well, i can't think of anything else left to do on the path of apostates.
the original piercing was 10 millimeters, and since that was a bit long now that my tongue has healed, today i went for a new one, and a new stud.
my jw mum went with me, and she even picked out the one i have now, a red-white-blue [just like our flag] ball that glows in the dark.
I will never understand why people self mutilate themselves!
Because it's really hard to self-mutilate someone else.
For the record, I agree with the sentiment--I don't get it either, but I suppose I don't have to. If you want to pierce your tongue, pierce away!
I'm glad you like it, Viv. It's nice to do things that make you feel good about yourself! Good for you.
i've always been curious about this.
i'm an ex-jw with serious god issues but enough about me.
in all the years i was a witness, i was always taught the proper way to pray.
One of my favorite things about this message board is the ease at which you can predict typical responses to posts. Pro/Anti posts on any subject have an equal chance of having their validity challenged absolutely and the conviction is admirable even if the argument isn't. I like that.
What I am saying is that the possiblity to help yourself out of various situations occurs every single day. Call it fate, call it luck, call it an act of God, doesn't much matter to me. But whatever your name for what eventually happens, it won't do you any good if you've got your eyes squeezed shut to the possibility that what you need is already before you. Pray if it makes you feel better, but don't expect an unseen, tenuous, spirit-like being to swoop down and save the day.
Edited by - Sara Annie on 12 February 2003 16:55:13
i've always been curious about this.
i'm an ex-jw with serious god issues but enough about me.
in all the years i was a witness, i was always taught the proper way to pray.
This line of questioning reminds me of an old joke
:There once was a man who was known in his small town for his staunch faith in the Lord. Whenever there was trouble in his life, he clung to the idea that no matter what happened, God would save him. One day, it began to rain. It continued to rain for three days. The river swelled, flowing over it's banks. The small valley town the man lived in began to flood.
The man sat on his front porch watching the water rise until it was two inches in the street. His neighbor pulled up in his truck and asked if he wanted a ride to higher ground. The man said "No thank you, God will save me." The neighbor left, shaking his head.
Soon the water was flooding the first floor of the man's house. Two men in a boat rowed up to the second floor window the man was standing in and asked if he would like them to row him to higher ground. "No thank you," said the man, "God will save me." The men shook their heads, and left wishing him luck.
In a matter of hours, the water had risen to the top of the house, and the man now sat on the peak of his roof. A helicopter flew overhead, hovered, and dropped a line. The man waved them off, yelling "No thank you, God will save me!". The helicopter pilot shook his head, and flew off toward higher ground. Not long after, the water rose, the man struggled to stay afloat, and finally drowned.
Arriving in heaven, he stood before God and said "Lord, I lived my life according to your word, I put my faith in you alone, I was sure you would always answer my prayers. When the floods came, I was sure you would save me, but you did not. Why?"
God looked down at him and replied "I sent you a truck, a rowboat and a helicopter...what more did you want?"
I don't believe the answers to prayer are in the form of a booming voice or a burning bush. They are in the circumstances we find ourselves in, the new things we see, the people we meet, the things that happen (large and small) that allow us to be an active part of the solution to our problems. God helps us by allowing us to help ourselves through the events he puts in motion. The answers will come in ways that you are not expecting, and part of being receptive to the answer to a prayer is recognizing that the answer is not always what we want it to be. I believe that God answers every prayer, he just doesn't always say yes.
The next time you pray for an answer, listen less for the voice that responds, and keep watch for the trucks, boats and helicopters.
yep,.
it boggles my mind, so many here would rather believe saddam hussein than their own government.
so many here seem certain the bush administration is lying, but trust hussein to tell the truth.
When her sister went to open it, a window came up a informed her that a message "derogatory to our government" was intercepted and that she will not be able to receive it.
Sounds like an email that runs a clever little macro that was designed to do exactly what it's doing right now--make people overreact and animatedly discuss the "implications of this kind of government censorship!"
Bravo to the programmer--he/she sure achieved the "spin 'em around and watch 'em go!" goal!
yep,.
it boggles my mind, so many here would rather believe saddam hussein than their own government.
so many here seem certain the bush administration is lying, but trust hussein to tell the truth.
Say what you want about this country, voice your opposition or declare your support for it's actions, sing out in patriotism or rail against the injustice you perceive, laud the president or sneer at his actions, state your case for war, or loudly proclaim your objection to it, but no matter WHAT you do, remember that you are able to do just that because living in America affords you the freedom to do so. Yes, I love this country. But patriotism is not a blanket endorsement of the actions of our government, it is a statement for, and celebration of, the principles this country was founded on that still ring true today. I am a patriot, and I say bring on the objections, the ill-conceived arguments for both sides, the passion for or against the government. Sing out, it's your right as an American. I'll be sending my husband to the middle east in the next few weeks in preservation of the rights of all Americans, whether they support his presence there or not.
I liked this article and am posting it because no matter what your views on President Bush's statement of upcoming war, this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. For those of you not familiar with the UK's Daily Mirror, this is a notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not supportive of the Colonials across the Atlantic.
Tony Parsons, Daily Mirror September 11, 2002
"One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting -- the mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there, with Pol Pot's mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps. An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this fate. Surely there could be consensus: the victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil. But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year.
There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country -- too loud, too rich, too full of themselves and so much happier than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic. And it seems incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach. America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over half a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago, thousands of ordinary men, women and children -- not just Americans, but from dozens of countries -- were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics. Are we so quick to betray them? What touched the heart about those who died in the twin towers and on the planes was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and somebody's daughter, husbands and wives, and children, some unborn. And these people brought it on themselves? And their nation is to blame for their meticulously planned slaughter?
These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes without having to ask permission. The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11. Remember, remember. Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were burned alive. Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning skyscrapers. Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive. Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one of the planes with her mum. Remember, remember -- and realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the way it could have. So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a trial n Camp X-ray? Pass the Kleenex... So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should stick to confetti. AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot. That it didn't is a sign of strength.
American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination? When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that -- and didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war. The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell," if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell like you wouldn't believe. The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face of the earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived. But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand -assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.
I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be -- rich, free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this country ever had and we should start remembering that. Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the burning towers. Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire Department. To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street. Save me the orange center, oh mighty one! Remember, remember, September 11. One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed against America. No, do more than remember. Never forget.
1. saddam is a brutal murderer that lets no one stand in his way.
(can you say hitler?
2. the iraqi people want him gone.
My only pupose in responding to this thread is to chuckle at Sargon's #8. Hilarious, subject matter notwithstanding.
i thought ya'll might get a kick out of this one...something to put a smile on your face.. .
sincerely,.
district overbeer of the "messianic fashion plate" class
My husband has an "inappropriate images of Jesus" collection. It all started when one of the parents from the 5-7 year old soccer team he coached gave him the soccer statue from this collection:
http://www.catholicshopper.com/products/inspirational_sport_statues.html
I'm torn about whether or not to get him the magnet set--our criteria has always been "inappropriate but good-intentioned".
I'm not sure the magnet set meets that criteria. I'm going to have to sleep on it...
everybody likes music, but i don't know many people who play an instrument.
years ago, every house had a piano, and just about everybody in the house played the piano, but not today.
we all know that farkel is an excellent pianist, and i do enjoy listening to his music.. does any of you play a musical instrument?
I got a piano for my 5th birthday, followed by thirteen years of piano lessons, daily practice, and countless recitals. My parents said it built character. I dreaded every minute of it.
On the upside, I can play the piano. Well. As a adult left to my own devices, I love to play--who knew? My children are now hating their piano lessons. *smile* They'll thank me someday.
i thought it would be interesting to get a cross-sectional view of your opinions on whether all drugs (lsd, heroin, cocaine, etc.
be legalized so that they then became freely available to the general population, in the same way that alcohol and tobacco are .
spanner
The crime should be punished rather than the sale of an enabling substance otherwise owners of restaurants who serve truckers should be arrested for serving coffee which CAN cause sleep deprivation and accidents.
Sure. I'll buy that. Coffee can cause sleep deprivation. Go out and do the research, and come back with a percentage of sleep deprivation accidents where coffee drinking was a direct, causative factor.
Then go out and find me some statistics about violent crime, and what percentage of said crimes have illegal drug use as a direct, causative factor.
If the percentages are close, let's say within +/- 10 percent, you win.
And thanks for the "You're a communist" tip-in. Didn't make much sense, but it sure ineffectively labeled me!
i thought it would be interesting to get a cross-sectional view of your opinions on whether all drugs (lsd, heroin, cocaine, etc.
be legalized so that they then became freely available to the general population, in the same way that alcohol and tobacco are .
spanner
The freedoms that we are allowed- to drink, have guns, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech-are based on the notion that we do not hurt others in these activites. I can drink but not drive, I can have a gun but I cant shoot anoyone, I can be a Satanist but I can go around sacraficing peoples cats, and I have the Freedom of Speech but I cannot yell "FIRE" in a movie theatre.
I cannot possibly convey how annoyed I am to have to concede that this is a very valid point. Damnit.
