Posts by SnakesInTheTower

12

Blondie's Comments You Will Not Hear at the 02-22-09 WT Study (JESUS PURPOSE)

by blondie in

jw
friends

comments you will not hear at the 02-22-09 wt study (december 15, 2008, pages 12-16)(jesus purpose).

review comments will be in red.

(a) why can we say that jesus is unique in his role as the only-begotten son?

SnakesInTheTower

Thanks Blondie...

This does not surprise me, this quoting "scholars" in their footnotes without properly attributing the quote, or more likely taking a quote out of context to suit the purposes of the Society.

I have found this particular set of phenomena prevalent in my college courses as well. Except that it is no longer phenomena, it is now commonplace. In one of my online discussion forums for college (macroeconomics), one assignment each week is to address whatever topic question(s) are provided by the instructor and use scholarly resources to back up our postings. I do not believe that proper scholarly research is taught in high school, based on the postings I see on the online course forum. Fellow students either give their own Big Media influenced, biased opinion or they quote wikipedia, an ever changing, unverified, unvetted internet resource that is great for throwing trivial facts to the wind, but not acceptable for scholarly research. Some so-called research links even end in .blogspot.com. When was a blog considered a legitimate research source?

When I mentioned this sad fact to the instructor (in person and via email), he told me that this is what is coming out of the education system these days. This instructor has been teaching at this college for three decades plus...before it was its current incarnation. He says he addresses it privately but it does no good. He agreed that students are lazy in their so-called "research."

I provide that anectdote to just show that WTBTS writers are not alone in their poor "research" methodology. Since WTBTS/GB does not encourage anything past a high school education anyway, are we surprised by the continued degradation of already poor writing by the Watchtower Society? I am not. The Society is aiming for the lowest common denominator in the education level of its members. Quite honestly, it is the only reason that they recruit or retain anyone in the Jehovah's Witness "religion." Anyone with half a brain, and no emotional or familial ties to the religion, won't put up with it. I feel for those who know JW is a crock o' $hit and have to keep going to keep family ties.

Snakes ()

12

LACK OF MOTIVATION: I should be at work but...

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

..instead i have been surfing the net for the last hour or so, catching up a tiny bit on online school work, then coming here and reading and posting.. i have a job that allows me to write my own schedule.

i probably average about 20 hours a week, most of that on saturday and sunday.

my job is bill collector, so i work when people are home.

SnakesInTheTower

rebel8:

Are you possibly fearful of the new challenges you'll experience after you graduate?

I knew I liked you for some reason. Right to the point. I appreciate it.

My problem I think is that I thought I had already graduated. The first degree I got was a career degree. That and $2 gets me a cup of cofee at the bakery. Basically worthless. I switched gears and decided to pursue an AS degree as a transfer degree to a business school. Then the economy goes in the $hitter and even a BA/BS is worth about what the first degree is worth. **sigh**

I think I am more fearful of having spent thousands of dollars (a combination of student loans and credit card debt) and 4 years (with a year break) and having not improved my economic lot one iota. I am not one to quit, so I will finish the AS this summer. Pursuing the BA/BS degree may have to go on indefinite hold while I catch up financially. The reality is I am 42 years old and need to find something, anything, to make the remaining 25 earning years (or 40 years if I become a Wal-Mart greeter **shudder** or a hobo) productive years.

I may even end up staying in my current occupation -- debt collection -- but maybe with an Associates degree and my real life background I might qualify for something other than entry level again. And with a different company...one whose client is not filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy itself.

Snakes ()

12

LACK OF MOTIVATION: I should be at work but...

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

..instead i have been surfing the net for the last hour or so, catching up a tiny bit on online school work, then coming here and reading and posting.. i have a job that allows me to write my own schedule.

i probably average about 20 hours a week, most of that on saturday and sunday.

my job is bill collector, so i work when people are home.

SnakesInTheTower

..instead I have been surfing the net for the last hour or so, catching up a tiny bit on online school work, then coming here and reading and posting.

I have a job that allows me to write my own schedule. I probably average about 20 hours a week, most of that on Saturday and Sunday. My job is bill collector, so I work when people are home. I am still knocking on doors, but making money for me now instead of the WTBTS. The amount of work I am issued has decreased in the last year -- not because I only work part time but because of a lot of other factors. (I would know if they were cutting my work, I have access to the master work load spreadsheet each day from our client). I am strictly commission, so if I don't work, I don't make money. The economy in the tank is making it more difficult to collect past due balances from an ever shrinking pool of cable clients. I will have to work Sunday no choice... without prior notice, I cant take the entire Fri-Sun weekend off without serious reprecussions at work.

This morning I got up at about 8, had been awake since 7 listening to the news on the radio. I got up and checked my work load status, put my route together, and then just really didn't give a sh*t. I also thought about going to an open house for a nearby university for their school of business, but also decided to blow that off. I will wait until next week when they come on campus to talk to them.

I have noticed my lack of motivation leaching into other areas of my life. I am taking 5 courses at the community college... 3 online, 2 on campus. I successfully tested out of a 6th class so that will save me having to take the time to actually take it (though I will still have to pay for the credits on my transcript). You would think with all the free time I have I should be way ahead on things...you would be wrong. I seem to work up to deadline knowing that I will make it with no problems. It has almost bit me in the a#$ a couple of times.

For example, yesterday I did very little useful. ....Once again I didnt take my garbage and recycling to the curb.... its all outside in bins, so its not stinking up the house or anything.... and I generate very little garbage anyway.

I have been meaning to bake some wheat bread...got the ingredients...just dont do it..... I did finally make another batch of banana muffins (a poster here gave me a great recipe).... but all I did yesterday was go to the post office, bank, grocery store and library...oh and the bakery/cafe where I read the paper and drank coffee...ate lunch there for a change. Otherwise, I just dont feel like doing much of anything. I dont go to the gym (I am not gaining weight or anything, but I have lost a lot of the strength gains I made last year when I worked out regularly). I sit around and watch shows I record on my DVR....but anything useful? Not until I have to do it.

I think I hang out at the bakery just to be around people. Fun to watch people . I just sit in a nice comfy chair in a corner that gives me a good view of anyone coming in and out, and most of the dining room. Interesting to listen to people talk. Drink my coffee and read the paper (or whatever I have with me). Cheap entertainment. But watching and listening is not the same as interacting.

I dunno... I am lucky to have a job. Especially since I know others, including some here, are in a bad situation employment-wise. So I am notcomplaining about my life. Not at all. Logically I know what it is........its depression and I know it. I cannot afford a shrink so dont suggest it. I stay away from pharmaceuticals unless I absolutely have to. I am just venting. Nothing JW-related...other than for the first time in my life (the last 18 months or so) I am having to focus on myself instead of the Borg.

However, for now, what I really need is a shower, a shave, and coffee..in that order. I will get the shower and shave, throw some clothes on, and then head to the coffee....off to the bakery. I gotta get away from the computer and out into the sunlight...

Snakes ()

53

What Got YOU Out Of The Organization?

by minimus in

jw
friends

how did you come to the final decision to get out of her (the organization, "mother")?

?.

SnakesInTheTower

I am with sunnygal on the 95 generation change. Since I had no real life outside the organization, I used to do a lot of "personal" study. Of course, this was before the Internet was really as powerful as it is now. I used to study secular and WT resources. Chronology was a favorite topic. Before the change was made official, I knew if something didn't change soon the organization was going to get caught with its pants down around its collective knees.

I once brought this up to someone (pre 95) and they asked if I was running ahead of the faithful slave. When it was finally considered at the WT study I think the implications of the doctrinal change went over about 90% of the publishers' heads. The older ones and those who paid close attention to the magazines when they first received them had already been talking about the change.

That was not enough to push me out. This had to be the "Truth." (You would have thought that an earlier incident in 1991 when I was JC for "being double-tongued" (aka "lying") when I was accused of lying by some jealous pioneer sisters would have pushed me out but I stuck it out).

I scrapped and scraped and was reappointed a MS, then an elder around 2002. What really got me thinking was attending MTS. We studied WT chronology there, the instructor discussed a personal conversation he had with a writer/researcher at his breakfast table about a certain greek word..... and shortly after the generation change was made..... I thought to myself during MTS..."what am I doing here?" And right there I started doing more research. Not long after I started lurking here and other JW sites.....

As an elder I had a hard time reconciling what I was telling the rank and file in the congregations was true when my own personal research was telling me just the opposite. But it was not any doctrinal issue that pushed me out. It wasn't the UN thing. It wasn't the pedophile thing (though that was pissing me off). It wasn't any chronology. All of that back story to answer the topic question:

It was the lack of love among the elders and their cronies that did it for me. Politics as usual.

You see, we weren't any different than the so-called "worldly" people that we so often condemned, both privately and rather boldly, and publicly but more subtly in the pages of The Watchtower. I always hated hypocrisy. I tried to be a decent elder and call BS when and where I seen it. This stand did not make me popular with my BOE. But by being an elder I was part of a problem that could not be fixed, not from within or from the outside. The arrangement and the organization was broken. If it was ever not broken I do not know.

On the last time that one of the elders (my nemesis, Brother Jackass) tried to get me removed I decided first to verbally resign, but then changed my mind and made him pull the trigger during the next CO visit. I could have successfully fought it (what with my MTS training and all), but I knew my time with the Organization was soon to end. I began plotting my exit...my fade.

Right after being deleted as an elder, I changed congos, changed circuits, changed states (but never physically moved away). I stopped field service Dec 06 with the previous congregation (though I turned in phantom reports through Aug 07). Started attending some meetings but slowly started dropping them. 8 months later, I attended my last meeting...sept 07.

The only thing left I guess is to get DF or to DA. I will only do that if forced into it. My JW mom would be affected. Once I finally move away from this region, my only connection to the witnesses will be sites like this one. More for the social aspect but also to maybe guide someone else away from the madness called Watchtower.

Snakes ()

224

News from Bethel Heavy

by cinnamon1642 in

jw
friends

pioneer hour change is legit.

letters are being mailed out soon to all congregations for announcement in early october right before the tract campaign starts.. .

elimination of circuit overseers.

SnakesInTheTower

Why don't residents of Bethel clean their own toilets in their own bathrooms? I don't get it.

have to give the wives of the bethel boys something to do. **ducks incoming shoe*** missed.......damn, another shoe.... missed again****

Snakes ()

81

Chimps For Pets----Should It Be Allowed?

by minimus in

jw
friends

having seen what the chimp did to the poor woman in connecticut, should people be able to own pets that are really wild animals?.

should pitbulls be allowed?.

SnakesInTheTower

The victim will never be the same physically, emotionally, psychologically. She was taken by private jet to the Cleveland Clinic, where the first face transplant took place.

My question: Who will take care of those medical expenses? Who will pay to take care of the victim for the rest of her life?

I say that the owner should obviously, but who wants to bet that she doesn't have the money?

I wonder if the owner's home owners insurance will cover it? Bet not. Those who keep animals that are normally found in a zoo should have insurance to cover such things..that is if the law continues to allow the keeping of these animals.

Sad really for the victim.

Snakes ()

3

From $700K to $10/hour

by VM44 in

this is very sad.. from $700k to $10/hour.

a 90-year-old man who lost his life savings to accused fraudster bernie madoff is forced back to work.. video:.

http://www.yahoo.com/s/1033052.

SnakesInTheTower

I heard another Ponzi scheme was discovered this morning. I haven't had time to peruse the newspaper, internet, or tv yet to see. I heard it briefly on the radio.

As to this fellow, good for him that he had someone willing to create the job. The job didnt exist before and wouldnt have existed except for this. A small business created the job.

And in that story is the real answer to the economic crisis in this country. 75-80% of all businesses in this country are small businesses. One interesting statistic is that of the 25.4 million firms in this country, only 5 million actually employ someone. Of that 5.8 million, about half have less than 5 employees. http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/smallbus.html

There is the answer. Small business. If each small business hired one full time employee at a living wage (at least $10/hr with benefits depending on locale), the economic crisis would be over. It would have a snowball effect. If each small business paid the living wage and benefits, then the unemploymentrate in this country would only be those who don't want to work. If we reduced the work week to 32-35 hours a week, this economy could be at full employment.

We need to quit relying on these so-called "too big to fail" companies such as GM, Ford, Chrysler, AIG, Worldcomm, Enron, and their ilk. Less than 38,000 businesses in the US employ more than 500 people. I have noticed Ford is not asking for handout from the government right now. I say let the others fail. Not that I am a fan of Ford. Nor do I want to see all of those people lose their jobs. However, the economy will eventually have to come back to an equilibrium. It will be painful for a lot of people for awhile. We are moving out of the Industrial age that defined this country until the 1950s to a Service and Information Age. The large number of factories in this country is still too large. Even in China they are closing down massive factories because of this equalizing.

Sorry, got me to thinking... small business will be the key to recovery.

Snakes ()

9

talent contast.

by is there help out there in

jw
friends

i have heard that some kh have talent contasts, is this true..

SnakesInTheTower

Our congos had them off and on for years, depending on the current climate for allowing such things. They had to be called talent shows not talent competitions for fear of engendering a "spirit of competition."

Sad thing was there was some genuine talent in those congos... one brother was a sax player and had played with a well known group back in the 60s or 70s (I forget the group name now, but the older ones said it was well known). There were others that were outstanding vocalists and instrumentalists...

The tide has turned and all of the so-called fun things are hardly allowed.... graduations and anniversaries are still celebrated, along with weddings and baby showers....and of course the food fests after a KH funeral talk infomercial. Wonder how long before those things are considered "bringing too much attention to oneself" and more time could be spent in the field circus?

Snakes ()

6

Did she miss her flight or JW meeting

by is there help out there in

jw
friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj2iviy9nns.

some times i do this when i can`t find any cookies..

SnakesInTheTower

I had checked luggage on a flight to India..sure enough...one of the bags didnt show up for 3 days...just in time for me to turn around and go back home (a 3 week trip turned into a 6 day trip)....JW sister broke off the engagement..LOL...in retrospect the best thing that ever happened to me..shortly after that I started the fade....

Snakes ()

ps..funny video...I posted it here 2 hours after you did...I didnt see your thread....

17

Woman throws tantrum after missing flight

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

as the article states, tsa would have arrested her...lol .

http://www.gadling.com/2009/02/16/woman-throws-tantrum-after-missing-her-flight/ (for the article and video).

(it's also on youtube if the link above disappears http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3e-papiuye ) (video only).

SnakesInTheTower

As the article states, TSA would have arrested her...lol

http://www.gadling.com/2009/02/16/woman-throws-tantrum-after-missing-her-flight/ (for the article and video)

(It's also on YouTube if the link above disappears http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3E-PAPiuyE ) (video only)

Snakes ()

I dont know whether to laugh or shake my head....