Posts by marmot

33

Lakota Indian tribe is now its own nation!

by skeeter1 in

lakota indians withdraw treaties signed with u.s. 150 years agothursday, december 20, 2007. .

washington the lakota indians, who gave the world legendary warriors sitting bull and crazy horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the united states.. "we are no longer citizens of the united states of america and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time indian rights activist russell means said.. a delegation of lakota leaders has delivered a message to the state department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the u.s., some of them more than 150 years old.. the group also visited the bolivian, chilean, south african and venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.. lakota country includes parts of the states of nebraska, south dakota, north dakota, montana and wyoming.. the new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free - provided residents renounce their u.s. citizenship, mr means said.. the treaties signed with the u.s. were merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the lakota freedom activists said.. withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, means said.. "this is according to the laws of the united states, specifically article six of the constitution,'' which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.. "it is also within the laws on treaties passed at the vienna convention and put into effect by the us and the rest of the international community in 1980. we are legally within our rights to be free and independent,'' said means.. the lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence an overt play on the title of the united states' declaration of independence from england.. thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row,'' means said.. one duck moved into place in september, when the united nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples despite opposition from the united states, which said it clashed with its own laws.. "we have 33 treaties with the united states that they have not lived by.

they continue to take our land, our water, our children,'' phyllis young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in geneva in 1977, told the news conference.. the u.s. "annexation'' of native american land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people,'' said means.. oppression at the hands of the u.s. government has taken its toll on the lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies - less than 44 years - in the world.. lakota teen suicides are 150 per cent above the norm for the u.s.; infant mortality is five times higher than the u.s. average; and unemployment is rife, according to the lakota freedom movement's website..

marmot

You seem to confuse evolution with betterment, this is not the case. Cultures do not "advance" and become better, they simply adapt.

I'm Mohawk, I've studied my culture and my history and some of it isn't pretty. To hear you spout ethnocentric platitudes about the motivations for war is insulting. There was brutality from every side, race has NOTHING to do with it. Elevating one culture over another is just as bad as debasing one, in that it creates harmful lines of thinking used to justify terrible actions.

War is something all humans are capable of.

33

Lakota Indian tribe is now its own nation!

by skeeter1 in

lakota indians withdraw treaties signed with u.s. 150 years agothursday, december 20, 2007. .

washington the lakota indians, who gave the world legendary warriors sitting bull and crazy horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the united states.. "we are no longer citizens of the united states of america and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time indian rights activist russell means said.. a delegation of lakota leaders has delivered a message to the state department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the u.s., some of them more than 150 years old.. the group also visited the bolivian, chilean, south african and venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.. lakota country includes parts of the states of nebraska, south dakota, north dakota, montana and wyoming.. the new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free - provided residents renounce their u.s. citizenship, mr means said.. the treaties signed with the u.s. were merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the lakota freedom activists said.. withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, means said.. "this is according to the laws of the united states, specifically article six of the constitution,'' which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said.. "it is also within the laws on treaties passed at the vienna convention and put into effect by the us and the rest of the international community in 1980. we are legally within our rights to be free and independent,'' said means.. the lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence an overt play on the title of the united states' declaration of independence from england.. thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row,'' means said.. one duck moved into place in september, when the united nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples despite opposition from the united states, which said it clashed with its own laws.. "we have 33 treaties with the united states that they have not lived by.

they continue to take our land, our water, our children,'' phyllis young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in geneva in 1977, told the news conference.. the u.s. "annexation'' of native american land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people,'' said means.. oppression at the hands of the u.s. government has taken its toll on the lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies - less than 44 years - in the world.. lakota teen suicides are 150 per cent above the norm for the u.s.; infant mortality is five times higher than the u.s. average; and unemployment is rife, according to the lakota freedom movement's website..

marmot

Skeeter, be careful about seeing the "Indian Way" with rose-colored glasses. I grew up on reservation and I'm also a student of history and it's my conclusion that the Native peoples would have taken a path similar to Western culture if it had been left in isolation for longer and populations had continued to grow.

The whole "in tune with mother earth" line is a bunch of baloney. We had an impact on the environment but it was mitigated by lower population density. My own ancestors practiced slash and burn agriculture, which is perfectly fine if you're only supporting a limited population but when you have large-scale production it becomes unsustainable. The same goes for hunting and fishing. On the cultural side we also practiced war and slavery. First Nations were no different from any other culture at that particular period of development.

As for the Lakota situation, I'm curious to see how it plays out but unless they create their own self-sustaining economy I don't know how it could succeed.

18

Raised a JW from birth...

by portcontrol7 in

jw
friends

i am now 31 and after leaving the "truth" in my teenage years i was plagued with anger towards the organization as well as christianity in general.

has anyone come to read the teachings of the buddha and found them a refreshing and eye opening insight into the nature of reality?

not long ago i picked up a book entitled "awakening the buddha within", and have found spirituality in a way that i could never find in the jehovah's witnesses organization.

marmot

I think there's a lot to be said about the Buddha's teachings, they're very eloquent observations about life and human nature.

I personally don't care for the assorted mystical (read: bulls***) trappings of the numerous modern sects of Buddhism, but the core values are something that I try to adhere to.

On the flip side, I also adhere to the many practical teachings of Christ and the later writings of the apostles while dispensing with the theological crap. Christ (or his composite writers) had the right idea when they said that love, and not hide-bound obedience to ceremonies and laws, was the key to human happiness.

My own background is Mohawk and there are a lot of practical teachings to be found in the Kaianera'ko:wa (Great Law of Peace) that united the Iroquois and stopped their warring, in fact it was deemed so practical that it was cribbed for that other big law in North America: the United States Constitution.

So on a whole I believe humanity is capable of awesome humanistic achievements but their downfall comes when one group tries to tout the worthiness of one creed over another.

I'm an atheist, btw.

62

God and Evolution

by BurnTheShips in

during the second half of the nineteenth century, it became common to speak of a war between science and religion.

but over the course of the twentieth century, that hostility gradually subsided.

science should not try to become religion, nor should religion seek to take the place of science.

marmot

Ever see that two-part South Park episode where Cartman travels to a war-torn future where everyone is atheist? Hilarious episode and it pretty much encapsulates what you're trying to say.

81

Your Cong = Which Songs or Band were "Demonic?" Did you toss albums?

by Witness 007 in

let me start = "kiss" stood for knights in satans service, "ac/dc" was anti-christ devils children.

"hotel california" was demonic who knew!

"yummy yummy yummy i've got love in my tummy.

marmot

I was listening to Beck once and my mom said it was demonic.

Another time one of my friends (not really a friend, but my age group) in the hall told me that my copy of Transmission by the Tea Party was demonized because his cousin once had the same album and threw it out the window in a pang of jw guilt, but when he went outside the shattered CD had allegedly pieced itself back together.

There was also a circuit assembly once where the C.O. (brother Charland, if any of you know him) specifically mentioned a number of groups by name with a disgusted look on his face. Some of these included Santana, Led Zeppelin, and a few other classic rock groups under the wonky premise that since the music had been composed with drug consumption in mind you were either a drug user yourself or you condoned it by your listening to it.

My dad went and cleaned out his record collection after that but he's since re-acquired most of them in CD form.

13

To all those who think the WT uses deliberate "subliminal" images...

by marmot in

(okay, i know i said i'd be taking a break from jwd, and i will, but i just remembered something that i felt necessary to post here because it was bugging me) .

there are some of you out there who believe the governing body meticulously crafts subliminal images that are hidden throughout the society's literature.

you say that it is impossible for these to be mere accidents or just the work of sloppy artists because there is so much painstaking review and every image must be approved by the gb before being published.

marmot

(Okay, I know I said I'd be taking a break from JWD, and I WILL, but I just remembered something that I felt necessary to post here because it was bugging me)

There are some of you out there who believe the Governing Body meticulously crafts subliminal images that are hidden throughout the society's literature. You say that it is impossible for these to be mere accidents or just the work of sloppy artists because there is so much painstaking review and every image must be approved by the GB before being published.

To these people I say open your songbooks (if you still have them) to the back inside cover, where there is a two-page spread of Levites singing. Now look carefully at the right-hand page and try to trace all the feet to their corresponding heads. You'll notice that there is one set of pasty white feet that lead nowhere. In fact, they seem to share the same skirt with another set of feet.

Now tell me, all you who see nefarious plots in the WT imagery, is this is the result of careful artists and meticulous reviewers? No, it is just an amateur art department. Another example of bad art is Alexander the Great's sword in that otherwise pretty cool picture of him charging on a horse, found in the Daniel book. The way it meets the hilt is all crooked.

Now go look for pictures of the antichrist on your grilled cheese sandwiches or something you kooks.

81

i found a pice of sublimnal art as a dubbie i'm shocked!

by XOCO in

you guys this has really freaked me out so much tonight as i was looking though my revelation book climax at hand i was looking to see where we had left off and i usually do this by seeing where i have stopped highlighting in the book.. so i started at pg 156 & 157 of the book so there were a bunch of marks on those two pages their are pics nothing special there.. but on page 159 their is a pic of jesus in the heavens where he is extending his handout to get a piece of paper and that's where i notice on the hand that were the wrinkles are supposed to be there is a face like a fetusnow i mean anybody can tell you that is a face of a baby.

i don't know why a baby on jesus hand or what it suppose to mean.

i guess it really shows how the control tower (watchtower) make me a jw feel really shitty.

marmot

I feel flattered, JCanon now thinks I'm part of the Illuminati.

Seriously dude, get help. I've got my own issues to deal with (Bipolar II) and I recognize when I need to get professional help. It works. Not 100% all of the time, but it does work.

81

i found a pice of sublimnal art as a dubbie i'm shocked!

by XOCO in

you guys this has really freaked me out so much tonight as i was looking though my revelation book climax at hand i was looking to see where we had left off and i usually do this by seeing where i have stopped highlighting in the book.. so i started at pg 156 & 157 of the book so there were a bunch of marks on those two pages their are pics nothing special there.. but on page 159 their is a pic of jesus in the heavens where he is extending his handout to get a piece of paper and that's where i notice on the hand that were the wrinkles are supposed to be there is a face like a fetusnow i mean anybody can tell you that is a face of a baby.

i don't know why a baby on jesus hand or what it suppose to mean.

i guess it really shows how the control tower (watchtower) make me a jw feel really shitty.

marmot

Sunspot, I'm loath to go up against you, but tell me then what's the point?

Is a smooshed yellow fetus face in a hand supposed to mean something? I fail to see the purpose, nefarious or otherwise, of these so-called subliminal images. You're just seeing a face because the brain is good at picking out faces. Take a pen and randomly scribble around on a piece of paper for a minute or two then flip the paper around and look for faces in the lines, I guarantee you'll find a least one if not more. Did you intentionally draw them? No, but your brain knows how to pick them out.

29

Wanting to just FREAKIN run away....I think I know why now...

by oompa in

jw
friends

the past year or so was year was really, really bad as i came to realize the waking up experience.

once i knew for sure wt was a sham, (although maybe sincere), i had this immediate feeling i would have to leave.....everything.

of course my wife was already going nuts from all my study, questions, doubts, letters to society, meetings with elders....but once i really knew and felt i would have to leave.... i did leave several times.

marmot

Already got a guitar and my dachshund says it's not ready for a relationship and wants to be "just friends".

My buddy in Sweden say that we'll go to Thailand or something and have some fun. My bank account put forth a strong counter-argument so that'll have to wait for a bit, though.

81

i found a pice of sublimnal art as a dubbie i'm shocked!

by XOCO in

you guys this has really freaked me out so much tonight as i was looking though my revelation book climax at hand i was looking to see where we had left off and i usually do this by seeing where i have stopped highlighting in the book.. so i started at pg 156 & 157 of the book so there were a bunch of marks on those two pages their are pics nothing special there.. but on page 159 their is a pic of jesus in the heavens where he is extending his handout to get a piece of paper and that's where i notice on the hand that were the wrinkles are supposed to be there is a face like a fetusnow i mean anybody can tell you that is a face of a baby.

i don't know why a baby on jesus hand or what it suppose to mean.

i guess it really shows how the control tower (watchtower) make me a jw feel really shitty.

marmot

Just be careful, XOCO, JCanon is very interesting, oftentimes witty person but he also needs some help.

The brain is wired to distinguish facial patterns much in the same way it is wired to recognize proper grammar structure. Once you are given a set of criteria to look for, the brain will automatically recognize them and there's a very specific part of the brain that does this, the right middle fusiform gyrus.

JCanon claims to be Jesus Christ (J.C.anonymous, get it?) in part because of what he interpreted to be a face in that illustration from the Revelation climax book and because he saw a similar shape in a cloud, which he took to be a sign from heaven.

However, there are literally THOUSANDS of people who see religious symbols in everyday objects, that piece of grilled cheese sandwich with the virgin mary on it is one famous example, but would you claim divine provenance because of it?

If you notice, JCanon is also very paranoid about secret societies and conspiracies and he claims to have personally spoken with god. Taken separately, all of these symptoms might not point to much, but when you have delusions of grandeur, paranoia and auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) all in the same individual it's a sign of a mental disorder.

I have nothing against the man, and I think he's got a great personality, but he needs help.