Posts by AllAlongTheWatchtower

9

Hand rearing a puppy?

by Fe2O3Girl in

our black labrador bitch had a litter of five puppies on monday.

sadly, one died soon after birth, leaving four pups.

yesterday evening my husband noticed that one of the remaining pups was cold and lethargic.

Good luck with it, you seem to be on the right path, reading links and all for info. My wife and I recently attempted the same thing for a runt kitten (only 2.5 ounces, when the others were nearly 4.5 and 3+). Sadly for little "Tiny", it didn't work. The websites we consulted for info stressed that failure is always a possibility, and not to feel too bad if you can't bring the wee one around, but it still affected my wife pretty hard, she's got a kind heart (plus being pregnant herself, her emotions are on the surface).

The stuff we bought was 'Just Born', from the local PetCo. I think they had the same product for puppies, I don't remember. And no, you can't give them cow's milk, they can't digest it. The websites my wife and I looked at for kittens said you can try goat's milk, however-might hold true for pups as well, but I could be wrong. Also, dunno about puppies, but the info we found for kittens warned that if you exclusively rear the young by hand, there can be behavioural problems.

One last thing...every one of the websites I saw about kittens, and a few I just now looked up for puppies, stresses the importance of weighing them on a small scale, to measure their progress.

http://leerburg.com/bottlefeeding.htm

23

Freedom of Speech

by Scully in

my family has had an interesting evolution over the past few years of being exjws.. as jws, it didn't even occur to us to use profanity or vulgar language.

jehovah's witnesses don't speak that way - at least that's how i was brainwashed to believe - although i knew plenty of jws who do.. once we started experiencing the real world, it no longer seemed like such a crime (or sin, to be more precise) to say the occasional word that might get *bleeped* on tv.. after a while though, it grew old.

i started to feel that it wasn't my nature to talk that way, and using that language was not conducive to who i wanted to be as person and a professional.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

I'm an admin on a website and chatroom designed primarily for teens and college students-I get the 'but what about my rights?" freedom of speech thing all the time. My favorite example is to point out to them that despite freedom of speech, it is still illegal to stand up in the middle of a crowded theatre or concert hall and scream "FIRE!". It's called inciting a riot. Anybody who doesn't accept my explanation, well they get a boot off the server, and then a 5 minute ban if they come back and persist in being a jerk. I double the 5 minutes every time they come back and 'shout' back (typing in all caps, continuing to use expletives). Most of them get the idea before I get to an hour long ban, lol.

I find it more disturbing that you describe what happened as a temper tantrum than the language thing itself. Being a soon-to-be father (first time), I have concerns about how I was raised, and the possibility of continuing a cycle of violence. I've read a lot of books and articles about this sort of thing, the percentage of abused turned abuser is very high, apparently. Still, that being said...I think if my kid let loose a string like that in a tantrum, I'd be tempted to turn 'em over my knee but good. Whereas if I simply accidentally overheard them 'cuss a blue streak', I'd be more inclined to pretend I hadn't heard.

64

Board Demographics

by snowbird in

jw
friends

maybe this thread has already been started before.

please forgive me if it has, but i would like to know how many on board are active witnesses, inactive, da/df''d, or never been witnesses.. i am inactive since 2005, black female, separated, head of household, etc.. rsvp.

snowbird.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

White male in interracial marriage, never a JW but was raised in (and disfellowshipped from at age 13) the Worldwide Church of God back in the 70s before Armstrong's death (since coming here I've learned they've got quite a few similarities), joined the site when my wife started studying with JWs and I became concerned about where it was leading and what it would mean to us. She has since stopped studying with them, in part due to help I received here, (Thank you jgnat, Check_Your_Premises, and many others) but I linger on this board because I feel a rapport with people here, there are so few 'normal' people who can relate to the sort of upbringing I had.

73

Recommend a car

by Simon in

jw
friends

i hate cars.

they just cost money and eventually rust away.. however, given that it's pretty difficult to do anything without one in north america and that we now need another because angharad got a job (yay), does anyone have any good suggestions?.

things i want:.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Because you mention safety as being a number one priority, I would suggest almost any of the Subaru models for the AWD, which you are obviously already aware of. Volvos, though rather ugly and boxy in my opinion, are also well known for receiving high safety ratings consistantly. As for economical gas-wise, I would suggest VW...don't know off the top of my head how they rate on safety, but the VW Jetta (with a 5spd manual and diesel engine) gets roughly 50mpg highway miles. Even the gas engine models average 40+ mpg.

Toyotas and Hondas have a very good customer satisfaction rating, and are often described as being most reliable over time, even with high miles.

Though many people swear by them, I would steer clear of Jeeps-they are a product or subsidiary of Chrysler, which I mistrust greatly. I would also stay away from Hyundais; they are extremely cheaply made, and a mechanic friend of mine used to joke that they keep him in business. I always get a chuckle when I happen to go through the used autos for sale section of the local paper, invariably somebody will have a "Honda Sonata" or something like that listed-whether they are purposly misleading people because they think a Honda will generate more interest, or if its a common mistake of people not very savvy about cars, I don't really know. (Sonata is a Hyundai model.)

20

Will there be any competitive sports in the new system?

by JH in

jw
friends

since everyone will be young and in top shape, i wonder what sports will be permited, and will competition be permitted?.

the williams sisters play competitive tennis, and that seems to be ok, but on the other hand, some young jw's aren,t allowed to play competitive sports at school..... .

.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Surely reasonable Christians will realize that all that corpse cleaning will become tiresome and macabre, thus allowing for some friendly competition to liven things up a bit and provide motivation. I foresee events such as the corpse toss, hole digging, lime spreading, and wheelbarrow racing. Initially, it is possible that bird shooing and scarecrow building will be acceptable, until the local elders pass on the New Light from the Governing Body (received via pony express) that after careful consideration, and due to the scripture reading "do not bind the mouth of the kine that tread the grain", birds are no longer to be shooed away from mass burial sites, but allowed to participate in their Jehovah given task of helping to clean up the mess of Armageddon. (After which, of course, Jehovah in his infinite wisdom will wipe certain species of birds off the face of the planet, specifically the carrion eaters, since there will be no more carrion. Just as the dinosaurs outlived their purpose after 'mowing' the planet, so too will crows, vultures, etc, have done their duty, and no longer be needed.)

15

1 must see film

by Zep in

american history x.....its full on, highly recommended

AllAlongTheWatchtower

This is the best movie I've ever seen on the topic of racism in America:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184384/

Don't look for big name producers or actors like Spike Lee (actually, it does poke fun of him a bit in at least one scene I remember), but it's very well done in my opinion. It's a series of little skits combined together to show various perspectives on different issues, with characters that are ordinary people you can relate to. One of my favorite scenes is where some young boys are all running down the street-at first glance, several scenarios come to mind as to what is happening. It's almost like a little test thrown straight at the audience. Don't wanna ruin the surprise moment when the real scenario is revealed, but the guess you make in this scene will tell you a lot about yourself.

25

Spiderman 3 (Spoilers, do not read unless you want the movie ruined)

by free2beme in

jw
friends

i went and saw spiderman 3 this last weekend and wondered what others thought of it.

i liked it, but felt there was a lot less storyline covered, which seems to be the problem with all of marvels third installments (x3).

i wished it could have had more time with venom, and not the quick battle at the end, that ended all to quick.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Haven't seen it yet, but I used to read the comics about 20 years ago. I always liked the spiderman character because he made wisecracks, and because he was vulnerable...unlike superman, who is so strong and invincible that I find him boring-how can you care about a character that is assured of winning?

As to the comments about wonder woman; I wouldn't hold your breath. Production is liable to be seriously delayed while they pick a new director. Meanwhile, every time any brunette actress gives a semi-decent performance in something, there's a buzz about whether she would make a good 'next wonder woman'. I hear that Lynda Carter personally would prefer that Catherine Zeta Jones do it, and I think she's an excellent choice, but apparently Hollywood feels she's too old. My second choice would be Rachel Weisz (from the Mummy movies) but I think she's in roughly the same age bracket, so she's probably out too.

37

Fencing Borders - Anyone Else Think This Is A Stupid Idea??

by Seeker4 in

jw
friends

i've been listening to this from the congress for some time now, and it's back in the news today.

the idea is to build a literal fence along the us border, hundreds of miles long and costing millions of dollars, in order to keep out illegal aliens.. damn you canadian outlaws!

oops!

AllAlongTheWatchtower

I agree that the whole fence idea is completely idiotic.

These are the real issues that I think need addressed:

1) Illegals often get paid cash under the table, to avoid being detected. Therefore they pay no taxes. By the same token, people who employ them don't have to pay unemployment, healthcare, etc. So it makes economic sense to hire them, for an employer. A guy making 6 bucks an hour cash, is about as well off as a guy making 8 or 8 and some change on paper. Is it any wonder that the most vocal against illegal immigration are often from the lower socio-economic stratum?

2) Legal immigration is too prohibitive. The process of entering the country legally is too time consuming and problematic, with a lot of bureaucracy. Make it EASIER for immigrants to become citizens, or at least obtain temporary visas of some sort, so that they get paid legally-to avoid the problems in point #1.

3) Integration: This is the sticking point, because it involves spending money. I think many Americans see immigrants as seperatist, not a part of society. They speak their own language, have their own culture, and often live in their own neighborhoods. It makes for an us-them mentality. What would help solve this would be education; but then you run into the problem of how to pay for it when there's already a deficit. I'm no economics major, but perhaps the increased tax revenue from my point #2 would actually make enough difference to help pay for it.

34

Wife finally sees truth about "the truth"

by jakes in

jw
friends

well it has finally happened.my wife is not going back to the meetings again.as you would probably read in my previous posts, i have written a book about my experience in the watchtower organisation which is on the verge of being published.she still tried to cling to what little belief she had in the borg and did not want to read my manuscript.we discussed many of the issues and concerns i had about the watchtower but most of the times it ended in a heated argument.. i was quite surprised when she approached me about two weeks ago and asked to read my manuscript.after reading it she handed it back to me and said she fully supports me in publishing this book.her eyes have been opened to the deception and lies.i think she and a friend had a bad experience calling on one of her so-called jw friends.furthermore, she did not attend this past weekends circuit assembly..

hooray!!!.

all i have to do now is to introduce her to all you wonderful people here on jwd.. jakes.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

Grats! Always good to hear a success story.

41

At what point have you crossed the "cheating" line?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

i have been married for awhile, and in my 14 years of marriage i have seen many other marriages of friends and relatives, come and go.

most, if not all, were caused by cheating.

at work i work with a lot of people of different faiths, to no faiths.

AllAlongTheWatchtower

I've heard a lot about "mental cheating" or "emotional cheating" from Oprah-esque types lately, but I don't subscribe to that point of view. Relationships are all about trust, and having faith in your partner's feelings and integrity. I have female friends, and I have hugged them, or even kissed them on the cheek or forehead when they were down. I've also had dinner with female co-workers, I usually will call my wife to see if she's interested in coming with, but if I think she's asleep (I work late nights), I don't. My wife trusts me though, and so isn't bothered by it-helped by the fact that we have complete transparency, I always tell her when something of that sort has happened, so that she hears it from me first, and not from some gossiper who just wants to spread a juicy rumor.

Sometimes spouses just don't share the same interests; for instance I'm a big sci-fi nut, and I love Star Wars, but my wife doesn't (although she does like Star Trek-go figure). If I had a female friend who shared my interest in Star Wars, I'd think nothing of going to see a new Star Wars movie with her, knowing that my wife would not want to see it. By the same token, my wife likes country music, but I dislike it. If she wanted to go to a country music concert with a male friend, I'd have no problem with it.

As far as sex goes, in my opinion, ANY sexual gratification between two people where one is married is cheating. Definitely includes oral sex, and also any kind of (intentional) manual stimulation. Which means that for me, going to a strip club to watch is ok, but lap dances are right out. Not that I've gone to strip clubs in...I don't even know how many years, but definitely since before I was married. But if I did go to one, I would have a clear conscience about it.