtail man's baser nature and insure mostly just dealings for most people most of the time.
  

  From an article on Adam Smith

  BTW, everyone that believes that unregulated free markets would result in the greatest good for the greatest number, please step this way - specials on bridges today.
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  28

  Caffeine addiction

  by DanTheMan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are you a recovering caffeine addict?.

  do you now avoid it altogether?.

  how did you go about breaking the habit?.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Oh, BTW, decaf tastes LOTS better than it did years ago. Ah, science...
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  13

  Designating The Kiddies

  by Valis in

  1. forum
  2. suggestions

  i was thinking today that it would be usefull and most definitely appropriate to have some kind of designation for an underage user here, besides the birthday thing, which obviously could be used and abused by someone.

  i was thinking maybe a small icon .

  sincerely,.

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  Phantom Stranger

  I see no reason that a minor who wants to be taken seriously would enter their correct age... just a thought.
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  10

  How much do the holidays mean to you?

  by freedom96 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i grew up a witness, so therefore of course i never had any of the holidays, though i wanted to do them badly.. i left in my mid- twenties, and was single for quite some time.

  during this time, there never was really any need to celebrate any of the holidays.

  so many of them were meant for families anyways, and all mine were far away.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Had my first XMas at 21. It's my favorite holiday.

  Holidays are opportunities. Every holiday is an opportunity to demonstrate through words and actions that I care about people, those in my life and those not, and that they are more important to me than doctrine or dogma.

  When relationships are shallow and communication is lacking, any celebration is just going through the motions (sound like Nisan 14 to anyone?)
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  28

  Caffeine addiction

  by DanTheMan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are you a recovering caffeine addict?.

  do you now avoid it altogether?.

  how did you go about breaking the habit?.

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  Phantom Stranger

  I used to drink 4-5 cups with breakfast and then go to gallons of strong iced tea for the rest of the day.

  Went cold turkey a month back. Had a few headaches, not sure if they were related.

  Next BP reading dropped 12 points on each side.
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  32

  Higher Educaton

  by franklin J in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what is the current thinking of the watchtower society concernng higher education these days?

  in 1977 i entered college from a full pioneer status and was duly criticized from the local elders.

  back at that time, higher education was actively discouraged.

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  Phantom Stranger

  That study must have included GED and Home Study certs, if it wasn't done before the trend towards home study.

  All of the JWs I knew who bailed on high school for pioneering, etc., passed their GED, to statistically I think they cound as HS grads.