Gadget

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Posts by Gadget

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  10

  Sunderland AFC promoted yahoooo!

  by Qcmbr in

  1. social
  2. current

  i know its nothing to do with this forum but i don't care i'm just chuffed...

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  Gadget

  The Mags will be guaranteed to get at least six points next season then..........
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  22

  Night Rider

  by LittleToe in

  1. social
  2. physical

  well that was an interesting journey!

  i just got home after riding home from a friend's house, where i'd been helping them with a little decorating.

  it is a clear and beautiful night, so i thought i would open her up a little, but neglected to look at the speedo.... ...until i hit a short piece of undulating piece of road and found the front wheel wobbling.

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  Gadget

  Any of y'all had some hair-raisers and/or near misses?

  Jeez, where do I start?

  The scariest was when I'd been out for a long run, about 2-300 miles and was coming back over hartside pass, one of the best biking roads in the UK. I was taking it steady because I was getting close to home, but someone on a R6 came flying round the corner towards me and passed me on the wrong side between me and the hedge! It really got my brown adrenalin flowing.......

  The first time I took Claire out on the back I was braking hard for a corner and she started sliding down the pillion seat towards me. To stop herself she gripped me with her thighs, but that distracted me a bit and nearly forget to turn the bend!

  The most risky thing I've ever done was on the long run mentioned above. I was feeling really up for it and went for a long ride. I managed to get from ponteland, up to Jedburgh, across to Galashiels, and down to Carlisle in 1hr55min. Thats 130 miles along twisty country roads.......

  I don't ride as much now because I've got so many other things I need to do, so I'm much calmer when I go out.
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  4

  one-time JW jailed

  by core in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  http://www.thisiswirral.co.uk/display.var.1290696.0.birkenhead_man_is_jailed_after_attacks_on_boys.php.

  copy and paste above link - not sure how to make it just clickable.

  this individual claimed to be a jw but no note of that in court report

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  Gadget

  I knew of him as a JW, but only met him once at the 2002 convention. He was known as Mike, so I didn't recognise the name at first.

  When I first started posting here I was engaged to a girl from Birkenhead, and he was one of her ex-boyfriends. There was a lot of allegations of physical and sexual abuse that he was eventually disfellowshipped for, even worse than what he got convicted for. The last I heard he had met someone on the internet and moved to Scotland to marry her and live with her 2 children.
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  21

  High school anti-cult lessons

  by IT Support in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've been asked to help develop a course for high school students to teach them about destructive cults and how to identify them.

  not jw-bashing) to be useful for all students (and also not to frighten off jw kids and their parents), i would hope it might help jws (kids and parents) to start to think.

  does anyone know of anything similar that we could buy in?

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  Gadget

  The problem I have with many anti-cult programmes is that they seem to be anti-pagan too. The reachout trust is very very proChristian, and even the icsa link you showed connects the occult with cults. Depending on the diversity/religious discrimination laws in your area you may have problems getting this aproved.

  I've given talks about cults that were very well received at pagan camps based mainly on how influence works and how it can abused by cults, con men, etc, so people can protect themselves from it.
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  17

  The Alpha Course Holy Spirit Week End?

  by Mrs Smith in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  my hubby and i are doing the alpha course and are finding very interesting.

  in about 3 weeks time we have been invited to a weekend away to go through the information on the holy spirit.

  has anyone on this forum been on this weekend.

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  Gadget

  It's a cult!

  LMAO . But seriously, anyone??

  I heard a few different things about this. Some people praise it, but I've heard a lot of complaints about it in the UK too. At a conference last year I spoke to a few university lecturers who were concerned about the way their students were being recruited onto the course, and the numbers that were doing so. I've corresponded with others who felt uncomfortable at the pressure to conform they experienced on the course. I think its probably something like AA - it can be (and is!) helpful to a lot of people, but it can be misused too. You just need to watch your step. My advice would be that if its something you want to do, then do it. But before you go I would read up on techniques of persuasion, and if you feel uncomfortable about anything you see or experience over the weekend then have the conviction to be able to walk away and not just go along with the crowd.
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  36

  Sexual Predators/Opportunists on JWD

  by onacruse in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you think there are any?.

  how would you "know" them if they were predators?.

  if you were suspicious, what would you do to protect yourself?.

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  Gadget

  I would think if your over 21 you don't have too much of an argument about being predatored upon.... ....You pay your money and take your chances.

  I can see your point that people have to take personal responsibility for their actions, and can't put all the blame onto somebody else

  If someone sends you a personal mail thats your first red flag. What is that personal mail about? Did you know brother so and so. The red flag lowers. But if the personal mail offers you business opportunities, wants financial information, tries to get into your business in any way the red flag goes up and to protect yourself don't respond, dissengage.

  Its good to have a plan to check things out before you commit to them, but they can sometimes work against you. In the watchtower we were taught how to lovebomb to lower peoples defences, how to avoid talking about the negatives, use double binds/bait and switch to get people to follow their logic, etc.

  If something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, is it your fault if it turns out to be something pretending to be a duck instead of a real duck?

  Your 54 years old what are you trying to protect yourself from?

  A KGB officer had a simple philosophy that went on to become the basis for a lot of security policy, in the UK at least. When you think something is impossible to happen and stop watching for it, thats the most likely time it will happen.

  In a community this size, it's unlikely that there are no predators, criminals, felons, rapists, molestors, etc.

  Even if 99.99% of people on here are genuine, that would still leave a handfull of dodgy people that could cause mayhem. The trick would be to keep your guard up against someone like this, and still managing to enjoy the association and support of the genuine people on here.
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  4

  Ubunto/Linux os?

  by Gadget in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone here use the ubunto os?

  i've been reading a bit about it, and have a spare hard drive i can install it on to experiment without risking my data so i fancy giving it a try.. the main things that concern me are ease of use/setup (once i get used to it), and compatability with other software i use.

  for example, will the driver for my modem/printer/scanner/etc be compatable?.

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  Gadget

  Does anyone here use the Ubunto os? What do you think about it? I've been reading a bit about it, and have a spare hard drive I can install it on to experiment without risking my data so I fancy giving it a try.

  The main things that concern me are ease of use/setup (once I get used to it), and compatability with other software I use. For example, will the driver for my modem/printer/scanner/etc be compatable?

  Paul
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  14

  apostafest uk?

  by pobthespazz in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  to all the folks in the uk, will anyone be organizing a fest any time this year , perhaps an apostacurry or apostachinese?

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  Gadget

  Come on everybody, where do we want to hold this apostafest, Birmingham or London?

  I'm going to be in London the last weekend of the month, so does anyone fancy meeting up on Saturday 27th?

  Who knows a good Chink in London that's not too pricey?

  Theres loads of them around Leicester square, and its nice and central to get to from any part of London on the tube.
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  202

  CO/DO's in the UK?

  by pobthespazz in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  can anyone compile a list of as many as possible past and present co/do's from the uk?

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  Gadget

  now dont get me started on ray midgley

  I've heard a lot of people saying that about Ray, but I always found him ok. He was at our house for a coffee one morning and my 3 yr old brother crashed his toy car into his foot quite hard. Everyone waited for the 'explosion' but he just laughed and got down on his knees to play cars with him, ignoring all the other people in the room who'd been trying to get his attention.

  I knew Glen McFarlane and Reuben Ray, both stand in co's who were in congregations near me. The only co I knew well was Andrew someone...., I can't remember his last name. He was co twice in one hall, then I move circuits at the same time as him and had him again. He had a flat in Eyemouth where we spent a lot of time at my grandparents caravan, so we saw a lot of him up there too.
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  27

  Does anything think wts could become dangerous when it falls?

  by lighthouse19something in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  just noticing what happened with waco, jonestown, heaven's gate etc.

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  Gadget

  Well there are a few things to consider. I believe that the WTS has to much money and influence to just simply 'fall' one day. They are smarter than that. There is a major trend in their literature right now to create fearful and less educated members. They have also made a strong effort to sanitize negative information about their past. This has worked to a large degree. For years they would simply lie about the problems of the past. But lying is to risky. Now they simply state half truths about the past. Harder to expose, harder to make and effect with them.
  
  This new change has a positive and negative effect for the society. When people become less information driven and more driven on emotions it can be much eaiser to control. The problem is that in order to bring the newer JWs into a more emotional relationship with their mother org, they sacrifice the die hard believers they used to create with a powder puff copy. The newer members are much more ignorant, moronic, and just simply unaware of what they really believe. When they come up against challenges, they fall eaiser. All they know is that they have to listen to the faithful slave, as the years go by they have less and less reasons why they should be listening.

  I think Drew has a very good idea of where the group is now, but I disagree with his ideas of where the group is heading.

  To become more mainstream there would have to be a lot of backing down on certain teachings. The way things stand at the minute people are constantly watching each other looking for signs of weakness. Nobody wants to be labelled as apostate or running-ahead-of-the-organisation. People are too afraid of the response if they speak out or want to cut back on things, and peer-pressure will keep them inline.

  As the grip tightens the number of jw's may fall, it'll be harder to recruit new members, but those who remain will be more faithfull than ever. There may be splinter groups who disagree with this and leave (such as ajwrb), but I suspect the main group will continue and just get more and more tightnit.