i am writing this thread because i hope it fosters some positive communication although i may end up being deleted for it.. to start with a discliamer: i am no fan of stinkypantz posts - they just aren't that interesting to me.. that being said i now see sp was deleted.
my first reaction to that was anger.
sp posted stuff about being close to a nervous breakdown, wishing she could just "disappear" etc....she is obviously someone in pain right now.. we have been constantly censured about how this is a place of healing and we need to keep it that way for people who need healing, support and comfort.. so i only hope sp has been "temporarily suspended" (not deleted) for her own good and no because she pissed off some moderator.
Giving away personal possessions is a sign of an impending suicide attempt.
Suddenly breaking off relationships and "withdrawing" from activities (like this message board) is also a cry for help.
SP is trying to see if anyone would miss her if she "disappeared."
Those of ye who know her, get ye to her even right speedily. This is no joke. This is very very close to being a situation.
CZAR (of the "been there, done that" class)
for all those curious, here's a look at the new 2003 report.
jehovah's witnesses have been growing, but not a whole lot.
a peak of 6,429,351 publishers reported preaching in 235 lands.
That's the first time I've ever head the dubs blamed on the sunspots! That's a new one!
I wait to see if you are right.
CZAR
at our house we hand out two snack-sized candy bars to each gremilin and ghoul (snickers and milky way).
we get about 20 visitors, so we have to get rid of the candy some way.
what treats will you be handing out on halloween night?
The Halloween Watchtowers, 1965-1995. A compilation of cutting edge theology.
By,
CZAR
scholar,.
back on october 7, you said:i will respond to your response to the historical blunder made by franz and jonsson as alleged by me in a couple of days.. .
(the post was http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/59355/901501/post.ashx#901501 the thread was wts chronology(oslo hypothesis) from vicar;trinity college fellow,cambridge.).
Yep. Prophecy doesn't do you any good until AFTER the fact, and mostly it seems to be God saying, "Look how clever I was," to which I must reply, "Well, that's great, but what about my rent due this week?"
And lo, I must pay my own rent. And it is good.
CZAR
my neighbor didn't come on time, and her line was busy, so i went over to see if there was a problem.
she was cheerfully eating lunch, and by the time she finally made it over to my place it was 1 1/2 hours late.
she brought a printout from her elder (an old friend of her husband's .
Well, I've pooped. I'm waiting on Jehovah to wipe my bum. The neighbors are complaining about the smell of my garbage and the cats are committing suicide rather than use their overflowing litterbox, but Jehovah should be along any day now to clean the place up - and my wife is having sex with the mailman right in front of me, but Jehovah's going to resolve that situation in his own due time, and I'm bored with the TV program, and I've already finished this page in the book in front of me, but I'm waiting on Jehovah to entertain me in the New System.
I guess my cholera is just Jehovah's way of dealing with the situation.
CZAR-kastic Klass-master
Nobody's at the helm.
Jaracz just is in charge of the boilers, putting more coal in the furnaces. But nobody's steering anymore.
madmen! Savages and madmen!
CZAR
it's 2 am, and my whole country is asleep and i badly need to talk, and someone to hold me.
i have been out of this fucking cult for nearly two years, and i have not been bothered by demonz since then ... until now.
right.. i woke up, not able to breathe and see a thing, and i grabbed the phone to call my boyfriend, but i must have misdialed ( thank god, cuz he'd think i was nuts otherwise) and then i tried to scream, but i couldn't.
I asked some demons I know if they were bothering you,
And Balthazar the Banshee said he was drunk and wandered into Amsterdam by accident and was trying to wake you up to see if you wanted to go get some marijuana brownies and tulip juice. He didn't mean to scare you, and after I twisted his ectoplasm a bit, he apologized.
But he's kind of miffed about getting suddenly hurled out by being banned by the light - his eyes still hurt...
Just kidding viv.
CZAR
it's 2 am, and my whole country is asleep and i badly need to talk, and someone to hold me.
i have been out of this fucking cult for nearly two years, and i have not been bothered by demonz since then ... until now.
right.. i woke up, not able to breathe and see a thing, and i grabbed the phone to call my boyfriend, but i must have misdialed ( thank god, cuz he'd think i was nuts otherwise) and then i tried to scream, but i couldn't.
Happens a lot to me. Not the demons. Just a bad dream, honey.
(pats Viv on the head, gently caresses her cheek, kisses her tears away... wait a minute...)
CZAR
i just watched bill moyer's, now on pbs.
i was wondering who else watched the program.
it was dealing with the discrepancies between the lower class workers and the upper class executives.
I have to weigh in on this,
My personal philosophy is based on a "live for today" and "live humbly" method.
Is it "fair" that the executive makes 450 times as much as the factory worker? I guess not. The workers in THAT PARTICULAR PLANT should unionize. They have to take responsibility for their actions, or their inactions, that signify acceptance of the status quo.
If anyone thinks that the union system was easily created, born overnight out of some massive guilt complex on the part of managment, you can forget about it. It was violent, bloody, hard, and tough. It required sacrifice and planning, and forethought. Just down the river there is a place where Henry Clay Frick sent his Pinkerton men to shoot the striking Homestead mill workers.
Life ain't easy. Sorry. Nobody is going to hand you anything, and they will try to get you to feel guilty for demanding it. So deal with it. If conditions in your plant make you so mad, then unionize! Deal with it! Attack the problem! There is a whole groundwork for unionizing that has been laid out for you already!
If, on the other hand, you just want to slide by and don't really care (like me) then don't do anything. I'm not. I work a minimum wage job by choice, so I can spend time on what is really important to me.
Besides, being rich ain't everything. I know a doctor who never sees her kids.
CZAR
one of the pressing issues in the california election is (as always) the presence of "illegal" immigrants who come into our country, work under the table, and send money home.. my position on this matter, since i am a republican, might surprise you, but i favor no immigration restrictions at all with mexico!
the mass immigration would solve many problems - there are many jobs, entry level and low-paying, that americans won't take because they don't pay enough.
fruit picking, for instance.
The fact that these Mexican immigrants are a PLUS to our economy is a fact. They do the jobs that nobody else wants to do. As for working under the table, MOST of the people I know of all races prefer to work under the table - because the taxes on personal income are ridiculous. The solution to getting them on the tax rolls is not excluding them - because that is impossible. They are here, and they are here to stay, and no amount of laws or efforts to deport them can prevent it. What we can do is MAKE THEM LEGAL and therefore a greater percentage of them will be registered to paying the various tax burdens, both STATE and FEDERAL. Yes, illegal immigrants ARE a drain on the economy, because they don't pay taxes. Technically, even a natural-born American is a "drain" if he's not paying all his taxes. Therefore, declare amnesty, get them registered, get them paying taxes!
The US needs MORE workers, working minimum wage jobs, and paying taxes, just to keep up with SS expenditures. Who cares if they spend it in Mexico or the US? The dollar will become even more universal than it already is. The Social Security system was designed with the idea that there would always be MORE workers than retirees. Thanks to medical advances and greying populations, mentioned elsewhere, we need immigrant workers.
No, I don't live in the border states. I do, however, work a low wage job, have worked all my life in restaurants with minorities and immigrants, some of which were illegal. I'm sorry if working at Pizza Hut is beneath you - but take comfort that your high-tech jobs did not disappear because of NAFTA. These MEXICAN immigrants - a country that I think we can afford a special immigration relationship with - will be working low wage jobs as dishwashers precisely because they can room with two or three friends and be able to send a couple of hundred dollars home - where it is worth a lot more.
I'm not interested in the hypothetical futures presented here, where American culture is subsumed by some kind of "brown tide" from the south. Such Malthusian prophecies inevitably fall short of expectation, and reveal the real reason that some are afraid to open the border. I wonder how much of the "concern" about these immigrants economic standing is based on old-fashioned xenophobia? I would have thought that we would have had enough of such apocalyptic hyperbole in the Borg.
The lengthy article claimed that NAFTA wrecked both the Mexican and United States economies. I hope it is easy to see that these claims are contradictory.
Things change, people. You cannot hold back the world. China, the most xenophobic country in the world, is starting to crack, bit by bit. Yes, our culture will change, probable drastically as a result of an initiative to open the border. But that's life. It would have happened gradually already if we hadn't tried to close the border.
A Mexican citizen can come here and get a job. That's my goal.
CZAR
