Posts by Kingpawn

18

Taken

by heathen in

i am following the sci-fi channel presentaion of steven spielbergs taken .

i tell you what this is one cool mini series .anyone here claim to be abducted ?they say the show is based on accounts reported by people claiming to be taken .

personally i don't believe in flying saucers and little green men but i love science fiction .any thoughts on this?

Kingpawn

heathen--

Kingpawn- A bunch of speculation is not evidence .

What would satisfy you? A UFO lands on your front lawn, and the crew allows you to poke around it inside to your heart's content? If you demand absolute proof of something, in a bit I'll list several things that you accept without question but have never seen.

I don't care what anyone claims to have seen .

When airline pilots, military personnel, police officers-- people whose word would be taken automatically when testifying about anything else --relate stories of seeing, hearing, or experiencing strange things during UFO encounters, I really think their testimony should be given a lot of credibility. Or did they just happen to be hallucinating at that exact same time?

They proved even the hokey alien autopsy film to be a fraud .

Well yeah. I mean when the guy who produced it is being interviewed, and he's grinning from ear to ear, the only thing I can think he's thinking is, "Boy, the money I'll make from people buying this crap!"

Evidence is something tangible something that can be examined in a laboratory with scientific scrutiny .

You know for a fact that had you used (and explained) a flashlight in Salem Massachusetts around 1691 you'd've been burned as a witch. The reality of that physical phenomena hadn't been discovered yet, but they would've said only a practicer of the Black Arts could make a wand glow like that. Could you have gotten Edison to believe the reality of the atomic bomb? How could you have "proven" these to their satifaction?

You believe in wind, magnetism, electricity, gravity, and centrifugal force. No one has ever seen these things. They have seen and/or felt the effects of them, but never the things themselves. Ipso facto they don't exist.

With all the countless sightings we have nothing to show for it .

We have documented accounts of the aftereffects on people, our mechanical devices, and animals from interacting with UFO's. Medical complications from what appear to be exposures to radiation; puncture wounds (sometimes under clothes when the clothes themselves haven't been ripped; burns; notches in trees from collisions between flying craft and trees; animals disturbed to violence by the flight of a UFO (Incident at Exeter, by John Fuller), and so on.

For example: one effect of UFO's on cars has been that when the two are close to each other, the car's electrical system fails. Most scientists wrote it off as hooey. Dr. James Campbell was able to create conditions in the laboratory that duplicated the effect precisely. How? By ionizing the air (giving it an electrical charge).

Electrical current will always follow the path of least resistance. The insulating ability of air helps make sure the current from the battery goes through the system as needed to start the car and keep it running. But ionizing the air reduces that resistance, allowing the current to go to ground and bypass the starter, etc. So if UFO's exist, and this often described effect does occur, science can give a rational explanation as to why. His experiments are described in Phenomena: Forty Years of Flying Saucers, a collection of essays on the subject by both believers and skeptics.

I used to love that show the project bluebook and they never claimed to have such evidence.

Blue Book was the effing government! You expect them (let alone the show based on BB) to cop to having proof? George Bush won't even do that yet he seems determined to believe Iraq poses a threat to us, but he won't say why!

It seems only the skeptics are interested in the facts and not fairy tales.

Someone who believes in, say, evolution rather than creation...aren't they putting just as much faith in the idea that somehow, elements on Earth somehow combined to form the building blocks of primitive life, as a creationist does in the idea of intelligent design of life? Yet from each person's POV, the other person is a skeptic to what each sees as the "obvious truth."

Besides, does it hurt a person to speculate on these things? Unless someone has become obsessed, or has a major personality change, or something like that, who's hurt by it? A waste of time? Maybe, but the same could possibly be said about television watching.

Rather than hijack the thread even more, I'll stop after your response. We won't change each other's minds, and before this turns into a flame war, can we have a truce? Agree to disagree and all that?

Taken sounds like an interesting show. Kinda makes me wish I'd seen the opening episodes now. So now, BTTT.

18

Taken

by heathen in

i am following the sci-fi channel presentaion of steven spielbergs taken .

i tell you what this is one cool mini series .anyone here claim to be abducted ?they say the show is based on accounts reported by people claiming to be taken .

personally i don't believe in flying saucers and little green men but i love science fiction .any thoughts on this?

Kingpawn

heathen,

I think that since programs like project blue book came up with no solid evidence that there aren't any ufos

Blue Book wasn't supposed to come up with proof. The whole idea was to debunk them.

In August, 1953, UFO's buzzed Washington DC, and the lid of censorship came down hard. The Robertson Panel met at the CIA that year. Noting how people reacted to the sightings, and how communications were jammed, it was decided to take measures to make people reporting them look like idiots. A PR campaign was discussed where Disney figures would be used in the effort, creating, as one commentator put it "...images of Mickey mouse in a space suit, sternly lecturing us on our obsession with UFO's." The concern (a real one) was that an enemy could induce a panic, the public would clog communications channels, and a serious problem would be created. Military traffic would be slowed and there'd be a huge number of false/exaggerated reports to screen. Maybe they were hysteria, maybe UFO's, maybe enemy aircraft.

In 1948 Blue Book sent an "Estimate of the Situation" to the Pentagon. The conclusion was the UFO's were interplanetary. Why? Since they weren't ours and apparently they weren't Russia's, that left only one other explanation. The reaction? Blue Book was shut down, its people reassigned, and as Capt. Edward Ruppelt put it in his book, "The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects:" whereas before the answer by BB to a question of "What did these people see?" was a "'Gee, it might have been a balloon but we just don't know.' Now, it got a quick, snappy 'It was a balloon,' and feathers were stuck in caps from ATIC all the way up to the Pentagon.' "

Under Air Force regulations a sighting couldn't be explained as anything other than a conventional object. If it couldn't be explained that way then they went mum.

Besides, considering the panic in 1938, supose you knew UFO's were intelligently guided craft. And you figured what the worldwide reaction would be--a repeat of America's. You considered the other consequences--the cultural shock, economic disruption, the financial/banking systems collapsing, the panic interfering with food prduction, commerce, shipping, etc. What would you do? Me, I'd hide it but gradually prepare the world for that knowledge, figuring it would come out someday anyway, but under more controlled circumstances.

I grant the possibility that there is life elsewhere. If we arose via evolution, then for someone to say it only happened here on Earth, they're going to have to explain why the set of physical processes that led to life here didn't happen elsewhere as well. After all, we've confirmed the existence of many "extrasolar" planets circling around other stars. Since planet-making processes occured elsewhere, why couldn't life-creating ones happen elsewhere as well?

If we arose via a Creator, after seeing how we turned out, maybe you'd want to try again somewhere else to prove you could really do it right? (What we gave God.)

Obviously an interesting topic.

28

A question for Pagans--what's happening at my hous

by Kingpawn in

by now many of you know i'm studying wicca, am in contact with a high priestess of a coven who's graciously answering many questions i have, and i'm also studying tarot cards online.. this past weekend the exercise with lesson three on the tarot was to do some sample readings.

some odd things have happened since then.

i bolded them for easier finding.. since then, my youngest daughter and i have heard a scratching sound that i took to be birds on the spouting, though we couldn't see it.

Kingpawn

So far, nothing else has happened I'm aware of. (Asked my youngest daughter and she confirmed she hasn't heard any more scratching, and can't recall anything odd happening in years past either.)

As far as Wicca goes, I've read (and am re-reading) Scott Cunningham's "Wicca: A Guide For The Solitary Practitioner. I find things I don't understand and a High Priestess at a coven is answering my questions. I haven't done any rituals yet (nor been to any), and don't have the tools. Figured I'd best explain that because I was unintentionally vague on what "studying" meant.

If it is animals getting in because of the weather, I can't recall anything like this happening in years past here. Maybe the house is settling and there's a crack in the foundation I don't know about?

I don't have any magazines lying around but I do have a copy of the NWT.

Sentinel...definitely a story that I won't forget soon. Do you think "they" were just trying to scare you, or send a message of "we're here?" Sounds like they didn't intend to hurt the boy. Of course, thinking about "The Amityville Horror," I remember the children weren't harmed--it was the adults being affected. That's assuming the book wasn't "spiced up" with some added details in spots.

With the tarot, last week began sample readings at divination. I asked questions about how things would play out between other people and myself in the future, shuffled and drew three cards (all Major Arcana last week) and tried to interpret the results. Is this a doorway? How about music other members of my family listen to? Not making light of your concerns...honestly asking.

28

A question for Pagans--what's happening at my hous

by Kingpawn in

by now many of you know i'm studying wicca, am in contact with a high priestess of a coven who's graciously answering many questions i have, and i'm also studying tarot cards online.. this past weekend the exercise with lesson three on the tarot was to do some sample readings.

some odd things have happened since then.

i bolded them for easier finding.. since then, my youngest daughter and i have heard a scratching sound that i took to be birds on the spouting, though we couldn't see it.

Kingpawn

Gang, you have given me food for thought (personally I could use less food for eating, but that's a different thread....)

Rodents in the walls would make sense with the colder weather. And the fact my wife and I were discussing some of the weird things that have gone on where she works, along with the starting of the Tarot lessons, would put me in that frame of mind, I agree. Hangover from my JW days too.

But I figure forewarned is forearmed. And the lights didn't flicker when this happeded (the second time, anyway).

If it keeps up I'll get an exterminator. If that doesn't do it I'll get a priest. And if anyone's heads here start spinning like Linda Blair's in The Exorcist, I'm gettin' outta Dodge!

28

A question for Pagans--what's happening at my hous

by Kingpawn in

by now many of you know i'm studying wicca, am in contact with a high priestess of a coven who's graciously answering many questions i have, and i'm also studying tarot cards online.. this past weekend the exercise with lesson three on the tarot was to do some sample readings.

some odd things have happened since then.

i bolded them for easier finding.. since then, my youngest daughter and i have heard a scratching sound that i took to be birds on the spouting, though we couldn't see it.

Kingpawn

By now many of you know I'm studying Wicca, am in contact with a High Priestess of a coven who's graciously answering many questions I have, and I'm also studying Tarot cards online.

This past weekend the exercise with lesson three on the tarot was to do some sample readings. Some odd things have happened since then. I bolded them for easier finding.

Since then, my youngest daughter and I have heard a scratching sound that I took to be birds on the spouting, though we couldn't see it. She says she's heard it before when in her room, date unknown. To me, it sounded like it might be in the house walls at the top, just below the ceiling.

My house does have an small attic. I'm not sure how far it extends.

Next, my wife told me she heard a sound like nails scratching on a sheet of plywood we have up against a door leading to a small storage area off the bathroom. In the ceiling of this room is a small vent leading to the attic. The grate over this vent is fat too narrow to allow a bird to get in.

Last night, as I was getting ready for work, the TV in my bedroom shut off by itself. My oldest daughter, who was in the room at the time (hers is colder than ours and since we both worked that night anyway...) told me this has happened once before, possibly the night before.

Conclusions? Advice? How should I react if it, or other things, happen?

27

moral dilemna

by zanex in

i have been df'd for a good long time and have gone/going through the different stages of the healing process but i dont think that i am anywhere to giving up all of my deep-seated anger and hostility that i continue to have.

i have gotten attatched to it, ironically enough.

my moral and maybe somewhat ethical delimmna is: i am in a service provider position and i provide translation services for members of a specific community of interest...problem is that a certain person has come into my focus of the world...an elder.......a great many bones in my body want to manipulate and maneuver his life into the palm of my hand....then crush him.

Kingpawn

Zanex,

I think I need to second what SPAZ said about possibly having someone else at your firm take this guy on as a client.

You might even tell your superiors why. If you really think you might give in to this temptation, and maybe cost them a client and/or you a job, foist him off on someone else. If I were a business owner and an employee came to me and said even "For reasons I don't want to go in to, I can't work with this guy," I'd appreciate his honesty and honor his wishes.

Then there's your daughter. How will she feel if Daddy gets fired? How easy would it be for you to get another job--even if in that line of work? What hardships would this place on you and your family?

Are all those bad aftereffects worth it? Even worth taking the risk?

20

Brain Washing? Mind Control?

by Sirona in

jw
friends

do the jehovahs witnesses use brain washing or mind control techniques?.

if a good dub attends 5 hours of meetings a week, does 2 hours of service a week and does 1 hour of personal study a week, this adds up to 416 hours a year of time thinking and being "taught" about jehovahs witness beliefs.

416 hours adds up to about 11 working weeks a year!

Kingpawn

The two who got me in (and are still in it themselves, from what I've been told) admitted it's easier with someone like me who was a "blank slate" doctrinally and had no real knowledge of Scripture.

To read the stories in their literature, you'd think a devotee of Cristendom had been won over to the Witness POV by such overwhelming logic that it was impossible to deny the "truths."

A while back someone noted that if they come at you at certain times--when you've recently left home or are at a low spot in your life, for example--success is more likely.

Maybe instead of "brainwashing" substitute "programming?" Notice how the JW apologists that appear here all sound like clones. Same thing, no matter what word you use.

2

So you wanna learn how to.....

by Jourles in

jw
friends

i have seen a few posts in the past with people asking about various methods they can incorporate with regard to hiding their identity on the web, faking email, masking their ip address, probing a server, etc.

the word hacker usually conjures up images of a computer wizard as being a geeky looking person with thick horn-rimmed glasses or one with freakish colored hair and multiple body piercings.

you cannot tell the difference in who is a hacker and who is not if you were to walk down the street and look at people.

Kingpawn

Be looking forward to it.

15

Double life....

by kelsey007 in

jw
friends

at some point most all ex-jws lived a double life within the organization.

whatever happened to make each of us change our views toward the religion few went straight to the elders and spoke openly and candidly about their feelings.

we put on the act for a while before we stopped going or got caught in our evil deeds or thoughts and were removed.

Kingpawn

Are these legitimate reasons to live a double life? Is the fear of "what others will think" and"how will they react" a good reason to perputrate a fraud?

May not always have a choice. Suppose you and another active JW are in business together. If you voice your doubts you'll be shunned. So maybe the active JW would see it as his duty to pull out of the business, and it tanks. But if that will bring more harm to you then it will to him and both of you know it...same if he supplies something critical to the business. Knowledge, skills, experience, whatever.

Maybe the stress of a double life isn't as bad as the stress of feeling out of God's favor and having there's nowhere else to go. Either way there's going to be damage.

Isnt a person much happier and healthier when they stand up and speak honestly about their feelings on such a matter?

Healthier, yes. Happier, not always...or maybe not for the short term. That could apply to "healthier" too.

35

"cleanest Witness community the web has ev...

by the dog in

jw
friends

yeah?

the dog.

as our community continues to grow, the jwotw is committed to provide a clean environment for jehovah's witnesses online to associate with one another.

Kingpawn

our God Jehovah

Now now, brothers and sisters, let's all share!