Yes I did. Although I became a Witness in 1973 I never bought into the 1975 hysteria. However I was totaly freaked out by the decade of the 1980's. You mean the end had not come by then?
I remember the brochure "Jehovah's Witnesses In The 20th Century" I told an Elder at the time I hoped we would never see a brochure called "Jehovah's Witnesses In the 21st Century" He did not understand what I meant.
I was a true believer. I believed hook, line and sinker. What an idiot I was.
kurt vonnegut is definitely one of my heroes.
he was only on for like 8 minutes but i was totally enthralled.. my favorites of his are galapagos, cat's cradle and welcome to the monkey house.
incredible insight on the human condition.
Vonnegut is one the best American writers. He is a World War II vet and was a POW. His camp was near Dresden when that city experienced the fire bombing. That is the basis for his novel Slaughterhouse 5.
I recommend people not familiar with Vonnegut to read that book along with God Bless You Mister Rosewater, Galapogas, Welcome To The Monkey House a collection of his short stories and Wampeters Foma and Granfaloons a collection of his nonfiction writing.
Several of his books have been made into movies, but they do not translate well on the screen. I loved the book Happy Birthday Wanda June but the movie was awful.
it has been a few days since i raged and cried for the victims.
it has been a few days since i cursed our government and became forever disgusted with their actions.
it has been a few days since i made my red cross and animal rescue donations.
If I have to evacuate on foot I will. If I am sick or infirm I will die trying to save my life rather then sit idly by and patiently wait for death.
Yes, I do blame the victims.
However, the heaviest blame falls on the Mayor and city officials of New Orleans. They are the ones who refused to plan, they are the ones who refused to reinforce the levees, they are the ones who let over 500 buses sit in a parking lot while telling people to gather in the death trap of the Superdome,they are the ones most responsible for the anarchy and misery.
sometimes violence is granted in order to stop violence.
new orleans (ap) police shot and killed at least five people sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.
deputy police chief w.j.
What took the police so long?
Looters should always be shot, Black or White, you loot you die.
Too bad New Orleans did not have people like the Korean store owners in Los Angeles who protected their property from criminal thugs rioting after the Rodney King verdict.
hopefully i can explain what i'm talking about here.. a few yrs after i left the jws, i went to college and spent a semester abroad.
the combo of studying world history, along with seeing historical stuff in person and exposure to new cultures really led me to realize even deeper how egocentric/ethnocentric the jw belief system is.
by that, i mean: everything centers around white americans.
It is not American culture but Western culture that IS superior to all others. It is the continuation of what began with the ancient Greeks, rationality, logic, human achievement, observing the world around you instead of looking to the supernatural.
In the 18th, 19th and early 20th century no country on Earth represented Western culture better then the USA. The more the USA falls prey to multiculturalism, social democracy, religious fundamentalism and regulation of private enterprise the darker the USA becomes and the greatest beacon of the Enlightenment dims.
are you morally obligated to kill him?
what would you do?
Hillbilly:
Uber Man was a sketch on Saturday Night Live when Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in the 1978 movie) hosted the show. She asked Uber Man if he could see through her clothes and Uber Man said "yes and Jimmy Olsen's too, grab him he's a Jew!"
if you could choose, which person in history would you like to be?.
(okay, i allow bible characters.
danny.
men are more intelligent than women.
(link).
discuss.
I am not convinced that women are more intelligent than men, but I do think that women rule the world. After all, women have half the money and all the P.....
there was so much hoo-hah prior to the films release, that i became ever determined to see it as soon as it hit town!.
the church leaders were up in arms about it, mary whitehouse became almost apoplectic, it was almost the end of civilisation as we knew it!.
well, we duly toddled off to see it.
I saw the Life of Brian while I was serving as a Pioneer and a Ministerial Servant. An ex-Bethelite was with me. We laughed our asses off! I highly recommended the movie to a selected few in my congregation, they thought it was great.
My favorite part is when Brian has sex and his mom calls the naked girl a "Welsh Tart" and I could not stop laughing at Pilate, who wepwesented Impewiol Wome and his childhood fwiend, "Biggus Dickus" lisping Thilas the Thadducee Thrangler and Thimon of Thetherea. What a great idea for every Roman official to have a speech impediment.
I love Brian's fathers name, or at least what Brian's mother told him, "Naughtius Maximus"
are you morally obligated to kill him?
what would you do?
If time travel were possible I would kill Hitler or Stalin in 1931 or even as babies in their cribs. The people who were born because of the circumstances of World War Two have no greater right to life then the 55 million lives lost in the war and the countless millions slaughtered by Stalin before the war.