COMF

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Posts by COMF

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  39

  irreverent introduction

  by Irreverent in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am irreverent.

  i am new to this discussion board, but you may know my wife; she is blondie.

  i am looking forward to getting to know many of you.

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  COMF

  'sup, Rev! Welcome.
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  28

  Hello!!

  by Prufrock in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  great start to my posting career posting my intro in the announcements.

  anyway i wanted to say hello to everyone and thanks for a year of emotional support, though you knew not what you were doing.

  hopefully i can contribute from now on.

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  COMF

  Hiyazz!
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  45

  Is America going to allow another Turkish atrocity? ... escalation?

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  in their rush to bomb iraq, it seem that america has cut a deal with turkey to allow overflights, thus allowing b52's from the uk to launch cruise missiles etc ... .

  the turkish army is moving into northern iraq !!.

  10,000 troops.

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  COMF

  (I can't remember if the US Armed forces currently allow former felons to enlist, anyway I digress)

  It's digression with a purpose, of course, since it could have been effortlessly deleted if you so chose. The irrelevant detour into soldiering is a tool to introduce felon status into the discussion. To what end? It has no connection with the subject, as you acknowledge by saying "I digress". Yet you leave it. Would you like to say something about my credibility? Don't beat around the bush, man. Come on out with it.

  In the USA, for better or worse anyone potential voter is an integral part of the government, because he elects the government and he SHOULD stay informed.

  You see, you could have avoided the whole little dance around soldiering and just stuck with the voting issue. Felons can't vote, gitasatsangha. You apparently are uninformed on that, aren't you. Well, so much for the "integral part of the government" argument.

  The Kurdish-Turkish problem didn't happen in some isolated cave. Certainly many Europeans knew about it.

  Yes, one would expect Europeans to know about it, since it's happening in their back yard. A couple gallons of water and some cumulonimbus clouds separate the USA from there, however. I know when my next door neighbors are having a domestic squabble. I don't know when the folks in the next subdivision do. Nor do I go around that neighborhood asking, "Hey! I'm from over off of Hampton Road. Anybody around here having screaming knockdown-dragouts lately?"

  ...was not spoken about in traditional American media for a number of reasons.

  Yes.

  At the same time the news was becoming more oriented around heart-string tugger. You know, baby trapped in a well, pretty rich white kid abducted, your Tax Dollers Wasted, sniper in Fairfax, and so on.

  Be sure to blame "most Americans" for this. After all, we have every bit as much say about what gets on the news as we do about who the US armed forces attack.

  So.. the How part. There are other avenues of finding out information. You simply have to look for it.

  See above remark about next-subdivision neighbors. I'm not likely to order a subscription to the Baghdad Times-Herald on the off chance there may be a story in there about local border skirmishes. Nor am I prone to running internet searches on the gamut of middle eastern tribal names coupled with the keywords "getting" and "medieval".

  But if you are prepare to go in a country, raise hell and kill a bunch of people, you should know the whole story.

  This is the crux of the matter. You blur the lines of responsibility. I, like "most Americans" (your original target and the phrase that started all this) am not going into a country, raising hell and killing a bunch of people. We ("most Americans") did not propose it. We did not authorize it. We did not march into the country. I'm still sitting right here in south Dallas in my home at my computer. I'm not killing anybody.

  Assuming that "most Americans" are not felons and therefore can vote and be an "integral part of the government", here's your vision of Joe American back at election time: "Say, honey, before we vote... has it ever occurred to you that in a year or so middle eastern terrorists might launch a surprise attack on the USA, suddenly riveting the attention of the world on,,, oh, I don't know.... let's just say for the sake of argument, Afghanistan and Iraq? And that the president might then declare war and send troops in? It could happen, you know. We must think about that carefully as we cast our votes for president. And I think while we're at it, I'll do some boning up on how Turkey treats its neighbors. I can't think why, but for some odd reason that seems relevant to what I just said."

  If you don't know the whole story, what seperated you from any other mindless jingoistic imperialist killer?

  Um... the fact that I don't kill?

  If you'll explain how "most Americans"' knowing or not knowing "the whole story" affects anything the US armed forces do regarding Turkey and Kurds, maybe I can give you a better answer. Right now I'm unable to see a connection.
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  45

  Is America going to allow another Turkish atrocity? ... escalation?

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  in their rush to bomb iraq, it seem that america has cut a deal with turkey to allow overflights, thus allowing b52's from the uk to launch cruise missiles etc ... .

  the turkish army is moving into northern iraq !!.

  10,000 troops.

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  COMF

  ISP, from what I read in the news, and based on a video of Colin Powell speaking to reporters, the problem with the US getting permission to fly in over Turkey stemmed from the fact that the Turks wanted to send troops in as a condition of approval of the fly-over, and the US would not agree to it.

  I can't link to the video because the link relies on a javascript routine embedded in the page and wouldn't work from here.
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  45

  Is America going to allow another Turkish atrocity? ... escalation?

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  in their rush to bomb iraq, it seem that america has cut a deal with turkey to allow overflights, thus allowing b52's from the uk to launch cruise missiles etc ... .

  the turkish army is moving into northern iraq !!.

  10,000 troops.

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  COMF

  ISP, please keep sight of the subject we're discussing here. We're not debating the responsibility of US political and military leaders to protect Iraq from opportunists in the wake of the coalition attack. The statement gitasatsangha made that prompted my response was, "Most Americans have absolutely no idea how hellish the Turks treat Kurds, or even their own people."

  My question to him was, first, why should we be expected to have that knowledge, and second, how are we supposed to get it?

  You guys seem to think "most Americans" are fighting the war and making the military and political decisions. What, you think we run down to the polls and vote whenever a choice is to be made, and then Bush and Powell react according to the results of American popular vote?

  gitasatsangha was ragging on "most Americans". I'm asking him why it is supposed to be shameful that I don't know what's going on between Turks and Kurds in two small countries on the other side of the world frim me, three days into a war I didn't declare and am not fighting or controlling. What does he think can do with this knowledge once I have it? Shall I fly over to Turkey and stand on the border stopping the Turkish troops from crossing?
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  28

  Dinah: what bad association?

  by acsot in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  okay, so i was at the ministry school/service meeting last night (as to why and all that see my answer to blondies watchtower review this week), which actually was not totally horrendous since i brought some essay questions to work on for a university class im taking.

  i probably looked so theocratic (hehehe).

  so during the service meeting theres a part on bad association, being careful at school, at work, blah blah blah.

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  COMF

  I have read that story of Dinah many times. I never understood it to be a rape. I picture Dinah being lonely for some friendship and taking up with the girls her age who lived where she did. One of them has a brother who's cute. Hormones do what hormones are supposed to do, and kissing and fondling leads to harder stuff. Dinah has some worries in the back of her mind, but her body is demanding satisfaction, and the sex that results is by mutual consent.
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  45

  Is America going to allow another Turkish atrocity? ... escalation?

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  in their rush to bomb iraq, it seem that america has cut a deal with turkey to allow overflights, thus allowing b52's from the uk to launch cruise missiles etc ... .

  the turkish army is moving into northern iraq !!.

  10,000 troops.

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  COMF

  Average American sitting in his home, listening to the news:

  "Hmm... Bush wants to invade Iraq. I better educate myself quickly on how Turks treat Kurds."
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  45

  Is America going to allow another Turkish atrocity? ... escalation?

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  in their rush to bomb iraq, it seem that america has cut a deal with turkey to allow overflights, thus allowing b52's from the uk to launch cruise missiles etc ... .

  the turkish army is moving into northern iraq !!.

  10,000 troops.

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  COMF

  You evidently intend that to stand in as the "why" part. I missed the "how" part... could you repeat it for me?

  I also missed your answer on whether you personally did the interviews to learn what "most Americans" think.
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  45

  Is America going to allow another Turkish atrocity? ... escalation?

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  in their rush to bomb iraq, it seem that america has cut a deal with turkey to allow overflights, thus allowing b52's from the uk to launch cruise missiles etc ... .

  the turkish army is moving into northern iraq !!.

  10,000 troops.

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  COMF

  Yes, the United States is unpardonably guilty for not saving everybody on earth from themselves.
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  6

  Da-Da? Da-Da?

  by Elsewhere in

  1. social
  2. family

  this isn't jw related... but it really struck me as funny.... last night i was shopping when a boy about 10 years old comes walking by saying "da-da?

  i was like, wtf???

  this is a ten year old boy speaking like a three year old.. after awhile a man yells from another isle: "it's dad !!!

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  COMF

  When I was in college I lived in the family housing units on campus. An attractive young single mother and her three year old daughter moved into a unit nearby. One day I came home from class and walked past where the little girl was playing on a swing and her mother was reading and watching her. The girl saw me and ran to me crying out, "Daddy!" She got about three feet away and then stopped with a look of confusion as her mom looked up.

  My eyes met the mother's eyes for a moment, and then I smiled at the little girl and said, "No, honey, it's not me. I assure you, I'd remember."