Posts by sd-7

84

100 things I learned from watching "The Prodigal Son" DVD

by Perversion of a truth in

these are things that were said or insinuated, i start with the first 15.

enjoy!!.

1. working for a corporation in the city makes you fall out of the truth.. 2. if you become inactive or leave jehovah you will make your whole family sad and ruin everything.. 3. all worldly people cheat.. 4. all worldly people curse.. 5.

sd-7

Just watched the first 14 minutes of this video. Wow. Just the utterly implausible instant hiring of someone who has no experience at all blew the entire thing out of the water. But yes, that guy--he has Ace Ventura's hair and his voice kinda reminds me of Christian Bale for some reason. The ladies were indeed quite lovely, but there's not a lot of reason to think that young woman would start immediately liking this person she just met. We also immediately establish that Ace Ventura is downloading inappropriate stuff [I guess we're supposed to assume porn?] at work and is known as the office flirt. These are both things that generally do not result in success in a real office, but rather in people not liking you very much and sometimes getting a report filed on you, computer audit, and then firing...I assume all that happens at the end? Conveniently, he also says, "I'm always right--it's a gift I have!", which of course has to be the greatest evil of all; thinking you might be right about stuff that isn't in the paragraph could be veeeery dangerous...

The guy's older brother seems like a real jerk. Also, it seems like this is some kind of bizarre family cult. A guy who is very clearly an adult has to check in with his older brother and his dad about a job he plans to interview for? Sure, they work together in the family business, but [head explodes] it's an INTERVIEW! NOBODY WITH NO EXPERIENCE is going to get hired THE SAME DAY for any real job in an office so that he wouldn't be able to talk about it with his dad anyway!! And don't they get days off sometimes? Gosh! It's like these guys have never experienced Planet Earth before! Unless he's just going to answer the phone, there's no way, NONE, that this guy gets hired in the face of everybody else who applied. Couldn't they have come up with a more plausible opening to this story? That employer might have noticed this guy spoke well, but if he's got no experience, there's no reason to hire him. Maybe they're suggesting the JW lifestyle has a lot in common with marketing and therefore this guy was well equipped to market himself? Well, it was there all along and I missed it for years: "ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE"!

The older brother describing someone as a 'spiritual loser' is actually quite typical of how the WT itself says things--really, if we looked at the parable of the prodigal son, the Watchtower is the other brother who doesn't want to forgive anybody and is tooting its own horn about how righteous it is. Hey, they make sure nobody is allowed to rejoice over repentant ones, that's for sure. You get the stink eye from everybody for awhile...

Anyway, I have a feeling one can learn more than 100 things from this movie. The level of detail and quality there...who's paying for all this? I couldn't help wondering...nobody out on the street seemed to be dressed like non-JWs, so...how'd they film that scene when they're out there? Did they block off the street somehow? Hmm. They also had to design the office space...I would assume they must've used their own offices and redesigned the doors or something. Or rented an office space for the sake of filming? I wonder.

Of course, as is the trend in the outside world these days, while the picture quality has improved, the screenplay still sucks badly...

--sd-7

22

Jehovah's HALF-WITnesses and the BOOKS of DEPTH (gone forever)

by Terry in

where are all those meaty books with deep thoughts from years gone by?.

you know which ones i mean if you're familiar with the previous decades of jehovah's half-witnesses.. from c.t.russell's early era of international bible students.

judge rutherford's books.

sd-7

I have to say, that's a great thread title. It seems like it could be the name of a '50s pulp serial story. But you're right--the Isaiah books and the Daniel book actually kinda pale in comparison to the old school books, but I would think those would be a sort of last hurrah in terms of attempting books of depth. Or not. Probably they were rehashing stuff from the Revelation book on some level anyway, right?

--sd-7

314

If you were on the Zimmerman jury, how would you vote? 2nd degree murder, manslaughter or innocent?

by UnConfused in

sd-7

Clearly it was several inches.

"Is that what she, Jehovah's heavenly organization, may evidently have said? The evidence suggests that this is so. How do we know this? Through our publications, the measurements of the spiritual temple have been demonstrated to be several inches, indicating the clear and specific direction Jehovah provides through his organization. Do we not benefit because that is what she said?"

--sd-7

314

If you were on the Zimmerman jury, how would you vote? 2nd degree murder, manslaughter or innocent?

by UnConfused in

sd-7

Too late now...the jury has already decided. I now recant my manslaughter vote and change it to 'Not Guilty'. I now charge the mass media with character assassination in the first degree, and lying in the first degree, under the Anti-Watchtower (CADMUS) Act Section 123.456, subsection (d), paragraph 3. I'm entirely fickle and don't belong on a jury, now I understand why the judge on the case I was on decided I was an alternate juror...son of a wild beast...what's wrong with me?

--sd-7

50

I get so tired of people complaining about everything President Obama says or does

by booker-t in

jw
friends

for the past 4 1/2 years i have heard everything said about president obama and now the lastest "obama being the anti-christ" just have me laughing my head off.

where do people get nonsense like this?

do they just sit around the kitchen table and say "what are we going to say next about obama and michelle?

sd-7

Praising Obama is like praising the captian of the Titanic, while it was sinking!

Or like praising Bane for urging us all to take control of our city.

"Gotham! Take control! Take control of your city!"

--sd-7

480

Zimmerman Not guilty

by mouthy in

sd-7

I can understand why this verdict was decided upon. I definitely didn't think murder was a viable charge. If anything I could understand manslaughter, but since apparently Martin turned back to confront Zimmerman and attacked him, Zimmerman had every right to defend himself and no reason to assume Martin was going to stop until he was dead. Since that's how it went down, Z is a free man and did what he had to do. Neither man committed a crime until one attacked the other, and since Martin apparently did the attacking, all bets are off on suggesting this was anything but self-defense. Assuming that's what the evidence brought out, I see no problem with a not guilty verdict.

If anything, I feel awfully manipulated by the media presenting a false image of Martin with what looked like a picture of a little boy screaming for his life and being hunted down and murdered in cold blood. Who he was as a person, however, had nothing to do with the facts of the case. If he was a thug, that doesn't mean he deserved to die or that Zimmerman did the right thing; if he returned and attacked Zimmerman, then that's it, no sympathy for him because he put himself in a position where he could be killed instead of going home and enjoying the game. He had a choice too, he could've gotten off the phone with his friend and called 911 if he felt threatened and ran home and bolted the door.

Do I think Zimmerman did the right thing in following him in the first place? No, but he committed no crime in doing so, no more than the security guard/Best Buy employee who follows me through every aisle of the f---ing store because I'm black and I have a bag with me is committing a crime. It's uncomfortable and unacceptable, but not illegal. Zimmerman could've been more subtle since he was potentially tailing a violent criminal, for all he knew, and common sense would suggest not giving the appearance that you're following/watching him. He could've been killed, and if he had been, we all know we wouldn't have heard of this incident at all unless we lived in Florida.

Clearly this was a case of a situation that went south and a kid died. It wasn't a good situation for anyone involved, but a court of law and a jury of his peers found him not guilty after examining the evidence. Unless something new and shocking shows up later--and even if it did, there'd be no way to charge him again--it's only fair to accept the decision as it is. I think the details leave room for reasonable doubt about what happened and with that said, innocent till proven guilty has to rule.

I don't think there's any cause to be happy or sad about it because someone died and someone else's life has been ruined. This has been a valuable learning experience, in my opinion, in terms of highlighting the very serious problem in a lot of folks' thinking about race in this country. People were up in arms and still are without taking the time to evaluate all of the facts in detail. Also, calling Zimmerman a "white Hispanic" as the media has done...I don't think I've ever heard anyone call anyone a 'white Hispanic' until this story came up. I know it's a term, but it's kind of a stupid term. I'm a white Native American black, by the way. I'll stick with "human", and "black", only so far as I need to be conscious of the fact that I bear the consequences of the irrational behavior of some blacks who have given the majority a bad name. Otherwise, it's just a lovely golden brown skin color, which just means I'm well-cooked as opposed to looking fresh out of the poultry section or whatever. My sell-by date isn't any better than yours, though, by that logic, we're all still just meatbags.

So, from one meatbag to another, Zod bless you, and Zod bless America (, especially after Zod turns America into New Krypton. All hail Zod).

--sd-7

50

I get so tired of people complaining about everything President Obama says or does

by booker-t in

jw
friends

for the past 4 1/2 years i have heard everything said about president obama and now the lastest "obama being the anti-christ" just have me laughing my head off.

where do people get nonsense like this?

do they just sit around the kitchen table and say "what are we going to say next about obama and michelle?

sd-7

Yes, being happy over the skin color of your president could be interpreted as closset racism. Unless white people are allowed to be "glad" when a white president is elected? Yeah ... sounds very racist doesn't it !

Hey, if you want to be happy when a white president is elected, be my guest. It's a free country. That's kind of the point. Of course it would be kind of pointless, as like all of the major candidates for president for like the last, I don't know, couple o' centuries?, have been white. You'd be like, happy every election except the last two. Not the end of the world, either way. Also, racial pride becomes a more complex issue when you've been subjected to institutionalized slavery for a really long time. That doesn't justify racism in return, but it does create by its very existence a struggle for identity, be it racial or as an individual, in a world that has for a very long time abused and victimized you on the basis of race. It's kind of human for black folks to feel joy about a black president. (If he sucks, in the estimation of history, not so much, however...it'd be meaningless if he does the job poorly.)

The reason why some people have been happy to see a black president is because there have been no serious candidates who were black for, well, the majority of U.S. history. It's not, in my opinion, happiness to the exclusion of all who aren't black (since plenty of non-blacks were just as happy to see it happen and were the ones who voted for him), rather it's happiness to see someone who, not that long ago in this country would've had to present his freedom papers if he'd been seen walking alone in certain areas, is actually President of the United States. If anything, that to me is the triumph of Americans as a whole over a long history of racism against blacks. It said to me that people were willing to overlook the color of his skin (which not very long ago would've guaranteed he didn't get on a TV set unless he was dancing and singing with wide eyes) and assess--albeit with varying degrees of accuracy--whether or not he was a viable candidate for the Presidency. I'm just as hopeful that a female President, regardless of race, will happen one day, and I think it should've happened a long time ago, frankly.

This is an era where you can do anything you put your mind to and it's a heck of a lot easier than when it was illegal for a certain race of people who were slaves to learn how to read. There are no excuses to be made for people who simply don't try to better themselves when the opportunities are there for them and race is no longer a major boundary for success in life that requires a massive struggle to get around. So obviously, there is considerably less of a race problem because of the progress that has been made in the laws and in people's hearts, thankfully. But it is still there. I felt it myself in a small Missouri diner a few years ago, where my order wasn't taken for an hour while whites came in, ordered, got their food and started eating. There were no other blacks in the diner and it was a very small diner with 99.9% white patrons, so it had to be because I was black, not because I'd somehow been overlooked. Racism is still real, but thankfully it's a lot easier for everyone of any race to beat it because the ignorance that spawns such prejudices can be easier dispelled by means of education.

Now with that said, nothing justifies racism by blacks or against blacks or against anyone. People of all races come together in this country because of their belief in a common goal--that of freedom and equal rights for all. I've never believed in some sort of 'us against them' mentality. Sometimes there's a little comedy in looking at the differences between different cultures, but to suggest that one is better than the other is obviously wrong. We're all just different.

I personally disagree with some of the stuff Obama has done, and I see no problem with people being critical of his policies if they disagree. As long as it's because they disagree with him and not because of his skin color, have at him. I'll join you.

--sd-7

39

October 15th WT up already

by St George of England in

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20131015/.

needless to say, banging on again about education and also creation/evolution.

can they not think of anything original?.

sd-7

Higher education, with its emphasis on academic study, often produces graduates who have few or no practical skills, leaving them unprepared to deal with the realities of life.

Nothing like projecting, eh? Let's fix this one:

Theocratic education, with its emphasis on Watchtower study, often produces people who never graduate who have few or no practical skills, leaving them unprepared to deal with the realities of life.

That's much better.

--sd-7

39

October 15th WT up already

by St George of England in

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20131015/.

needless to say, banging on again about education and also creation/evolution.

can they not think of anything original?.

sd-7

A brother

wrote: “I have been active in the field service

since the late 1940’s and am nearing

75 years of age, but I have never enjoyed

my field service asmuch as I have

this month offering the special issue of

Awake!”

--I just had to comment on this line--p. 10, par. 15. The special issue of Awake! is from 2006. This guy's been out in field service since at least 1949. So in 57 years, he has never enjoyed his field service as much as when an Awake! about creation came out??? Man, his field service must've SUCKED.

--sd-7

39

October 15th WT up already

by St George of England in

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20131015/.

needless to say, banging on again about education and also creation/evolution.

can they not think of anything original?.

sd-7

Okay, I better stop. But I see it's a very well-written article.

--sd-7