Posts by Bungi Bill

101

Toddler accidentally shoots woman dead in Idaho Walmart

by nicolaou in

a woman has been shot dead by a 2-year-old in a wal-mart store in idaho.. .

the 29-year-old was shopping with four children in the store in hayden, when the two-year-old reached into her handbag and fired the weapon, shooting her dead.. initial reports suggested the woman was the boy's mother, but the police have said that this is as yet unclear how they are related.. source; http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/toddler-accidentally-shoots-woman-in-idaho-walmart-9950847.html.

i've nothing to add to my past comments on americas psychotic relationship with guns.

Bungi Bill

after training goes back home with his full auto rifle

Interestingly, though, the Swiss militia are not permitted to take any ammunition home with them (not since 2009, anyway - and even before that, the packet of 50 rounds previously kept by each member of the militia could only be opened after an order for general mobilisation had been issued). When Switzerland is brought into any debates about guns, the first thing that to be remembered is that its 420,000-odd militia members who are permitted to keep their issue rifles at home are subject to strict army discipline.

I myself am a firearm owner, with rifle shooting being one of my hobbies. This is strictly target shooting though - while previously a hunter, I am no longer interested in that activity (these days, I do my "hunting" with a camera!) However, I am with Simon 100%, in that mandatory courses in firearm safety for all would-be firearm owners is a "no-brainer." Furthermore, I would add to the list of no-brainers mandatory requirements for the safe storage of firearms. Those requirements are only the same as what firearm owners in this country (Australia) have had to comply with since 1996, and in my experience, create very little inconvenience - let alone infringement of anybody's "rights."

In saying this, I am not sure exactly where this places me in the Liberal versus whatever-their-opponents-are- called debate - and frankly, I couldn't care less!

48

American Sniper - courage or cowardice?

by Simon in

the movie american sniper is breaking box office records and of course there is some irony that a movie about a sniper is released on martin luther king day (who was shot by one).. but of course there is a world of difference between an assassin and a military sniper ... or is there?.

some are making a big stink about it and claiming that "snipers are cowards".

it seems unfair to me.

Bungi Bill

As for the not being rules in warfare ... yes, there are. There are standards - you cannot simply carpet bomb a city

Were I given to sarcasm, I would likely reply "Go tell that to the residents of Dresden!" However, sarcasm never was my scene, and I don't intend to start now.

Instead, Simon, I will ask you which set of international agreements (Geneva, The Hague, etc) prohibit the use of carpet bombing? Terror bombing of civilian targets was a central part of Allied air warfare strategy in World War Two - particularly that carried out by Britain's Royal Air Force. Also, the two atomic bombs were both exploded on civilian targets (the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Furthermore, no one was ever tried as a war criminal over any of those acts. Has there been a new set of international agreements drawn up in the 70 years since then that ban carpet the bombing of civilian targets? To the best of my knowledge, there have been none. (Throughout the Cold War, both sides had their strategic nuclear missiles trained on each others cities - i.e. civilian targets. This would tend to indicate that if any such international agreements had in fact been put in place, then nobody ever had any intention of taking a blind bit of notice of these!)

The work of a sniper, of course, is quite the opposite of that carried out by that of weapons of mass killing. Snipers seek out specific individual targets, usually enemy officers - the very antithesis of indiscriminate slaughter.

There are rules of warfare, which cover such things as the treatment of prisoners of war and the status of the wounded. These also prohibit the use of such ammunition as soft tipped / hollow tipped bullets, or the fitting of explosive charges into rounds of less than a certain calibre. Nowhere, though, are there any recognised rules of warfare that start even trying to specify what is "fair", "gentlemanly", "cowardly" or similar!

Bill.

PS: Before anybody starts sending a stream of tomatoes flying in my direction, I am in no way advocating the use of carpet bombing of civilian targets - just merely pointing out that no recognised rules of warfare prohibit its use.

41

Counting service time in a creative way

by nevaagain in

jw
friends

couting time and, how to count time while doing as little service as possible is often a hot topic around witnesses.

i even overheard pioneers discussing about it.

they call it "creative time counting" (i translated that phrase from a different language so bear with me ;-).

Bungi Bill

As in everything, you get what you emphasize. In the case of the WTS, they make a big issue out of "hours" - so guess what, that is exactly what they receive! i.e. an impressive amount of "time", most of which is utterly meaningless. I would have to say that I was at least as innovative as anybody else when it came to making a day in "service" stretch out, so as to fill up the quota. Much of that sprang out of sheer resentment:

- I remember feeling "You B%$#&*d, you want hours, I'll give you bloody hours!"

Just as well "This System" is not really in its death throes, and its residents in need of an urgent warning of imminent destruction. Were that really to be the case, this lot would be failing miserably in issuing that "warning".

Bill.

14

Happy Australia Day

by Bungi Bill in

jw
friends

happy australia day to all here who reside in australia:.

- and for those who have actually got the day off, halve your luck!.

(yet again, i have drawn the short straw and am working today - oh, the joys of remote site fifo work!

Bungi Bill

Happy Australia Day to all here who reside in Australia:

- and for those who have actually got the day off, halve your luck!

(Yet again, I have drawn the short straw and am working today - oh, the joys of Remote Site FIFO work!)

Bill.

6

Any 1975 Profiteers you know of?

by prologos in

after the indian ocean tsunami, a brother with a budding real estate empire on the island floated the idea that people should sell their ocean-front properties, (he would oblige), before the coming big one, and they would fall even lower in price.

lol.

do you know any happy buyers in the pre-1975 era that are now sitting pretty?

Bungi Bill

unless the buyer of the farm was 'in on' the 75 prediction and snickering about it.

He was!

Bill

6

Any 1975 Profiteers you know of?

by prologos in

after the indian ocean tsunami, a brother with a budding real estate empire on the island floated the idea that people should sell their ocean-front properties, (he would oblige), before the coming big one, and they would fall even lower in price.

lol.

do you know any happy buyers in the pre-1975 era that are now sitting pretty?

Bungi Bill

About the only example I can recall was a brother who sold up his farm during those pre-1975 years (1973, to be exact). That property was located on some prime agricultural land in a rich farming district (the locals used to have a saying about that deep alluvial soil and how it would grow just about anything - "even grand pianos.")

When this particular farm was sold, the consensus was that it had been let go at close to a "fire sale" price.

Other than that, it did not escape unnoticed that certain others who also owned big farms appeared to have no interest at all in parting with those lucrative sources of income (and farming was a very profitable business in the years I am talking about). Noteworthy, though, that they (or at least their descendants) are still "in the Truth"

- whereas that brother who let his place go for a song had a long battle with the brown bottle in the years post-1975.

Bill.

38

ARE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY STATISTICS REALLY TRUSTWORTHY?

by TerryWalstrom in

of these, over 2,000 were admitted to concentration camps.

1,000 died in prison and concentration camps.

another 1,000 of jehovah's witnesses died in prisons and concentration camps.".

Bungi Bill

Are Watchtower Society Statistics Really Trustworthy?

For a variety of reasons, no. Good points made by OrphanCrow and also ecan6:

i.e. Those of the "Bible Student" group who had already split with Uncle Joe Boozerford, but still ran afoul of the Nazis - and also those who became inactive during the Nazi era. The WTS definitely would not want that figure admitted to!

Bill.

16

What are your experiences having Jehovah Witnesses work for you or you work with?

by adjusted knowledge in

jw
friends

i've managed several thousand employees in the last decade.

i've had a handful that identified themselves as witnesses.

from experience, they were no different than any other employees.

Bungi Bill

I only ever worked for one JW, and I would have to say that he was an excellent employer. Mind you, he was an exceptional person (Having never known him before he became a JW, I cannot comment on how much his religion contributed / did not contribute towards that).

Otherwise, all persons I know who worked for JWs have been unanimous that it was a negative experience. This includes a non-JW friend of my wife's, who worked many years for a pest control company where senior management is still dominated by prominent Witnesses. (Down in this part of the world, many elders are not window-washers. Pest control is another occupation in which the JWs are overly represented).

Bill

2

Atheist/Agnostic/Non-religious households are more moral than religious counterparts

by Coded Logic in

dr. phil zuckerman (professor of sociology).

my own ongoing research among secular americans - as well as that of a handful of other social scientists who have only recently turned their gaze on secular culture - confirms that non-religious family life is replete with its own sustaining moral values and enriching ethical precepts.

chief among those: rational problem solving, personal autonomy, independence of thought, avoidance of corporal punishment, a spirit of "questioning everything" and, far above all, empathy.. the results of such secular child-rearing are encouraging.

Bungi Bill

To me, not at all surprising - I have always maintained that ethics and religion are two totally separate issues.

Bill.

71

TO THE STUPID ATHEISTS:

by atheist_R_stupid in

being that this is not "ex jws" and in fact, more driven by atheists talking a bunch of crap, im not even going to address you people like you know anything about jws because you dont.

nor am i going to assume you know the bible because none of you do.. and yes, im speaking down at you all because you men have actually went out your way to make a site to speak down at an entire group of people.

yet i bet you cant even handle a single uswer talking down at you, like you talk down about jws can you?.

Bungi Bill

The accusation of "Stupid Atheists" coming from a guy who is, at best, barely even semi-literate?

Talk about irony of ironies!

Then again, they do say that it often "takes one to know one." Maybe you are correct after all, and that we are stupid. On the matter of stupidity, you - out of all people - would be a bloody expert, so your opinion would have to rate highly.

I salute you as a Subject Matter Expert!

Bill

(PS: Definition of the term expert = "A has-been drip under pressure"