Congrats! I haven't been around much either, but in catching up, I really enjoyed your posts. I'm in my Junior Year of my undergrad. I can honestly say that you will not regret your choice of higher education. It's literally opened up a whole new world for me. I just know it will do the same for you.
CoonDawg
JoinedPosts by CoonDawg
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40
Admitted!
by Billy the Ex-Bethelite injust wanted to drop in and share the good news that i have been accepted to "the big city university" this fall.
sorry i haven't been around much lately, this is a busy semester as i'm just getting on with a really exciting life.. wow, has my life changed as i look back over the years!
and jwd/jwn has been an important part of the positive direction that my life is now headed.. my previous thread and history are in the private section for members.
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Were you made to rehearse what you would do/say at Armageddon etc?
by highdose ini remember my parents went through a phase in the 80's of rehearsing what i would say in court if they were trying to get me to have a blood transfusion.
i remember the key comment they wanted me to say was that it would be like being raped, and then i had to be able to descripe what rape was.... i was about 7 at the time...(!).
i also remember having to rehearse a nazi style interrigation senario, as they thought i might need this at armargeddon when the nations "will turn on us!
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CoonDawg
I remember rehearsing those kinds of things. I remember my mom and some of the pioneer sisters blathering on and on about learning how to rough it in the tribulation. I guess I never took things too seriously because, to me, it sounded like a big camping trip. I remember my dad showing us how to fish and trap rabbits so that we would be able to eat. I also remember them telling us that missing a meeting could be a deadly mistake because we wouldn't know where the new location was for the moving meetings and that would enable Satan's thugs to capture and torture us more easily.
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OSHA Safety Regulations: Does the WT look the other way?
by Alfred ini've been on a couple of kh remodels (the last one over 2 years ago)... both remodels took about 2 months to complete... in both cases i pointed out numerous safety hazards and osha violations to the site coordinator (not petty nonsense but actual safety hazards).
just to give a few examples...there were stripped extension cords everywhere, poorly protected temporary wiring, trip hazards, unlabeled cans containing either hazmat or flammable liquid, hazardous liquid spills that were cleaned up with rags and then tossed in the trash, the list goes on and on... i can tell you that it really got out of control (no exageration)... in both cases i was told not to worry about it because we would be done with the remodel fairly soon and jehovah always looks after his people.
what i didn't get is that they would have these 5-10 minute "safety talks" before starting the work day, yet we would be constantly surrounded by safety hazards all day long.. so my question is... have you ever been on a kh new construction or remodel and observed any osha safety violations?
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CoonDawg
The quickbuilds I went on were early on, before there were any official RBCs and the like. It was kind of wild west in the beginning. I was 14 and I was cutting lumber with a radial arm saw. Talk about a no-no. Anyone who wanted to could be on site - no hardhats, no nothing. The last one I went on was much later - about 1989 or 90, most of the safety stuff was still waaaaay out the window. I couldn't believe all the shenannigans. I can promise, I wouldn't want be the cong. that had to buy that building. Corners were cut everywhere. It was shoddily built. I would think that not only OSHA regs would have to be observed, but that local inspectors could have a say in a great deal of what goes on.
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craziest reason elders wanted to have a commitee meeting with you
by glentrevette ini had a sister who was a tenant in my house and her car was leaking oil all over my newly paved driveway before she moved in i had a condition on the lease that said if her car leaked oil she couldnt park there and i told here after she moved in that she was being deceptive to me when she said her car didnt leak oil she was good friends with a lot of powerful elders in the hall and would you believe they asked to meet with me 3 elders in the back room of the library because they said i had called this sister a liar i got out of it only after i produced a copy of the lease and pictures of the oil mess if i hadnt of had pictures maybe i would of been dfd.
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CoonDawg
I was actually a part of a series of meeting...each one more ridiculous than the one before - over a period of two years.
Background:
My wife (now ex-wife) decided that I, a young man in his early 20s, was a "sex fiend" for wanting to actually get intimate with her more than once a month. Obviously, this strained our marriage. She recommended that I go see a therapist, so I did. I went twice and when he helped validate that I was not off my rocker and that the problem didn't rest with me, she decided that was enough therapy. I kind of thought it was funny at the time, because I knew that would be the outcome. So, next, she wants me to find an elder that I feld comfortable enough to talk to about marriage difficulties and all that sort of thing.
The Situation:
Eventually, I found an elder that I began to confide in and get advice from. Little did I know, but that edler began using that intimate information about my strained marriage to amorously pursue my (then)wife. Eventually, it came out. To this day, they both deny that the relationship ever resulted in sexual intercourse, but it was, at a minimum, emotional cheating. Clandestine meetings at out of the way places, phone calls all the time...yeah, it was bad. So, now comes the JC meetings. At first, they are what you would expect. Both myself and the elder's wife are present for a chunk of it. The elder is removed and they are both privately reprooved. Should have been the end, right? Not so fast. Suddenly it all became about how the two families interacted afterward. It was completely stupid and the elders just effed the whole thing up. Eventually they ended up involving the CO, who involved the Service Dept. at HQ. As this whole matter dragged on with no definitive resolution, there were sporadic meetings called and attended that were a complete waste of time. The last straw was a meeting in which I, one of the injured parties in the whole thing, was on the hotseat. My "sin?" In my confrontation with the man who'd spent months trying to get into my wife's panties, I physically threatened him and called him a "son of a bitch." I was stunned. I told those elders that they should be ashamed for treating me and the other innocent spouse that way. I finally told them - "I'm sick of this. Unless you are calling me in to a JC to disfellowship me, I'm done with this. I don't want to hear another word about it from you. You all figure out what to do and then get it done without me because I've had it."
That situation had EVERYTHING to do with beginning my exit and finding that there was more out there than the petty power games that elders seem to crave.
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Circuit Assembly Lowlights
by Red Piller inour do is a southerner- his drawl makes the.
scary things he says much easier to swallow.. some highlights of his talks:.
apostates are miserable.
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CoonDawg
There's a bigger push on getting congregations to put their savings with the WTBTS instead of a local bank, they're even announcing
REGULARLY from the platform now on how to buy CO's off-lease cars.
I wonder if they have any legal standing as a financial institution or anything. They do charge a nominal interest on the money loaned for KH construction and that sort of thing. That would be something interesting to explore.
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Making a fetish out of bible inerrancy
by Terry inthe catholic church dominated christianity for a thousand and a half years without any successful christian competitor.. challenges came and went, but, the central authority won out.. catholic power stemmed from a simple idea: peter was bestowed by jesus and installed as the first leader or pope.. peter, then, passed his authority down successively; one pope followed another.. the central authority of catholicism was magisterium.. if you don't know what magisterium means you might want to look hard at the definition:.
the divinely appointed authority in the catholic church consisting of the pope and bishops whose purpose is to teach and establish the true faith without error.
the magisterium alone, according to catholicism, has the right to interpret the word of god.. www.carm.org/catholic-terminology.
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CoonDawg
Interesting thoughts - thanks for sharing. I'll have to mentally digest this one for a day or two. Great points, though.
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So here I am!
by jwmanager inhello to everyone!
i guess the easiest way to introduce myself is by letting you know i'm headisspinning's husband.
it might take a little bit for me to open up, but i enjoy reading the posts and responses on here.
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CoonDawg
Welcome - and try not to be overwhelmed. Just remember that there are all kinds of folks here, and most are well meaning. Take from this place what you want and leave the rest. Nice to meet you and I hope you stick around a while.
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the story of a little old lady who loved god
by warmasasunned inheard an interesting story today of a little old lady in her nineties.
the poor old dear had been in hospitial very poorly for a few months but as soon as she was discharged, even though she was still very weak,.
she told her daughter "i must go to church on sunday".
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CoonDawg
because, if he exists, god is a narcissistic prick. Anyone that has to have all creation fawning all over him and telling him how great he is has a case of megalomania worse than P-Diddy.
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The Coffee Party--We Aren't Going To Let The Extremists Run This Country
by Justitia Themis inthis video documents a meeting between coffee party leaders and students at wesleyan university on feb. 26, 2011. the meeting led to the incredibly successful "i have sex" video, which is transforming the national debate about ideologically driven "budget cuts" bein.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqw4f-eq9lm&feature=player_embedded.
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CoonDawg
Haha! See? I've always known that there can be civil dialogue between two people about politics. We are not so different. It's a thorny issue that MUST be discussed in a reasonable manner. Of course, not everyone is going to be happy with the outcome, but I do think that progress CAN be made. You're right about congress. They are still playing to their respective bases. Already it is about party posturing in advance of the 2012 race. It's shamefull - but that's what American politics has been for decades.
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"Do You Think They Are Extremist Publications?" Well, Yes!
by metatron infrom the may 1 watchtower, complaining about those poor misunderstood witnesses in russia, who are (gasp!
) actually accused of being extremists!
can you imagine!.
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CoonDawg
I understand where you are coming from, Mad Sweeney, but I still can't say that it justifies overriding the priciple of freedom of speech or the freedom of choice. There will always be fringe groups that have outlandish teaching with possibly bad consequences for the followers, but who gets to determine what is extreme or outside the mainstream? I don't have a religious dog in the fight - in fact, I'm an atheist. This isn't a religious matter, but a legal one that is aimed at the very heart of what it means to be an individual. Should the Russian government be able to lable another group as extremist because they don't like their laws. Maybe next it could be Hassidic Jews that are considered to have extremist content in their literature. How about the Holiness Pentacostal denominations? They talk quite a bit about hell...maybe that's extreme to some government official. All I'm saying is that, no matter how glad I am to no longer be a JW, having an Orwellian government deem that they cannot exercise their right to stupidity in choice of religion or lifestyle is going too far.