Gerard

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Posts by Gerard

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  26

  Tongue splitting, latest piercing rage

  by Gerard in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.cnn.com/2003/health/05/13/tongue.splitting.ap/index.html

  tongue splitting latest piercing rage

  wednesday, may 14, 2003 posted: 1:43 am edt (0543 gmt).

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  Gerard

  Weird... I bet it will bring a new meaning to "French kissing"
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  26

  Tongue splitting, latest piercing rage

  by Gerard in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.cnn.com/2003/health/05/13/tongue.splitting.ap/index.html

  tongue splitting latest piercing rage

  wednesday, may 14, 2003 posted: 1:43 am edt (0543 gmt).

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  Gerard

  http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/05/13/tongue.splitting.ap/index.html

  Tongue splitting latest piercing rage

  Wednesday, May 14, 2003 Posted: 1:43 AM EDT (0543 GMT)

  James Keen got his tongue split in December by a piercer who used a scalpel heated by a blowtorch. Story Tools

  CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Ears with two, three, even five piercings are ancient history. Studs in tongues and navels are, for many, no big deal. And who doesn't have a tattoo? These days, the attention-grabbing look is tongue-splitting: cutting the tongue to make it forked.

  Some say the practice, still relatively uncommon but edging up in popularity, is nothing short of mutilation. Lawmakers in Illinois are considering regulations that would all but outlaw it.

  And earlier this year, several branches of the armed services banned tongue-splitting. Officials at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina say one airman had the tissue in his split tongue reopened and sewn back together in February to avoid being kicked out of the service.

  Those who've had their tongues split call it a body modification, and see it as an enhancement.

  A few do it for shock value. Others describe the experience as spiritual. And many say they simply like how it looks and feels.

  "When I first saw it, I thought tongue-splitting was the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life," says James Keen, a 19-year-old from Scottsville, Kentucky, who got his tongue cut by a local body piercer in December after a surgeon declined to do it.

  Keen, who now speaks with a slight lisp, says most people don't know he's had it done unless he shows them.

  When he does, he demonstrates how both forks of his tongue can move independently. And it's a plus, he says, when it comes to kissing.

  "People are very curious about how it feels," says Keen, whose parents gave him their blessing -- and the $500 it took to do it.

  He says the cutting was done in three sessions with a scalpel heated by a blow torch and no anesthetic.

  Keen's story is exactly what Illinois state Rep. David Miller, who's also a dentist, had in mind when he authored a bill requiring that tongue-splitting be done by a doctor or dentist, and only for medical reasons.

  The bill passed nearly unanimously in the Illinois House and is awaiting a vote in the Senate.

  Last summer, state lawmakers in Michigan narrowly defeated a similar bill. "Ultimately, it came down to an individual rights issue," says Tom Kochheiser, a spokesman for the Michigan Dental Association, which supported but did not introduce that state's unsuccessful measure. He says the association has no plans to pursue the issue further.

  Miller, a Democrat from Chicago's south suburbs, says he understands the notion of personal freedom. "But I'm not sure the people getting this done understand the risks," he says. "We're choosing safety over cosmetics."

  One of the main worries, Miller says, is risk of infection from bacteria in the mouth. He also says a person's speech could be affected by scar tissue and the splitting itself.

  Essie Hakim, a 30-year-old New Yorker who had her tongue split by a surgeon in 1998, says she did have to learn how to speak again. But she enjoyed the process, and says she knew what she was getting into.

  "I'm an adult making a decision that's not harming anybody. And I'm not harming me," says Hakim, who believes piercing and tongue-splitting are no different than plastic surgery.

  Beauty, she says, is simply in the eye of the beholder.

  "People get breast implants. People do body building," Hakim says. "People do so many things that are never questioned."

  She and others believe the Illinois bill, if it passes, will actually do more harm by making it difficult for the most qualified people -- doctors -- to do the procedure.

  Shannon Larratt, a 29-year-old Canadian who had his tongue split by a surgeon, worries that many people will simply go to "underground" parlors to have it done in unsafe conditions.

  "It means only the hacks will be left doing it," says Larratt, editor of the Body Modification E-zine, a Web site he publishes from a farm in rural Ontario.

  While Larratt estimates that only about 2,000 people in the Western world have split tongues, that's "almost commonplace, as heavy 'mods' go," he says, using the abbreviated term for body modification.

  And curiosity about having it done is growing, says Scott Jania, a senior piercer at Progressive Piercing in Chicago.

  Jania says he now gets seven to 10 inquiries a week from customers who want to know if he'll split their tongues. But, afraid he'll hurt someone or get in trouble with city regulators, he turns them down flat.

  Says Jania: "My career is far too important to risk it."
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  14

  New Anti-Jehovah's Witness Website!

  by UnDisfellowshipped in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the edmonton sun news

  monday, may 12, 2003 .

  http://www.canoe.ca/edmontonnews/es.es-05-12-0012.html

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  Gerard

  New Anti-Jehovah's Witness Website!

  Knowledge is a doorway to freedom.

  Gerry
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  20

  Going to Ireland for three weeks, any thing to avoid?

  by FreeFallin in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm leaving for the trip of a lifetime tomorrow!

  flying into dublin and then driving all along the coast and ending up in galway.

  does any one know of anything special i shouldn't miss and any place to be especially wary of?

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  Gerard

  Avoid the pubs filled with good hearted people

  they emit diabolical music that posseses listeners and provokes them to tap on the tables an even...DANCE!

  Ugly. Very ugly.
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  14

  Animals 'are moral beings'

  by Gerard in

  1. social
  2. current

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3014747.stm

  animals 'are moral beings' .

  by alex kirby .

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  Gerard

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3014747.stm

  Animals 'are moral beings'

  By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent Some animals can feel and think in ways not too dissimilar from us, welfare campaigners say. The weight of scientific opinion is that it's certainly right to give the benefit of the doubt to all vertebrates Dr James Kirkwood, Ufaw They say there is evidence of altruism, with some animals acting disinterestedly for the good of others. Animals which live in communities, they say, often exhibit signs of morality which resembles human behaviour. They say there is scientific backing for their claims, with huge implications for human use of animals. The campaigners are from Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), a UK group which accepts that farm animals will be killed for their meat but argues they should be treated humanely. CIWF is holding a conference in London on 10 May entitled Understanding Animals. Its theme is animal awareness, emotions and intentions. The concept that animals are sentient - possessing a level of conscious awareness, and able to have feelings - was recognised by the European Union in 1997. Shifting debate In a briefing paper, CIWF says: "There is evidence that some animals do have some level of morality and some concern over other animals. Pigs are very sensitive to fear "Living within a group requires a moral code of behaviour... Most animals that live in communities exhibit similar moral codes to humans. "Zoologists who have spent their professional lives studying animal behaviour, either by observation or by experiments to test their mental capacities, believe that many animals feel and think." Joyce D'Silva, chief executive of CIWF, told BBC News Online: "The whole climate over whether to accept sentience has changed hugely in the last 15 years. "It has huge implications for all the ways we use animals. It implies all farm animals are entitled to humane lives and deaths - and millions are denied them." Robust rejection Dr Jackie Turner, research director of the CIWF Trust, told BBC News Online: "There's far more rationality and mental complexity in farm animals than we acknowledge. "But our attitudes to them are tremendously culturally determined - look at the different ways we feel about dogs and pigs." Sheep can remember 50 other sheep faces for several years The claim of scientific backing for the concept of animal sentience has its critics, who say it is simple anthropomorphism, the projection of human traits onto animals. A spokesman for the Countryside Alliance told BBC News Online: "There seems to be a trend towards anthropomorphism throughout society. "It's leading people to suggest animals can feel sensation and emotion in the same way as humans, and this is obviously nonsense." Proof impossible But Dr James Kirkwood, chief executive and scientific director of the Universities' Federation for Animal Welfare (Ufaw), gives qualified approval to CIWF's approach. He told BBC News Online: "Animal sentience has been a matter of debate down the centuries. "We can't prove absolutely even that another human being is sentient, though it would obviously be unreasonable to assume they are not. "But the weight of scientific opinion is that it's certainly right to give the benefit of the doubt to all vertebrates." Pig and sheep images courtesy of CIWF
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  58

  The Truth about September 11 ( 9-11 )

  by UnDisfellowshipped in

  1. social
  2. current

  the official version .

  of 9/11 is a hoax

  commentary by john kaminski.

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  Gerard

  Yeah, right. And the Watchtower is a direct channel to God and Elvis Presley did not die, but was abducted by aliens.
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  102

  questions for SwordOfJah and others like him

  by SpiceItUp in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i honestly want your answers to the following questions.

  (i am trying to find out what jw's think on these things to determine what my parents may say in response if i ask them any of these)

  question #1can individuals read & understand the bible alone, or do they need an organization and its publications to do so?

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  Gerard

  SOJ,

  the WT has done a good job on you! You say you stick to the scriptures? So you should be performing these rituals:

  Leviticus Chapter 4

  1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

  2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:
  

  3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering.
  

  4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bullock before the LORD.

  5 And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock's blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation:
  

  6 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the vail of the sanctuary.
  

  7 And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
  

  8 And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards,
  

  9 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away,
  

  10 As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering.
  

  11 And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung,
  

  So, SOJ, how many bulls have you killed lately? Or are you free from sin?

  OK, sarcasm aside, allow me to make my point: You know perfectly well that the teaching lies in the interpretation of the scriptures. You have vowed fidelity to a group of men who have made the most bizarre interpretaions of the Bible. You even justify their scam-like activities and doctrine. But the WT does not own God nor the absolute truth. The Neo-Watchtower Apologists frame their arguments in such a manner (intentionally or not) that it appears that someone could arrive at the same belief as official Watchtower doctrine through independent study. But is that possible? Is it possible to come to what the Watchtower calls "the truth" independently of the publications produced by the Watchtower? To ask it another way, from the Watchtower's official position, can the study of New Testament Greek grammar and syntax bring someone's beliefs in line with existing Watchtower doctrine? After examining several Watchtower publications, it would appear that it would be impossible for a person studying the Greek New Testament apart from Watchtower helps to come up with a faith that matches the Watchtower's "truth". Why? Well, the WT claims that the Bible is a closed book to everyone but the "remnant" and that Scripture cannot be understood apart from their help.

  Use your comon sense and think of what you know, not of what you fear.

  Heal soon .
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  102

  questions for SwordOfJah and others like him

  by SpiceItUp in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i honestly want your answers to the following questions.

  (i am trying to find out what jw's think on these things to determine what my parents may say in response if i ask them any of these)

  question #1can individuals read & understand the bible alone, or do they need an organization and its publications to do so?

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  Gerard

  That scanned letter above is not suprising yet it is trully disturbing and shocking.
• 
  102

  questions for SwordOfJah and others like him

  by SpiceItUp in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i honestly want your answers to the following questions.

  (i am trying to find out what jw's think on these things to determine what my parents may say in response if i ask them any of these)

  question #1can individuals read & understand the bible alone, or do they need an organization and its publications to do so?

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  Gerard

  I see the big picture instead of the small details such as BethSarim. >> SOJ

  Almost from its inception, the WT, has been guilty of misleading the public and their followers with claims that are wildly inaccurate and, in some cases, border on scams. An example of the latter can be found in the infamous case of Pastor Russell's "Miracle Wheat" Russell's WT publication advertised wheat seed for sale at $1.00 a pound (quite expensive in that day). "It was styled `Miracle Wheat,' and it was asserted that it would grow five times as much as any other brand of wheat. He was taken to court for that.
  
  Maybe you are referring to the “big picture” of using the physical dimensions of the Great Pyramid as basis of "the Plan of God". (e.g: The Divine Plan of the Ages) http://quotes.jehovahswitnesses.com/pyramid.htm
  
  In former times thousands of youths died for putting God first. They are still doing it, only today the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions the issue. Is this your “big picture”? Or maybe the fact that the WT has power to shelter proven pedophiles from the judicial system?
  
  Maybe you mean the “big picture” of shifting Armageddon’s date from 1881 to 1874 to 1878 to 1914 to 1918 to 1920 to 1922 to 1925 to 1975 (I’m sorry if I missed some other Armageddons, but maybe… that’s your “big picture”: Armageddon indeed happened but in an invisible way! We’re dead, it’s just that we have not noticed it yet!
  
  Maybe your “big picture” is not to pursue higher education, no sports at school, no music band?
  
  Maybe your “big picture” is to learn how to shun relatives and friends? Do you think it gets easier with the years? Are you getting good at it? Enjoy it?
  
  Maybe you mean the policy of rape is fornication, or rape is not fornication; Sorry, I forget since Jehovah keeps changing his mind on this “big picture”!!
  
  Maybe you mean the “big picture” of The World brotherhood ... that of the WTBTS being a NGO member of the United Nations for 10 long years?
  
  But a practical mind can tell that the real “big picture” is that of MAKING MONEY out of unsuspecting JW members: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/11/47162/1.ashx
  And of course make a little profit during these times of war by holding on to REGI US and RandCam stocks and their spy-plane engines: http://www.geocities.com/wtgreed/article.htm
  
  You seem to believe WT’s assertion that Satan promoted independent thinking and your “big picture” is limited by the WT’s command to not spend time and energy in research and verification. You believe it is dangerous! You fear independent thinking!
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  102

  questions for SwordOfJah and others like him

  by SpiceItUp in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i honestly want your answers to the following questions.

  (i am trying to find out what jw's think on these things to determine what my parents may say in response if i ask them any of these)

  question #1can individuals read & understand the bible alone, or do they need an organization and its publications to do so?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  Gerard

  SOJ,

  Regarding your answer to the original question #5 about the comming of Armageddon in the 20th century, the WT's doctrine was based on this prophesy. It did not happen. And this is what YOU had to say:

  So what? I'm surprised that it was not caught before publication, but oh well. But what can we do? >>>SOJ

  And there is the Beth-Sarim Mansion owned, and operated by the WT in San Diego and used by Joe Rutherford in the 1920’s. Member's were told it was built as a residence for Enoch and other holy men from the Bible when they were expected to rise from the dead in 1925. But the fact is that Rutheford spent the rest of his alcoholic life in that house and when he died the WT sold it as any other pice of "worldly property. "

  It is unbelievable that you forgive this cult for the damages and spiritual abuses it imposes on its honest members. These abuses will continue untill people like you hold them to account for their lies. Saying "oh well" is not acceptable to a person of your intelligence.