Nice!
The U.S. has side stepped this through back-bends on their disfellowshipping principle. Thank goodness Czek law is different. Establishing legal precedents is the best long term way to shape this religion.
Posts by Spook
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20JW Parents Prosecuted for Oppression
by AWAKE&WATCHING infound a link to this on facebook thanks kyria!.
free 14-day trial: monitorplus | login / register.
</form>parents prosecuted for forcing girl to join religious groupctk | 30 april 2009zlin, south moravia, april 29 (ctk) - a czech couple is prosecuted for oppressing their 18-year-old daughter for her refusal to join the religious society of which they are members, the zlin police told ctk wednesday.. the parents reportedly urged the girl, a secondary school student, to join the jehova's witnesses grouping.
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31
If the Society says "JUMP!"
by nicolaou inthe dubs say;.
rank and file "oh okay".
pioneer "how high?".
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Spook
Regional building committee: Jumping may be suspended while performing illegal non-permitted anti-Osha construction work without compensation or proper training for a maximum of 10 hours per weekend. Wait, did you sign this release?
As an aside, if I did hurt myself building a church, shouldn't the true religion CHOOSE to take care of my health costs? Who the hell ever thought of that stuff anyway?
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If the Society says "JUMP!"
by nicolaou inthe dubs say;.
rank and file "oh okay".
pioneer "how high?".
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Spook
The governing body: "Let's remove the last time we said jump from WT Library CD, then write a book about why some brothers at that time felt it was good to jump for themselves. By the way, everyone of us who voted against jumping better not say "I told you so" if further jumping is required in the future."
The governing body the next day: "Who said jump? We merely mentioned that some Christians may find jumping in line with their bible-guided conscience and after praying about it should consult with their families."
The governing body the next day: "Thank you for writing with your question regarding jumping. We refer you to the article about jumping in Watchtoer."
The governing body the next day: "Thank you for writing with your question about jumping. We recommend that with matters like these one decide to wait on Jehovah."
The governing body the next day: "...Some brothers have felt that jumping is warranted for their families. Yet, it is never the place of the FDS to tell the brothers what to do."
The governing body the next day: "...Compared with the clergy of Christendom who foolishly demand people to jump out of disdain for the love of Christ!"
Pioneers: Gossip about who isn't jumping high enough and make creepy jokes about sex.
MS: I sure hate jumping, but some day I'll be an elder on easy street. Plus hot chicks date the highest jumper.
Hot Chicks: I don't really want to jump, but I have to mary an MS to get the hell out of my parents house. I'll record fake jumping hours and auxiliary pioneer, then blow off the highest jumper in the back seat of my late model honda civic after a PG-13 movie."
Spook and his chums in the day: Let's take these hot chicks out in service and go to the arcade instead - I hear they party - or sit in the parking lot and listen to punk rock music. Who needs a beer? Wait, did someone say jump. Here, toss those magazines about jumping in the garbage. Sanitation workers need salvation, too. God, I'm hungover. And here I have to give a 10 minute talk on jumping tonight. I'm just going to paraphrase from the magazine and see if anybody notices.
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6/15 WT- GB More Powerful than Worldwide Anointed- Don't Judge Partaking
by flipper inmore of the latest from the june 15th " witness only " watchtower.
under the article " the faithful steward and it's governing body " there were some very telling quotes which could indicate how the wt society is tightening the control of it's members - and trying to justify more partaking of the emblems at the memorial since the numbers partaking have gone up from about 8,000 to 10,000 since they no longer feel that the sealing of the anointed ended in 1935.. so first off, notice this quote indicating the importance of elevating the governing body over the rest of the anointed around the earth.
paragraph 16 it states , " are all these anointed ones throughout the earth part of a global network that is somehow involved in revealing new spiritual truths ?
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Spook
How about evern better than passwordprotected said, why don't christians actually share a commemorative holiday meal with their loved ones of like faith, at which they can enjoy themselves and have some theological conversation. It's pretty clear to me this is what the Lord's Supper account in the bible meant as written by its author. What do I know about exegesis, I'm just an atheist.
It seems pretty clear to me the story had a strong communitarian element to it, not an authoritarian one of participating in a "ceremony" lead by a preacher. What Jesus, if he existed, is attributed as saying is to keep participating in the sharing of that passover meal. He's not recorded as saying his followers should pass fake token emblems around in a solemn ceremony.
Sir82 should wait and see if they do away with most of Bethel and out source printing. Then you could start out-sourcing most other functions. It looks like the branches are becoming liabilities, not assets these days.
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100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time
by leavingwt in100 greatest jazz albums of all time.
http://www.chordstrike.com/2009/04/the-100-greatest-jazz-albums-of-all-time.html.
i own album #2 on this list, coltrane's a love supreme.. i would describe it as "difficult".
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Spook
I play jazz drums. I think a great place to start in listening to jazz is after early big band jazz (lovers of lyrics can dive right in to the early days...people who like country or light rock ballads will be happy here) and before fusion jazz and acid jazz. That narrows it down to the 50's through the 70's.
Coltrane is not as much in my wheel house as Davis - Kind of Blue will take your breath away in a smooth and subtle way. After that, I recommend picking a couple instruments you like and following the famous musicians from that instrument. Your choices are to go for horns or piano usually. There's a nice documentary called Jazz by the same guy who made Baseball. I can understand why one may not take to A Love Supreme. Coltrane is a quirky cat.
I recommend listening to jazz on vinyl. Biting off four songs at a time (on purpose) makes you really listen. It's harder to appreciate jazz or classical if you're blasting it on your ipod in a crowd and shuffling between songs. (Maybe that's a city phenomena though). I may also add here a nice sound system makes a huge difference. The subtle nature of jazz has immense dynamics of tone compared to rock music. You won't hear that with a cheap listening system. At least buy a nice set of headphones if you can. Many people have an "Ohhhh! Now I see!" experience with jazz when listening on good gear. I love my rock, too - but there is a huge difference in texture and feel.
Modern jazz is too hard for me to keep up with so I stick to be-bop and classics. One nice thing about jazz is that you can find almost any of the classics free in the public domain or streaming free online in radio somewhere.
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Swine flu and the understanding of science.
by Spook ini've gotten sick of responding to swine flu posts, so i'll say my peace here:.
pandemic is a word with a specific meaning.
words have meanings and it matters.
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Spook
I agree Damocles. If I lived in mexico and had an elderly grandmother, I'd tell her to stay home from the market and would offer to shop for her. I'd also take my child for medical attention at the first sign of symptoms.
Now, the real warning for a flu virus is that generally the worst flu outbreaks will tend to die down shortly after flair up and lie mostly dormant for months, perhaps resurfacing in the winter.
So we'll probably hear about this one for a while.
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24
Is being a JW like being a drug addict?
by mkr32208 inok so once again i was thinking (damn i know i should stop doing that!
) and this is what i was thinking about!.
the jw religion is very much like a drug.
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Spook
Not a bad analogy, but there are some important differences (besides the obvious medical ones).
A major fact which perpetuates drug abuse is the collusion of the users family and friends in a codependant enabling way.
Opposition from family and friends against cult members often strengthens the belief system since such systems have an elaborate circularity in which opposition (a normal way of testing beliefs) becomes evidence for the truth of the belief.
When drug users finally experience huge consequences imposed by their loved ones they are most likely to stop using. The cultic mindset is immune to this, since evidence for the failure of the belief (loss of job, opportunity, happiness, income) becomes evidence for the truth of the belief as persecution, testing and sacrifice.
Plus drug addiction has known biological components and genetic predispositions. So far when last I checked religion is considered more purely psychological and less genetic dependant. We see about a 60/40 or 70/30 with drugs. I bet we'll have about a 10/90 with religion (that is, nature vs. nurture balance).
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Swine flu and the understanding of science.
by Spook ini've gotten sick of responding to swine flu posts, so i'll say my peace here:.
pandemic is a word with a specific meaning.
words have meanings and it matters.
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Spook
Haha. We have options to judge - Teleology of an unknown purpose, stupidity, error, misunderstanding...
I think it takes a new administration a while to realize that california farts when washington eats chili. LOL. You're probably justified to hold them responsible for that knowledge in some rather complicated way. Yet it is an inescapable problem for authority.
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Swine flu and the understanding of science.
by Spook ini've gotten sick of responding to swine flu posts, so i'll say my peace here:.
pandemic is a word with a specific meaning.
words have meanings and it matters.
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Spook
I've gotten sick of responding to swine flu posts, so I'll say my peace here:
Pandemic is a word with a specific meaning. Words have meanings and it matters. That something is a Pandemic does not mean it it warrants panic. Pandemic refers to scale not risk. This is mainly a problem of public perception of science.
An epidemic is simply when more people get "sick" from something than is usual. In zoology you have an "epizoodic." Similar terms are used for farm crops and trees (beetles, locusts, etc.).
A pandemic is an epidemic across a large geographical area. That's all. It is contrasted with an endemic such as rhinovirus or malaria which have a constant base level in a population.
Swine flu is an epidemic if more people catch this flu than other known flu strains, or if it is a new virus in a given population (Emprically true in the former or true by definition in the latter). It's a pandemic if it indeed is spreading across large geographical areas, such as between continents or nations.
Yes, it will probably be over very soon, like most flu's, because it will die by the 3rd generation of mutations as antibodies outpace virulent evolution.
Epi = Greek prefix in this context meaning "over" "upon" or "more."
Pan = Greek prefix refering to "all" similar to the latin "omni."
En = "in"
Demos = Greek for people or population
Any known disease is always an endemic, epidemic or pandemic. There are no other options of classification!!! Swine flu is a "new" strain, and is therefore not endemic. That means it's either an epidemic or a pandemic!
So for the love of all gods which don't exist, please stop saying it's a scam to call it an epidemic or a pandemic. These are words with simple meanings and it is easy to differentiate between them for anyone who can think seriously.
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OK.Who the He$$ is Lying???
by sammielee24 ini just read this coming in from a doctor in texas.
sammieswife.. dr. marcus gitterle, an emergency medicine physician based out of new braunfels, texas, sent out an internal alert which contains several stunning claims about swine flu that, if true, officials have presumably sought to keep from the public.. dr. marcus gitterle, an emergency medicine physician based out of new braunfels, texas, sent out an e mail alert to his patients which contains several stunning claims about swine flu that, if true, officials have presumably sought to keep from the public.. after i returned from a public health meeting yesterday with community leaders and school officials in comal county and hays county, (name removed) suggested i send an update to my patients in the area, because what we are hearing privately from the cdc and health department is different from what you are hearing in the media, writes gitterle.. the doctor claims that the actual number of confirmed cases of swine flu is 10 to 25 times worse than has been reported, and that people are not recovering easily, as has been claimed, but that many americans are in fact seriously ill.. the way they fudge on reporting this is that it takes 3 days to get the confirmatory nod from the cdc on a given viral culture, but based on epidemiological grounds, we know that there are more than 10 cases for each confirmed case right now, claims gitterle.. .
click for enlargements.
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Spook
50,000 people die from the flu every year. .19 per capita usually, 4000 ish in Mexico city. This strain does not appear to be worse than normal annual flus. It's more risky because it's an unknown variable. The second and third generation mutations (where a flu usually ends) are not predictable. Even the first generation is not that bad.
If I lived in Mexico City and had an elderly grand mother, I would tell her not to go to the market. I would go for her instead. I would also take an infant to the hospital at the firs signs of illness. Beyond that I'd do nothing.