Posts by Paralipomenon

52

Who knows when Native Americans was granted citizenship?? Very strange.

by jam in

jw
friends

how can one not be a citizen of their own land??.

yes the act of 1924 granted u.s citizenship to those native .

americans who were not already u.s. citizens.. prior to the passage of the indian citizens act of 1924, nearly .

Paralipomenon

Like most issues, this falls into the realm of greys, though either side would like it to be seen as black and white.

Native tribal leaders are about as corrupt as polititians. There are good reserves, but in my experience they are not the majority. The governments are fine with this as well. Handling of native issues is murky and has little political value. Given a long enough time line, the native population living on reserves will dwindle and be absorbed into the US and Canada.

The european settlers did annex the land as the native population were unfamiliar with politics. Had they been hostile and tried to prevent the settling, they would have been wiped out by a superior military power.

Since those days, the original settlers from England, France and Spain no longer hold any political power over the Americas. The lands are filled with people from all cultures that had nothing to do with the original native issues.

Was there an injustice? Yes, but those wronged are long gone. The political powers are gone. Some wrongs cannot be corrected.

More land will not be taken and given native communities except under the most rare of circumstances.

44

I'm not gay, but

by FL_Panthers in

you ever seen a guy that you thought, " i'm not gay but hey!

i like the cut of his jib"?.

well here's the: blokes i'd like to "yenz" thread.

Paralipomenon

I tried to register "threeinches" but the site said it wasn't long enough

44

I'm not gay, but

by FL_Panthers in

you ever seen a guy that you thought, " i'm not gay but hey!

i like the cut of his jib"?.

well here's the: blokes i'd like to "yenz" thread.

Paralipomenon

I am about as hetrosexual as they get. I think guys have some scam running in that I don't know why women are attracted to men in the first place.

I don't find gay sex repulsive, I find it confusing for the above mentioned reason. There are likely gay men that are the polar opposite to me and can't understand any attraction to females.

No judging, no hate. At the end of the day we are the sum of our personality, not our sexual preference.

50

Ray Franz - is he REALLY a hero?

by baltar447 in

jw
friends

on one hand, he's enlightnened many to the internal circle jerk that is the governing body (circa the 70s).. but if there's one reason that can be pointed to for the jws becoming full on cult, it's ray franz.

without him leaving in the manner he did, and stirring the pot, they might not have change the rule (retroatively i might add) on shunning of disassociated ones.

they specifically changed that so they could remove him and eliminate his influence.. his actions single handedly have created the situation where we have to fade, evade, leave marriages, say goodbye to family, just because we don't buy the jw bullsh!t anymore.

Paralipomenon

I appreciate his contribution, but in the end he was just a man.

My personal take is that he was neither good or bad. One one side he did leave and his books have helped expose the Governing Body in a way that would be impossible for anyone else.

On the other hand, you don't get to be a member of the Governing Body by being a all-around nice guy. There are a lot of politics, back stabbing and palm greasing. Based on his own account the only reason he wrote the books was that they didn't honor their deal to leave him alone. Had they followed through, I don't doubt he would have lived out his days as a JW.

Nobody is perfect, he has his strengths and flaws just like anyone else. I do however wonder about how his actions while a GB member influenced the WT's longevity. He was the one tha pushed for ultimate control to be removed from the position of President and given to the Governing Body. That created a quagmire where effecting real change is next to impossible, on the other hand, a future president might have been completely loony and sent the tower to an earlier grave.

End of the day, his actions had a major impact on the Watchtoewr and Witnesses alike.

108

Lifting the Veil on "Islamophobia"

by cofty in

the late christopher hitchens decribed the word islamophobia as "created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.. please take half an hour to read a fascinating conversation between sam harris and ayaan hirsi ali.. ayaan is an apostate from islam.

she fled to the netherlands in '92 to escape an arranged marriage and went on to become a member of the dutch government from 2003-2006.. ayaan is now a fellow with the future of diplomacy project at the belfer center for science and international affairs at the harvard kennedy school... she lives with round-the-clock security.. "some moderate muslims hate meand yes, thats a strong word, but i think what theyve said supports itbecause i make them feel uncomfortable.

the things i talk about put them in a state of dissonance that they cant live with.

Paralipomenon

For me, the very nature of Islam is a dormant political entity. The end goal of Islam is to spread Sharia Law and rule to all countries. Once is place, it crushes democratic laws and persecutes all other religious beliefs.

I have yet to see a moderate muslim government and do not wish to live under Islamic rule.

So long as it remains a sleeping political entity, I will oppose it. It is not a "phobia", it is the product of an educated, deeply researched project that leads me to concern. I don't feel Islam should be banned, but so long as it has a political agenda, it should be required to register and promote itself as a political party.

42

Could really use some help regarding legal letter to avoid DF

by Comatose in

jw
friends

i used to have a webpage saved and i have lost it.

a young man and his wife had faded.

they had a birthday party for their child and were called before a judicial committee.

Paralipomenon

iirc, JWFacts sent in a similar letter to the elders handling his case. When he got his records from bethel, it was noted that they received the letter and he was still disfellowshipped. Not sure if they made the announcement or not, but on his record he was listed as disfellowshipped.

52

GB's letter regarding UN membership - How Do You Prove Them Wrong?

by will-be-apostate in

i was reading brant jones' experience (published on jwfacts.com).

i read both letters: the one he wrote to the gb and the one he recieved from them.

link: http://jwfacts.com/watchtower/experiences/brantjonesunresponse.pdf.

Paralipomenon

224

Atheists, here is a 'balls' question ---even for all---

by prologos in

it is very difficult to knock a ball into a hole (like golf), throw it into a receiver's hands (american football) intercept it and knock it over the fence (american cricket).

or to put a sattelite at the right time at the right speed in the right direction in the right place to have it orbit another body, so :.

what ingenious natural & process is it, than can get 9+ zillions bodies to get into the right orbit simultaniously or sequentially and have them remain there for billions of years?

Paralipomenon

Using this exact same example, isn't it marvelous that God created these wonderful, perfect, orbiting balls to explode and take out all the smaller balls with it?

39

Are Men's Rights Laughable?

by Paralipomenon in

jw
friends

reading over the woody allen thread i noticed a couple things but didn't want to side track the "discussion".

1) woody allen is creepy.

2) nobody really seemed to care that his ex-wife was abusive towards her children.. an example i think is perfect was the release of twilight where you would see lineups of 30-40 year old women making very inappropriate comments about a 16 year old boy.

Paralipomenon

I don't know the fanbase of the Twilight films (although, I actually thought it was a teenage-girl bait flick), but wasn't the point of its male protagonist that he was a centuries-old creature... having/retaining the appearance of a high school senior? Old and experienced, but still youthful in aspect?

The comment was more tongue in cheek, a humorous overview for the topic. Not sure of the age of the characters, but one of the male leads was underage.

39

Are Men's Rights Laughable?

by Paralipomenon in

jw
friends

reading over the woody allen thread i noticed a couple things but didn't want to side track the "discussion".

1) woody allen is creepy.

2) nobody really seemed to care that his ex-wife was abusive towards her children.. an example i think is perfect was the release of twilight where you would see lineups of 30-40 year old women making very inappropriate comments about a 16 year old boy.

Paralipomenon

@Band - Your post is perfect to demonstrate my point.

I don't know you, we have never met, but by asking about rights for men I am personally trying to subjugate you. I have a long history of supporting women's rights as well, but you insinuate that I am troubled over women extercising some rights?

Quite to the contrary, I am overjoyed, it is about time. Everyone should have equal rights, that includes men. I don't feel that any injustice should be dismissed.

Men's rights are just that, focusing on issues of inequality based on gender for men. It is not anti-feminist. It is not a competition.

As a post script, I am not aware that I even hinted about comparring myself to Woody Allen. Personally I don't like his movies and find him to be... well as I stated, creepy. I can't help but think your whole post seemed to be projecting rage to someone else, but directed at me.