under_believer

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Posts by under_believer

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  31

  Dub attack!!

  by unclebruce in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this evening i went for a stroll around the headland, camera at the ready hoping one of the last of the migrating whales appeared.

  oh look, there's a fluffy dog.

  ain't he cute ... [ .

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  under_believer

  She is to be pitied, not ridiculed. Shame on all who mocked her.
  
  I too have known many like her. They are contemptible and mistreated--the amharets of the Witness world. The true measure of any culture or or nation or group or organization is how they treat their most helpless individuals. Do the Witnesses fail this test? They would say no.
  
  I don't think there's a single answer to that question. I've been to congregations that functioned as wonderful, supportive social networks, propping up the weak and caring for the needy and elderly. I've gone to others (like my current) that are hellholes of self-interest and misogyny.
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  23

  Chernobyl Legacy. (Mature Content)

  by Sparkplug in

  1. social
  2. current

  no i was not there, but i always have to watch this intro and then the actual document over and over in my dreams at night.

  i have a hard time believing how horrible we humans can be.

  doing something for the sake of seeing if we can do it and never stoping to think that maybe we should not be doing it.

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  under_believer

  Acadian, in the long run, the human cost from generating electricity from hydroelectric and hydrocarbon sources will far eclipse anything that Chernobyl has to offer, as dramatic and tragic as it was. This isn't speculation.
  
  It's like being afraid to fly--when an airliner crashes it's dramatic and tragic and horrible, but cars claim far more lives, both in total and by percentage of hours traveled, than airplanes do. They are the safest way to travel.
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  36

  Why we do it all...pics

  by Sparkplug in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here are my three reasons.

  what are yours?.

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  under_believer

  My 3 are still very young. No pictures yet, I'm not ready to come out of the closet. But they're gorgeous. :)
  
  Sparkplug, beautiful children. How old is your son? I am terrified of the day when my daughter becomes a teenager.
  
  BTW, who is that you in your avatar? Reminds me of A Clockwork Orange, a bit.
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  5

  Oh LOST, what has become of you?

  by free2beme in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  i remember this series as being something i really enjoyed watching, always hoping they would answer a question or two and thinking it would be something that wraps up soon.

  in ignorance i fell into the series of nothing really being covered, more questions being asked and game playing on each episode.

  i want to still like this series, i really do, but i think i may take the course of many and wait until the next season comes out on dvd and watch it all at one time next summer.

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  under_believer

  Welcome to the wonderful world of JJ Abrams. He did exactly the same thing with Alias--created a great show that totally knocked my socks off for the first season, was great TV for the second, was borderline the third, and was unmitigated garbage for the remainder of its run. The only reason it lasted as long as it did was the great combination of Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber.
  
  That show started out with a central mystery and an interesting premise. Once those things were resolved, it tanked and never found its direction again. Abrams could have pulled it out, but he was too busy with--guess what!--his new shiny project Lost, and he ignored Alias and let it devolve into suckitude. Now he's doing the same thing with Lost, in favor of his new (and probably tanking) project Six Degrees.
  
  The man's a menace. More suited to movies than TV shows.
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  23

  Chernobyl Legacy. (Mature Content)

  by Sparkplug in

  1. social
  2. current

  no i was not there, but i always have to watch this intro and then the actual document over and over in my dreams at night.

  i have a hard time believing how horrible we humans can be.

  doing something for the sake of seeing if we can do it and never stoping to think that maybe we should not be doing it.

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  under_believer

  I apologize for calling your post bogus--in reality I only objected to three sentences of it. It was an exaggeration on my part and was uncalled for. Any offense given was unintended; but not necessarily unwarranted on your part. I am at fault.
  
  I stand by my opinion regarding your comments that I quoted in my previous post. You are trying to generalize them and apply them to many things, but it is clear what your intent was in posting those three specific sentences, and I still don't agree with them.
  
  Nevertheless I regret acting the troll, even if it was inadvertent. If you review my posting history or are passing familiar with me, you will know that this sort of event is very rare or possibly even unheard of from me (my arguments with neocons notwithstanding.) I'm not certain what came over me.
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  23

  Chernobyl Legacy. (Mature Content)

  by Sparkplug in

  1. social
  2. current

  no i was not there, but i always have to watch this intro and then the actual document over and over in my dreams at night.

  i have a hard time believing how horrible we humans can be.

  doing something for the sake of seeing if we can do it and never stoping to think that maybe we should not be doing it.

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  under_believer

  Holy cow, I wasn't expecting another Chernobyl right here in the thread. You appear to have chosen your name with care.

  Now, just settle down.
  
  I wasn't attacking you, I was stating an opinion on your post. Do you have this reaction to everyone who says you're wrong? I really wasn't upset or ranting on "everything from Adam to Armageddon." Perhaps it was the word "bogus" that lit your fuse? In any case I don't think you're simpleminded, nor did I think I was attacking your integrity. I didn't even think I was fighting.
  
  And contrary to what you claim, your post wasn't about awareness of human stupidity, except for how you perceive it relating to the use of nuclear power. I quote you:

  I have a hard time believing how horrible we humans can be. Doing something for the sake of seeing if we can do it and never stoping to think that maybe we should not be doing it. Some of the power we harness, really...we don't need.

  And that is mostly what I was responding to. This is a standard anti-technology luddite "look at what we've wrought" appeal to emotion. I just had to say something. And besides, your post is tainted by its association with Fusco's work, which is all about nuclear power--do not forget Chernobyl, he admonishes, at peril of your morality and your future.

  I wept when I first saw the pictures from Chernobyl when they became widely available. I wept again a decade later when I became interested in the story for a high school report. And I wept again when I saw the photos you posted. There's no fixing what happened. If I could fix those people, I would. If there was anything I could do to prevent it from happening again, I would. But I can't.

  There's not even anything to learn from it, other than carpe diem. We can remember their legacy and we can weep for them, but that's about it.
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  52

  Creepy JW Music for Kids!

  by limbogirl in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  maybe this has already been posted or you're familiar with it but i just discovered this on itunes.

  it's being sold on itunes.. the subject matter alone is enough to make you want to barf but get a load of the music and singing talent on this little gem.

  a couple of the tracks landed in an imix of the worst music on itunes.

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  under_believer

  A classic (IMHO) thread from last May.
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  23

  Chernobyl Legacy. (Mature Content)

  by Sparkplug in

  1. social
  2. current

  no i was not there, but i always have to watch this intro and then the actual document over and over in my dreams at night.

  i have a hard time believing how horrible we humans can be.

  doing something for the sake of seeing if we can do it and never stoping to think that maybe we should not be doing it.

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  under_believer

  It is powerfully sad, but the rest of your post is bogus. Retreating from technology is not the answer to mankind's problems. We are going to need nuclear energy this century if we're going to get by, unless billions of humans die before their time, or the birthrate drops drastically.
  
  How does a huge accident prove to you how horrible humans can be? If you want evidence of that look at the Holocaust, or Hiroshima. Chernobyl wasn't evil. You also mischaracterize nuclear energy as "doing something for the sake of seeing if we can do it." In reality, as I already mentioned, we have a drastic and dire need for clean, limitless energy (which, though it may be hard to believe and it seems ironic, nuclear energy is.) And yes, we really do need the power.
  
  Anytime mankind discovers new tech there are bound to be mistakes and problems, and while nuclear mistakes are dire (witness Three Mile Island and Chernobyl) the current generation of nuclear reactors are much safer and more foolproof. Also Chernobyl had many problems that related, not to the technology being used, but to shoddy Soviet shortcut engineering.
  
  Look at the French use of nuclear energy--they have 58 nuclear reactors country-wide, with never a mistake, an accident, a containment breach, anything. 76% of the nation's power comes from these nuclear plants. Their electricity prices are low, stable, and don't go up every time OPEC decides to jack around the planet's oil supply. And they don't contribute anything to global warming--a French person is responsible for the emission of 1.8 times less CO2 than a German and 2.9 times less than an American. If their nuclear plants were replaced with coal or oil plants, their emissions would go up by 360 million tons of CO2 a year.
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  6

  The Watchtower and Mythology

  by bavman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i remember the "proclaimers" book had some pages devoted to this subject.

  does anyone out there who still has the wt library have this information and could you copy those pages to this thread in a reply if possible please?

  thanks for your help!

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  under_believer

  The word "Mythology" doesn't appear in the Insight book, as far as I can tell. The Mankind's Search for God has an entire chapter on it, though...
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  6

  The Watchtower and Mythology

  by bavman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i remember the "proclaimers" book had some pages devoted to this subject.

  does anyone out there who still has the wt library have this information and could you copy those pages to this thread in a reply if possible please?

  thanks for your help!

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  under_believer

  Are you sure you meant the Proclaimers book? That is the Society's whitewashed history book. Did you perhaps mean Mankind's Search for God?