Posts by badwillie

39

Terror Level - ORANGE!!

by badwillie in

homeland security advisory system.

current threat level march 12, 2007 the united states government national threat level elevated, or yellow.. the u.s. threat level is high, or orange, for all domestic and international flights.

only small amounts of liquids, aerosols and gels are allowed in carry-on baggage.. see the transportation security administration (tsa) website for up-to-date information on items permitted and prohibited on airlines.. recommended activities all americans should continue to be vigilant, take notice of their surroundings, and report suspicious items or activities to local authorities immediately.everybody should establish an emergency preparedness kit as well as a communications plan for themselves and their family, and stay informed about what to do during an emergency situation

badwillie

Homeland Security Advisory System

Current Threat Level

March 12, 2007 — The United States government national threat level Elevated, or Yellow.

The U.S. threat level is High, or Orange, for all domestic and international flights. Only small amounts of liquids, aerosols and gels are allowed in carry-on baggage.

See the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) website for up-to-date information on items permitted and prohibited on airlines.

Recommended Activities

All Americans should continue to be vigilant, take notice of their surroundings, and report suspicious items or activities to local authorities immediately.
Everybody should establish an emergency preparedness kit as well as a communications plan for themselves and their family, and stay informed about what to do during an emergency situation

4

Warriors and Wusses

by badwillie in

from the los angeles times

joel stein warriors and wussesjoel stein.

january 24, 2006. .

badwillie

From the Los Angeles Times

JOEL STEIN

Warriors and wusses

Joel Stein

January 24, 2006

I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.

I'm sure I'd like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you're wandering into a recruiter's office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.

And I've got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

Blindly lending support to our soldiers, I fear, will keep them overseas longer by giving soft acquiescence to the hawks who sent them there — and who might one day want to send them somewhere else. Trust me, a guy who thought 50.7% was a mandate isn't going to pick up on the subtleties of a parade for just service in an unjust war. He's going to be looking for funnel cake.

Besides, those little yellow ribbons aren't really for the troops. They need body armor, shorter stays and a USO show by the cast of "Laguna Beach."

The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.

I understand the guilt. We know we're sending recruits to do our dirty work, and we want to seem grateful.

After we've decided that we made a mistake, we don't want to blame the soldiers who were ordered to fight. Or even our representatives, who were deceived by false intelligence. And certainly not ourselves, who failed to object to a war we barely understood.

But blaming the president is a little too easy. The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying. An army of people ignoring their morality, by the way, is also Jack Abramoff's pet name for the House of Representatives.

I do sympathize with people who joined up to protect our country, especially after 9/11, and were tricked into fighting in Iraq. I get mad when I'm tricked into clicking on a pop-up ad, so I can only imagine how they feel.

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam.

And sometimes, for reasons I don't understand, you get to just hang out in Germany.

I know this is all easy to say for a guy who grew up with money, did well in school and hasn't so much as served on jury duty for his country. But it's really not that easy to say because anyone remotely affiliated with the military could easily beat me up, and I'm listed in the phone book.

I'm not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn't be celebrating people for doing something we don't think was a good idea. All I'm asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades.

Seriously, the traffic is insufferable.

21

My Letter RE: Beaumont Article on JW's "disaster relief"

by badwillie in

here is my letter to the writer who authored this piece: .

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15921650&brd=2287&pag=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=8 .

dear jamie,

badwillie

MM - very nice letter, sincere and direct. I wish these papers would stop giving away valuable column inches to the WT media (actually marketing) department. Hopefully this journalist will actually look into all this stuff.

29

Church members come from far and wide to repair hundreds of houses

by Country Girl in

jw
friends

church members come from far and .

wide to repair hundreds of houses .

by: jamie reid, the enterprise 01/13/2006 .

badwillie

My letter: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/11/105755/1.ashx

5

Beaumont Article

by TallTexan in

jw
friends

i read this on another post, but there are so many things wrong with this article.

beaumont - each weekend since october, danny farrow has driven about 90 miles to the golden triangle, where he lives in a trailer and feeds thousands of homemade meals to volunteers.

he could be golfing.

badwillie

my letter: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/11/105755/1.ashx

21

My Letter RE: Beaumont Article on JW's "disaster relief"

by badwillie in

here is my letter to the writer who authored this piece: .

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15921650&brd=2287&pag=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=8 .

dear jamie,

badwillie

Here is my letter to the writer who authored this piece:
http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15921650&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=8 Dear Jamie,

I read with interest your article of 1/13/06, "Church members come from far and wide to repair hundreds of houses".

As someone with many years of association with Jehovah's Witnesses, I can attest that your article very accurately conveys the altruistic spirit that can be found among thousands of the organization's members. I do feel compell ed to point out however that your article only tells half of the story.

You observ ed that "Jehovah's Witnesses who can't drive to Southeast Texas donate money to help the cause... which is used to buy supplies and food. Also, several nonprofit groups, like the Red Cross, have donated frozen and canned foods ". I commend the Red Cross and the several other nonprofit groups who saw fit to draw from their cash reserves to supply food to those in need in Texas.. The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania Inc., which is the registered name of the corporation these voluntary workers belong to, has substantial cash reserves and billions of dollars in real estate assets worldwide. Unlike the Red Cross, the Watchtower Society (as it is known amongst its members) instead uses its members at their own expense to do this sometimes dangerous disaster relief and rebuilding work.

According to the survey: The Top 40 Companies Headquarter ed in New York City, published in the New York Newsday of 9/23/02, the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society ranked # 31 with total revenues from the previous year of $951 million. To gain perspective, they are positioned between #29 - Barnes and Noble College Bookstores with $998 million, and #35 - J.Crew Group at $826 million. Now let's compare the revenues of these three New York based companies with that of Red Cross. For the year ending 2004, the Red Cross had total revenue of just over $3 billion. When you subtract the approx $2.2 billion in cash they received that year for supply of biomedical products and services, which leaves approx $862 million revenue from donated finances. Here is a link to their annual report. http://www.redcross.org/pubs/car04/CFS04.pdf

J.Crew and Barnes and Noble are very profitable companies with a huge payroll of tens of thousands of employees. Red Cross is known worlwide for their disaster relief work.

The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania Inc. owns printing factories worldwide on every continent where hundr eds of unpaid laborers toil to supply the company with the steady flow of magazines, tracts, and brochures they rely upon in order to solicit the millions of dollars in donation revenue they receive each year. Ask yourself, with a steady annual revenue equaling or surpassing that of some of America's most profitable companies, but with $0 dollars spent on labor, where is all the money?

I'm sure you notic ed that most of the individual Jehovah's Witness volunteers who donated time and resources to this disaster relief are themselves of modest means. I have great respect for these individuals, both for their trust in each other, and for the great compassion that they show. Sadly, they are unwittingly being taken advantage of by an organization that is very eager to present a family friendly charitable face to the world.

Sincerely, BW

37

Homosexuality at Bethel

by Sam the Man in

jw
friends

whilst at london bethel, i witnessed this first hand.

i know that it went on there.

those from brooklyn bethel (i understand that there are a few ex brooklyn bethelites here), the question i have for you is 'did you witness/hear of any over your side of the pond?

badwillie

Do any of these names ring a bell?

Sorry I had to edit the names out. It would be better to PM them privately.

Lee

37

Homosexuality at Bethel

by Sam the Man in

jw
friends

whilst at london bethel, i witnessed this first hand.

i know that it went on there.

those from brooklyn bethel (i understand that there are a few ex brooklyn bethelites here), the question i have for you is 'did you witness/hear of any over your side of the pond?

badwillie

Sam - I Iived in London from 1991-99. I knew many Bethelites too during that time. I may even know you.

I was in the Stamford Hill cong in N.London. I hung out up at Mill Hill a lot over those years, we had some Bethelites in our cong. My wife and I used to joke about a few we met that were very effeminate. One I always suspected was the guy they usually had at the front desk as a receptionist, can't remember his name.

30

Low Low Low Self Esteem

by joelbear in

jw
friends

man, if i don't solve this problem i'm gonna be dead one way or another.. i know i need to build self esteem.

i am focusing on bringing things into my life that i find real fulfillment in.. i had little fulfillment as a witness.

really only the pleasure i got from bible studies, of which i really only had about 10 real ones of.

badwillie

Joel,

There is a medication available that I find very relaxing. It helps me to feel "centered" too. I notice others using that phrase, which I think is fitting. JW's have low self esteem built right into their minds by their programmers. . Anyway, the medication also helped me to see myself as others do. It allowed me to praise myself, all my fine qualities and achievements (without any guilt, very important). The medication I'm referring to is Marijuana. I started using this regularly about a year after leaving the cult. I know this wonderful plant has helped me to heal myself of the years of psychological abuse I went through growing up as a JW. Anyway, I tried it and found it to be very enlightening.

I don't know how long I will continue this self-prescribed treatment, but for now I'm still benefitting.

Wishing you inner peace,

BW.

38

Would the WTS torture the "apostates" if they could?

by greendawn in

do you think the wts would physically torture and even execute "apostates" if we all lived in a context that allowed them to do so?

much as the catholic church did in the middle ages when they had the opportunity to treat their dissenters as they wished.

already the way the gb wants apopstates treated is as vicious as can be, manifests a deeply seated maliciousness and animosity and is calculated to hurt as much as possible under the present day circumstances.

badwillie

When I started raising questions 4 years ago about their involvment with the UN, I was called "a CANCER that needs to be cut out". Within 2 weeks of questioning I was labeled apostate and publicly reproved. My character was assassinated. I guess we are all very lucky this happened to us now and not when stoning and beheading were all the rage.