san francisco man becomes first american to grasp meaning of irony .
jay fullmer, 38, yesterday became the first american to get to grips with the concept of irony.
"it was weird" fullmer said.
Some Americans aren't obese, ignorant, socially unacceptable, Jerry Springer watching malcontents who are bubbling over with fat, don't know what Pericles is and who wrote it, and always thinks that being able to kill a man in one shot is a badge of honor
Who's Jerry Springer?
one out of every 286 people is a jehovah's witness?
yikes!
could this possibly be true?.
Kody Kleinman is a junior journalism major from Homer and serves as sports editor for The Tech Talk.
I missed that little tidbit of info while I was butchering this article. I suppose he is older than 14...
LMAO @ notperfectyet
I agree with most everyone has said here. I have always like Michael Jackson and never really thought he was ever guilty of anything kind of malice against children. I may be wrong, and he may admit tomorrow that he has committed crimes against children (I am a crappy judge of character), but I honestly believe that what is going on behind that face is mostly what has been described here...the manifestations of a deprived and miserable childhood. It is amazing that people (including myself) can carry the wrongs commited against them as a child around for them until the day they die. It is a hard thing to get over, knowing that you can't turn back the hands of time and change anything. You just have to go on living and accepting that what's done is done. It seems to me that Michael is indeed trying to live that life he was never allowed to live as a child. Hanging on to the what never was, what he so desperately wanted to be (a normal child), and trying to get back all that he missed out on. It is really sad...
Plmkzy...that was great. I didn't see the documentary, but what you said pretty much sums up everything I've ever thought of Michael.
Bona
so many people who come out of the borg are so depressed and angry and freaked out?????
i have been out for 7 years now and i am happier than i have ever been in my life and was from the very first moment i left!
the only reason i even go into ex-jw groups is i like to make fun of them and other exs are the only ones who understand what i am talking about when i make a funny comment??
I think my experience was kind of like a fish out of water. It wasn't just my need or attachment to the WTS that "freaked me out" but it was the idea of putting everything I had ever known behind me and starting over...and not even knowing where to begin to start over from . Although, I was never a baptized JW, I have always been in some sort of church/religion/belief system that centered around the bible. Slowly and gradually, I didn't just lose faith in the church, the religion, or the borg; I finally completely lost faith in the bible. That was sort of like cutting my pinky toe off, ya know? That was a year ago. I am still a little dazed and confused and feeling around like a blind man in unfamiliar territory without a stick. Each day I reaffirm my decision by reading the bible and reading other books and websites and I am truly amazed that I wasn't able to let it go sooner. I guess it was my security blanket. I held desperately to the imaginary protection it offered me from unknown things and the comfort it brought me just thinking that I had some hope in it.
It is hard for me to be happy about this "enlightenment". Don't get wrong. I do enjoy it - finally...I really didn't at first simply because it was so frightening just letting go of all I ever believed. It's just, it seems since this has happened, my life has gotten harder. My husband has become more fervent and more determined to become baptized and to ingrain the dub mentality into our children. I have a hard time telling my kids why I no longer go to the Kingdom Hall. I tell them I don't agree with what they teach, and leave it at that. I have a hard time praying with the family (because of the extremely heavy usage of the name Jehovah). They know I don't believe in Jehovah anymore, but I don't know how they feel about that and the last thing I want to do is make them feel uncomfortable talking about spiritual matters with me.
For a while there, I was taking them to a baptist church, but I just can't do that any longer because I don't believe what they teach any more than I believe what the JWs teach. I feel like I need to do something to counteract the crap he's feeding them, but I don't know what. I want to be completely honest with them about how I feel about Jehovah, the witnesses, christianity, religion...but I feel they are too young for the lengthy explanations that I would want to give. And I do not want them to feel that they have to believe as I do to gain acceptance and/or love from me. I want them to come to their own conclusions, but I know that can't happen...because if I stand back and try to just allow them to flourish in their own individual way, then my husband will seize that opportunity and use it to force his own ideas on them. Definitely a rock and a hard place...
Bona
Don't fret Belbab...no one can kill a thread like I can (just check out my history). So, this thread will not sucessfully die until I have submitted the last comment.
Anyhow, maybe I'm a little slow but I'm not sure if I follow you...
Now in the above bicycling picture, all the ones in the foreground are girls and women....Surely the Holy Writers of the Awake are not suggesting how to dissipate sexual tension.
Are you saying that the Awake writers are suggesting that men should ride behind women? Or are you implying that the Awake writers are suggesting that riding a bike could be something like leaning against a washing machine on spin cycle?
Bona
one out of every 286 people is a jehovah's witness?
yikes!
could this possibly be true?.
In the United States one out of every 285 people is one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Now, that is a scary thought!!
....And this Kody character looks like he's about 14...poor guy...
Why would anyone knock on doors at random and attempt to strike up a religious discussion when, in all likelihood, they will be rebuffed rather than received? The reasons are numerous...
Yeah right, "numerous"...2 whole words--- "time sheets!"
Some of the things that people believe about my faith are outrageous.
Gee, and some of the things that people know about his faith are equally as outrageous!!!
We do not, as some claim, add to or take away from the Bible.
Reality check: Has he completely missed all the []s that fill his NWT, or the over-usage of the word [other] in the first chapt of colossians...not to mention, all the times Jehovah's name is crammed into the NT?
Perhaps the most stinging criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses is that we do not believe in Jesus. Actually, Witnesses, like other Christians, believe in Jesus as savior.
He fails to mention that they also believe that Jesus is Michael the Archangel, that unlike most Mainstream Christianity they do not believe that he was God, nor do they believe that he died on a cross, and Kody conveniently left out how JWs treat Jesus as second-rate authority compared to their sacred "mother"...(refer to his claim that some people absurdly imply that his faith is outrageous--gee, I wonder why?). Notice how he delicately refers to other Christians as "other christians"...knowing full well that JWs are taught that JWs are the only true Christians.
He knows how to leave out all the juicy stuff -- he's been well trained
Jehovah's Witnesses are not a cult. A cult is defined as a small, extremist religious group that often lives in a single compound and follows a charismatic leader. ....Witnesses don't fit any of those criteria.
Ole Kody boy needs to check the dictionary, rather than rattling off the old WT canned definition of a cult. Cult (kn. : 1. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
2. The followers of such a religion or sect.
3. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
4. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
5. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
6. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
7. The object of such devotion.
8. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=cult
Witnesses don't fit any of those criteria?? Sure, Kody. I hear the drumbeat...keep on marching
Bona
how do you difine spirituality now you are no longer a jw?
are you still a spiritual person and if so in what way?.
or are you totally unspiritual by your definition of what it means to be such?.
I dunno...this is a toughie...
I've always thought of myself as a very "spiritual" person, but religion to me has always been like a cage... and my creator, a very far away and distant persona, struggling just as desperately as me, to break free from the dry old book and religions to which he/she was confined. I had to let religion go. I still believe in a creator, but I had to free myself and him/her from that way of life, where all my predecessors had placed him and where tradition had placed me. I was raised Holiness. Speaking in tongues, dancing in the aisles, whooping and hollering...being "slain in the holy spirit" while screams and threats of hellfire and brimstone ring from the pulpit.
I soon discovered the overwhelming sense of "holy spirit" or that energy I felt in those services, I could just as easily find at a concert or anytime my body was on a certain level and highly atuned to my surroundings. Then I met the witnesses. Not too much excitement going on there, but I felt as though I was learning something and being let in on some exclusive information that only a chosen few were fortunate enough to acquire. That I was acquiring knowledge that led to everlasting life... Needless to say, the KH was spiritually devoid of any kind of energy of any sort. Even demons (if there are such things) would cringe at the entrance of a KH, for fear of drifting off into a comatose state of sleeping forever. I left it all behind. I had to...
With true spirituality, IMHO, there is an intense sense of freedom...not this boxed-up package, with pretty wrapping paper-type of spirituality that churches and religions attempt to sell you. I couldn't define spirituality. To me, it is a sensation; a connection I feel with my surroundings; an eyes-wide-open acceptance of life and keen awareness of my being. I am totally new to this. It has only been this time last year that I even allowed myself the freedom to doubt the things I had ever been taught. But I'm liking it more and more each day. I feel closer to god than I ever felt in any church or any Kingdom Hall....
Bona
interviewer - why not?
interviewer - and why do you think they would tell you that?
interviewer - why was that?
bump
....This really needs to stay on top for a while for any lurkers.
so, has anyone here seen any good movies lately?
i saw "bowling for columbine" by michael moore, and it was excellent!
i saw "rules of attraction" and it was bizarre, but enjoyable.
I watched Minority Report this past weekend. I don't go to the movies much...I usually just wait til it comes out on video. At any rate, MR was a great and very intriguing movie. Other recent movies I've seen that I liked was Vanilla Sky, the Others, John Q, Spy Kids (), Divine Secrets of the the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (oddly and almost scary that the character played by Ashley Judd reminds me a lot of myself sometimes) Mr. Deeds....
Some that I've watched that I didn't really care for were or were mediocre at best: Life or Something like it, Insomnia, Murder by Numbers, Panic Room, Enough
Bona
interviewer - why not?
interviewer - and why do you think they would tell you that?
interviewer - why was that?
I don't get how these people are so above the law. ...And it's not just in their minds; it is, obviously, a sad reality!!!! Apparently they can help a kidnapper hide his victim (his own daughter) for EIGHT years, they can conceal a database with the names of thousands of known child molestors, and they can just let their children die by depriving them of adequate medical attention.
How they can evade and continue to evade any responsiblity for their actions...some of them being illegal actions, at that?!
It just ain't right!!!!
Bona
