Posts by Phantom Stranger

8

Go Packers Go!!!

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

last weekend i was rooting for dallas cowboys to defeat the greebay packers.

this weekend i will most certainly be rooting for the packers to win against the red skins.

hell... if a cheese packer can beat a cowboy, then why couldn't they also beat an indian?

Phantom Stranger

Hey, s a redskin fan told me, the Sox won this year, so all the rules are off...

92

Would You Outlaw Jehovah's Witnesses If You Had The Power?

by minimus in

jw
friends

as much as i believe that the witnesses are a "cult", i don't think i'd choose to legally ban them.

what about you?

?

Phantom Stranger

Car dealers are deceptive too. So what?

40

How many of you gave up a college scholarship?

by codeblue in

how many of you gave up a college scholarship to appear "spiritual"?

jt's thread about "homegrown lawyers" and the wtbs willingly sending certain ones to college started me thinking about that question.

i know i for one, relinquished that scholarship to show how "spiritual" i was at 18. .

Phantom Stranger

Gave up on one at an $11K/year private college for only $858/semester.

1

Let's run government like a business...

by Phantom Stranger in

i'm a stockholder in a big company ?

for the sake of this discussion, let's call it acme.. .

a few years ago acme suffered some significant setbacks as a result of the september 11 attacks.

I'm a stockholder in a big company ? for the sake of this discussion, let's call it Acme.

A few years ago Acme suffered some significant setbacks as a result of the September 11 attacks. None of these setbacks threatened the viability of the firm, but as we all remember, 9/11 shook us all.

While dealing with these events, Acme's CEO was seen by many as resolute and firm. Especially in such uncertain times, his leadership was seen as a steadying influence by many, especially by the market (and the share price).

Soon after this, the CEO introduced a new, aggressive and far-reaching business plan for Acme, which included multiple hostile takeovers and subsequent spin-offs, and some simultaneous divestiture of core operations (outsourcing them to other firms). At the time, several members of the board questioned some of the plan's assumptions, especially its cost estimates. There was a minority shareholder protest, but the CEO's charisma and popularity carried the day.

Now, a few years later, the largest of these acquisitions is still problematic for Acme, months after the plan stated that it would be successfully completed. Runaway cost overruns have the firm in a sea of red ink, since revenues from core operations are even lower than projected. Analysts now doubt that the newly acquired firm can ever develop to the point that it shares Acme's culture of decision-making, and the scheduled spinoff as a subsidiary firm is now a large question mark.

The original business case used by the CEO and his team to justify this plan has since been shown to be deeply flawed, with assumptions that have proven to be incorrect. This has damaged the firm's credibility with the markets, and the CEO's popularity as well.

The division tasked with completing Acme's merger operations has recently suffered from ethics scandals, and as a result, those employees and the firm may still be the target of legal action in the courts. Whether the violations were approved by senior executives is still unclear, but possible - another risk to the firm and its stock value. Morale is terrible, and staff attrition is a huge problem. Additionally, many key operations have been outsourced to subcontractors, and quality assurance has been and continues to be an issue.

Accordingly, there are rumors of infighting in the executive suites. One key executive, respected by the board and by shareholders (and whose name was briefly floated as a possible CEO candidate during the last executive search) is now said to be virtually ignored by the CEO and his key staff. He is expected to resign if the CEO's employment agreement is renewed later this year. Another long-time executive, intimately involved with the development of the failed business case, recently resigned "for personal reasons", and has been viewed as a sacrificial offering to appease stockholders.

The CEO's firmness, seen as an asset back in 2001 and 2002, now seems to be a drawback. He has resisted acknowledging any missteps or mistakes, or that the original planning for his wide-ranging initiative was flawed ? to the point that many see his behavior as arrogant and autocratic. He continues to stand behind department heads whose performance has been criticized by members of Acme's board.

Most recently, the CEO and his number two both made public statements again supporting some of the base assumptions of the original business case justifying the hostile takeover ? assumptions that have repeatedly been found to be unsupportable by outside auditors and analysts. These statements hurt the company's stock price in the market, and cause many shareholders to doubt the ability of the executive team to navigate the problems they find themselves in.

Should Acme's board renew the CEO's contract? If you were a shareholder, would you vote for him? Is this too subtle?

"If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for ... but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong." -- Robert A. Heinlein

1

Choose your own savior - from Slate.com

by Phantom Stranger in

jw
friends

jesus christ: choose your own savior.

posted friday, april 9, 2004, at 12:38 pm pt.

but it's not just mel.

Phantom Stranger

Jesus Christ: Choose your own savior.

By Chris Suellentrop
Posted Friday, April 9, 2004, at 12:38 PM PT

When Mel Gibson responded to critics of his blockbuster The Passion of the Christ by saying they had a "problem with the four Gospels," not with his film, he was staking a claim to authenticity: My Jesus is the real one, not yours.

But it's not just Mel. Everyone claims their Jesus is the "real" one, the only authentic Christ unperverted by secular society or religious institutions. The best-selling fiction book The Da Vinci Code, which posits among other things that Jesus fathered a child by Mary Magdalene, styles itself as a fact-based account of the "real" Jesus, who has been covered up by a Vatican conspiracy. Academics who seek evidence for the Jesus of history attempt to peel away layers of the Gospel narratives until the genuine Jewish prophet is revealed. Nowadays, even nonbelievers assert a superior understanding of who the actual Jesus really was and what he stood for.

Why can everyone from atheists to Zoroastrians lay claim to knowledge of the real Jesus? Because there are so many of him. The New Testament itself presents multiple Jesuses, not just among the four competing Gospel accounts but within each Gospel as well: Baby Jesus, Teacher Jesus, Miracle Worker Jesus, to name only three. Just over the course of this coming weekend, Christians will move from honoring one Jesus, the suffering and dying Jesus of Good Friday, to revering another one, the Risen Lord of Easter Sunday. The old theological conundrum has a new twist: How many Jesuses can dance on the head of a pin?

The most popular Jesus of the moment may be the Manly Messiah, a macho savior unbowed by pain or torment. The logo of the Lord's Gym franchises may be the best example: A ripped, muscular Jesus does push-ups while carrying a cross emblazoned with the phrase "the sins of the world" across his back. You get the feeling that bearing the cross is akin to a soldier dropping and giving 20?it's unpleasant but not all that burdensome. This Jesus wouldn't fall three times on the road to Golgotha, and he certainly wouldn't need Simon of Cyrene to help carry the cross.

The Manly Messiah is a man of action, not wordy parables, so the New Testament incident of choice for his partisans is the overturning of the moneychangers' tables in the Temple. A close cousin of the Manly Messiah is the Apocalyptic Jesus of Revelation, what the New York Times on Palm Sunday called the "Warrior Jesus."

In The Passion, Gibson creates still another manly Jesus. By merging the suffering, human Jesus of the Stations of the Cross with a more macho conception of Christ, he's given birth to Rocky Jesus.

Rocky Jesus displays his manliness by enduring unimaginable pain. After taking a fist in the eye early in the film, James Caviezel spends the next two hours looking very much like the Italian Stallion at the end of his bruising matches with Apollo Creed. (Rocky Jesus differs markedly from another boxing Jesus, the unblemished champion Jesus of the painting Undefeated.) Later, after being brutally lashed during the scourging, Gibson's Jesus gathers his strength, pulls himself off the floor, and stands, defiant. He's quickly thrashed into submission again, but the message is clear: Jesus is beaten but not broken. He went the distance. Yo, Mary, I did it.

In his recent book American Jesus, Stephen Prothero shows how early 20 th -century proponents of a masculine Jesus were reacting to the feminine, Queer Eye for the Christ Guy portraits of Jesus that were popular in the 19 th century. Prothero points to the absurdly womanish, wide-hipped Jesus of El Señor, Andando Sobre el Mar (Christ Walking on the Sea) as perhaps the best example. In the 21 st century, feminine Jesus lives on as the ultimate sensitive man. South Park mocks this Jesus: Its Christ hosts a Donahue-style talk show called Jesus and Pals.

This is Blue-State Jesus, a pacifist Democrat who drives a hybrid vehicle while advising people to cheerfully render their taxes unto Caesar. Blue-State Jesus is an antiauthoritarian hippie who judges not lest he be judged. ("Following a set of rules doesn't make us the Father's children," grooved one 1960s San Francisco Bay Area group cited by Prothero. "It's digging on the relationship with Him.") A few years back, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched a Blue-State Jesus campaign when they tried to convince Americans that the Lamb of God didn't eat meat. Blue-State Jesus might be black or gay. He dislikes organized religion. He's more economic radical than sexual conservative. Sure, he opposed divorce and adultery, but didn't he save an adulteress from a stoning? Blue-State Jesus was the driving force behind abolitionism and the civil rights movement but not the pro-life or temperance movements. Heck, he's Party Jesus?he turns water into wine just to keep the night rockin'.

Which of these Jesuses?and the countless others that exist?is the real Jesus? In a sense, they all are. The emergence of Jesus as a computer programmer in The Matrix shows how he can be reinvented for any age, even the future. But in another sense, none of them is the real Jesus. He remains a mystery.

Scholars have sought out the Historical Jesus in an effort to solve the riddle. The consensus is that he was a Jew who lived between 4 B.C. and A.D. 30, that he thought the end of the world was at hand, that he was considered a healer and miracle worker ("of a sort well known in Judaism," E.P. Sanders wrote in the New York Review of Books), that he used parables to teach about God and ethics, that Pontius Pilate ordered him crucified, and that his followers believed he rose from the dead. But historians can't answer the most pressing question: Was he the Son of God?

The Historical Jesus wasn't the Jesus who inspired Paul, the salesman of the new religion of Christianity, who never met Jesus of Nazareth. On the road to Damascus, Paul encountered the risen Jesus, the so-called Living Jesus, the Christ of faith. That's the Jesus that most Christians seek to know and to understand. Chris Suellentrop is Slate's deputy Washington bureau chief. You can e-mail him at [email protected].

Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2098553/

135

Victory for Terrorism

by Yerusalyim in

the terrorists won a great victory in spain.

mind you, i'm all for the democratic process...it's great...and had the spanish decided to part ways with the us of it's own volition, great!...however, the socialists were project to not win a majority in this weekends election...that is until the terrorist attack.

now, with the socialist coming into power...and the promise to both withdraw the 1300 spanish soldiers from iraq and to part ways with the us on foriegn policy we can look for more such attacks in other countries.

Phantom Stranger

Why don't you shove your snide, condescending, sarcastic remarks up your ass?

You were talking about "terrorists" and now you're talking about "terrorist regimes". Because you were inconsistent in your terminology, you decided to insult me.

Piss up a rope. You don't want to have a conversation - you want to have your own little version of Hannity and Colmes, and you want to find someone to play Colmes. Piss off.

135

Victory for Terrorism

by Yerusalyim in

the terrorists won a great victory in spain.

mind you, i'm all for the democratic process...it's great...and had the spanish decided to part ways with the us of it's own volition, great!...however, the socialists were project to not win a majority in this weekends election...that is until the terrorist attack.

now, with the socialist coming into power...and the promise to both withdraw the 1300 spanish soldiers from iraq and to part ways with the us on foriegn policy we can look for more such attacks in other countries.

Phantom Stranger

I'm sorry - you asked me a question?

I wasn't aware that any terrorists has enslaved any women... perhaps you can illuminate me on that, too.

Oh... maybe you are saying that Islam has interpretations that oppress women... and maybe you are saying that "Islam" and "terrorists" are the same.

That's the same as saying that the IRA and the Catholic Church is the same. (Has the Catholic Church ever come down as hard as it could have on the IRA? No...)

If you are saying that Islam and terrorists are the same thing, then I'm done talking with ya. If I've misunderstood, let me know.

135

Victory for Terrorism

by Yerusalyim in

the terrorists won a great victory in spain.

mind you, i'm all for the democratic process...it's great...and had the spanish decided to part ways with the us of it's own volition, great!...however, the socialists were project to not win a majority in this weekends election...that is until the terrorist attack.

now, with the socialist coming into power...and the promise to both withdraw the 1300 spanish soldiers from iraq and to part ways with the us on foriegn policy we can look for more such attacks in other countries.

Phantom Stranger

Terrorist invariable enslave and terrorize their OWN people. Their mind set is all or nothing.

BS, you are lecturing us about terrorists as if you know all about their psychology. Would you mind illuminating us on how you became so familiar with terrorist psychology? And since you say that terrorists are not reacting to their perceived oppression, you must be able to explain to us why they do what they do - would you mind illuminating us on that score as well?

65

Bush/Kerry Poll

by Greenpalmtreestillmine in

u.s citizens: if you intend to vote in november will you vote for bush or kerry or are you undecided?

please with just one word give your vote for this very small poll: bush, kerry or undecided .

those outside of the u.s.: who are you hoping will become the next u.s. president?

Phantom Stranger

Kerry.

102

Congratulations, Spain - first government to fall because of Iraq, Bush!

by TheOldHippie in

.

congratulations to the spanish people, who voted the socialists to power as a protest against the conservative government's supporting bush's war on iraq, and for claiming the madrid bombs were acts of the eta nationalists and not an al-qaida attack because of the war on iraq.. so one government has fallen, and there are many more to come, bush.. who says these days ain't fun?

Phantom Stranger

Not sure I agree with that judgement that Islam does not disavow terror...

Excerpted from the FINAL COMMUNIQUE OF THE NINTH EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE OF FOREIGN MINISTERS - DOHA ? STATE OF QATAR 23 RAJAB 1422H (10 OCTOBER 2001)

http://www.oic-oci.org/english/fm/All%20Download/frmex9.htm

1 - The Conference strongly condemned the brutal terror acts that befell the United States, caused huge losses in human lives from various nationalities and wreaked tremendous destruction and damage in New York and Washington. It further reaffirmed that these terror acts ran counter to the teachings of the divine religions as well as ethical and human values, stressed the necessity of tracking down the perpetrators of these acts in the light of the results of investigations and bringing them to justice to inflict on them the penalty they deserve, and underscored its support of this effort. In this respect, the Conference expressed its condolences to and sympathy with the people and government of the United States and the families of the victims in these mournful and tragic circumstances.
3- The Conference stressed that such shameful terror acts are opposed to the tolerant divine message of Islam which spurns aggression, calls for peace, coexistence, tolerance and respect among people, highly prizes the dignity of human life and prohibits killing of the innocent.

From the article at: http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2001-09/13/article25.shtml

DOHA, Qatar, Sept 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Renowned Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi denounced the attacks against civilians in the U.S. Tuesday and encouraged Muslims to donate blood to the victims of the attack.

In response to the bloody attack against civilians in the U.S., Sheikh Yusuf issued a statement Wednesday saying that:

"Our hearts bleed for the attacks that has targeted the World Trade Center [WTC], as well as other institutions in the United States despite our strong oppositions to the American biased policy towards Israel on the military, political and economic fronts.

"Islam, the religion of tolerance, holds the human soul in high esteem, and considers the attack against innocent human beings a grave sin, this is backed by the Qur'anic verse which reads:

Who so ever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind, and who so ever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind," (Al-Ma'dah:32).

"The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said, 'A believer remains within the scope of his religion as long as he doesn't kill another person illegally'," the prominent scholar said.

He added that haphazard killing where the rough is taken with the smooth and where innocents are killed along with wrongdoers is totally forbidden in Islam.

Even in times of war, Muslims are not allowed to kill anybody save the one who is indulged in face-to-face confrontation with them. They are not allowed to kill women, old persons, children, or even a monk in his religious seclusion.

From this BBC story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1544955.stm

Islamic world deplores US losses

The head of al-Azhar in Cairo, one of Sunni Islam's highest religious authority, said attacking innocent people was not courageous, but stupid and would be punished on Judgement Day.

"It's not courage in any way to kill an innocent person, or to kill thousands of people, including men and women and children," said Sheik Mohammed Sayed ntawi.

In Lebanon the spiritual leader of the Shia guerrilla group, Hezbollah, called the attacks "barbaric acts".

He added even though Muslims were opposed to the American Government because of its support for Israel, the American people should not be blamed.