Posts by LoveUniHateExams

17

Every year, on the anniversary of Nine-Eleven ...

by Terry in

jw
friends

“get out of here—this is my father’s funeral; you don’t belong here; you are a liar!”.

the woman’s face reflected terrible pain—the worst pain possible, to the point of breakdown.

a thousand unanswered questions washed from her eyes by the flow of many tears.

LoveUniHateExams

9/11 was the worst single terrorist incident of all time. On one day 3,000 innocent people were killed. A military response from the US was necessary.

9/11 directly caused two wars: the Afghanistan War and the Second Iraq War. I believe the US was right to go into Afghanistan and topple the jihadi training camps, bomb Al Qaeda there and dismantle the Taliban. The Taliban had given a murderous Osama bin Laden refuge. A few years earlier, bin Laden had declared war on America. Nobody took any notice because at the time he came across as an Arab crackpot. Well, it turned out he was deadly serious. The US seal team was totally justified in shooting him dead in 2010.

However, I believe the US was wrong to attack Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a typical Arab dictator. A nasty person but he had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or Islamic terrorism. Both the US & the UK were wrong to invade Iraq.

17

Every year, on the anniversary of Nine-Eleven ...

by Terry in

jw
friends

“get out of here—this is my father’s funeral; you don’t belong here; you are a liar!”.

the woman’s face reflected terrible pain—the worst pain possible, to the point of breakdown.

a thousand unanswered questions washed from her eyes by the flow of many tears.

LoveUniHateExams

I saw the documentary The Falling Man on TV a few years ago.

I remember hearing that some sections of the media either outright labelled the jumpers 'cowards' or implied cowardice. The documentary argued that the opposite was the case - these unfortunate people found themselves in a terrible situation not of their own doing and chose when and how it would end for them.

9

What did Charles Taze Russell and the Bible Students believe?

by Pallbearer in

i know that present-day jehovah's witnesses believe that 144,000 are to go to heaven and rule alongside jesus, and that the survivors of armageddon along with those who will be resurrected are to live on earth with the prospect of living here forever.. questions:.

> what did pastor russell and the bible students originally believe about the earth?.

> did they believe that the earth would always exist and that it would become a paradise?.

LoveUniHateExams

> Did they believe that the earth would always exist and that it would become a paradise? - short answer, yes & yes.

************************************

> Did Russell or any of the Bible Students entertain the hope of living forever upon the earth?

> Or, did they believe that going to heaven was the only hope that there was?

^^^ Ok, two related questions that I'll try to answer.

Russell and the original Bible Students believed that they would go to heaven if they were faithful to that calling.

But they didn't believe that all the world's population was going to be destroyed. They believed that, while the world's governments were corrupt and fit for destruction, ordinary people would have the chance to live on a paradise earth. Those that died would be resurrected ... but there would be some who wouldn't taste death at all.

That's all I can remember. I'm sure there will be other posters who correct any mistakes and add to what I've posted.

Edit: Russell and his followers believed the time of the end started in 1799, I think.

68

Your Top Ten Favourite Movies?

by LoveUniHateExams in

just thought i'd start a thread about favourite movies.

mine, in no particular order, are .... alien - a great visual film.

the chest-bursting scene is still great to watch, no matter how many times i've seen the movie.

LoveUniHateExams

Netflix used to have a challenge to create a prediction algorithm for movies people would like. The challenge was that you could never get better than 80-90% because people's choices change all the time - this is interesting and likely true.

If you compare the 14 films I gave my highest rating to with my 'top ten fav movies' in the OP, you'll see that 5 films are in both categories. Those five are: Alien, The Empire Strikes Back, The Thing, The Fly and Silence of the Lambs.

I still like the other 5 films in my OP from 2 years ago - Star Wars A New Hope, Halloween, The Terminator, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Shaun of the Dead - but I don't rate them as highly.

Subjectively speaking, A Nightmare on Elm Street is my fav horror film but objectively speaking - it has a couple of flaws and therefore doesn't get my highest grade and isn't a masterpiece ... but I still love it. I'd give it 9/10.

I expect my list of my highest-rated films to grow in time as I see more and more movies and as I learn more about how stories are/should be told and how films are/should be made.

65

Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Alive and Well

by minimus in

jw
friends

i was on facebook and a person i have known for a long time posted how trump is mentally ill and is truly a psychopath.

a couple of her friends chimed in when i suggested that perhaps the fb friend was really the psychopath.

a couple of her friends began to defend her but i was surprised by how many people defended the president!

LoveUniHateExams

Can you be an idiot and run a multi-billion dollar organization? See GB of JWs - you can't really compare the GB and Trump.

Trump won a democratic election - millions of people voted for him.

The GB is a cosy club that leads a cult, and the masses don't vote for them. Big difference, really.

68

Your Top Ten Favourite Movies?

by LoveUniHateExams in

just thought i'd start a thread about favourite movies.

mine, in no particular order, are .... alien - a great visual film.

the chest-bursting scene is still great to watch, no matter how many times i've seen the movie.

LoveUniHateExams

Just thought I'd return to this thread.

I've seen a lot more films than when I started this thread, and it's nearly impossible to make a top 10. There are just so many good films.

Out of the films I've seen, here are all the films that I give my highest rating (10/10) ...

Rosemary's Baby

The Exorcist

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Jaws

Rocky

Alien

The Shining

The Elephant Man

The Empire Strikes Back

The Thing (1982)

The Fly (1986)

Aliens

The Silence of the Lambs

Pulp Fiction

^^^ There are in no real order, save for the year of theatrical release. And they're great films, masterpieces, IMO.

Of course, there are many critically-acclaimed films that I haven't seen - The Godfather, The Godfather Part 2, E.T., Schindler's List, Dawn of the Dead, etc. ...

31

Big Meat Eaters?

by peacefulpete in

i was wondering how many of us have switched to a vegetarian or vegan diet and why.

i'm not doing it but have friends who do.

lovely people and seem very healthy.

LoveUniHateExams

I'm also a meat-lover who has no problem eating meat. I was brought up eating meat and will likely continue to do so.

However, I do admire vegetarians (although maybe not vegans) and would like to go vegetarian for a full month to see what it's like and see if I notice any improvement from that diet.

16

Flash mobs

by zeb in

jw
friends

housebound by weather.

been watching flash mobs.

what a wonderful thing they are..

LoveUniHateExams

Hi Zeb.

It may be a stupid question, but what are flash mobs?

Can you translate this Aussie lingo into British English, please.

44

A book on the pronunciation of God's Name

by Doug Mason in

i am neither recommending nor rejecting the following book.

i am simply saying that i stumbled across it.

i have neither read it nor studied it.. search with: the name of god y.eh.ow.ah which is pronounced as it is written i eh ou ah its story gérard gertoux .

LoveUniHateExams

There is a problem with the pronunciation of name of the God of the Israelites: the Hebrew alphabet is an abjad.

An abjad is an alphabet that's made of consonants only. Short vowels are not written.

So, we have 4 consonants - YHWH. We don't know what vowels were sounded between them. The Israelites living thousands of years ago had a way of pronouncing their God's name, but this has been lost over time.

Arabic is similar to Hebrew in this respect.

If I transliterated the 3 Arabic letters - waw, lam & dal - into English as 'wld' and left out the two short vowels ... how would you pronounce it? Because 'wld' (ولد) is a word in Arabic.

12

I'm Watching The Exorcist Right Now...

by pale.emperor in

as an ex-jw recovering for cult indoctrination and paranoia there are a few things that make us realise how far we've come.. eating black pudding.

smoking a joint.

sleeping with someone on a first date.

LoveUniHateExams

The Exorcist (1973) is a great film. I thoroughly recommend it. I bought a second hand DVD for £1 and watched it alone, at night. It creeped me out a bit. It did what a good horror film is supposed to do.

Smoking joints and eating black pudding (fried, with a full English breakfast) are pretty good, too. I recommend those in moderation.