Posts by dgp

14

What is Awake! supposed to be good for?

by dgp in

it is clear to me that the watchtower is a mix of official daily and official organ.

what gets published there is not only the "truth", but also the law.

what is the awake!

What is Awake! supposed to be good for?

by dgp in

it is clear to me that the watchtower is a mix of official daily and official organ.

what gets published there is not only the "truth", but also the law.

what is the awake!

dgp

It is clear to me that the Watchtower is a mix of official daily and official organ. What gets published there is not only the "truth", but also the law. What is the Awake! supposed to be, then?

30

What,s the solution for our neighbor south of the border?

by jam in

there,s a civil war in that country.

why don,t the.

un get involve.

I accept the criticism, Nickolas, because you are right. It's not as easy as "just don't do drugs". But the blame does not lie only "south of the border" either. And sending a squad won't solve the thing. The Zetas were originally elite soldiers. The Guatemalan Kaibiles who have defected to the Zetas were also members of a very small elite. Who says that your guys just can't be bought?

Mexican president Calderón complained that they have seized 120,000 weapons (http://www.informador.com.mx/primera/2011/319222/6/felipe-calderon-presume-120-mil-armas-incautadas-en-cinco-anos.htm. He has also claimed that much of those weapons come from the US. He has given a figure of up to 90% as coming from the US. Perhaps he is exaggerating, but, according to this note (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-4893905-503543.html) "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a visit to Mexico, said Wednesday that America's inability to prevent weapons being smuggled across the border is causing the deaths of Mexican police officers, soldiers and civilians." I added the bold.

Some people claim that "90%" of those weapons come from the US. Maybe not. Stratfor Intelligence says otherwise. They claim that only 17% of the weapons that make it into Mexico come from the US. But the note below does say, however, is this:

But Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center, called the "90 percent" issue a red herring and said that it should not detract from the effort to stop gun trafficking into Mexico.

"Let's do what we can with what we know," he said. "We know that one hell of a lot of firearms come from the United States because our gun market is wide open."

Again, I added the bold. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/02/myth-percent-small-fraction-guns-mexico-come#ixzz1WqrDfwp2

I don't remember the name of the Chinese guy who was arrested in Mexico with 250 million dollars in cash. His business was buying precursors for designer drugs. Those 250 million were intended to be used as bribe money, which means the sums of money actually involved in the trade are much, much higher. Those amounts of money come from the consuming countries, primarily the US. How come no one finds out?

In his book "El Cartel", the late Mexican journalist Jesús Blancornelas, himself a target of the Tijuana cartel, said that at one time the US consul in Tijuana hired a driver to take the children to school in "that side" of the border. A personal friend of the consul had recommended someone to work as a driver. The man was using the American consul's car to smuggle cocaine into California. Yes, he was arrested. The question is, did the consul know about this? And, if he didn't know, just how good were the Americans at policing their own?

The personal friend of the consul turned out to be a narcojunior. A junior who had entered the trade just so he would feel powerful. Money he already had.

Here's a link for anyone to check the book, just in case (Spanish only)

http://www.amazon.com/El-Cartel-Arellano-Poderosa-Historia/dp/9707809620/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315014696&sr=1-2

I agree that this problem can't be seen as "let's get Americans do the easy thing and quit drugs", just as I think this shouldn't be understood as "those incompetents blew it and we have to fix their own country for them" when much of the reason why such a mess even exists is there comes from "north of the border".

I imagine that my talking like this does not earn much sympathies in a forum populated by Americans. But this is a hell of a good place to think outside of the box, I believe. When I hear that some American says that they can "fix" a country, I think of how notoriously incompetent at fixing countries America is. Witness Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan. Or, think Wall Street. I think America itself is in very bad need of fixing. From this side of the border, we wonder if any of your politicians is up to the task. Were you not playing brinkmanship not so long ago, on a certain Tuesday?

33

At the age of 48 I just graduated with my BA degree from college and I am on top of the world

by booker-t in

jw
friends

i thought i would never get my college degree from a university in this century at the age of 48 but i did it and graduated with an "a-" average.

i did this all the while working a full time job and going to school full time.

it can be done and now i love school to death.

dgp

Congratulations, Booker!

This isn't just great for you. Every time a former witness (or active witness) inches his or her way away from the cult, it's good news for everyone.

Awesome!

28

The Jehovahs Witness Baby Sitter

by garyneal in

just thought id pop in with a new thread concerning the development on my childrens lives.

my youngest daughter goes to a babysitter who is a sister in my wifes congregation.

the reason being is because the child is an infant and regular daycare is much too expensive.

dgp

My sympathies, Gary. I would find a different babysitter if I were you.

30

What,s the solution for our neighbor south of the border?

by jam in

there,s a civil war in that country.

why don,t the.

un get involve.

dgp

Nickolas, I respect you a lot, but I think you are missing the big picture. It is not as easy as you seem to think. The solution can't be military. For as long as there is a large group of people who want to do drugs, someone will supply them.

Suppose you're a policeman in Mexico or Central America. You have a wife and kids. And you're sent to do undercover work. Do you think that, sooner or later, this policeman would realize that they could literally slice him to pieces for the sake of someone in the United States who wants to do drugs anyways? Someone who would perhaps look down on you and would call you greaser or beaner or whatever if you were to move to the United States?

What would you do, if you were this man?

There was this police chief in Tijuana who was made an offer he couldn't refuse. The cartel offered him one million dollars a month for playing dumb. He could even get a little amount of drugs here and there, as a token, to save face. The alternative was death. He chose not to be on the cartel's payroll. One fine day, this man went to mass, and he thought it was allright if he didn't take any bodyguards with him. He had been there for half an hour when the cartel came. He was shot 44 times.

From this side of the border, it is very clear that the United States could do a lot within its own borders. Why it doesn't seem to do much, well, that is the big question. We sort of have an answer, but it's one that's not very much politically correct in the United States. Drugs are as much a problem in the United States as they are in Mexico or Central America, if not worse, but for some reason Americans don't want to go to the root cause.

30

What,s the solution for our neighbor south of the border?

by jam in

there,s a civil war in that country.

why don,t the.

un get involve.

dgp

Sam Whiskey: Last time I checked, YOU GUYS were complaining that WE are taking your two halves...

By the way, what do you think about the rest of my post? Just curious.

8

What's behind this sort of behaviour?

by sizemik in

it's abhorrent to the average human .

but what motivates this sort of behaviour?.

i'm interested in what others think.. .

dgp

To me, this is the result of absolute power. She knew she could get away with burning and maiming the poor immigrant.

14

Conscience---Oh really?

by Terry in

whatever else you may think about jehovah's witnesses, what they think about their own "trained christian conscience" is an absolute.. the governing body feeds them what they should think and say and do; they obey.. conversely, what they must not think and say or do must be obeyed absolutely as well.

agreed?.

by internalizing these instructions, directions and taboos all jehovah's witnesses become tuned in to the collective authority of jehovah's "arrangement.".

dgp

Great post, Terry. Like many others from you.

30

What,s the solution for our neighbor south of the border?

by jam in

there,s a civil war in that country.

why don,t the.

un get involve.

dgp

Gee, Mexicans themselves would suggest a different plan for Americans to help Mexicans fight crime. Very simple:

Don't do drugs, will you? That creates crime in Mexico and elsewhere. You see, that hot, gorgeous blond with blue eyes and long legs who does drugs is the reason why people like the Zetas have a reason to exist. She may think this is recreational only, but, believe me, it's not.

Do something about weapons legally sold in the US that end up in ilegally in the hands of drug traffickers. By the way, don' t help with things such as "Operation Fast and Furious".

Do f***** something about money laundering and trafficking in drugs within your own national borders. For some reason, no one in the United States seem to be convicted of money laundering. AND THAT IS WHERE THE MONEY IS. If drugs were legal, the "value chain" would stop somewhere in the United States. Also, why is is that nobody in the US is ever convicted after finding him/her in the possession of, say, half a ton of cocaine? Why is it that cocaine arrives in large quantities, but you only happen to catch the guy who has a small quantity in his possession? Corruption, anyone?

Have you guys ever thought that maybe, just maybe, your own border patrol guys are involved in money laundering and drug trafficking? I mean, drugs do make it into your territory, right? Would it be too much to assume that, say, one million dollars are as likely to buy a conscience in America as they are likely to buy a conscience in Mexico?

That would help.

By the way, since you guys took away half of our territory, please stay within your borders, will you?