Posts by Bungi Bill

25

Solar power rip off! Aussie government destroyed free electricity. Scum!

by Witness 007 in

so my friends have had free power for years thanks to solar panels and a great contract with power company.

they even get credits for having 20 panels on thier roof!

i put 18 solar panels on my roof cost $9900 dollars.

Bungi Bill

It should never be a long-term government subsidy of your utility bills and your labelling them "scum" really indicates a sense of entitlement that is unwarranted. Any government subsidy money has to come from somewhere - why should other tax payers pay for your utility bill? Sounds like it was far too generous so count the good times when you could enjoy it as a plus but don't bitch that it's been corrected.

In Australia, this was subsidised by those power consumers who were not using solar power. As such, it was unsustainable, and that is why I didn't elect to go the solar way. Until the storage issue is resolved satisfactorily, a stable power grid is still going to be needed (otherwise, what happens during the hours of darkness?).

A high proportion of "distributed" generation (principally photo voltaic cells and wind turbines) creates great potential for system instability (as was revealed in last year's power blackout in South Australia).

25

Solar power rip off! Aussie government destroyed free electricity. Scum!

by Witness 007 in

so my friends have had free power for years thanks to solar panels and a great contract with power company.

they even get credits for having 20 panels on thier roof!

i put 18 solar panels on my roof cost $9900 dollars.

Bungi Bill

Witness 007

That is why I never opted to go solar, as I figured that it would have to come to this, sooner or later.

Hydro, a free source of power, and in my opinion, is the way to go

Tend to agree with you on that one. (Speaking of a former power station superintendent - diesel, gas turbine and hydro).

30

When Milton Henschel was tortured and beaten in Africa

by Hecce in

*** yb77 pp.

173-174 liberia ***.

after sitting down, the witnesses were told to look at the sun, and soldiers watched their eyes to make sure they were staring at the blazing sun.

Bungi Bill

It could have been Asia, Australia, Europe, North/South America.
Evil people are on every continent.

While evil people are to be found everywhere, Africa takes the word "atrocity" to a whole new level.

An informative read on this subject is David Van Reybrouck's Congo: The Epic History of a People (2010). This work catalogues the whole sorry story of the so-called Democratic Republic of Congo; one of unrelenting warfare together with unimaginable brutality.

This is in addition to the other ongoing and long running wars on the African continent - South Sudan, Darfur, Somalia, Nigeria, the Boko Haram insurgency to name just some - all of which are accompanied by numerous acts of extreme brutality.(Little of this, of course, ever gets mentioned in the news media)

Then in the 1980s, there was the campaign by the ANC in South Africa, in which the "Necklace" was used on suspected police informers. This device of torture was improvised out of an old car tyre, which was filled with petrol (gasoline), hung around the victim's neck, and then set on fire. It typically took about 20 minutes for the victim to die. A bloody humane way in which to dispose of someone!

Violence is never very far away in this district (e.g. last January, myself and several other workmates had to do a merry dance while dodging some shotgun pellets that were flying around during a gang altercation).

However, I haven't ever heard of anyone around here being "Necklaced"!

30

When Milton Henschel was tortured and beaten in Africa

by Hecce in

*** yb77 pp.

173-174 liberia ***.

after sitting down, the witnesses were told to look at the sun, and soldiers watched their eyes to make sure they were staring at the blazing sun.

Bungi Bill

If all this is true it is heart wrenching indeed.

Sadly, being Africa, this is all too believable!

30

When Milton Henschel was tortured and beaten in Africa

by Hecce in

*** yb77 pp.

173-174 liberia ***.

after sitting down, the witnesses were told to look at the sun, and soldiers watched their eyes to make sure they were staring at the blazing sun.

Bungi Bill

Fascist bastards!

30

When Milton Henschel was tortured and beaten in Africa

by Hecce in

*** yb77 pp.

173-174 liberia ***.

after sitting down, the witnesses were told to look at the sun, and soldiers watched their eyes to make sure they were staring at the blazing sun.

Bungi Bill

You couldn't call those who carried out these atrocities "animals", as that would be to insult animals!

Whatever you may or may not say about the JWs, nothing - but nothing - justifies such treatment of other human beings.

22

Are JW's non- violent

by notalone in

jw
friends

okay, i keep reading something and though jw's do not get involved in national wars, my experience has always been they are very violent people.

every convention i have ever been to was filled with children being beat within an inch of their lives for just not being able to take a third day of mind-droning silence without being able to move or now even sleep.

i have seen whole congregations laugh at stories of children being beaten and calling out to "jehovah".

Bungi Bill

Yep! Real Blood and Guts stuff, all-right.

22

Are JW's non- violent

by notalone in

jw
friends

okay, i keep reading something and though jw's do not get involved in national wars, my experience has always been they are very violent people.

every convention i have ever been to was filled with children being beat within an inch of their lives for just not being able to take a third day of mind-droning silence without being able to move or now even sleep.

i have seen whole congregations laugh at stories of children being beaten and calling out to "jehovah".

Bungi Bill

If hating someone is a sign of being a violent person then yes, Jesus would be classified as violent too, because he openly rebuked and cursed the Pharisees.

I have heard at least one professed Christian use this and similar statements of Jesus to justify Christian participation in bloodshed. (To be precise, that person was Catholic by religion, and of Croation descent. The conversation came up back in 1990, just as things were hotting up in the Balkans, and he was alluding to the so-called "Ethnic Cleansing" that was just beginning in the old Yugoslavia).

Other than that, JW non involvement in the world's national armed conflicts has much more to do with their ideas about "Christian Neutrality" than with the principle of non-violence. They do subscribe to the concept that there can be such a thing as an "Authorised War", such as the Israelites were instructed to fight. I well remember this being used against the LDS ("Mormons") when they referred to certain more blood thirsty passages from the Old Testament. The typical JW response was along the lines of "you show me where the Bible authorised WWI, WWII, Korea or Vietnam?"

When I was "coming into the truth", I was told in so many words that JWS were "Not Pacifists". The old trick question of the Conscientious Objectors Board was also explained to me in detail:

- i.e. "What would you do if somebody attacked your wife?" The correct JW response, I was told, was that you would indeed hand the offender the proverbial bunch-of-five - but that you would not " fight in a war started by politicians."

As for the JW's ideas about child discipline, I now cringe when I recall the frequent scenes of child abuse I observed at meetings, assemblies and the like.

So yes, I very much agree with the OP on this one - the JWs cannot exactly claim to be a non-violent people.

37

"Hard work never killed anyone," or "I have to give up knitting."

by compound complex in

greetings, my aging friends:.

it's not really a funny subject, our getting old and our bodies falling apart.

sure, as the saying goes, hard work won't kill you, but it can wear out your body.

Bungi Bill

Xanthippe,

There is osteo athritis, which is the result of aging (and which I starting developing in my late 40s), and there is rheumatoid athritis, which is by far the more serious one. One of my grandmothers was cruelly crippled by rheumatoid athritis, and this began when she was only 29. By the age of 42, she could only get about with the aid of a pair of walking sticks.

37

"Hard work never killed anyone," or "I have to give up knitting."

by compound complex in

greetings, my aging friends:.

it's not really a funny subject, our getting old and our bodies falling apart.

sure, as the saying goes, hard work won't kill you, but it can wear out your body.

Bungi Bill

I was going to make some wisecrack such as "They say hard work never killed anyone - but I am not taking any chances", - before realising that this is indeed a serious matter.

Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) is a rather common condition. One of its many sufferers is my wife, who worked for a number of years on an assembly line. Her only task was to lift the cartons of packaged garlic bread off a conveyor line and stack these on a pallet. While the cartons were not particularly heavy, just the sheer rate of repitition was enough to, in the end, cause irreversible injury to her back.

With the wisdom of hindsight, industry now realises the importance of rotating tasks around, so that nobody is performing the same repetitive movements for prolonged periods of time. Also, ergonomics plays a part; such things as the position of the computer's display relative to your eyes, position of the keyboard relative to your elbows, the height of your chair off the floor and its providing adequate lower-back support all play a part.

Of course, getting older doesn't help! There is a danger in that as young persons, we can seemingly get away with a lot - as in the handling and lifting heavy objects. It does come back to bite you, though, when you get older!