my heart is heavy as i write this letter.
i have been trying to live my life as best that i can since leaving jehovah's witnesses.
my dad was not a witness and was my rock when i left the religion.
SFF (love the Beatles' reference),
Ditto re: great letter. The only thing I would change moving forward is do not give any of the JWs power over you by using their loaded language. I would never use 'apostate' for example. That is their scarlet letter. There are many substitutes. Changing the language will help you and it will remove a lot of their thunder.
reform of goverinig body.
transparency of their regular meetings and reports to the brotherhood.
creating a committee for biblical reforms.
If the Borg's leaders continue to teach the imminence of the big A and everyone but Dubs being dstroyed during the slaughter, then their posture must be one of 'a sense of urgency' (didn't you get sick of hearing that?). If there truly is a sense of urgency (in their minds/teachings) and the Big A is right around the corner or imminent, they cannot possibly lighten the load and make any real reforms. Preaching MUST be a priority (really, counting hours isn't preaching the good news-they could do that a lot more effectively by purchasing their own tv station) and keeping the borganization 'clean' by removing/disciplining/controlling its members must be a priority. Because we are that close!!!
I simply cannot see any real reforms until they give up the reason for their existence up to this point. Not gonna happen.
reform of goverinig body.
transparency of their regular meetings and reports to the brotherhood.
creating a committee for biblical reforms.
To use a biblical phrase, can a leopard change its spots? La Francia, the reforms you mention would make the Borg a kinder gentler borganization. It would also mean the Borg's leaders would have to give up a lot of power and control, which is the reason I do not believe it will occur. The only way, IMHO, that these reforms could occur is for the Borg to admit the entire generation/Armageddon/Paradise earth crap, I mean teachings, are bullshift.
so i faded over a year ago...i told the elders that if i needed them i would call them.
1 year and 3 months later, today, i get a call from an elder who used to be my good friend...he calls and i dont pick up..he leaves a voicemail, saying "hello ____, please call me back at 444-444-4444 whenever you can".
i was like wow, this has to be one of those calls to get inactive ones back to the memorial.
Dog, good post. Most of the elders mean well, as they did a long time ago when I was one. Many are egocentric power driven nasty little men, and that's the problem. They typically get their way in the BOE. Don't answer or respond to any emails, visits or phone calls. Fade. Quietly.
well long story short, i've been meaning to ask this girl at school out for a while but i can never do it because her friends are always there in the way and i would prefer to ask her in person.
we've liked each other for a while (i was oblivious until about a month or two ago) and i'm also i bit worried she'll get tired of waiting.. i was just wondering if anyone had any advice or something that they could give me.
If you see the hottest girl in the club and want to ask her out, what's the odds she will say yes or no? Mathematicall speaking (and assuming you arent a troll) they are 50/50. What's the odds you will ever go out with her if you don't ask her out? Close to 0. Do the math. We all get rejected; as sarah indicates it's good practice. If she does reject you (assuming she doesn't humiliate you or tell you you are a troll), tell her how beautiful she is and that it's your loss. Then go ask someone else out. There are roughly 3.3 billion women on the planet. So many opportunities, so little time. ;-)
The world is a better place. Good bye and good riddance to a hate filled, bigoted homophobe. And here is to hoping that he is oneof the last remaining members of his species.
those are the words of a prominent russian tv broadcaster.. president putin recently appointed kiselyov as head of russia's newly restructured state-owned news agency rossiya segodnya (russia today), which was set up by an unexpected presidential decree to replace the longstanding ria novosti and voice of russia media outlets in december.. .
do you think the watchtower writers are doing some recalculations?.
will they switch the identity of babylon the great from a religious entity to the usa.. "rev.
Scotoma,
Can't disagree with any of that. It will be interesting to see what occurs. Vlad is an opportunist and has been astutely playing the game of late. I don't think he wants another Cold War, and I'm certain he doesn't want a hot war, but who knows. He desperately needs cash to do what he wants, such as upgrade his military and begin to become an economic threat to the West. The old guard and all suffering the post-Cold War funk will support him. Until the bread lines start again. The West should make each step of his a sticky, mucky mess to see how badly he wants to recreate the empire. That wasn't possible in the Cold War, but there are lots of things the West can do now. His move westward, both physically and metaphorically, may be as slow and deadly as was Hitler's troops East toward the heart of the Russian motherland during WWII. This wasn't an unpredictable move by Vlad, and the West and the U.S. surely has played war games with this and if they haven't delveloped a long list of potential responses then they are incompetent.
If he stops, happy with the Crimean peninsula, it wiil have been a tempest in a teapot. If I'm the West, that is my goal and I will devote lots of resources to that effect.
NJS
Agreed.
NonJWSpouse,
I said I wasn't going to make additional comments because there have been so many inaccurate statements about this. However, in response to your llink this comment from today's news:
"On Tuesday, for example, a law enforcement official told CNN that the aircraft's first major change of course was almost certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit. The change was entered into the plane's system at least 12 minutes before a person in the cockpit, believed to be the co-pilot, signed off to air traffic controllers."
If this is true, the last sign-off wouldn't have been 'good night.' Of course most of what we have heard is lacking credibility. Another statement indicates the plan flew for 6 hours after the course change; again, it strains credibility to think the plane could fly that long after such a catastrophic issue.
Of course none of this may be accurate. Good link though as it sheds rational light on the matter, which is always a good thing.
those are the words of a prominent russian tv broadcaster.. president putin recently appointed kiselyov as head of russia's newly restructured state-owned news agency rossiya segodnya (russia today), which was set up by an unexpected presidential decree to replace the longstanding ria novosti and voice of russia media outlets in december.. .
do you think the watchtower writers are doing some recalculations?.
will they switch the identity of babylon the great from a religious entity to the usa.. "rev.
Scotoma,
There are "DNA" fingerprints on all nuclear devices. The U.S. would know where the device originated, likely which factories the various part were made in, what year it was manufactured, etc. This serves as a very strong deterrent for the scenario you mentioned. Oligarchs want to stay rich and most if not all will focus on making money and strong arm tactics similar to those used in the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries in the U.S. Many of the Russian oligarchs very quickly established residences and financial and business linkages in the U.S., for stability and opportunity and to avoid any Russian take backs to Communism. They aren't stupid men; can one or more be rogue? Of course, but a suitcase nuke, which BTW has many reasons as to why it lacks as a valid scenario (google it), likely isn't one of our problems.
Vlad is an opportunist who needs cash. I would make the Ukraine/Crimean issue a stickg sight (remember those from the early days of the 'Net?). Easy to get in; hard as hell to get out. And a very strong deterrent for taking his posturing elsewhere. The U.S. and its allies should be thinking of everything they can to make Putin's move as uncomfortable and problematic as possible, short of military moves.
