Michael3000

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Posts by Michael3000

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  15

  I'm regular Army now!

  by pr_capone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well... the deed is done.

  i have been accepted into the regular army and with some good news!

  as most of you know my main concern was getting ft. hood to begin with.

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  Michael3000

  Be safe - and let's hope our Commander-In-Chief keeps you out of any unnecessary conflicts like Iraq.
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  45

  Sept 1 2003 WT: Is There Only One 'True Church'?

  by Mary in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the latest wt magazine starts out by quoting a catholic cardinal:

  just as there is one christ, so there exists a single body of christ, a single bride of christ: 'a single catholic and apostolic church.

  ........although pope john paul ii insisted that the document dominus iesus contained "no arrogance towards, or disrespect for other religions", protestant church leaders reacted strongly to it.........in june 2001, one minister said that the document was the work of "a powerful faction in the roman catholic church....scared silly by the spirit of openness introduced by vatican ii".........it appears that the....catholic curia was disturbed by what has been called religious relativism........[which is] the emergence of a pluralist theology----saying basically that one religion is as good as another...... what then, is the right view?

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  Michael3000

  Oh, for Pete's sake...

  I'm gonna be sick from the Watchtower...
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  38

  Did you lose respect for your parents because of the JW / Watchtower crap ?

  by run dont walk in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is probaly one of my biggest problems i dealt with growing up in the jw crap.. it's no fun growing up alone.. i am sorry, but i hated my parents (probaly from the time i was 13), i know that is mean and a terrible thing to say, but that's how i felt.

  i had no respect for them growing up in the borg.

  they taught me nothing about ................. having a relationship/dating.

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  Michael3000

  Unfortunately, I have also lost respect for my parents. When I was being raised a Dub, I thought a lot of what we had to do was "unfair", & like most teenagers, I rebelled (albeit in very small ways, compared to what I could have done) against them. But the JW Guilt Reinforcement System (TM) was in full effect, and I eventually resolved to "be a good son, a good Witness for Jehovah, not dishonor my parents", blah, blah, blah. I find that I have lost MORE respect for my folks after coming to a better understanding of what they were thinking and experiencing when they decided to become Dubs. My parents were Catholic, they married young and had 6 children, one after another. My Mom was first to convert (isn't that typical?), and I think she felt that the "Truth" (TM) was the answer to all the problems she & my father were having as a young married couple. That set the pattern for the rest of their lives together - and for us kids. When you are having marriage trouble, financial trouble, AND have to raise a bunch of kids... then the Dubs show up at your door with all the answers to life's problems, and the lifestyle absolves members from having to deal with any of the realities of life. POOF! You are no longer under any responsibility to worry about saving money for the future: Armageddon's coming any moment! POOF! You don't have to earn a college degree so you can do more for your family's welfare: This world belongs to Satan and will soon be destroyed - better to store up your treasures in Heaven! POOF! You don't have to actually DO any research - the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society has already done it for you!

  My parents chose the path of least resistance - at least it was for them, at the time. But they also instilled in me the same programming, so that now, as an adult, I STILL find it hard to complete projects, or plan ahead, or see the Big Picture. But I am aware. And I will not waste any more of my life.
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  18

  Hopefully, this means Bush won't get re-"elected"...

  by Michael3000 in

  1. social
  2. current

  from the san francisco chronicle's mark morford:.

  = mark's notes & errata ==.

  where opinion meets benign syntax abuse .

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  Michael3000

  From the San Francisco Chronicle's Mark Morford:

  = Mark's Notes & Errata ==

  Where opinion meets benign syntax abuse

  Watching BushCo Crumble

  Ratings slipping, economy tanking, lies spiraling, credibility shot. Try not to cheer

  (By Mark Morford)

  T

  his is what happens when it's all a house of cards.

  This is what happens when you build your entire presidency on an intricate network of aww-shucks glibness and bad hair and cronyism and corporate fellatio and warmongering and sham enemies and economy-gutting policies and endless blank-eyed smirks that tell the world, every single day, whelp, sure 'nuff, the U.S. is full of it.

  Shrub's ratings have dropped below 50 percent for the first (and probably not the last) time since they surged hugely right after 9/11 and he was hoisted in front of a wary America and puffed out his chest and pretended like he could find Afghanistan on a map and promised he would bomb every damn country on the planet that didn't have a McDonald's or an Exxon or a secret U.S. chemical-weapons deal.

  Shrub's

  numbers are down . The nation is catching on. The armor of money and power is cracking. The smirk is waning. Dick's defibrillator is running on fumes.

  And Karl Rove, Shrub's master strategist, is scrambling, rushing down hallways, sweating hard, mapping out lib-killer tactics and frantically

  redirecting blame (CIA! FBI! The NSA!) as nine Demo candidates have a field day knocking all of Shrub's shortcomings out of the ideological park.

  Maybe it's the regular slew of lies. You know the ones: "proof" of uranium purchases, "proof" of Iraqi nuke facilities, "proof" of WMDs, poison gas, plus two quick and "painless" wars, a robust economy, women's rights, gay rights, America proud and strong and respected the world over, a nice shiny oil-sucking SUV for every flag-waving misguided Fox News-drugged American. Ha.

  Funny how the BS can wear you down. Funny how it can make you feel like someone's been piling huge rocks on our collective chest for the past three years and stomping on them with ugly polished right-wing loafers until we can hardly breathe.

  And all you have to do is ask any schoolteacher or grandparent or health-care worker or conscious sensual attuned soulful organism anywhere, and the answer is unavoidable: The nation is gasping for air.

  Cities are desperate, basic services are being slashed, schools are broke, the environment's molested, the GOP has promised a ridiculous array of cuts and dedicated billions they can't possibly deliver in light of inane tax cuts and the biggest deficit in U.S. history. Hey, how's your portfolio doing?

  Maybe the slip, the change in national timbre, is due to all the recently uncovered and aforementioned misfirings of the GOP machine, that frighteningly rich and seemingly omnipotent team of multibillionaire CEO Bushites who bought the presidency in the first place and who have steered the conservative agenda so brilliantly, so ruthlessly to this point.

  Until recently, they've managed to stay viciously on message, trashed every liberal cause, demonized every social program, overhyped every fear, desiccated the poor and the elderly and gays and women and called it all Christian largesse, compassionate conservatism, which of course we all now know means, whoops sorry about all the unemployment and the raped environment and the dead Iraqi children.

  Or maybe it's all those U.S. soldiers, more dying every single day, outright brutal guerrilla warfare with no end in sight, tens of thousands of American soldiers stuck in miserable and war-torn Iraq for years to come, proving that BushCo's policy of perpetual unilateral war in the name of a sovereignty we no longer have is just plain dangerous, if not downright immoral. Iran? North Korea? Liberia? Saudi Arabia? Wanna make your own list?

  Maybe it's that feeling that we've reached saturation, that the nation can't really absorb any more misinformation and misdirection and snide switcheroos, Osama to Saddam, nukes to uranium, WMD to WMD intent, serious threat to "liberation," brutish recession to "temporary downturn."

  Maybe we've just had enough. Enough of the macho all-American gun-totin' faux-cowboy ethos that says, if we just beat [insert nation/minority/progressive viewpoint here] up enough, they'll get the message and get in line and start complying with U.S. demands and we can expand our empire and crush all comers and their wimpy objections, too.

  It is not yet time for delicious plates of

  schadenfreude . It is not yet time to relish Junior's slide into abject failure and scathing ratings and one-term histrionics -- you know, just like those suffered by his dear old dad. We are still too fragile, the feelings too raw, the wounds too recent from the current administration's mugging of the country.

  But we are healing fast. We are coming back to life. We are opening our blackened eyes, realizing we have been massively and systematically and enthusiastically and intentionally duped by some very rich, very impotent white males three years running and it's damn near time for a domestic regime change and let's just float a Dean/Kerry (Kerry/Dean?) presidential ticket out there to the cosmic Void, see how it plays, shall we?

  Because after all, that whimpering house of cards, it can't survive much longer.
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  35

  Will Lance make it number 5 this year?

  by Stan Conroy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the tour is just over 1/2 way, and he is only 21 seconds ahead.

  tomorrow is the individual time trial.

  i think that will be the determining factor.

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  Michael3000

  I think Lance will take it again. As for the press saying "he's not as strong", he's as much as admitted this - but remember that saying such things to the press has always been a way of not "showing his hand", so to speak. Helps to psych out the competition, right? The oppressively hot weather has been rough on everyone - in fact, melted road tar was to blame for the crash near the end of Stage 9 (or was it 7?) the other day. For updates, see

  http://www.bicycling.com/tdf
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  51

  WEDDING PHOTOS HERE!!!

  by cruzanheart in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  well, it was a beautiful, beautiful wedding!

  there will be more photos published, i'm sure, as soon as billygoat is up and around.

  this was a night of love, friendship, and happiness.

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  Michael3000

  CONGRATS, YOU TWO!!!

  Sheesh. Gotta visit the board more often...
• 
  28

  Norwegians Are Dirtiest!

  by ISP in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  norwegians 'are the dirty men and women of europe'

  norway is home to some of europe's dirtiest people, according to a survey.. the study found seven per cent of people in norway changed their underwear only once a week.. the survey, conducted by ac nielsen for norwegian underwear maker dovre, asked 1,000 norwegians between the ages of 20 and 60 how often their changed their underwear.. some people admitted to changing them even less often than once a week.

  more than a third said they wore the same underwear for two days or more, aftenposten reported.. people between 41 and 50 were the least likely to change their underwear regularly, while people with partners were found to change their underwear less often than single people.. the survey showed 11% of norwegians change their underwear two to three times a week, 18% change four to six times a week and 58% change daily

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  Michael3000

  In all fairness to the Norweigians, the poll DOES say 58% change daily. The percentage of those who change weekly is a mere 7%.
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  2

  The Brother in the Green Running Suit With Three Stripes

  by IslandWoman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there once was a brother in a green running suit with three stripes.. he thought that god was on his side.. he thought that if he only kept going all things would be fine.. first he walked back and forth, no one there.. then he rode back and forth, no one there.. let not your eye feel sorry, you have won.

  congratulations!.

  first die!

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  Michael3000

  Off the meds again, eh?
• 
  49

  Barbie Update.

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  2 weeks to go!

  here's the likely guest list so far: .

  trucker .

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  Michael3000

  Boy, I WISH I could be there! Have a great time, and I know there'll be plenty of pics posted here, afterward!

  CHEERS!!!
• 
  61

  Were you married at the Kingdom Hall ? How bad was your wedding reception ?

  by run dont walk in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm just wondering...... i remember going to some wedding receptions for couples who got married at the kingdom hall,.

  and i hate to be mean but, super boring, and bad, how bad you ask ??

  ok here we go ..... - the worst had to be one couple played kingdom meolodies for their wedding dances, i couldn't believe it.. - no alcohol (i'm sure we all experienced a few of these), reception was over by 9:30.. - no music at all, just a gathering of people, and they ended the reception with a prayer, i thought i was at an assembly.. - food, like if you can't afford to get married don't, like frozen stuff bought at your local grocery store, and still in the package when you got up to the tables, how tacky.. - you could always tell a couple who couldn't afford much, when you had to drive 50 miles into the back woods to find some dinky little community hall they rented for $100.. - i remember one where the bride was pregnant, i was really surprised they allowed them to use the kingdom hall.. - another classic was, they had this band (of all jw's of course) and man they were bad.

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  Michael3000

  - Another classic was, they had this band (of all JW's of course) and man they were bad. You had to be there, hard to put into words.

  Please, please, PLEASE don't tell me this was MY band - "Brother to Brother", from Brooklyn Bethel! Seriously, was it?