Posts by vivalavida

40

Oct.15th WT- " Wanna Be Jesus Friend? Have to Support the Faithful Slave"

by flipper in

jw
friends

under the study article " you are my friends " ( indicating jesus naturally by his quote ) the wt society makes it very clear that the only way to be jesus friend is to come through them or else you won't be approved by jesus or god.

translation : friendship with jesus = treating the " faithful slave " kindly = jesus approving you.

our jw relatives will be studying this in december at their meetings.. under the subheading on pg.

vivalavida

That article is based on the words of Jesus at Matthew 25:35-40 where Jesus says that certain things have been done to him and that's why this people are being placed on his right side. These persons ask when did we do all that and Jesus says, well, you did it to my brothers and it's like if you did it to me personally.

Using this logic, the FDS are trying to get away with requesting BLIND OBEDIENCE from the rank and file members. However, and this is a BIG HOWEVER, if you read those texts, this is what Jesus says would be done to his brothers that he will consider done to him:

You fed them
You gave them something to drink
You received them
You visited them in prison
You dress them

NOWHERE is there something, not even an implication, of you OBEYED them, or of the fact that they were RULERS over the rest or anything. Actually the picture that Jesus painted is more of people in a disadvantageous position that are provided help, it actually sounds more like charity. Not people in a very advantageous position demanding. Also the acts of those on his right are only valid because they were VOLUNTARY, not requested or demanded.

So, in my eyes, even those texts do not provide enough support for all the claims and demands they are making. That, added to what Deutoronomy 18:20-22 which matter of factly applies to them, makes me have absolutely no respect, or fear, or desire to help them.

Great day,

vivalavida

9

A Sincere Question to Non-US Citizens

by lost_light06 in

jw
friends

with all politics aside .

do you wish you had the freedom of an american (united states) ?

now please, dont confuse this wanting to be an american.

vivalavida

Well, it depends on what you call freedom.

I have been in countries, in latinamerica for example, where, if you so desire, you can ride on the bed (I guess that's what it's called) of a pickup truck without the police saying anything. Or you can ride a motorcycle without wearing a helmet and the only problem is if you fall and kill yourself, but it's YOUR decision, not the law's.

On the other hand, I have been in europe in countries where you can walk naked on the street and it will not be a huge problem. I mean, it could be that you are admonished not to do it, but you will not be charged anything because there is no law against it. That's one type of freedom. I mean, people can walk on the street with a bottle (no paper bag) of beer and nobody would actually care. Drink on the train, subway, bus, tram, etc. no problem.

The same thing goes in terms of thinking. In most countries, even in the third world, if they are not ruled by a dictator or somebody with dictatorship aspirations, you actually have enough freedom and can think and say almost anything you want. I think the same goes for the US. In some places you actually have so much freedom that it can hurt. Because your neighbors ALSO have the same freedoms. Freedom to have a loud party in front of your house until the next morning when you have to get up early and work.

I mean, what is actually freedom? I think it is an illusion. NO COUNTRY has TOTAL freedom. They may have FREEDOM principles in their constitution but the reality shows a different story. You know, the SECURITY vs. FREEDOM issue is not only an american thing. It's a world thing. But it is something that REALLY affects people's lives and curtails their freedom in several ways.

Anyway, I am of the opinion that true freedom doesn't actually exist. In no country on this world. And it's getting worse!

My 2 cents!

Vivalavida

24

Clothing in the New Order

by donny in

jw
friends

the society teaches that once the new order is up and running, we will achieve perfection as adam and eve once were.

if thats the case, why do they portray folks in the new order as fully clothed?

i thought clothing was the result of sin, so once sin is eliminated, should not clothing be also?

vivalavida

I had once an interesting experience with 3 german elders. They invited me to the sauna. In germany, most saunas are mixed and the unwritten rule is that you 'have to be naked'. Shorts, swimwear, underwear, etc. is not allowed. Only a big towel, to impede direct skin contact with the wood.

We were in the locker room and suddenly a fully naked lady walked through to get to the open sauna area. She had absolutely nothing on (at the point neither did I). Immediately I looked at the 3 elders, they just smiled. We then went into the open sauna area (this was a big place with several saunas, you could go from one to the other or go to the different pools) where everybody was only equipped with a towel. A lot of them carried it on their shoulders. For them, including the elders, it was the most normal situation. I, having recently moved to germany from the states, was more than a little surprised and questioned them about the appropriateness ofbeing there. They said, this is sauna and this is the way it works. Do not worry.

Inside the saunas, everybody dropped the towels, and sat there, men and women, young and old, beautiful bodies and ugly ones, families and singles. I even had a conversation inside the sauna with a family, just like you do during little league with other spectators... nobody seemed to care about nakedness. For me it was a definitely liberating experience. You are probably thinking that it was a naturist club or something, well, it obviously was, but it was not advertised as such. It was just a big sauna! And most gyms offer exactly the same experience if you go to the sauna (except when they offer women's day or something).

My point? Nakedness varies by culture, and I am not talking about indigenous people in the amazon. It's like when Janet Jackson's dress malfunctioned, some of the news anchors in germany had to laugh on camera after presenting the news, wondering why such a big deal was being made in the states about it...

Vivalavida

34

If you haven't seen this yet, you are in for a treat.

by BabaYaga in

watch what happens when a highly-unlikely-looking contestant blows the audience and the judges away.

.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avn6o40axms

vivalavida

In Germany there is even a commercial from T-Mobile showing him during a competition. They show the lady from the Judges asking him what was he planning on doing, he simply says: "I come to sing", at that point they cut to different people watching TV in the different ways and situations, basically not paying attention. Then, they cut back to the show and Simon says: "I am ready when you are". Then he starts singing, everybody starts paying attention, EVEN I DID the first time, and get goosebumps everytime I see it.

The guy is really good, I have to agree with everybody else...

Vivalavida

26

I bet you do not remember this picture, or do you?

by vivalavida in

does it ring a bell?.

it was taken by me from the stern magazine from germany issued on august 13th, 1961..... clue: i guess 47 years later she wouldn't attract any angels, would she?.

vivalavida.

vivalavida

Well, I remember looking at her, on the Paradise book and thinking how beautiful she was. So, when I discovered that she was not a "sister", if you know what I mean, I decided to track the german magazine to prove it to myself. You know, that it was actually as it was claimed.

When I received the magazine I decided to post the picture.

By the way, she is french, not german.

vlv

26

I bet you do not remember this picture, or do you?

by vivalavida in

does it ring a bell?.

it was taken by me from the stern magazine from germany issued on august 13th, 1961..... clue: i guess 47 years later she wouldn't attract any angels, would she?.

vivalavida.

vivalavida

Definitely same image... only a little dressed up, if you know what I mean!

vlv

26

I bet you do not remember this picture, or do you?

by vivalavida in

does it ring a bell?.

it was taken by me from the stern magazine from germany issued on august 13th, 1961..... clue: i guess 47 years later she wouldn't attract any angels, would she?.

vivalavida.

vivalavida

Leo Fuchs was the Photographer to the stars in the 60s. He seems to have taken a lot of pictures of the Jet Set.

The lady seems to be Pascale Petit - She did pose for Playboy in 1963 as an Italian Cleopatra

vivalavida

26

I bet you do not remember this picture, or do you?

by vivalavida in

does it ring a bell?.

it was taken by me from the stern magazine from germany issued on august 13th, 1961..... clue: i guess 47 years later she wouldn't attract any angels, would she?.

vivalavida.

vivalavida

Since I am in Germany, when I saw that original thread, I decided to track down that Stern magazine (no. 33 from 1961) and see if I could get it. Well, I did. I do have the original magazine. The article deals with people having vacations in Saint Tropez in the 60s.

The original picture was taken by a guy named Leo Fuchs.

Vivalavida

26

I bet you do not remember this picture, or do you?

by vivalavida in

does it ring a bell?.

it was taken by me from the stern magazine from germany issued on august 13th, 1961..... clue: i guess 47 years later she wouldn't attract any angels, would she?.

vivalavida.

vivalavida

Hi,

Does it ring a bell?

It was taken by me from the Stern Magazine from Germany issued on August 13th, 1961....

Clue: I guess 47 years later she wouldn't attract any angels, would she?

Vivalavida

7

Any Linux users in the forum?Please share your experience

by justhuman in

jw
friends

i just kind of fed up with windows os.

specially all this virus that recently i have been receiving.

so i have decided to drop windows xp os and bill gates microsoft and go for a linux mandriva os.

vivalavida

Hi,

I do use Mandriva 2008 Spring since it came out and I have been using it for a while now, about 4 or 5 years. In my opinion, just like you said, it is one of the most friendly distros out there and it is getting better with every release (I am talking about the last 3 or 4 releases).

My experience? I do have a desktop that came with Windows XP and I installed Mandriva (Mandrake at that time) and, since them I have been using it nonstop. I must say that, sometimes I was frustrated, however I was certainly decided to leave the MS world behind, so I kept on going. After that, about two months ago, I ordered a notebook with Linux preinstalled (a Dell XPS M1330 from http://www.dell.com/u buntu preloaded with ubuntu) I deleted the Ubuntu copy and installed Mandriva. Up to now 99% of things work with no problems. The other 1% does not bother me, so I don't worry about it.

It was kind of weird to get a computer without Windows, however I do not miss it anymore.

One very important point: You will have to learn a lot about how things function in the linux world. There is a very interesting and comprehensive site about mandriva, it's called Mandriva Tips for Free and it helped me a lot with configuration questions, etc. Most of the information is for Mandriva 2008.0 and not 2008.1 but the differences are not that big actually.

For windows programs you have several choices:

Dual Boot - A lot of friend of mine use Windows for desktop work and Linux for internet related work. (From the Linux side you can read and write natively from and to the windows partitions - FAT and NTFS)
Wine - A program that emulates the windows API and allows a lot of programs to work withing Linux. Read more here http://www.winehq.org/ (The watchtower library runs under wine by the way)
Use virtualization. Utilize a program like Virtualbox to create a virtual computer that runs within Linux but that offers a native environment for Windows, for example, to run in.

I guess then, that the first step is to read a little in order to be able to make an informed decision. Also determine exactly what your needs are and how they could be covered with Linux or with a Linux/Wine/Virtualbox combination.

Hope this helps

Vivalavida