Posts by Cicatrix

Here's mine, messy as usual, lol.

http://cicatrix.photostep.com/image/171179968

One of my sons made the heart and barbed-wire picture for me.

Hope you can get to this. It's the first time I've tried to post a picture online. How do you guys post your pictures directly to the thread, anyway?

I can't get my freakin hyperlink to work-grrh. Guess you'll have to cut and paste to see this.
Please excuse my computer aliteracy, lol. I'm learning-verrryyy slowwwwly. I think I'm as old fashioned as my desk, though, heehee.

28

Belief-O-Matic says I'm a Mormon

by rocketman in

i took the "belief-o-matic" survey at beliefnet yesterday, and it looks like i am a mormon.

the survey matches your beliefs on various matters to the creeds of the world's religions and assigns a percentage.

i was 100% church of jesus christ of latter-day saints.

Cicatrix

Every time I take these quizzes, Jehovah's Witness ends up at the bottom. I was involved with the Witnesses for twenty years. What WAS I thinking, lol!

I came up with

1. Unitarian Universalist

2. Secular Humanism

3. Liberal Quaker

4. Neo-Pagan

No real big surprises here.

189

23 yr old female teacher arrested for sex with 14 yr. old boys

by wednesday in

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0628042teach1.html

that is a link to the smoking gun.

the entire story is there.i read the arrest report.

Cicatrix

When I was studying to be a teacher (I've since changed my major), I did an observation in a high school classroom for a semester. I was propositioned by a couple of hormonally charged ninth graders, and set them straight immediately. This is actually quite common, and happens to both male and female teachers.It is so common, my intro to teaching instructor felt the need to continually remind us to be careful when dealing with students to always be clear to delineate the boundaries between teacher and student.The university that had the teaching program I was to enroll in also was very clear about this.This is a professional boundary that is NEVER to be crossed, by men or women.It doesn't matter how "willing" the child is-they are still children, and as a professional who has been entrusted to guide them, it is a teacher's job to uphold the profession's standard.

Fortunately, most teachers don't let their gonads do the thinking.

26

Female Molesters

by L_A_Big_Dawg in

driving home yesterday, i happened upon the tom leykis show.

what caught my attention was that he spoke of a 43 year old woman that was convicted of molesting a 13 or 14 year old boy.

she only got 6 months jail time, 10 years probation, and had to register as a level 1 sex offender (the lowest in that particular state).

Cicatrix

"And a huge part of that is the attitudes that make boys feel that they would never be a victim.

Far too many people give their daughters the talk about protecting themselves from sexual contacts but they fail to give the same message to their sons. Until we let our sons know they have the right to say NO then we are setting them up for the perps will will seek them out.

And "my body saying yes but my mind saying no" is a NO"

I emphatically agree, Lady Lee!

I have four sons and a grandson who have and will be taught this by me, just the same as my daughter was.

I have some male relatives who were sexually abused (by men in these cases) who didn't report it when it happened. The father of one brushed it off as if it were nothing, and questioned why the guy even brought it up when he finally did (he brought it up because we had sons whom we refused to let have anything to do with this man), as it was "so many years ago." I was with him when he told his father, and I told his father that it didn't lessen the pain or the significance of it.All his father did was mumble something about why couldn't I just let it drop, and walked off. Sad, very sad.

26

Female Molesters

by L_A_Big_Dawg in

driving home yesterday, i happened upon the tom leykis show.

what caught my attention was that he spoke of a 43 year old woman that was convicted of molesting a 13 or 14 year old boy.

she only got 6 months jail time, 10 years probation, and had to register as a level 1 sex offender (the lowest in that particular state).

Cicatrix

"I totally agree that the media plays a huge part in telling tohe story - or not."

Yep, if it bleeds, it leads. It's good when they wait to substantiate claims with verifiable sources (which is why there often must be a conviction before it's printed), but so much of it is left up to the individual editor's ideology, and it all boils down to what will sell copy.

26

Female Molesters

by L_A_Big_Dawg in

driving home yesterday, i happened upon the tom leykis show.

what caught my attention was that he spoke of a 43 year old woman that was convicted of molesting a 13 or 14 year old boy.

she only got 6 months jail time, 10 years probation, and had to register as a level 1 sex offender (the lowest in that particular state).

Cicatrix

"Where are the feminists that are demanding equal treatment of women? After all shouldn't justice be blind, theoretically, to gender? Why are many feminists so silent when it comes to equal punishment under law?"

Most feminists I know are very vocal about this issue in person, and feel that there should be equal punishment under the law. You may not read many quotes from them in the media, however, as the word "feminist" has a stigma smeared all over it, and feminists are generally stereotyped as castrating, power hungry biatches who only care about the welfare of members of their own sex.

I've been involved with the newspaper industry, and it was a very eye-opening experience, to say the least.

28

things I do not like about xmas

by zen nudist in

.

aside from the reasons jws give as it being a pagan holiday renamed..... i do not like the fact that parents think nothing of lying to their children about this mythical santa claus.

and the constant hollywood movies making anyone who exposes the gag as an evil monster...while giving children reasons to believe that santa claus really does exist after all...ignore your older friends who have been poisoned by the secular world.. i find it appalling to ever teach a child to simply expect people to give them things just because the calendar says a certain day.. i find the mindless devoution to christmas to be just as appalling as the brainwashing jws do against it... i see people in my office acting like german clocks... the clock strikes easter and the decorate the office, strikes holloween and they decorate again...strikes christmas and more decorations..... then the frets and worries over what to get who and how much to go into debt over it.. i knew one lady who spent over $300 on a child less than two and was very depressed about two weeks later when the novelty wore off and only very inexpensive things returned as the main attraction.

Cicatrix

Hi Zen,

I didn't become a JW until my late teens, so I celebrated Christmas and all the holidays as a child. I do understand what you mean about holiday hype. I have watched family members and friends max out credit cards to try and have the "perfect Christmas" for their kids, then spend years trying to pay off the debt. I also understand your concern about lying to children about Santa (my daughter and son-in-law have chosen not to engage in the Santa myth with my grandson, and I am more than happy to go along with their wishes).

That being said, I'd like to share a little different view with you. I myself am very intrigued by the whole Santa mythology, and have been doing research on it. It's amazing that it pops up in different variations in many cultures, and that it appeals to adults, who wish to hand it down to the next generation, as well as to children.I've done a little research into psychological archetype theory, and I think Santa is some type of an archetype.

I am not sure if you are aware of stages of development, but young children do go through a stage of "magical thinking." My own children, who were never raised to believe in Santa Claus, went through this themselves, then eventually outgrew it. Despite the fact that I never encouraged a belief in mythological beings, they chose to believe in coyotes with hands who could open doors, and other various and sundry creatures.No amount of reasoning on my part could convince them otherwise, lol.

I remember when I stopped believing in the reality of Santa Claus in the second grade. I didn't view it as having been lied to-I felt that I had been taking part in a great game, in which I had been the recipient, and now that I knew the truth of the matter, I would take on a different role, and keep up this great game for the benefit of my younger siblings.

While it is important to be grounded to a certain extent, imagination is also a wonderful trait of the human existence, and in fact, it is imagination coupled with logic that has lead to great discoveries in the various branches of science, such as quantum physics. I think that the very existence of mythology (including Santa mythology) is a great testament to the power of imagination, and I think humans need to exercise imagination just as much as we need to exercise our powers of logical thinking.

This need for imagination may be the reason why holidays make such excellent fodder for advertising agencies. But just because they choose to try and capitiolize on it, doesn't mean that we have to be mindless sheep and follow all the dictates of what a "perfect" holiday is. After all, they use other well known symbols to sell their wares, too, yet no one suggest we give up these things because they are "too commercial".

In our family, we look forward to celebrating holidays, especially Christmas. We haven't doled out tons of money to do so-most of our decorations either came from relatives, yard sales, or thrift shops, or we made them. We have a one gift per person limit in our family, and we pay only cash for our gifts. Last year, there wasn't much cash for gifts, but we still had a tree (we paid $15 for it) and good food, and I picked up some stuff for the kids at a thrift shop and wrapped it all up in paper I bought at the dollar store.We visited with family and watched all the Christmas specials on tv, and participated in helping others through various charities in our areas. To us, this is what Christmas is all about.

And to me, this is what Santa is all about:

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Editorial Page, New York Sun, 1897

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:
Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'HanlonVirginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Regards,

Cicatrix

11

scientology?

by boy@crossroads in

jw
friends

just found this in the april issue of people magazine talking about religious views in hollywood.

there is an insert asking about scientology.

it says, "advocates of the church praise its literacy and drug recovery programs, though its reputation suffers because former members have called it a mind-controlling cult.

Cicatrix

Jgnat,

I scored 14 out of 18-whoohoo! I still remember most of my Seuss, after all these years (I taught myself to read at age four using Dr Seuss books).

11

scientology?

by boy@crossroads in

jw
friends

just found this in the april issue of people magazine talking about religious views in hollywood.

there is an insert asking about scientology.

it says, "advocates of the church praise its literacy and drug recovery programs, though its reputation suffers because former members have called it a mind-controlling cult.

Cicatrix

" "Give us a break," said John Travolta. "Being the bold personalities we are, do you honestly think we'd let ourselves be controlled?" "

Uh, Michael Jackson and the artist formerly known as Prince come to mind. How much bolder can you get than them?