Phantom Stranger

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Posts by Phantom Stranger

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  36

  Some things I'd like to do in life....

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  teach my students (future) how to think.. live somewhere other than chicago for at least a year.

  learn how to cook kick-ass healthy meals.

  travel asia.. own a horse.. write a book, even if it never gets published.. have sex in outer space (okay, i'll settle for the beach).

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  Phantom Stranger

  Hey, tink, get the passport right away. Feels different afterwards.
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  10

  Why JW's don't have a relationship with God

  by hooberus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  (even "anointed" jws do not accept that the man jesus christ is mediating for them in heaven, but instead believe that he is an angel, no longer a man.

  ) here is the thread on jesus christ still being a human.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/61530/1.ashx.

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  Phantom Stranger

  I have a relationship with my father (my bilogical father - not "god"). He's dead - but I have a relationship with him.

  Similarly, even by your rules, anyone can have a relationship with "god". All things relate to all others. It seems you are referring to some special "class" of relationship. Defining that, without making sweeping generalizations, might be more useful or effective.
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  75

  What're Yall Reading?

  by Frannie Banannie in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  i'm reading dave barry's "tricky business" right now....it's a hoot!

  so...what're yall reading?.

  frannie b

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  Phantom Stranger

  I just finished Under the Banner of Heaven (about fundamentalist Mormons and the LDS in general), Worth the Fighting For by John McCain, and Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them by Al Franken (long plane trip). All excellent. I also read Quicksilver by Neal Stpehenson - not anywhere near as good as his other works, tragically.

  I am starting The Power of Now due to a recommendation from others on this board, and I have a stack of ten magazines to get through.
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  50

  What do you call Jehovah now that you are not a dub?

  by SiouxWoman in

  1. watchtower
  2. medical

  can we still call god, jehovah.

  ok stupid question but i really want to know

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  Phantom Stranger

  I Am.
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  19

  For those brought up in the borg, How would of your life been different ?

  by run dont walk in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  we have all fantasized about never having been jw's, how would your life of been different (better or worse) if your family(parents) would of never joined the jw's.. hypothetical question i know.

  but fun to think about it.. for me, i might of actually had a family, instead of being ignored and critized for not going to meetings.. for my family, it goes back to my grandmother (who is now 100), who started the crap line going.

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  Phantom Stranger

  It is really impossible to hypothesize who I would be - but I wouldn't be me, that's certain.

  I don't know how my mom would have dealt with her depression. She might have become more functional. That would have changed my childhood dramatically. Or, she might have fallen into the violent alcoholic pit of her family background, which would have changed my childhood dramatically too...

  My dad might have been willing to be successful materially, rather than making $5.50/hour plus piecework in 1984 and not being able to afford a new car between 1964 and 1995 (due to an inheritance). Or, his folks who helped us out of hard times might have cut him off...

  I might have gone to college. The rate from my HS was low, but I was in the group that went... so that could have happened. Or I could have ended up working in agriculture like both my grandfathers and both my parents.

  I really like who I am and accept that I am a whole, indivisible and irreducible, so the bottom line is this:

  What are your dreams? Go achieve them! You ain't dead yet!
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  18

  Criticism is unavoidable

  by logansrun in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as i've stepped off the train of a myopic weltenschuung and entered the busy streets of competing ideas, i have come to a very interesting realization: all claims, ideas, philosophies, behaviors -- everything -- can be criticised.

  it doesn't matter how good your argument is, how beneficial it might be to humanity -- it can and will be put through the machine of skepticism and kinks in the armor will become known.

  criticism is unavoidable.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Yeah, but it's too bad about how all the worlds' problems could be solved by people that are too busy driving cabs and cutting hair.

  You gonna be a critic or you gonna create something?
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  11

  The Apostates do well in Tempe Triathlon

  by Princess in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i flew to phoenix last weekend for the tempe triathlon, half-ironman distance.

  a friend and fellow ex-dub was putting together a relay team and asked me to be the runner.

  he named us "the apostates".

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  Phantom Stranger

  Great job!

  What's the new Team Apostate slogan?

  Just leave it?

  There is no finish line Armageddon?

  Seriously, anyway, great job. I'd love to be up to half-marathon shape.
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  12

  Our Leadless Feeler: Bush and Business School

  by Phantom Stranger in

  1. social
  2. current

  found object: bush's early discharge .

  they also serve who attend b-school.

  by timothy noah.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Oh, Stacy, I was just honoring the men and women who served in the armed forces on Veteran's Day. Jim, what the hell is that?
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  13

  For Stacy Smith - Government Spending still climbs

  by Phantom Stranger in

  1. social
  2. current

  confounding president bush's pledges to rein in government growth, federal discretionary spending expanded by 12.5 percent in the fiscal year that ended sept. 30, capping a two-year bulge that saw the government grow by more than 27 percent, according to preliminary spending figures from congressional budget panels.

  the sudden rise in spending subject to congress's annual discretion stands in marked contrast to the 1990s, when such discretionary spending rose an average of 2.4 percent a year.

  not since 1980 and 1981 has federal spending risen at a similar clip.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Confounding President Bush's pledges to rein in government growth, federal discretionary spending expanded by 12.5 percent in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, capping a two-year bulge that saw the government grow by more than 27 percent, according to preliminary spending figures from congressional budget panels.

  The sudden rise in spending subject to Congress's annual discretion stands in marked contrast to the 1990s, when such discretionary spending rose an average of 2.4 percent a year. Not since 1980 and 1981 has federal spending risen at a similar clip. Before those two years, spending increases of this magnitude occurred at the height of the Vietnam War, 1966 to 1968.

  The preliminary spending figures for 2003 also raise questions about the government's long-term fiscal health. Bush administration officials have said fiscal restraint and "pro-growth" tax cuts should put the government on a path to a balanced budget. Bush has demanded that spending that is subject to Congress's annual discretion be capped at 4 percent.

  But the Republican-led Congress has not obliged. The federal government spent nearly $826 billion in fiscal 2003, an increase of $91.5 billion over 2002, said G. William Hoagland, a senior budget and economic aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Military spending shot up nearly 17 percent, to $407.3 billion, but nonmilitary discretionary spending also far outpaced Bush's limit, rising 8.7 percent, to $418.6 billion.

  Much of the increase was driven by war in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as homeland security spending after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But spending has risen on domestic programs such as transportation and agriculture, as well. Total federal spending -- including non-discretionary entitlement programs such as Social Security Medicare and Medicaid -- reached $2.16 trillion in 2003, a 7.3 percent boost, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

  White House officials have said the president's 4 percent annual growth cap was never supposed to curtail "one-time" spending requests, such as natural disaster aid or wars. But even if such emergency spending measures are removed, spending jumped last year by 7.9 percent, Hoagland said.
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  7

  When comes the resolution for some here?

  by ScoobySnax in

  1. jw
  2. friends
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  Phantom Stranger

  Watch out for those that would mix your metaphors for you as well... :)