Heh...I clicked on this cause I was like...'hey, I don't remember starting a topic lately'. Welcome to the forum.
AATW, of the 'this is gonna get confusing' class.
AllAlongTheWatchtower
JoinedPosts by AllAlongTheWatchtower
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22
..new things in my area...
by all_along_the_watchtower inhey, im not sure if anyone knows of this, but recenetly (well actually like about 3-4 months ago) jw's in my area have been told to create emergency preparation kits for themselves or thier familys, and to give the elders phone numbers of non-witness relatives for emergency contacts.. also one thing that they've just started doing is the elders are going around giving "sheparding calls" to everyone in the congragation and asking them questions such as *( they said this from the platform) "what do you find the hardest about being in the truth" or something along those lines.. i think that just might be a local thing, but it is strange and over the many years they have never really done any thing like that.. and the emergency thing i thik is strange too.. maybee they think a disater will happen here.... just thought i would mention this 'cause i find it a little strange.. well not that strange, their always on to something new and crazy...
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117
Do you have to pay federal income tax? Is there a law requirering you to?
by frankiespeakin ini haven't payed mine for almost 3 years because i don't like what the government is doing with its war machine and taking away our civil liberties with the patriot act:.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5981720328972328609&q=irs+tax+is+illegal+-+no+tax+law+exists%21%21&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1623838328974046647&q=law+federal+income+tax&total=77&start=30&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=6.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_protester_arguments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_avoidance_and_tax_evasion
I used to have a friend who was a Libertarian, he used to make much of the fact that at the beginning of the tax booklet you get in the mail, there is a phrase that goes something like this: "millions of Americans voluntarily pay their taxes each year". He stressed the 'voluntary' part, saying it was not required. This same guy used to give me 'Social Insecurity' cards, printed to look like the real thing, but actually a protest about the sorry state of the social security system, which I liked and kept a few of. You can say what you like, disagree with how the money is spent, or whatever...freedom of speech is in the constitution, but if you don't pay your taxes, expect to end up in court.
Of course if you're rich, you can pay a flock of CPAs to do your taxes for you, and find every loophole in the book. That's perfectly legal, even though I think it's a crock. Which is why I'm a proponent of a flat tax system, make it so the average person can actually do their own taxes, and the rich have no loopholes. Put the lawyers out of business.
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9
Christrians: Why are JWs so aganist being born aganin/Salvation?
by A-Team inin the past 3 weeks, i have had 2 jws deny salvation or say that only the 144k have to be born again and 1 even going as far as asking "what do i need to be saved from?
" but yet, there are several bible scriptures that says otherwise.
please discuss.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
Bear in mind, this is purely my conjecture, but hopefully an educated guess, not just a shot-in-the-dark guess. Most people in high control groups like the JWs, WCG, LDS, etc, have been taught that WORKS is their path to salvation. They must DO. They are also told that being in this group, they are now 'special', part of the "truth", the "flock", the "one true church". Why? Because they have received the message that works are what is important, and have acted on it.
Then along comes your born-again, and says 'no, you have it all wrong-just repent and have faith, and all is well'. Knocks the wind right out of their sails. All the works they did...nice maybe, but worthless as far as salvation goes. Also, to accept this new belief, they now have to accept they are no longer in that 'special' group, ANY Joe Schmoe can come along and have faith, for cryin out loud. Suddenly, their whole self-image becomes valueless.
That 4dr car they bought...not needed...those hours in service...wasted time...the relatives they shunned... grandma dying when she refused blood...why?! All worthless. The alternative is too much for them, so they continue to believe what they were taught. Just my opinion.
I guess in a bizarre way you could also consider it a form of elitism...like two schoolkids with abusive parents arguing over which one's daddy hits the hardest...MY religion/daddy makes me suffer more, so it must be the best.
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63
Have you met others from JWD in person?
by R.F. ini've had the privelege of meeting purplesofa.
we actually knew each other before knowing we both posted here on jwd of course, being part of the same congregation and living in the same city and all.
how about the rest of you?.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
No, but I've met people I was friendly with from other websites before, and it was a nice experience. I'd be open to meeting folks from here as well. Any who are interested in the Williamsburg/Norfolk/VA Beach area, feel free to PM me...
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32
How Are YOU Politically Incorrect??
by minimus inwhat comments or feeling do you have that might make you be considered "politically incorrect"?
keep in mind that the expression does not just take in political points of view.....
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
Lol at lonelysheep, I've called myself Casper before, too; back when I worked construction and was the only white guy on a crew of Hispanics and blacks. I was sometimes also called 'The White Shadow' after that old character from the tv show about the basketball coach. I didn't start that one though, the guys on the crew did.
I refuse the whole 'African American' concept as ridiculous, when I was in high school lots of kids wore those red black and green t-shirts, but ask them to name a country in Africa, and they just stared at you. I even had one tell me once "Africa IS a country". The same people who push 'African American', have no problem saying white...what about MY rights? Should everybody have to call me German-English-something else-mutt-American?
I was actually thinking about this kind of stuff the other day, I have lots of random thoughts, and for some reason my random thought of the day was "Is it ok today to use the expression call a spade a spade"? On one level, it appears to simply say name something according to what it is, or, call it like you see it. On another level though, I am aware of a different expression, 'black as the ace of spades', and that spade was used at one time as a derogatory term for a black person. So...can you still say "call a spade a spade", or not? Is this expression racist of and by itself, or only guilty by association with other adages and expressions...or completely innocent?
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
I've been following various stories about Catholicism lately, it seems like there's some situation coming to a head there. Started off with an edict reviving the Latin mass...hell, I didn't even know they STOPPED saying the mass in Latin, thought that was kinda their trademark. After doing some reading on the net though, it appears that the pope just stepped backwards about 40 years; reversing the Second Vatican Council of the 60s... Apparently the Latin mass also annoys Jewish folks, because there's a line in it about converting Jews on Easter or something.
So, now the pope only needs to say something about Muslim terrorism, and Hindus eating beef to prevent starvation in India, and he can have damn near everybody pissed at Catholics.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070708/wl_nm/pope_latin_headache_dc
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How Do You Stretch Your Food Dollars?
by compound complex indear budgetarian grocery-buyers,.
i am an artist though hardly a starving artist.
some of my patrons kindly feed me and i do have my well-stocked freezer.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
In my early 20s after I got out of the military, I lived really cheap, by neccessity. I lived on ramen noodles, (10 packs for a dollar), pork-n-beans (3-4 cans for a dollar, depending on sales), bread (at roughly a dollar a loaf, dunno where the heck you're buying $4 bread at, unless it's some kinda multi-grain health nut stuff), and canned tuna for protein and some meat (3 for a dollar when on sale, .50-.70 a can when not). Of course, that was some years ago, and inflation has raised prices...best I can do on tuna these days is usually 2 for a dollar even when on sale, but that's still less expensive than most other meats.
As was said by others, pasta is a good filler and stretcher of food, so is rice, which is dirt cheap unless you're lazy/a bad cook and buy the minute rice boxes. Potatoes are another good cheap food, and can be added to others to increase the bulk of your meals. To this day I can still get decent generic store-brand wheat bread for about 1.39, whether it's Kroger, Farm Fresh, Food Lion, whatever. Canned vegetables are generally much cheaper than frozen bagged vegetables, most times I can get them on sale 2 for a dollar, and each can is about a pound, whereas most frozen vegetables are a dollar or even more a pound.
One thing I always do when food shopping is convert the given price to price-per-pound. Many grocery stores do this for you on a label on the shelf beneath the product, stores that list prices by item, or by the ounce, annoy me, as I feel like they're actively trying to confuse and ripoff the customer. I remember that when I was a kid, it was a given that buying the 'family size' was ALWAYS cheaper than buying several smaller packages, but that is not so today-gotta compare.
Manufacturers, and/or the stores selling the groceries, seem to go out of their way these days to change package sizing (like 10 or 12 oz packs of lunchmeat instead of 16 oz, or 6oz packs of sliced cheese instead of 8oz) and offer many different "bargain" tactics, like '3 for $2' or '4 for $5'. Seems to me like they're targeting people too lazy and/or bad at math to figure out how much they're actually getting for their hard earned cash.
Always figuring out the price-per-pound before you buy can save you a lot of money, and save you from being hoodwinked by various "bargain" schemes. On a related note, items like toilet paper, I always figure the price-per-square-foot. Anything in the neighborhood of .01 per square foot is fairly decent. One of my pet peeves is stores that list the price-per-roll; who cares how much each roll costs, when every brandname's roll can be a different size?!
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HOW WAS VEGETATION FERTILIZED BEFORE FLOOD?
by badboy inaccording to the canopy theory by isaac ???????
?,which wt used in their book,there was no rain before the flood,so how was vegetation fertilized before the flood?
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
Wait...JWs believe there was no rain until the flood? Wow...the WTS teaches even crazier sh*t than Armstrong did.
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Time and Distance - a Guy Thing?
by compound complex inhi guys and gals,.
this is probably a really dumb question, but are there others out there who measure time and distance when they travel - anywhere?
i understand the occasional setting of the travel odometer to check your auto's mileage.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
Yes. I also keep a little record book in my glovebox, and record mileage, gallons, etc every time I buy gas. New tires, oil changes, etc go in the book, too. Driving from Virginia to Maryland, which I used to do on a regular basis, I would try alternative routes, and compare actual road miles to time traveled, in an effort to determine which way was more efficient. For a while, just for the hell of it, I experimented with finding the absolute shortest possible route, and kept trying different little country roads, shaving a mile here and a mile there...eventually got bored with it, as the back ways often took longer even though shorter distance.
At work, people will often ask or compare the cheapest gas stations they've seen recently...I always am the one who knows the cheapest; a place that is almost always about a nickle less than anywhere else in the area. Nobody wants to go there but me though, as they say it's too far. Immediately responded, "Oh no, it's only 5.1 miles, whereas the one you go to is 1.2 miles, which isn't that much difference, and worth the .05 x 12 gallons = .60 in my opinion. Got very strange looks..."You MEASURED IT?!!" Me: Well, yeah!
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14
Can some one tell me why
by GODLOVESME inwhen i signed up to post they gave me user name.
i did not pick it.
godloveme some how i have been sleeping better at night.
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AllAlongTheWatchtower
Umm...other than what has already been said, the only possibility that comes to my mind is that you're using the keystroke memory thingy feature of Windows/Internet Explorer...you know, like if you enter a search term on Google, lets say for example, Jehovahs Witness, and then the next time you type a J, Jehovahs Witness pops up in whatever text entry bar you're typing in. I'm guessing that at some point you entered "god loves me" into a search engine or SOMEthing, and then when you created your account, bingo, there it was.
I'm no tech guru though, so if I'm way off base and the next poster IS a techie, be gentle with the flames, please, I prefer to be medium rare, not well done, lol.