Perhaps if Watchtower could include some of the juicer details in their nonsense stories, worldly people might be interested in reading their rags, again.
shepherdless
JoinedPosts by shepherdless
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24
Did you ever have an “Olaf” moment.
by Slidin Fast indid your class mates queue up to have sex with you?
it happened to olaf according to today’s wt.
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Australia's Religious Discrimination Act.
by fulltimestudent inthis is an interesting and intriguing new law (or, it will be if enacted in its present form).. quote: "the proposed new religious discrimination act is intended to prevent a person from being discriminated against on the basis of their religion.".
fair enough, but to get it through the house of representatives last night, the government accepted some changes.. the first draft (discussed last night) had a clause that may have impacted the rights of some gay and/or trans-sexual students at religious schools by allowing a religious school to expel such a student.
last night the government was forced to accept changes that removed that possibility.
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shepherdless
Unfortunately, we will probably never know, now. Shortly after Fulltimestudent’s post, the bill was defeated and shelved.
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Fawlty Towers (1975) & (1979) - still laugh-out-loud funny after all these years
by LoveUniHateExams inso, i went and bought series one and series two on second hand dvd for one pound each.. i first saw series one of fawlty towers when i was about 11, then i saw series two a year later.. it's a little dated now, but that doesn't really matter because it's still making people laugh.
that's all comedy is.. there is one episode - the kipper and the corpse - which i think is a bit rough around the edges, it's not as polished as some of the other episodes.
but it still has some great lines in it, e.g.. the two old ladies: you're in a good mood today, mr fawlty.. basil: yes, well one of the guests has just died.
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shepherdless
One of the best comedy series, if not the best comedy series, ever. I think a big part of the reason was that they did not try to produce too many episodes.
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Is the jab required to attend meetings ?
by zachias inmy wife has begun to attend meetings at the kh.. do the wt ask if attendees have had the jab?
anyone know?.
thanks.
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shepherdless
In Western Australia at least, there is no requirement to be vaccinated to attend meetings. I imagine it is the same for the rest of Australia.
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The 2020 Census of American Religion 07.08.2021
by AndersonsInfo inhttps://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/.
more than one-third of muslims (39%), white mainline protestants (37%), buddhists (37%), and the religiously unaffiliated (36%) have at least a four-year college degree.
another 19% are catholic, 2% are latter-day saint, and less than 1% each are jehovah’s witnesses or orthodox christians.
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shepherdless
The median age of the US is not 47 it is 38.5. So Median age of JWs is significantly higher than average.
I haven’t read the report, but I recall from reading the footnotes in earlier Pew reports that Pew only interviews adults (over 18) and the median age quoted by Pew is the median of those adults, not the entire population. That is almost certainly the reason Pew refers to such a high median age of 47.
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Life In Communist Victoria Australia If You Are In The Workforce
by jonahstourguide inwell, it has happened.. workers in these industries will be forced to vax or lose their employment.. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-01/victoria-which-authorised-workers-mandatory-vaccination-onsite/100506980.
i'm glad to be out of the workforce.. never thought it would come to this in a supposed democratic society.. no wonder protests and law suits are increasing in intensity.
like for fucks sake,,, a worker at a takeaway bottle / liquor shop.
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shepherdless
I said I would respond to comments to my earlier post. I have been flat out with work, and will be for a while, so here is my rushed response.Was a new boy: Gladys Berejiklien resigned in relation to a very long running investigation by the NSW Independent Commission into Corruption. It concerns a govt grant to a sporting club.Simon: Yes, USA population is more that 10 times Aust population, but you don’t need a calculator to see that that doesn’t explain nearly 700 times as many deaths. Also, almost allAustralians live in cities, particularly the five largest, so they are not spread out. The average house sizes in Aust are slightly larger, if that makes a difference. Australians are almost as obese, these days, unfortunately. Australians also live longer statistically, so there are more older people. If you want to throw in some other factors, Australians have cheap healthcare, so use it more, and the minimum wage is around double that in USA (even after converting to USD).Overall, the main factor is probably that there is no Fox News, with Carlson and Hannity dealing out a daily anti vax message.You are quite wrong about them not knowing the source of any outbreak. They do heaps of genomic sequencing, which tells them which overseas traveller was responsible, and a lot of info. The chauffeur driver I referred to only avoided criminal charges because video footage (or lack thereof) was inconclusive on whether he was wearing a mask.Regarding the video footage. It shows a crazy girl swearing and screaming and resisting arrest. We don’t see what happened before, to get to this stage. She even kicks a policewoman in the backside at one point. Do US police “turn the other cheek” when kicked in the backside? I doubt it. In fact the internet seems to have lots of US police being a lot harsher with people they decide to arrest. And what is the logic here? When Floyd was suffocated in public by a policeman, was that an indication that USA is turning into a communist country?I agree you guys need to deal with your unlawful immigration, though. But even then, USA seems to have more COVID per head than any of those Latin American countries anyway. (Why does USA failure to manage unlawful immigration make us the Socialists? Surely it makes you lot the Socialists. What is the logic here?Finally, pistolpete, you are the one who needs to “do the math”, or at least check some stats on economic growth. Turns out making people wear masks doesn’t hurt employment or economic growth, after all. -
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Life In Communist Victoria Australia If You Are In The Workforce
by jonahstourguide inwell, it has happened.. workers in these industries will be forced to vax or lose their employment.. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-01/victoria-which-authorised-workers-mandatory-vaccination-onsite/100506980.
i'm glad to be out of the workforce.. never thought it would come to this in a supposed democratic society.. no wonder protests and law suits are increasing in intensity.
like for fucks sake,,, a worker at a takeaway bottle / liquor shop.
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shepherdless
Wow, some silly comments I have to respond to. Haven’t time at the moment, but I will, tomorrow. In the meantime, here is an informative Government announcement explaining the current situation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_0zFEtPbiA -
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Life In Communist Victoria Australia If You Are In The Workforce
by jonahstourguide inwell, it has happened.. workers in these industries will be forced to vax or lose their employment.. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-01/victoria-which-authorised-workers-mandatory-vaccination-onsite/100506980.
i'm glad to be out of the workforce.. never thought it would come to this in a supposed democratic society.. no wonder protests and law suits are increasing in intensity.
like for fucks sake,,, a worker at a takeaway bottle / liquor shop.
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shepherdless
Perhaps someone should give a more neutral summary of events in Australia.
Background
Since the start of the pandemic, the Aust Govt and the governments of each Australian state (6 states) and 2 territories got together and agreed a policy of “containment” of the virus, although in practice, they were adopting a policy of elimination. Each state and territory has its own health department to fund, and (with the exception of NSW) tended to lock down everything, every time a small outbreak occurred, even if only for a few days, to test and contact trace each outbreak out of existence. The Aust Govt didn’t like that approach, as it is the one that has to fund unemployment benefits, social security, etc, and generally is in charge of the overall economy. But overall, the governments achieved a high level of cooperation, despite 4 being centre-right, and 5 being centre-left.
During the course of last year, Melbourne (capital of Vic), went through a very extended lockdown to contain an outbreak that peaked at over 700 cases. That was a big drain on the people of Melbourne and the rest of VIC.
A few months ago, an airport chauffeur in Sydney caught the Delta variant from an overseas passenger. NSW was slow to lockdown, and the Delta variant is so contagious that it proved too difficult to contain, even with a hard lockdown. After trying hard, NSW decided the only hope of containing the Delta variant was with a very high level of vaccination. Meanwhile, the virus spread to VIC.
some mathematics
To control a virus via vaccination, you need to get vaccination levels to a “herd immunity” level. The level needed is given by the following formula:
V = (1 - 1/R)/E
where V = the vaccination rate you need to achieve
R is the basic reproduction number (normally written with a small subscript zero after the R)
E = the vaccine effective rate.
Each of the major vaccines claim over 95% effective rate, so let’s assume E=0.95. R=5.7 for the Delta variant according to Aust scientists (although I note that USA CDC assumes a higher figure). Therefore, V = 0.87.
In other words, to have this Delta variant decline and disappear, you need a min 87% vaccination rate. Alternatively, a lower rate, plus some movement restrictions.
NSW and VIC vaccination rates
After a slow start, NSW and Vic have been vaccinating their populations as fast as they can. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of vaccines, mainly because the primary vaccine was supposed to be Astra Zeneca which turned out to be a blood clot risk.
NSW has now achieved over 88% vaccination, and cases are less than half what they were a couple of weeks ago. 623 cases and 6 deaths today.
VIC started later, but is catching up, and is now at 82%. Cases appear to have peaked in the last couple of days, after a big jump following a couple of weekends of loud unlawful protests. 1,377 cases and 4 deaths, today. Hopefully, the downward trend continues.
Protest and Violence
Victoria has had it very tough, given it is in a second long-running hard lockdown. Construction workers were allowed to continue work, provided they complied with certain restrictions, eg keep distances apart, while eating lunch. Unfortunately, the Trade Union that controls construction workers is very militant, and those people generally don’t like being told what to do. After persistent widespread breaches, and a disproportionate number of cases among construction workers, plus a rowdy protest, the VIC govt shut down the construction industry, which led to more protests. The VIC police took a hard line, and protests seem to have stopped for the moment.
Clearly, people in VIC are sick of lockdowns.
Tucker Carlson nonsense
Just a quick reference to the Fox News clip above. It is always interesting to watch a foreign news source, to see how they cover events in Australia. Mostly they get it wrong, or leave out crucial info. Tucker Carson tries to paint a picture with selective bits of info, to push an agenda with his US audience. I could go into detail, but can’t be bothered.
However, no Aust military was used in any way in relation to the protests. Even ignoring legal and constitutional issues, the military is controlled by the (Centre-Right) Aust govt, which has a strained relationship with the VIC govt; the most left leaning in Aust. (Would Trump lend army personnel to help Gavin Newsome stop protests against the Democrats in Calif? That would be the equivalent to what Carlson claimed happened.)
At a much earlier stage, unarmed military personnel were used to distribute information to residents in NSW (not VIC), and had no power to arrest, etc. That appears to be the source of Carlson’s assertions.
I found it amusing that Carlson gives high praise to our centre-left pro-lockdown Western Australian government, but criticises our anti-lockdown centre-right Aust government. But to do otherwise would have undermined his narrative.
In conclusion, no, this is not a part of a grand conspiracy by governments in Australia to take over with authoritarian control of the entire population. They are just following the science. To keep COVID out, they need a high vaccination rate, and other strict measures in the meantime. Not all of the Aust population is on board, but the majority of people are, irrespective of political persuasion.
One final point: USA COVID deaths: 719,933. Australia COVID deaths: 1,346. What USA does is its business, but we are generally happy with what we have been able to prevent.
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Kingdom Halls for sale everywhere!
by Atlantis init just seems like the kingdom halls are for sale everywhere.
i think this is the fourth or fifth i have seen just this week.. https://www.domain.com.au/64-charles-street-triabunna-tas-7190-2017131021?fbclid=iwar3w-1kwb_ef5op_o3wl92bhy6_9pdlib9lj78fb5cys3gdtdhtxp_5b7j4https://www.realcommercial.com.au/sold/property-46-leslie-st-stawell-vic-3380-503750618?fbclid=iwar0m9arji78p_wakgn_2p3bkbgqoiwzore-d2-oyqx7ahhtj98wxm0lhfk0https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-bridgetown-136605110?fbclid=iwar3qqn-y5zcxigotrh_mwtx0vumn2jl600uqnv0cuubehqqk2bz5nscmdnqhttps://www.athertonfn.com.au/property?property_id=679163&fbclid=iwar1bfbbae0rnhsltadwrgp-7lhfjysznlhjkq3appsubdzsk7mklgikhejkwe will give kim credit for finding these.atlantis!
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shepherdless
The Bridgetown sale in Western Australia is interesting. It is in a rural region, but not remote, with plenty of hobby farmers and lifestyle types. The 2 nearest Kingdom Halls for someone in Bridgetown will now be Manjimup (36km to the South) and Donnybrook (57km to the North). If you live in Boyup Brook (population 1700), then your nearest Kingdom Hall would now be 66km away.
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The Bible - God's Word or Man's
by truth_b_known inthat is the title of one of the watchtower's seemingly endless list of books that was pushed out for sale placement in the jehovah's witness' ministry.
the title does ask a great question.
those who would deny that the bible is divine in origin usually point to failed prophecy, events that do not mesh with historic evidence, scientific evidence, or even plagiarism from other religions.
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shepherdless
Yes, it is a good point you make. One of many that could be made, on the topic.