It never works the way it is supposed to. I used the local library's wireless access for over a year. Their service provider's filter prevented access to perfectly acceptable web sites while being incapable of stopping P2P and newsgroup access. Yes, people, there's more to the WWW than web pages. For example, anyone with access to a "News" server can download porn, pirated movies, and music to their hearts content. I'm not advocating this, but know that it is possible.
Conservatives and Liberals are two sides to the same coin. Conservatives want to control what you think and do based on their own standards of "morality", while Liberals want everyone to be equally controlled by the nanny state "for your own good".
I'm not a child, and I'll be the judge of what I will and will not read, watch, and listen to. If you've got children, it is YOUR responsibility to help them to learn to become responsible, capable, and functional sentient beings who can recognize danger to themselves and others and know how to think critically. Teaching them to rely on the government to "protect" them is lazy and an abdication of parental responsibility, besides setting a dangerous precedent with respects to limitation of governmental powers.
Dave
PS. Not sure how a "virus" can upload porn, and I've been on the net for ten years now. Surely the solution to that would be antivirus/firewall software and not sweeping government control of the internet.
PrimateDave
JoinedPosts by PrimateDave
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55
Australian Government Porn Filter To Slow Down the Internet
by What-A-Coincidence inhttp://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22989008-661,00.html.
australians will be forced to contact their internet service provider to avoid having their access to the web restricted.. .
the restrictions are planned by the federal government to give greater protection to children from online pornography and violent websites.. .
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PrimateDave
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97
Own up time...
by Chalam inwell it looks like this site is a real melting pot, a broad spectrum of views and beliefs.
for sure there are many disaffected ex jws.
so in as few words as possible, preferably not more than one sentence, how would you describe yourself spiritually?
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PrimateDave
While I'm not sure one can put a label on something as intangible as "Spirituality", there are some labels that I tend to agree with more or less as far as belief is concerned based on my personal life experience:
PRACTICAL AGNOSTIC, ATHEIST, ANARCHIST, and NIHILIST
Despite the negative connotations associated with these, I find them rather positive and realistic. I'm "practical" in the sense that I don't wish to get bogged down in the deep mind games of philosophers. In my mind I view the passage of millions of years and ask, "what remembrance there will be?" Permanence is an illusion. The empire is not forever. You only have this moment. What will you do today?
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ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL..............................................
by Warlock inthe daily reckoning presents: why is it you can hold a perfectly intelligent conversation with a person about any various number of things, but when the topic is changed to the "war on terror", or global warming, an otherwise clever person begins parroting nonsense they heard yesterday on msnbc?
bill bonner explores, in this dr classique, first published december 29, 2006. all men are created equal.
and better damned well stay that way.
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PrimateDave
And that's why I no longer watch television.
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Paul's Letters: Part of "All Scripture ..." ?
by compound complex ingreetings, friends:.
a friend - a former jw - gave me thomas paine's the age of reason: being an investigation of true and fabulous theology.
the mind boggles as i begin, haltingly, to fathom what many of you have already learned and shared here on jwd: the authenticity of the bible is seriously in question.
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PrimateDave
I must admit that I don't know whether "Paul" would have ranked his own writings with other "Holy Writings", the canon of the Jewish Bible being complete before the Common Era. Of course, the WTS would like people to think so!
I haven't read the Age of Reason, but it is available online at the Infidels.org website here.
Perhaps more than any other book I have read, Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Friedman impressed me with its objectivity and scholarship. It's a very respectful work that doesn't cater to the fundamentalist crowd and gives an excellent and very readable explanation of the Documentary Hypothesis.
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You just can't reach some people-they just don't get it!
by dawg inhey guys, album is going great so far... i hope we can finish it in 2008, around may or june.
anyway, i just had a thought which made me stop in for a while.
i was discussing something with a friend the other day, i hadn't even started speaking nor had i brought up the core of my point before he started screaming like some wild manaic; he started making up "straw man" arguments one after the other ad infinum, yelling like a banshee and accusing me of all sorts of thoughts that i don't believe... it was really bazarre.
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PrimateDave
Here's a good read that explains why people "just don't get it!"
Antiprocess
Good luck! Dave -
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Is there a God? The musings of madman as he walks through the woods
by dawg inbear with me, i promice you'll be happy you read this, .
here at uga, i studied in the micro-biology department for the first three years of college-organic chem 3 pretty much ended my career.
i think evolution is pretty sound sans the fact that they haven't answered the question of how life began.
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PrimateDave
Nice post VoidEater. Welcome to the forum!
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Is there a God? The musings of madman as he walks through the woods
by dawg inbear with me, i promice you'll be happy you read this, .
here at uga, i studied in the micro-biology department for the first three years of college-organic chem 3 pretty much ended my career.
i think evolution is pretty sound sans the fact that they haven't answered the question of how life began.
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PrimateDave
As you pointed out, scientists haven't yet created living organisms from inanimate matter. Evolution makes sense, but abiogenesis has yet to be scientifically proven. Could life as we know it on planet Earth have been the product of a non-terrestrial intelligence? For the sake of argument, let's assume that to be the case.
Assume that life had a "designer". What makes you think that it is/was a "god"? What makes you think that it still exists? Why assume that it knows sentient life evolved from the first living thing? Why assume that it even cares? Could it not be possible that the "designer" of life on the Earth has long since died itself? Why should the superstitions and mythologies (Bible, Koran, etc.) of human history be worthy of any serious consideration? In other words, how do you make the mental leap from mere "designer" to Almighty, Omniscient, Everpresent God? Why do you think that life has to somehow be just and fair? Why do you believe that this "designer" would help you while permitting someone else to suffer due to mere chance?
These are things I ask myself when considering the origin of life and the concept of a Divine Creator. So, while science has yet to provide "The Answer", I can safely say that religion hasn't either. Anyone who tells you different is just trying to rip you off.
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What is the Original Religion?
by Satanus inseems to me that the primordial religion, if it could be called that, is a form of paganism that has pantheism, animism and shamanism.
also, it may contain sun worship.
in this 'religion', they felt a connection w the land, had respect for nature and the animals.
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PrimateDave
Sun worship. It could hardly escape early agricultural man and woman that the sun was the source of life. "Religion", to me at least, implies an organized cultural institution, not the simple, diverse beliefs of animist hunter-gatherers.
We still have the celebration, now somewhat removed from its original purpose, of the death and rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice. Other seasonal celebrations celebrate fertility and death, planting and harvest, the coming of the rains and the approach of winter.
On the winter solstice the sun would reach it's lowest point in its journey south, towards the constellation of the southern cross. It would "die" on December 22. Three days later on December 25 the sun would appear to be reborn as it once again perceptibly moved northward.
At that time the Three Kings, the three stars of Orion's belt would align with the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, the "star in the East", to point to the location of the sun at the time of its rebirth.
Now, it's purely speculation on my part, but I wonder if the so-called "living creatures" found in Biblical writings that feature four faces, a bull, a man, a lion, and an eagle might be related to the Zodiac. The bull would most likely represent Taurus, the man would possibly be Aquarius, and the lion would be Leo. I'm not sure where the eagle would fit into that. Still, the Bible is based on early sun worship, evolved and adjusted to suit the needs of priests and religious innovators down through the centuries.
Dave -
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PrimateDave
"Yesterday Once More"
When I was young
I'd listened to the radio
Waitin' for my favorite songs
When they played I'd sing along
It made me smile
Those were such happy times
And not so long ago
How I wondered where they'd gone
But they're back again
Just like a long lost friend
All the songs I loved so well
Every Sha-la-la-la
Every Wo-wo-wo
Still shines
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they're starting to sing's
So fine
When they get to the part
Where he's breakin' her heart
It can really make me cry
Just like before
It's yesterday once more
Lookin' back on how it was
In years gone by
And the good times that I had
Makes today seem rather sad
So much has changed
It was songs of love that
I would sing to them
And I'd memorize each word
Those old melodies
Still sound so good to me
As they melt the years away
Every Sha-la-la-la
Every Wo-wo-wo
Still shines (All the oldies but goodies)
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they're starting to sing's
So fine
All my best memories
Come back clearly to me
Some can even make me cry
Just like before
It's yesterday once more
Every Sha-la-la-la
Every Wo-wo-wo
Still shines
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they're starting to sing's
So fine... -
25
Spanish Congo's--You just aren't chic if have not switched yet!
by oompa init seems like all around me goody types are leaving english and going spanish.
whats the deal?...one told me he loved it cause he did not understand anything for 3 years!!!!
!....oompa
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PrimateDave
Yea, what Nvr said. Been there, done that. Of course, your fun factor depends on the congregation. Some are more strict than others depending on the BOE. In the end, still bored to tears.
Dave