Posts by JanH

A totally reasonable question. At first, I could not really believe that Edward Gentry on JWO was the same. I would doubt Refiner's would want to remind people anywhere about his past as a particularly malicious troll. A friend in Australia also pointed out some stylistic issues that made me doubt it further. I looked, and found the same peculiar stylistic traits present in JWD refiner's, JWD edward and JWO edward. The behaviour and alliances were also entirely consistent, so was the timing of the messages.

When the IP address of JWO edward (and also a fake 'kent' at JWO) was traced to an Australian ISP, that pretty much settled the question. I must hasten to add that the administrators on JWO had nothing to do with this tracing, but there are other methods.

The fake 'refiner's fire' on JWO was obviously not the same person, as was evident to all, except, apparently, some of refiner's own friends.

Another fake account on JWO, "julie", was most interestingly also traced to a second Australian ISP. Alliances and opinions were consistent with a very prominent member of this site, but she apparently also picked up a number of curse words she felt free to use behind a (she thought) anonymous fake ID. The fake 'julie' was only to be the first in a trend of fake personas taking on the IDs of known people, alas.

- Jan

Blogging at Secular Blasphemy

18

haugland. Front up you bloody worm.

by refiners fire in

jw
friends

you post a link about me??

well get out here and post the story, give us a rundown on the saga.

cmon dude.

JanH

How we learned that Edward Gentry is Refiner's Fire.

- Jan

Blogging at Secular Blasphemy

18

haugland. Front up you bloody worm.

by refiners fire in

jw
friends

you post a link about me??

well get out here and post the story, give us a rundown on the saga.

cmon dude.

JanH

Who Refiner's Fire were before he became Refiner's Fire.

- Jan

Blogging at Secular Blasphemy

19

Intelligent Design in the Universe

by metatron in

jw
friends

this will be complicated ( if you think any watchtower study article is 'deep', .

give up now).

so, according to popular images, god sits on a throne.

JanH

metratron,

Yes to compare the genetic code to a 'blueprint' is a flawed analogy. It makes people think that we have "a gene for" everything, as if there was a mapping of single genes to every feature in our body and mind. It is not that simple.

The genome is not a blueprint, but more like a cooking receipe. This is Richard Dawkins' analogy, and it is much better. The genes guide the complex biochemical processes that end up creating a phenotype, be it a bacteria, a tree or a human being.

- Jan

Blogging at Secular Blasphemy

9

Vatican rejects US sex abuse policy

by Gerard in

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2339749.stm

JanH

"The Vatican objected to the resolution's lack of an appeal process, as required by canon law, its elimination of a statute of limitations and the provision requiring that accusations be turned over to police immediately." (CNN)

How telling. The Vatican, ruled by old men, wants the oldest skeletons in its closet to remain hidden. It also apparently doesn't want to bring the police into alleged abuse cases before they had a chance to... pay off the victims to silence them, I guess.

The American (and Irish) public reacted in anger when singer Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of the Pope, protesting against his policies on child abuse. It practically ended her career to speak out. It is the same Pope who has now put a stop to the policies demanded by abuse victims and rank & file alike in the US.

Sinead was right, and somebody owe her a big apology. The Pope only wants to protect the hierarchy and the abusers. Like someone else we know about, eh?

- Jan

Blogging at Secular Blasphemy

22

Who Is Joseph F. Alward & What's He About?

by Francois in

jw
friends

i refer to the post below about women, with which i and many others take great exception.

who is this guy, why is he saying these things, what is he getting at, am i missing something?.

francois

JanH

Derek,

Yeah, I know. I keep those references handy, since some fundy seems to post that nonsense every two days

Valis,

It's horrible, but it's true! Luckily, we were pre-warned and stocks are solid.

- Jan

Blogging at Secular Blasphemy

22

Who Is Joseph F. Alward & What's He About?

by Francois in

jw
friends

i refer to the post below about women, with which i and many others take great exception.

who is this guy, why is he saying these things, what is he getting at, am i missing something?.

francois

JanH

Frank,

What you write is a thorough falsehood. Einstein's views of religion remained pretty consistent all through his adult life. He never believed in a personal god, and was certainly not a theist.

Though Einstein generally avoided calling himself an atheist, his views were entirely consistent with what me and other atheists believe. He did not believe in god, and vehemently denied the lie propagated by Christians both then and now.

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." (Albert Einstein in Albert Einstein: The Human Side' edited by Helen Dukas (Einstein's secretary) and Banesh Hoffmn, and published by Princeton University Press)

- Jan

Blogging at Secular Blasphemy

11

How to embed audio in a post?

by Bendrr in

jw
friends

not too long ago someone posted a thread here and it had sound.

i didn't have to click on a link, the sound just played automatically when the post came up.

mike.

JanH

I already know how to embed sounds here. What I'd really like to know is how to beat senseless anyone who actually embeds sound in their postings.

- Jan

Blogging at Secular Blasphemy

18

Bill Bowen visits German WT branch office

by GermanXJW in

on 12th october, bill bowen went to the german branch office in selters/ts.

he came not further than the gate, where he was allowed to contact werner rudtke, member of the branch committee, via telephone.

after some minutes, rudtke excused for his "bad english" and connected to hans obermeier, another bethel member.

JanH

William H. Bowen in mineral water

LOL. Yup, "Selters" is a brand name for a popular brand of mineral water in Germany, tapped from the nearby springs.

Sorry, folks, I have never seen an online language translation service make any article intelligeble in the target language.

- Jan

Blogging at Secular Blasphemy