Xanthippe

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Posts by Xanthippe

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  14

  Special Day for our family today!

  by Captain Schmideo2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my son graduates with his bachelors degree, cum laude!.

  he is the first in my family to graduate with a four year degree.

  and he is already in talks for a teaching job.. so, gerrit lush....up your nose with a rubber hose!

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  Xanthippe

  That's wonderful news. You must be so proud of your son. My daughter takes the final exam for her Bachelors degree on Tuesday.
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  2

  "Different to" is new to me.

  by compound complex in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thanks very much to posters from uk, australia, new zealand, canada, et al.. as an editor, i must keep up with what is current re: so-called standard english.

  english speaking posters outside the united states have presented me with copious writing samples that i have had to research: grammar; spelling; punctuation; etc.. i learned from the following link that american writers' exclusive use of "different from" when stating contrast does present problems in syntactical construction.

  "different to" and "different than" (wrongly maligned) have both been around a long time, but it's you fellow posters across the ponds and borders who've opened up these narrow eyes and mind.. talk about a strange reason for gratitude .

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  Xanthippe

  Different than, different from, or different to?

  Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.
  F. Scott Fitzgerald 1926

  It’s a situation that crops up all the time – you want to contrast people or things, describing how one is not the same as the other, so you use the adjective different, and decide to follow it with one of three prepositions (either from, to, or than) to introduce the second element of the contrast. You then happily compose your statement, for instance:

  Your goals may be different than mine.

  But tread carefully! The topic of which preposition you choose has been a grammatical minefield for many years. F. Scott Fitzgerald wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows with his famous use of different from in the quotation at the start of this piece, but had he instead written ‘They are different than you and me’, some traditionalists would have started gnashing their teeth. Many people aren’t greatly enthused about the phrase different to, either.

  Why should this be? When we consult the Oxford English Dictionary(OED) for the broader historical picture, we find that different to predates other phrases, being evidenced from the 16th century; different from is first recorded in Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors; different than also first appears in writing in the 17th century. In fact (those of a sensitive grammatical disposition should look away now), there was once a time when different against was also possible, as evidenced by this OEDcitation:

  Humane wisdome, different against the divine will, is vaine and contemptible.

  However, that formation is only recorded in the 17th century and now appears to be as dead as the proverbial dodo, leaving the three main contenders, different from, different to and different than, to be squabbled over by many writers on grammar and usage.

  According to the language expert Michael Quinion and others, the issue of ‘correctness’ or otherwise with regard to prepositions accompanying different first arose in the 18th century, and since then some authorities have ruled that you should only ever say different from, raising stern objections to the other options.

  http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/01/different-from-than-to/
  
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  41

  Angst and the Jehovah's Witness Mindset

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there is no typical jw personality type.. any of us who were in the religion for a number of years will remember all sorts of individuals.

  there is as much variety among jws as there is in the general population.

  some were arrogant and judgemental but others were humble and kindly.

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  Xanthippe

  Angst will continue dominate the thinking of ex-JWs until they give up utopian fantasies. Perfection does not exist and it never will.

  Humans are prone to utopian fantasies. Awake used to be called the golden age. The golden age was a belief in medieval times that there was a time in the distant past when the world was a much better place, with peace and prosperity. The Rennaisance era fed into that fantasy with the excavation of many beautiful temples and statues from the classical period. The Greeks were always fighting one another, see The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). Then they would cart off slaves to cut the stone to build their beautiful temples!

  There is a great deal more that must be done to create a better world and further progress is not inevitable.

  Yes I'm always beating this drum. So many fantastic organizations need our support to prevent torture, help people in war zones, protect the environment, inoculate the world's children against horrific diseases, save endangered species, etc. It's so easy to throw up our hands in despair and give up. That just means someone else has to do it.
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  12

  David Schafer imitates Steven Lett

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  friends,.

  watch this jw.org video with "helper" david schafer.

  the topic is care for your parents.

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  Xanthippe

  Wow his sincerity shines though! 

  He says some parents have made provisions for their old age through pensions etc but what if these run out, what then, get a house? WTF does that sentence even mean?
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  17

  My son has a very significant interview today..

  by Captain Schmideo2 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  he is just days away from graduation with his bachelor's in english, and today, he has an interview with a recruiter for an agency that help with finding teaching positions in south korea.. i took it upon myself to research the company and his interviewer, and it's been high marks all around on both of them.

  so that's a great ease on my mind.i just hope the interview (over the phone) goes well, and results in the next steps to getting a position.my son spent a month in seoul last summer, an loved the place.

  he has friends out there as well, including a young man that he attended classes with here in the states, so i think that's a real plus in taking this very giant leap.when i was his age, i was slowly working my way through a two year degree, still living at home, and aspiring to nothing more than a job as a repairman.

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  Xanthippe

  Glad it's going well, hope he gets the job!
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  55

  Here's a view on homosexuality for you...

  by konceptual99 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ...right from a pro-jw site in response to a post about the relative seriousness of homosexuality.

  all you can do is reason from the scriptures, which you appear to have done.

  homosexuality is as serious as bestiality, or adultery and fornication.

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  Xanthippe

  Yes in my recent experience of talking to JWs they cite gay marriage as a sign we are right at the end of the system, as in how could it possibly get any worse.
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  18

  The question of who man/woman actually is...

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  naturally leads to the question of god.

  why does man need god?

  why does man create god?

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  Xanthippe

  Well one is a male and the other is a feminine male (ie. female)
  Man, wo-"man" - Lieu

  Female

  Origin

  Middle English: from Old French femelle, from Latin femella, diminutive of femina 'a woman'. The change in the ending was due to association with male, but the words male and female are not linked etymologically.

  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/female

  
  

  Lieu I bet you agree with the JW elder I heard say in a talk that woman means a man with a womb.

  
  
  

  
  
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  16

  New Brochure: Answers to 10 Questions Young People Ask

  by Designer Stubble in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/books/teen-questions/1 who am i?2 why do i worry about my appearance?3 how can i talk to my parents?4 how can i fix my mistakes?5 what if i’m being bullied at school?6 how can i resist peer pressure?7 how can i deal with the pressure to have sex?8 what should i know about sexual assault?9 should i believe in evolution?10 how can the bible help me?basically a compilation of previous wt articles.let's take chapter 9 on evolution:statements as quotes below are really going to help jw teens defend creation: [quote]“if you were walking through the forest and discovered a beautiful house, would you think: ‘how fascinating!the trees must have fallen in just the right way to make this house.’ of course not!

  it’s just not reasonable.

  sowhy should we believe that everything in the universe just happened to come about?”[/quote][quote]“imagine that someone told you that there was an explosion at a printing plant and that the ink spattered onto the walls and ceilings and formed the text of an unabridged dictionary.

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  Xanthippe

  
  Let's take chapter 9 on Evolution:
  Statements as quotes below are really going to help JW teens defend Creation:
  “If you were walking through the forest and discovered a beautiful house, would you think: ‘How fascinating!The trees must have fallen in just the right way to make this house.’ Of course not! It’s just not reasonable. So why should we believe that everything in the universe just happened to come about?”

  Evolutionary scientists don't discuss how the universe came about, they are only concerned with how life developed on earth. This cult misrepresents everyone and then forbids higher education so you can't find out who is right for yourself.
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  234

  New ANTI-GAY video for Kids on jw.org

  by ttdtt in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/family/children/become-jehovahs-friend/videos/one-man-one-woman-marriage/.

  disgusting!.

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  Xanthippe

  This thread is full of lies and exaggerations.

  It's full of something that's for sure. Not about the WTS anymore, just a lot of brawling.
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  36

  Understanding The Bible ... The "Linchpin" Effect

  by Littleleslie in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  understanding the holy bible.. .

  after many years of study of scripture, our bible study group has discovered something very important that needs to be realized or absorbed, before one can come to a correct understanding of the bible.

  we call it, the "linchpin" effect... .

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  Xanthippe

  Sorry I didn't reply LL, it was after midnight here.

  Xanthippe
  Ok, fair enough, so you don't put any value on Jehovah God's Word, you think it is useless. I appreciate your honesty.

  I read the Bible slowly and carefully right through, a few verses at a time, took me five years. I also read portions of it over and over when I was a JW. Nothing has changed in reality even though I did all that study. People still die, some suffer horribly. No earthly Kingdom of Jehovah has arrived. How long am I supposed to wait?
  

  I believe that this information could be helpful for anybody who is searching for Jehovah, searching for scriptural answers from God's Word. This is for those who still believe that Jehovah will establish his kingdom, his Earthly kingdom.

  Well you can spend your life in your Bible Study group with people who are just like you, reading the same words over and over as I did. Or you can be brave, step out of your comfort zone and look at other books, different ideas.
  

  What have you got to lose? The truth can't hurt you can it? It can be stressful I admit. Just take it slowly. Why don't you get a general book on eschatology as this interests you and start from there, look at all the beliefs people have had over the years about the coming of the Kingdom? Good luck.