Congrats on being hooded!
ctrwtf
JoinedPosts by ctrwtf
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34
I be a walkin......
by out4good3 inacross that stage tommorrow dressed in graduate garb picking up a masters degree.. .
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24
Angry Health Care Rant
by ctrwtf infor those of you who live in truly first world countries (uk, australia, canada, etc etc) you can skip this.
for those of us stuck in the usa, not a first world country at all, please feel free to read on.. i've done my best to be fiscally responsible my whole life.
i bought my first house at age 25. and because of having a little loot to protect and not wanting to end up in some overcrowded emergency room waiting hours to be seen by doogie howser, i purchased health insurance.
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ctrwtf
Wide awake: Yes you are paying more but it's for better coverage. Under the ACA you have at least one free physical per year. You also can't be denied coverage for pre existing conditions. If you care about your children, they are also provided exended coverage until age 26 under the ACA.
Jgnat: Love the video. It touches on every reason why we in the USA are screwed. I'm glad that someone from Finland with deep pockets can come to the US for untested, unrealistic procedures. Why do I need to pay for it?
Nonjwspouse: The IRS is NOT in charge of healthcare. Stop watching FOX news.
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Angry Health Care Rant
by ctrwtf infor those of you who live in truly first world countries (uk, australia, canada, etc etc) you can skip this.
for those of us stuck in the usa, not a first world country at all, please feel free to read on.. i've done my best to be fiscally responsible my whole life.
i bought my first house at age 25. and because of having a little loot to protect and not wanting to end up in some overcrowded emergency room waiting hours to be seen by doogie howser, i purchased health insurance.
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ctrwtf
For those of you who live in truly first world countries (UK, Australia, Canada, Etc Etc) you can skip this. For those of us stuck in the USA, not a first world country at all, please feel free to read on.
I've done my best to be fiscally responsible my whole life. I bought my first house at age 25. And because of having a little loot to protect and not wanting to end up in some overcrowded emergency room waiting hours to be seen by Doogie Howser, I purchased health insurance. My lovely wife had our first child, covered by insurance. I had two separate life altering stays in the hospital before I was 30. Again, covered. Back when I first purchased health coverage it was a few hundred a month. Comparatively affordable.
Until the Afordable Care Act, if you were self employed you were screwed by the insurance companies. It was a litlle better if you worked for a large company that provided a policy for its employees. The reason that fiscally responsible people were paying through the nose was to cover those that could not or would not pay for their own health care needs. Fast forward to the year 2012. My individual premium for health insurance rose to, wait for it,.....................2300 a month! I make a good buck but even I saw the need for a sea-change. Thankfully, the kids are mostly out of the house and Mrs Ctrwtf was ready to get back into the working world. Now because of her, we have pretty great health insurance.
That's the back story. Now the reason for my rant is that a-hole Republicans still are fuming about so-called Obamacare. I find it ironic that the party that touts personal responsibility doesn't want to part with a nickel to be personally responsible about their own health needs. "I'm young and don't need health insurance." Really? If you get in an accident or need your appendix removed it's going to cost anywhere from 50K to a million bucks. Do you have that cash floating around? "No, but I'll pay it off over time." Guess what Einstein? The hospital is going to send you to collections in three months time then write off the loss and pass the cost on to the next consumer. That said consumer being me, the guy that pays for health insurance at an inflated rate to cover your irresponsibility. Now let me state for the record at this point, I'm not mad about those that because of personal circumstances cannot afford to be responsible for their own needs. I'm mad at people that complain that the govt is forcing them to be responsible. BTW, republicans have yet to forward ANY ideas to solve this enormous issue.
Personally, I think the best healthcare systems in the world are single payer, govt sponsored. But if you dare to forward that idea, you get the inevitable, "Ya, but people from all over the world come to the USA for advanced medical treatment maaaan." Okay, less than a handful fo people come here every year for some exotic treatment. Meanwhile, life expectancy in every other first world country is surpassing the good ole US of A. They're also spending less per capita on medical treatment.
I'm not sure if this is the forum for such a secular discussion. But I wiil say that the dubs as a people could care less about being fiscally responsible. Janitors and pioneers don't usually have enough to spend on such things as personal responsibility. Maybe they should purchase some "miracle wheat" to deal with what ails them.
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5 years inactive and still sometimes I'm haunted.
by ctrwtf ini've lately been thinking about the pernicious nature of the belief by the jw's that they are the one and only true religion.
how this belief allows for an egotistical world view and allows them to shun and denegrate those that do not share their opinions.. please pardon my round about thinking process as i've been mulling this rant for some time.
while my father's side of the family has been entrenched with the jw's for two generations before him, my mother was a new convert.
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ctrwtf
I've lately been thinking about the pernicious nature of the belief by the JW's that they are the one and only true religion. How this belief allows for an egotistical world view and allows them to shun and denegrate those that do not share their opinions.
Please pardon my round about thinking process as I've been mulling this rant for some time. While my father's side of the family has been entrenched with the JW's for two generations before him, my mother was a new convert. In retrospect, I really don't think she was as gung-ho as my dad. Growing up, I can remember some of the arguments they had. These were not literally knock-down drag out fights, but pretty close. So much for the fruitage of the spirit. They would fight and scream at each other into the wee hours.
Mostly, they fought about family. My mom resented the fact that any vacation time my father spent was with his family. Of course, this included literal vacation, but also three assemblies per year. Back in the day these were (two) three day Circuit Assy's and a four or five day District or Int'l Assy. Needless to say, my mom felt like she and her side of the family were neglected. To add fuel to the fire, my paternal grandmother and great-grandmother could be VERY controlling and demanding. Even demeaning. Again, so much for the fruitage of the spirit.
As I look back, the effect of this division of families was emotionally devastating to my mom. The underlying and unspoken thought was that her side of the family were less than. Pagans destiined to die at god's hands for their disbelief. The irony lies in the fact that my matenal grandparents didn't have a mean bone in their body. They were universally loved and I looked forward to spending time with them.
I can recall quite vivdly a statement made by my brother. He wondered aloud why we should spend any time at all with my mom's side of the family because they were unbelievers. He further went on to say that he had no love for them at all. At the time I didn't really apprecaiate the magnitude of those words. How with one swift statement, an entire heritage could be wiped away.
Today, I have literally nothing to do with my siblings. Partly because we live in opposite corners of the country. But I suspect that it has more to do with the fact that we were taught that it's proper to write off family because you don't agree. I've never come out to them about my fade, but I think they suspect that I no longer believe. That makes it easier to lose touch. And to be honest, I really don't want to be in touch with people whose lives are filled with ignorance and hate.
Mostly though, I have a feeling of loss. I lost the time I could have spent with my Mom's family, uncles, aunts and cousins. I've lost the relationships I could have had with my siblings had they not become egocentric thought controlled cult victims. I do however count my blessings. I've been able to free my wife and children from such a destructive belief system.
To anyone out there making the mistake of thinking that this is just another religion, I say think again. It's divided families and crushed souls for generations.
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38
Looking Back, Are You Embarrassed By Your Attitudes, Speech, Actions as a JW?
by minimus ini think of how judgmental we were as witnesses.
"worldly ones" were almost as bad as disfellowshipped ones but not as bad as "apostates"..
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ctrwtf
Yes Absolutely. Thankfully I'm a different person now. Sometimes i'm haunted though by the memory of people that I dissed. What a f*&ckin tool I was!
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ctrwtf
Thanks K and Gayle
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5
Only in NY
by ctrwtf inspent a lovely day yesterday in nyc with my lovely daughter off of school for spring break.
i like parking on the upper east side near the met.
look at art until mid afternoon or so, then catch a cab down to chinatown or lil italy for late lunch.
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ctrwtf
Spent a lovely day yesterday in NYC with my lovely daughter off of school for spring break. I like parking on the Upper East Side near the Met. Look at art until mid afternoon or so, then catch a cab down to Chinatown or Lil Italy for late lunch. The problem with this strategy is that its nearly impossible to catch a cab uptown during the evening rush.
So, even though it upsets my refined sensibilities, we caught the 6 train from Canal St to 86th St on the UES. That's when I spotted the two lemmings with the pasted on smiles standing by their literature cart. My immediate thought was that this is not going to work for them. The Wits are famous for annoying people at home. Now they're going to be famous for being annoying on your commute home.
In typical NYC fashion, people were not giving them a moments thought. I think the big sign on the cart asked, "Where are the Dead?" I'm sure that most New Yorkers would reply, "Who gives a F@#k? They're F@#king DEAD?" De Blasio wants to ban handsome cab rides but allows this drech in the subways?
Way to go JW.org! Your ministry has gone from ineffectivve and annoying to REALLY ineffective and annoying.
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Change of mindset.
by thedog1 ini have been a witness for a long time and still serve as an elder.
there have been a lot of changes to deal with in the last six months or so since i stumbled on this site due to questions i had about all the recent changes in understanding published in the wt.
many posters here talk about a cult personality and a real personality.
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ctrwtf
I had a hard time with a number of the doctrines that still exist today. (The UN attacking religion. Really?) Still, I went along with my parents because, at the time, I beleived as the saying goes, the way of the truth is the best way of living. Ugggh!
I feel for you because it's a wake up call to realize that your mindset for your entire life has been in error. Like you, one of the things that really turned the page for me was the fact that most people outside the witnesses are not the evil you've been trained to think of them as. The reality is that the majority of people I meet are interested in bettering their community and loving their families.
Enjoy your journey.
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Did you ever attend meetings while on vacation?
by keyser soze ini remember when i was a kid going on vacation somewhere with my family, my parents would always have to find out where the local kingdom hall was.
god forbid we should miss a meeting because we were actually enjoying our time away from work and school..
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ctrwtf
Eeeeewwwww!