talesin

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Posts by talesin

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  58

  Cappytan has made a video. Here is the link

  by joe134cd in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsbfnzrbiqq

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  talesin

  
  
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  150

  Start A Butterfly Garden!

  by Bonsai in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  time to take a break from debating religion.

  take in a breath of fresh air and be healed by the wonders of nature around you.. how many of you have a garden?

  how many have a nice flower patch to go with your vegetable garden?

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  talesin

  Bonsai (great thread) & VI ...we have Monarchs here, too, and they come for the milkweed. : ))

  I can't start a garden, but do feed the birds.
  
  Bluejays love their peanuts - they will cache them for later, and sometimes open and eat now. I have one who will take from my hand.

  Crows love scraps - that piece of fat you cut off the roast? Yum. Or the turkey carcass? They will carry it off and pick it clean. They also make caches.

  Europeans Starlings eat grubs and worms, but cat food will help them through the winter (it's high enough in protein). They are mimics, and will learn your 'whistle'. Have heard one who calls like the robin, and another who does a blue jay - they are hilarious!

  Suet in the winter for the chickadees and robins, other songbirds that stay over the winter. We have a pair of woodpeckers that visit occasionally to feed on insects in the rotten branches. They have a nest in the back of the property.
  
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  66

  What Should the Minimum Wage Be (USA)?

  by Village Idiot in

  1. social
  2. current

  during the gop debates donald trump said that american’s “wages [are] too high” and later said “that having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country” (7:25)..

  do you agree and if so why?.

  my two cents on this issue; do the math.

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  talesin

  Let's face it. In a world of globalization, run by corporations, minimum wage doesn't work. What does that mean, anyhow - "minimum wage"?

  The minimum wage was introduced in Canada as a safeguard for employees, so that businesses had to pay them 'enough' to house and feed themselves. That's all fine and dandy, but if your employees work the standard 37 1/2 - 40 hours per week, then you have to give them certain privileges, like paid holidays. So most large businesses, like Wal-Mart and the hospitals, hire part-time workers (who are usually 'casual', so no union to worry about), and the minimum wage worker is SOL with only 20-24 hours per week, unless they can find a second job (that does not have conflicting hours, in order to survive.

  The whole system is rotten to the core. Once again, just one person's opinion.
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  42

  What I thought CLAM meant , can you think of anymore ?

  by smiddy in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  for a while there i was confused as to what clam stood for .. ideas that crossed my mind .

  christ left a ministry , or meeting .

  children`s lives are mine .....( pedo`s in the borg ).

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  talesin

  Collectively Losing All their Minds

  (yes ,you are on a roll, keep it up, I am having a great laugh!)
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  66

  What Should the Minimum Wage Be (USA)?

  by Village Idiot in

  1. social
  2. current

  during the gop debates donald trump said that american’s “wages [are] too high” and later said “that having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country” (7:25)..

  do you agree and if so why?.

  my two cents on this issue; do the math.

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  talesin

  Medicine for profit - and we call ourselves civilized? - why is medicine without profit civilized? You're gonna have to expand on this point.

  This would depend on personal POV. If you feel that the bottom line (ie, profits) are more important than easing pain and suffering, then for-profit medicine is civilized. If you believe that relieving suffering and saving lives is more important than the bottom line, then it is not.

  The issue is complex. It's not a simple business. None of these problems are simplistic, which is why the debate can be endless.

  When you realize that most of the expensive medical research is funded by *drum roll please* the public purse, and then handed over to big pharma for final trials - oh, and to reap billions in profit, you may get a bit miffed.
  

  When you realize that a box of tissue sold to a hospital costs 5 times as much as the higher quality box of tissue you purchase at the department store, you may rethink that 'for-profit' thing a little bit.

  We NEED hospitals, we NEED drugs - these things are over-priced, and billions of dollars go from OUR pockets into the pockets of big business. Why? Because people will pay ANYTHING to save their child's/wife's/parent's life - to ease their pain, etc.
  
  But that matters not - it's all about supply and demand. And that's okay, because we are capitalists! And the bottom line is all that matters.

  We can go on and on about "other" cultures, and how barbaric they are, yet care not that millions in our own countries live in horrible conditions of pain and suffering. That woman has diabetes and can't afford her insulin? Tough - get a second job and stop whining. Okay, whatever. (BTW, had a friend in FLA in that position - late 30s, lost a couple of toes because she couldn't afford her insulin injections, and can tell many more stories like that) So yeah, I think it's uncivilized.

  But like I said, that is my personal opinion. No empirical studies, just anecdotal experiences. : ))
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  24

  Just got an apology from an exJW

  by Village Idiot in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so i'm back from the store walking to my apartment, over a hundred units in the complex - all jws and ex-jws - and i see someone talking to an ex-jw neighbor of mine.

  she turns around and says "now there's some else i have to apologize to".. she identified herself as an old neighbor who used to play as a jw child right by my place.

  she had told me how she was raised to consider me and all the ex-jws in the apartment complex as evil and thought she had to apologize for that.. made my day.

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  talesin

  How does the forum software keep deleting my middle paragraphs?

  Rebel8, I keep having that problem, too, with whole paragraphs disappearing. Ayup..
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  24

  Just got an apology from an exJW

  by Village Idiot in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so i'm back from the store walking to my apartment, over a hundred units in the complex - all jws and ex-jws - and i see someone talking to an ex-jw neighbor of mine.

  she turns around and says "now there's some else i have to apologize to".. she identified herself as an old neighbor who used to play as a jw child right by my place.

  she had told me how she was raised to consider me and all the ex-jws in the apartment complex as evil and thought she had to apologize for that.. made my day.

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  talesin

  That is so nice. i had a similar experience with a guy from school, who had teased me mercilessly (boys and their crushes).

  It's a lovely feeling to know that someone thought that much of you. And I'm sure it made her day, too! : ))
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  66

  What Should the Minimum Wage Be (USA)?

  by Village Idiot in

  1. social
  2. current

  during the gop debates donald trump said that american’s “wages [are] too high” and later said “that having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country” (7:25)..

  do you agree and if so why?.

  my two cents on this issue; do the math.

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  talesin

  Minimum wage in Canada is $10.00/hour. You can't have a 1BR apt. and eat on that. Something to think about.

  Also, I have a friend in Ohio, and she just had back surgery months ago, and another yesterday. There is NO welfare for housing - she cannot work, has no family support (exJW) and gets only food stamps ...coming out of hospital, she will have to couch-surf because there is NO provision for single adults who are disabled and (yes she has applied for federal benefits and the usual denial, had to get a lawyer, etc. ... the usual BS) unless you are a quad or multiple amputee or on your death-bed with cancer, good luck with getting housing!

  So, yeah, I don't like our system as it is. (lol, yeah, I'm tired, but ack, I get so bothered by our complacency and attitude of superiority - we live in the BEST society/culture - whatEVER). xx tal
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  66

  What Should the Minimum Wage Be (USA)?

  by Village Idiot in

  1. social
  2. current

  during the gop debates donald trump said that american’s “wages [are] too high” and later said “that having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country” (7:25)..

  do you agree and if so why?.

  my two cents on this issue; do the math.

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  talesin

  ok, so what does work?

  Thank you. The reply was honest. I think that things changed when corporations gained a legal identity. Even Henry Ford warned that this was a bad idea.

  In Canada, we used to be what I would call a 'socialist democracy' ... government was run by politicians, who answered to the people who elected them. We had a community - and a social contract with the government, that spoke of true democracy "of the people, for the people, by the people". Nowadays, politicians must kow-tow to big business, and corporations dictate policy.

  The world definitely needs a quantum shift, towards humanism, rather than capitalism. Medicine for profit - and we call ourselves civilized? Tut, tut!

  I'm not saying my thoughts of how it could and should be, are easily achieved, but it's become 'sink or swim'. The information highway has made it possible for ALL poor people to see that we are serfs.

  LOL, we are free? More free than those who live in so-called 'third world' countries? Most of us are no more than wage slaves. It's time to wake up. (not to anyone in particular, just the whole western world, haha!) xx tal

  PS. That's one point, had a long day, more later! xx
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  66

  What Should the Minimum Wage Be (USA)?

  by Village Idiot in

  1. social
  2. current

  during the gop debates donald trump said that american’s “wages [are] too high” and later said “that having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country” (7:25)..

  do you agree and if so why?.

  my two cents on this issue; do the math.

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• 

  talesin

  LoveUni

  I speak of the American Dream as in what it used to be. The Williams sisters are, in the 21st century, an anomaly. It's not the same, and I think you would get that.
  
  When I was young (70s), a university education was attainable for anyone who truly wanted it. It was relatively inexpensive, and many opportunities for scholarships, and also, if one was not inclined to study, work in the trades was also lucrative.

  Now, it costs 6 figures to get a four-year degree. The corporations have status equal to 'personhood' in the courts, and large businesses like Wal-Mart and other big-box stores, make it impossible for the small business to make a living.

  This is where I see the Dream failing.

  Randism - profit at any cost - is destructive. You, surely, have studied philosophy. Capitalism, eventually, implodes - that is just basic. You can't keep taking, and never giving.
  
  We need a new way of looking at life - if we used technology for the greater good, instead of profit, people would NOT be starving. People would not be sick because they can't afford health care. Cures for diseases would "APPEAR", and Big Pharma would lose its revenue from the cancer industry, the depression industry.

  Shall we talk about PRISONS and that industry as well?
  
  Please, don't be naive. xx