Posts by Norm

10

Battlestar Galatica

by free2beme in

okay, this is a series i loved in the 1970's ... except for that who bsg 1984 thing that should have never happened.

when the new series came out, i was all excited.

it was good, and then quickly it took the path of several series these days, in which it "covers very little each episode.

I think the whole series suck. The writers seem to be completely out of any ideas. The whole idea now seem to be just to keep the whole show going. It's so much like many other series like "Lost", "Prison Break" which is turned into never ending paper thin illogical far fetched constructions that seem to confuse even the writers. Keeping these hopeless and hapless series going just for the sake of it is just another sign of the worship of the almighty dollar and the stupidity of the "fans" Using the same computer generated space combat scenes and studio sets must be pretty cheap too. Watching the crew of these "spaceships" struggle with steaming valves with hammers and wrenches take one back to the age of steam ships, gimme a break! Norm

45

SHOCKING!

by Dansk in

jw
friends

i just managed to see the last 15 minutes or so of the 'tonight with trevor mcdonald' programme on british tv.

it concerned young children under 12 who had their blood tested and it was found they all had (at least those i saw) high levels of toxic chemicals in their blood.

one family ate organic produce and were generally the "healthy" type and yet their daughter had the highest levels of certain chemicals than others in the study.. a toxicologist said that although the chemicals were high we shouldn't worry too much as they are twice as high in the usa!!!.

Norm

Well folks, I have read through this thread and naturally people has a right to be upset about all the strange chemicals and additives we get into our systems.

I do think however that we might try to have a little more perspective and take a few steps back and look at history. As recent as 150-200 years back most people all over the world did not live as long as we do today. If we go further back it was even worse.
People died of diseases that's considered mere banalities today. I certinly would much prefer to live now instead of back then.

Many in the "alternative medicine" business use the word "natural" as it is some kind of miracle. Nature is full of extremely dangerous substances that will kill you in seconds so arguing that something is "natural" in the sense that it is healthier then a "man made" chemicals is pretty meaningless. E-coli, viruses, bacteria, yeah even dogshit is natural, it just ain't healthy.

Apart from what has been pointed out already so-called organically grown vegetables and other such produce may be contamineted by certain funguses which are the most dangerous imaginable and which cases cancer. Life is indeed dangeous and I can guarantee that you will die from it.

Norm

13

Jesus' invisible return

by poppers in

i know the jws claim that jesus returned invisibly in 1914 (?

) - what is this based on?

how can they state that he returned; i mean if it was an invisible return then they are only stating a belief, right?

Norm

Well, imagine what a shock it was for his followers when Christ died.
But soon someone got the bright idea that he wasn't actually dead and the
rest of the story we know. The superstitious mind don't need reality. Reality
are only annoying and bothersome.

Norm

19

Just wanted to post this "reminder" for newer jws

by A Paduan in

*** awake!

if you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things.

because all the evidence in fulfillment of bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years.

Norm

I remember well reading these cocksure statements back in the seventies when the date 1975 was promoted as the ultimate truth. Here is some more of the same served in 1969:

*** w69 3/15 171 What Influences Decisions in Your Life? ***
12 The influence and spirit of this world is to get ahead, to make a name for oneself. Many schools now have student counselors who encourage one to pursue higher education after high school, to pursue a career with a future in this system of things. Do not be influenced by them. Do not let them “brainwash” you with the Devil’s propaganda to get ahead, to make something of yourself in this world. This world has very little time left! Any “future” this world offers is no future! Wisely, then, let God’s Word influence you in selecting a course that will result in your protection and blessing. Make pioneer service, the full-time ministry, with the possibility of Bethel or missionary service your goal. This is a life that offers an everlasting future!

Some times quite inadvertantly Brooklyn actually do describe the very technique they use when they present their superstitious drivel as "truth". This is how it is done folks:

*** w56 6/15 357 Getting and Giving the Thoughts of God ***
WORDS are the bullets used in the war for men’s minds, and they are fired from every weapon in the arsenals of propaganda. They incessantly drum on our ears and seek to fill our minds with the thoughts and promises of men.In tireless waves they come to brainwash everyone into conformity, dissolving and rinsing from the mind any thoughts that contradict their message. If they can deluge the mind continually other thoughts will have no room, will be crowded out. That is the strategy of the sustained fire of these verbal bullets, the purpose of their churning in like the ocean surf. And different groups fire at our minds with different doctrines, deluge us with varying propagandas.

So now you know why you have to attend endless meetings every week, and attend assemblies do "field service" where you are constantly bombarded with complete bullshit intil your brain is mush, with hardly any ability to think at all.

Norm

34

Did the Jews kill Jesus?

by OUTLAW in

.

.....well?

?.....it wasn`t the mexican`s!!..lol!

Norm

Does it really matter?

Norm

1

Keep on the watch

by Norm in

jw
friends

are you on the watch?

are you religious?

has there ever been a time when these idiots in brooklyn or someone else havent been expecting the end to come?

Norm

Are you on the watch? Are you religious? Are you a believer?
Are you even a “true believer”? Do you believe whatever anyone tells you? If you do aren’t you quite gullible? If something is highly unlikely is it believable? If someone tells you about fantastic events taking place, things that has never happened in our time and age would you believe it? If they told you such things don’t happen anymore but they sure did happen a long time ago, do that makes it more believable? Why is it that makes such stories more believable and true if they happened a long time ago?

Do you consider what you read and hear with a critical mind or do you just believe it because it comes from a source that you consider reliable? Is a source necessarily reliable and true just because it claims to be? Is something true just because someone says so? Are claims in a book automatically true because the author says it is?

How do you personally verify if something is true or not? Do you bother at all with such matters?

Let’s take a look at something we are all familiar with as the majority here has our entanglement with the Watchtower Society in common:

*** w03 1/1 p. 17 “Keep on the Watch”! ***
“Keep on the Watch”!
“What I say to you I say to all, Keep on the watch.”—Mark 13:37.
JUAN kept his valuables at home. He stored them under his bed—in his opinion the safest place in the house. One night, however, while he and his wife were sleeping, a thief entered the bedroom. Evidently, the thief knew just where to look. He silently removed every valuable item from under the bed as well as money Juan had left in a drawer in the bedside table. The following morning, Juan discovered the theft. He will long remember the painful lesson that he learned: A sleeping man cannot guard his possessions.

What is it this Watchtower wants to press home with writing this? Well, they keyword is “sleeping” and it is as so many times before the old song and dance about the alleged imminence of the “coming of the Lord”:

*** w03 1/1 pp. 17-18 “Keep on the Watch”! ***
2 The same is true in a spiritual sense. We cannot safeguard our hope and our faith if we fall asleep. Hence, Paul’s exhortation: “Let us not sleep on as the rest do, but let us stay awake and keep our senses.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6) To show how vital it is to stay awake, Jesus used the illustration of a thief. He described the events that would lead up to his coming as Judge, and then he warned: “Keep on the watch, therefore, because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know one thing, that if the householder had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have kept awake and not allowed his house to be broken into. On this account you too prove yourselves ready, because at an hour that you do not think to be it, the Son of man is coming.” (Matthew 24:42-44) A thief does not announce in advance when he is coming. He hopes to arrive when no one is expecting him. Similarly, as Jesus said, the end of this system will come at ‘an hour that we do not think to be it.’

Above you can all observe the old tired worn out insane drivel that the Watchtower Society has recycled ad infinitum as long as it has existed and it is still stupid insane superstitious twaddle. Do any of you actually take this seriously anymore, I know it is based of the Bible, but does that help? Consider for a moment this sentence:

“A thief does not announce in advance when he is coming. He hopes to arrive when no one is expecting him. Similarly, as Jesus said, the end of this system will come at ‘an hour that we do not think to be it.’”

Now tell me seriously how could it ever be possible for the “thief” or the “end of the system” to come unexpected? Has there ever been a time when these idiots in Brooklyn or someone else haven’t been expecting “the end” to come? Logic has never been a big thing in religion I know but how incredibly stupid can it get? The Watchtower Society and Jehovah's Witnesses and many others have the equivalent of 24 hour surveillance and watch incessantly for signs of the “end”. They are constantly yelling about it, so how can any “thief” pass that unobserved?

And why should anyone take an old book that said the “Lord” would come “soon” more then 2000 years ago? If soon means thousands of years the word has of course lost all possible meaning to a human being who lives 70-80 years. Would you send someone with that concept of the word soon out for pizza?

How about us? We who have spent periods of various length in the Watchtower Society, were we on our watch? If we were, how come some of us had large portions, some almost our whole life stolen from us? Do they come any more gullible then us? Did you learn anything from this experience? Or are you just as lazy as you were? Still not thinking, still superstitious still not skeptical, investigating and verifying if what you are told is true? What does it takes to get you out of the fantasy world?

Look at this worn out vomit from Brooklyn:

*** w03 1/1 p. 18 “Keep on the Watch”! ***
4 We can derive another lesson from Jesus’ illustration. Although the slaves did not know the hour when their master would arrive, apparently they knew the night. It would have been difficult to keep awake all that night if they thought that their master might come some other night. But no, they knew which night he was coming, and that gave them strong incentive to stay awake. In a rather similar way, Bible prophecies clearly reveal that we are living in the time of the end; but they do not tell us the day or the hour of the end itself. (Matthew 24:36) Our belief that the end is coming helps us to stay awake, but if we are convinced that Jehovah’s day really is near, we will have far stronger motivation to be on the watch.—Zephaniah 1:14.

Again these idiots subtly claim that they “know” something. Look at this:

“But no, they knew which night he was coming, and that gave them strong incentive to stay awake.”

And this:

“In a rather similar way, Bible prophecies clearly reveal that we are living in the time of the end; but they do not tell us the day or the hour of the end itself.”

Of course the “Bible prophecies” show no such thing, never ever has, never will, why? Because it is all fantasies which was written down by superstitious people who didn’t know any better. It’s high time we try to deal with reality here folks, wake up, be on you watch!
Use your heads, use your brains and thinking ability, be critical, investigate, and educate yourself. Or do you still want to spend your time and energy in an endless loop trying to make sense out the senseless in a perpetual Bible study?

Take care,

Norm

17

Have you ever had acupuncture? What else can I try for high blood pressure?

by dmouse in

i had a bit of a shock last month when, in a routine check-up, my doc told me i had high blood pressure.. i can't remember what the reading was the first time but the next few days it was averaging 150/100.

not wanting to go on drugs for the rest of my life i decided to look at alternatives.

there are some chinese clinics in the town where i live so i tried one of those.. they recommended a course of herbal medicine and acupuncture.

Norm

Hello dmouse,

You said:

I had a bit of a shock last month when, in a routine check-up, my doc told me I had high blood pressure. I can't remember what the reading was the first time but the next few days it was averaging 150/100 Not wanting to go on drugs for the rest of my life I decided to look at alternatives. There are some Chinese clinics in the town where I live so I tried one of those. They recommended a course of herbal medicine and acupuncture. I've had a few sessions and my blood pressure has dropped a bit - average 144/95 but I'm not happy with that. They tried something with glass bowls - acu-suction? My back now looks like I lost a fight with a very angry octopus!

Of course you have to decide this personally but I think you are far better off with ordinary medicine then trying all kinds of mumbo jumbo rip off snake oil. I have taken hypertension medicine (betablockers) for 30 years and is "fit as a fiddle". I have a normal blood pressure now but since I suffer from a very unpleasant but realively harmless heart condition called Tachycardia paroxystica I continue to use a small dose (50 milligrams) tablet every day. The tachycaria is hereditary, many of my male relatives has it and even some females. There are also medicine that falls under the label diuretica.Today there are newer and more sophisticated medicines like calcium blockers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertension

Anyway after having been conned by the WTS for years my scepticism is universal and also includes socalled "alternative medicine". I noticed when I was a dub that many JW's was very much into that kind of thing, I mean that alone should make you think. During the years I have tried to do some research every time I have encountered this and that miracle pill or method thats supposedly helps for this of that. It is quite common that so-called food supplement's makes really fantastic claims some times but when analyzed they are full of poisenous heavy metals, rat droppings and fungus spores. Some times they contain medical ingrediences which makes them illegal. Here is a good place to go and check up on such miracle cures of various kinds: http://www.quackwatch.org/

And please remember that anecdotal evidence isn't evidence in any acientific term and when it comes to medicine that's the only evidence that counts. Checking with official and professional organizations like this is is also smart:

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ and: http://www.fda.gov/

Take care,

Norm

PS. One side effect from the beta blockers that I personally have experienced is that they make you into the "energizer bunny" in bed, you just keep on and on, my personal reckord is 10 hours with 1 hour break for dinner. No I am not joking!
And this isn't a listed side effect on that medicine so I do not know if they just keep it quiet as many would probably want the drug for the wrong reasons. And another thing, my expereince is anecdotal so this side effect might be experienced by me only.

65

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME WOULD YOU MARRY YOUR SPOUSE?

by Dansk in

jw
friends

i've been thinking a lot about this lately and i would unhesitatingly say 'yes!'.

we've had our ups and downs - almost always my fault .

my god, how our upbringing can affect us!

Norm

Well Ian,

Being divorced twice I don't think it would be a good idea.

Norm

40

Are the "Last Days" an Absurdity? (8/15 WT)

by metatron in

how could anyone know objectively if they live in the "last days", if they fail to examine history?

how would anyone know if things were .

actually worse?

Norm

Anyone who claims that life was better in past ages only reveal his/hers incredible and total ignorance.
Most of us living today are probably incapable of grasping how horrible life were in past ages.

Some unbelievable ignorant people, like the WTS, bent on spreading doom and gloom actually believes and even claim that, war, pestilence, hunger, natural disasters and crime, has killed more people in the last century than in any other centuries before. These people at the same time is actually even using the so-called ”Population explosion” as yet another doom and gloom sign!

Investigating demographical data quickly reveal that the reason for almost zero growth in population for centuries in the past was due to the enormous loss of life in; yes you guessed it, war, pestilence, hunger, natural disasters and crime. Many times in the past the death rate was exceeding the birth rate and there was an actual decrease in population. When mankind’s ability to deal with these age-old problems became better and better we have seen an enormous progress made in the last 50 years.

Some of the reasons for the unprecedented growth in population.
A quick look at some of the UN reports show us that Infant mortality rate in the whole world in 1960 was 123 dead per 1000 population. In 1996 it was 60 per 1000. An astonishing progress. In 1970 the average life expectancy in the world was 56, in 1996 it was 63, with India particularly making a significant progress from 49 in 1970 to 62 in 1996. And, China from 61 to 69. In those two countries which today have almost half of the worlds population, was through earlier century’s experiencing horrible periods with war, famine and pestilence which many times killed millions of people They experienced their last hunger disaster in 1928-1929, where around 3 million people died. Josue de Castro, the author of “The Geography of Hunger”, estimated that during the 1800s, 100 million Chinese died from hunger alone. The development in both China and India in this century has been amazing compared to earlier times. The infant mortality rate in China has decreased from 140 to 38 in 36 years, which is an excellent indication of the positive development in the country. In India the rate is respectively 144 to 73.

Its amazing that anyone who claim to possess something which could be passing for a brain doesn’t understand the simple fact that you cannot at the same time claim that there is an unprecedented number of people killed by, war, pestilence, hunger, natural disasters and crime. And have an unprecedented increase in the world’s population! Even severely mentally handicapped people should be able to understand that the large increase in population is simply because, war, pestilence, hunger, natural disasters and crime, doesn’t play the same role in keeping the population down as it did in earlier century’s.

It isn't more then 50-60 years since people died of diseases that is considered a mere trifle these days. Never before in the history of mankind has so many people enjoyed a good and decent life and that's a fact. Of course there are still a lot of problems that needs solving but nothing remotely as bad as it was in the "old days".

Norm

80

All sex in dangerous and sinful

by Norm in

for the umpteenth time the watchtower society has published an article about sex.. this time i am referring to some material they have seen fit to publish on their website:whats wrong with premarital sex?.

http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2004/7/22a/article_01.htm.

as we know god is extremely preoccupied with sex.

Norm

Hello Crumpet,

You said:

"Norm - never having had intercourse with a JW (yet!) could you let me know the scriptural reasons for not being able to enjoy it doggy style?
I have every confidence in Jehovah's organ knowing what's best for me, but what if the missionary stance doesn't work for me? Is missionary standing up face to face ok? What about if I wish to lean against the kitchen unit a little?"

No I can't show any scriptural reason for it but as a male in possession of a todger I am of course much closer to God then any mere female and like all holy males I have found that God agrees with me in everything, just like the GB in Brooklyn/Patterson.

Well, since I am fortunate enough to have my own organ I tend to favour any position that gives good toehold, decent traction that enables good thrust. What are your position on that Crumpet?

Norm