PrimateDave

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Posts by PrimateDave

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  15

  Where are you browsing from?

  by KW13 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am browsing from the garden on laptop, i am out here because finally some of its flat enough to sit out on since i am in the process of levelling it all out (hard work lol).. where are you as you read this?

  if your not on earth state which planet please..

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  PrimateDave

  From my kitchen in my apartment. Looking out the window I see the neighbor's back yard, palms, bananas, and, unfortunately, a dead mango tree. Another mango tree over my apartment has been dropping fruit on the roof for a couple of months. It used to make me jump when they hit the roof with a loud bang!
  
  Dave
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  25

  who really rules the world now?

  by michiyo84 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  for now the rules of dis world is satan.

  but for 1 day satan will b destroyed.

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  PrimateDave

  Bacteria. Here for the last three billion years, still at work, and will be the last thing on the planet to die in a couple billion more years.
  
  Dave
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  37

  Gas prices soon to pass $4.00 mark

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember last year, a lot of blame against the republican congress for doing nothing to stop big oil companies from raising prices.

  democrats are in office now, and no one seems to be saying anything.

  why are the democrats not being the night and shinning armor about gas prices?.

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  PrimateDave

  The Federal Reserve Notes in my wallet are not worth anything. The private Federal Reserve Bank can print as many of these "debt notes" as they like. The notion that they have value is a purely social phenomenon. I think that we in the United States are very lucky that other countries still accept dollars for real goods and resources. However, there are indications that our luck won't hold out much longer.
  
  The only commodity of any real value in industrial civilization is energy. Where energy is concerned, oil is king. It is a high density energy substance that can be easily transported and stored at normal temperatures. Conventional oil reserves had very high energy return on energy invested at the start of the petroleum age, about 100 to 1. Contrast that with Canadian tar sands which have an ERoEI of closer to 2 to 1. No alternative energy sources have ever had the unique properties of oil. Renewable wind and solar technologies can make electricity which could be used to make hydrogen or stored in batteries for transportation purposes, but the scale at which they would have to be deployed to maintain our happy motoring lifestyle would far exceed the limits of our planet. Biodiesel and ethanol also have a very low ERoEI. Being manufactured products, they face scalability issues as well.
  
  The petroleum age has been based on a one-time geological event: organic matter trapped beneath the earth's crust and "cooked" in just the right way for millions of years. It is a finite resource that we have been burning up for the past one hundred years to fight wars, grow more food, efficiently mine other finite resources from the ground, and manufacture things to put in landfills. In the end we've succeeded in mushrooming the human population and bringing the entire ecosystem to the brink of a major die off.
  
  There will be major changes in the near future, and the Powers That Be will use every trick in the book to maintain their power. Now is a good time to look into what makes our civilization function the way it does. It is very dangerous to assume that the way things are right now is how they will always be, or should always be. Just because Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong about things like the Great Tribulation and Armageddon, doesn't mean that humanity won't face grave challenges this century.
  
  Dave
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  37

  Gas prices soon to pass $4.00 mark

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember last year, a lot of blame against the republican congress for doing nothing to stop big oil companies from raising prices.

  democrats are in office now, and no one seems to be saying anything.

  why are the democrats not being the night and shinning armor about gas prices?.

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  PrimateDave

  We're looking at $0.73/liter here for regular right now. This does not surprise me at all.
  
  Ever since I watched the documentary The End of Suburbia back in early 2005, I have been aware of Peak Oil, the point where global petroleum extraction maxes out and begins its inevitable decline.
  
  Since the United States passed its own peak back in 1970, its domestic production has declined by half from a maximum of 10 million barrels per day while daily consumption in the United States now stands at about 20 million barrels per day, about one quarter of global production capacity. Some other oil producing countries have likewise passed their production peaks, and some former exporters have become oil importers. In others increasing domestic consumption leaves less oil for export.
  
  The major oil companies "own" a relatively small percentage of global petroleum reserves. They do not control the price of a barrel of oil. The oil that exists within other country's borders does not "belong" to the United States but may be available to the highest bidder be that China, Japan, or the EU. There is also the factor of market speculation that can cause prices to rise and fall regardless of supply and demand.
  
  So, why isn't an explanation of Peak Oil on the evening news every night since it has such wide ranging repercussions for civilized life as we in the West have come to know it? Ever count the number of SUV commercials during the news broadcasts? That should give one an indication that an economy geared toward consumption and continuous growth cannot accept a future without cheap energy.
  
  
  As author James Kunstler put it (http://www.kunstler.com/):
  
  

  Independent researchers studying the global oil situation -- including retired geologists for major oil companies -- have established a pretty firm consensus that we are already in the zone of the global oil production peak -- meaning that whether we are just past, passing now, or passing imminently, the effects are already thundering through the complex systems we depend on to maintain advanced industrial societies. For instance, the crashing of Mexico's Cantarell oil field (60 percent of Mexico's production) means that inside of five years the US will receive no more imports from what has been its third leading source. Being in the zone means that the world's oil exporters in the aggregate will see their exports drop seven to eight percent this year -- because nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, and even Norway are using more of their own oil and have less to send out. Being in the zone means that new pricing arrangements will be made, taking the power away from the spot futures markets in New York and London, and shifting that power to long-term deals made by nationalized producers like Russia and Iran, who may decide to embargo consuming nations who don't dance to their tune. Being in the zone means that people in poorer nations will starve because so much of the corn grown in North America will go to ethanol distilleries instead of the dirt-floor kitchens in the Third World.
  
  The more interesting point in all this, for the moment, is that the media has still not put together the collapse of the housing bubble and the permanent oil crisis. These events will be happening simultaneously. The housing industry, so-called, will never recover because the oil crisis spells the end of the suburban build out. The cycle is over. The big production homebuilders will go down and never come back. We won't need any more retail, either. We won't be building anymore WalMarts and Target stores, and the thousands now running will die off just as the giant Baluchitherium of the Asian steppes crapped out in the early Miocene epoch.
  
  The end of the suburban build-out will be a stupendous trauma for the United States because, unfortunately, we have made it the basis of our economy for a generation, as well as our living arrangement. Not only will incomes and livelihoods be lost on the grand scale, and never come back, but, as the global oil predicament deepens, the existing fabric of our vast suburbs will become increasingly useless and worthless. The people stuck in them will lose whatever wealth they have accumulated and our arrangements for daily life will become increasingly nightmarish.
  
  This is the part of the story that the mainstream media still can't put together. Peak oil and the housing bust are a mutually-reinforcing clusterf***.

  
  
  So, instead of looking for someone to blame for high gas prices, do some research into the situation.
  
  Dave
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  39

  Men, Music and that XY Factor

  by prophecor in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i absolutely love music.

  i'm a musician, artrist / poet and i am enthralled by the voice of many a female vocalist.

  we all enjoy music, well, most of us anyway.

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  PrimateDave

  I grew up listening to the Carpenters. Karen Carpenter had such a beautiful, yet melancholy voice. Ah, the '70s. Still love to listen to their music.
  
  Dave
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  21

  Abortion Ban

  by Schism in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i want to pass on something to you.

  i don't know where you all stand on the matter, and it is a very sensitive subject to bring up to anyone.

  but you know that law that was passed the other day?

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  PrimateDave

  "Where do these baby slaughterers come from?" - uninformed
  
  
  Personally, I find the idea of abortion repugnant, and the procedure as described in purplesofa's post is just horrific.
  
  I am not a doctor, so I simply don't know much about women's health problems that can occur during pregnancy, and
  
  I don't know what the safest way to save a woman's life would be. As I understood it, this is not meant to be an
  
  operation to get rid of an unwanted baby, but to save a woman's life in the case of a serious medical complication
  
  where a qualified doctor has determined that his patient's life is at risk or that the fetus, if brought to full term,
  
  would be born with horrible birth defects and would die anyway. Each situation is different. I would hope that the
  
  doctor would know what to do. Perhaps medical techniques will improve so that more pregnant women can avoid life threatening
  
  complications and give birth to healthy babies.
  
  
  I think that the posters who disagree with this law and the Supreme Court's decision on this thread do so out of concern
  
  for the health of pregnant women and not out of a desire to slaughter babies. I wish no one had to suffer,
  
  and I believe all life is precious. Respectfully.
  
  Dave
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  3

  "Jesus 'Love-Bombs' You"

  by Ingenuous in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  a succinct description of how 'love-bombing' and indoctrination work:

  http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/jesus_love_bombs_you/

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  PrimateDave

  Clickable - http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/jesus_love_bombs_you/
  
  

  The convert is gradually drawn into a host of church activities by his or her new friends, leaving little time for outside socializing. But the warmth soon brings with it new rules. When you violate the rules, you sin, you flirt with rebellion, with becoming a “backslider,” someone who was converted but has fallen and is once again on the wrong side of God. And as the new converts are increasingly invested in the church community, as they cut ties with their old community, it is harder to dismiss the mounting demands of the “discipler” and church leaders. The only proper relationship is submission to those above you, the abandonment of critical thought and the mouthing of thought-terminating clichés that are morally charged. “Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior” or “the wages of sin are death” is used to end all discussion.

  
  
  Sounds like a cult to me.
  
  Dave
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  21

  Abortion Ban

  by Schism in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i want to pass on something to you.

  i don't know where you all stand on the matter, and it is a very sensitive subject to bring up to anyone.

  but you know that law that was passed the other day?

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  PrimateDave

  I admit that I haven't followed the abortion issue in the United States courts.
  
  From what I do understand, this is not about saving healthy babies from murderous doctors.
  
  That is a "straw man" argument used by those with an agenda to manipulate public opinion.
  
  I have followed a rather heated discussion on another forum. I learned a lot.
  
  Here is a quote from one of the posters. I can't provide a direct link because one has to be a
  
  registered member to read postings. The Derrick Jensen Forum
  
  

  Justice Ruth Bader Ginzburg, the only female on the Supreme Court, angrily dissented from the majority opinion. The decision made no exception for saving the life of the mother. It formally placed females lower on the hierarchy of social value than an already dead or nonviable fetus. The court framed the issue in terms of the protection of the fetus, rendering females completely invisible. ...
  
  ...It is a characteristic of a patriarchal society that values males more than females. ...
  
  Justice Ginzburg wrote a dissent and went to the extreme length of reading it out loud. As the only female on the court, Ginzburg was trying to say, "I am here. Listen to me." But to the majority, Ginzburg was invisible, as are all females. Males have made a reasonable decision based on what they claim is the necessity of drawing a line between abortion and infanticide, and they decided that infanticide can occur before there is an infant--that if they call a fetus an infant, it is therefore an infant. They reached into the womb of the mother to draw that line (privacy, anyone?), and made no exception for cases when it would be the only way to save the life of the mother, because the mothers are female and therefore invisible to them. The unborn fetus, in many cases already dead, and in most cases with current technology, nonviable, meaning that it has no possibility of surviving, was visible to them, and was said to be the basis for their decision, but the mothers, being female and therefore lower on the hierarchy were invisible and were not taken into consideration as any harm to them, such as their deaths, is not considered relevant or important to the issue at hand.
  
  ...
  
  As for my strong language, this is a ruling that will result in the deaths of females, but not just any females. Females with the capacity to bear children, often have have had previous pregnancies, and if allowed to live will have future pregnancies, and if the children born of their previous pregnancies are alive, such females are called mothers. Reaching into the wombs of these mothers to draw a line between abortion and infanticide that will deny these mothers lifesaving medical procedures, is really screwing them over. You can't fuck with somebody much worse than making a law that will result in their death. ...
  
  ...Many females, mothers in particular, are so compassionate that they would gladly sacrifice their lives so that someone else could life. But the Supreme Court did not rule that the mother should only die if there is a chance of the fetus surviving. It made no exceptions. If the fetus is already dead or has no possible chance of surviving, the mother must still die.

  
  
  And, quoting an editorial in The New York Times:
  
  

  As far as we know, Mr. Kennedy and his four colleagues responsible for this atrocious result are not doctors. Yet these five male justices felt free to override the weight of medical evidence presented during the several trials that preceded the Supreme Court showdown. Instead, they ratified the politically based and dangerously dubious Congressional claim that criminalizing the intact dilation and extraction method of abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy — the so-called partial-birth method — would never pose a significant health risk to a woman. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has found the procedure to be medically necessary in certain cases.
  
  Justice Kennedy actually reasoned that banning the procedure was good for women in that it would protect them from a procedure they might not fully understand in advance and would probably come to regret. This way of thinking, that women are flighty creatures who must be protected by men, reflects notions of a woman’s place in the family and under the Constitution that have long been discredited, said a powerful dissenting opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Stephen Breyer.

  
  
  Dave
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  37

  How much JW doctrine is in harmony with the Bible?

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some have stated that the jw's go too far with their doctrine, but that much of the basic.

  beliefs of the religion are correct.

  i don't want to debate whether the bible is correct.. i just want opinions on how much of the jw doctrine agrees with the actual teachings of .

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  PrimateDave

  A most excellent post Leolaia!
  
  I really appreciate the points you make showing that certain beliefs were simply unknown to O.T. writers.
  
  Therefore, what is considered "truth" to Jehovah's Witnesses had its origins in a gradually evolving theology:
  
  basically, people over the centuries kept figuring out what they believed based upon what had been passed down
  
  to them or imported from other religious systems.
  
  This evolving theology is anathema to Witnesses who hold that what they call the Bible was complete as received.
  
  Not surprising, really, because they won't even look into the Documentary Hypothesis (aka Higher Criticism).
  
  Dave
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  2

  An atheist at Virginia Tech - link

  by PrimateDave in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i found this link through another forum.. .

  an atheist at virginia tech.. .

  i think the author does a good job of explaining how atheists cope with tragedies like what happened a week ago.. .

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  PrimateDave

  I found this link through another forum.
  
  An atheist at Virginia Tech.
  
  I think the author does a good job of explaining how atheists cope with tragedies like what happened a week ago.
  
  Dave