JV
This side of the International Dateline, nothing much has changed (yet!) that I can see:
- and we are already now well into the morning of Saturday, 22 December.
I am writing this, of course, from deep down inside the bomb shelter that we built just in case the Mayans had it right!
Bill.
for the record, i don't think a person should be able to use "assault weapons" or "machine guns" or "rocket launchers".
i do think guns should be allowed.
but certainly not everyone is "qualified" to use a firearm.. even if you legally, rightfully can have a weapon, it doesn't mean that a "kook" wouldn't steal it and use it in a nefarious way.. i am convinced that you could take licenses away from drinkers and they still could get behind the wheel and wreak havoc.. you could ban switchblades and gun silencers and people will still find a way to quickly slice you up or muffle a sound.. you could ban or try to curtail cough medicines and people will still find a way to get high.. we cannot, government cannot---control what people will do.
bohm,
Nugget does make a valid point, to quote "However, what you can do is make it harder for them to cause harm." (In the same manner , if a burglar really wants to get into your house, he will - no matter what you do. That fact, though, does not mean we despairingly throw our hands up in the air and leave our homes unlocked. We can and do implement measures to make it harder for a would be thief - even if it only serves to make him move on to easier pickings!)
There will always be violence, guns or no guns. However, the contribution firearms have made has been to make violence more deadly - which is why they were introduced in the first place. (The destruction one person armed with an AK-47 is capable of carrying out is out of all proportion to what that same individual could do if he were armed with nothing more than a chunk of rock or a length of timber!)
We can, though - as nugget says - make it harder for disturbed individuals to get hold of a firearm;
-such measures as requiring guns to be kept locked in secure containers, or vetting of firearms owners for mental instability, criminal records etc. (Down in this part of the world, that is what we have to do -and speaking for myself, a licensed firearm owner, I have never had a problem with that).
Bill.
we have 9 guns for every 10 people in this country.
since more guns = better protection, i keep asking myself why there is so much gun violence here ???.
i don't see such violence in canada, australia, europe, japan and other so-called "advanced" countries.. what is wrong with us here.
The map displayed by jgnat (Post 18632), showing the rate of firearm caused homocides by country is interesting.
One of the countries with the highest rates of firearm caused homocides is Papua New Guinea (which comes as no surprise to anybody who has lived there, as I have!)
You talk about gun control, in PNG it is extremely difficult to legally own a firearm. Their gun control laws are amongst the most stringent in the world. Yet, as the statistics confirm - and anybody who has lived there would know - it has one of the highest rates of firearms related deaths in the world.
In that country, the "raskols" (i.e. The Pidgin term for criminals) have little difficulty getting their hands on firearms:
- they either make themselves a dangerous but effective 12 gauge shotgun out of a length of 0.75 inch waterpipe, and using as a firing mechanism a piece of bicycle tube propelling a coomercially made bolt.
- otherwise, an M-16 assault rifle or an older FN-100 self loading rifle is not too difficult to acquire from a corrupt police officer (which is most of them) or a cash-hungry soldier in the Defence Force.
Proof, if it were needed, that harsher gun control laws in themselves are not guaranteed to improve matters.
My experience, anyway,
Bill.
i was thinking about this the other day when doing a bit of tidying up of my wardrobe.
all the kh suits are now pushed to the back of the wardrobe and i am seriously thinking about a visit to the charity shop to get rid of most of them.. for me one of the (few) enjoyable aspects of being a jw was getting dressed up.
my secular work very rarely involves putting on a dress suit & tie so i miss getting dressed up - smart suit , tie , shiny shoes , slapping on the aftershave.
In a word, no.
Having lived much of my life in the tropics, the JW's dress code was utterly inappropriate, having been set by fashions in an entirely different climate zone. As viewed by the community in general, anybody strutting around in a suit, long sleeved shirt and tie in that heat was just an idiot - make that a bloody idiot!
I am happy to say that since breaking with The Cancer nearly 20 years ago, I have hardly ever worn a tie since.
Bill.
Steve2,
I tend to agree that this deluded bloody fool (F.W. Franz) probably did believe his own propaganda.
Bill.
dear djegg, with your wisdom and insights into the watchtower theology, do you agree with their new "faithful slave" teaching?
you have not posted for a while, can you share your insights please?
i ask djegg because very few know jw theology the way he/she knows their doctrines and dogmas.
DJDamnFool was still about four days ago, when he / she had a few words to say about a favorite subject. (Read - contributed an explosion of verbal diarrhea to a post about "Analysis of 607 BCe Rebuttals."
Bill.
share with us memories of the bizarre, funny, strange, what you hated, what you miss...we all have them.
(question..why the big to do between terms- convention and assembly .
Terry,
Something similar!
I was 18 when I attended the "Divine Victory" international assembly in 1973, and was smitten by the love bug for the very first time. For me, the most memorable assembly ever.
Bill.
i posted this on an older thread, but i wanted to get an honest opinion about this from all of you.
i think taking the 1975 approach with a jw is...weak.
was it wrong (and false prophetic) of them?
They may not have said so in so many words, but the thought was certainly left hanging there, and it was plainly obvious what they wanted us to think.
With all communication, it is not just what you say that matters, but more importantly, how it is going to be interpreted (this coming from somebody involved with High Voltage switching operations, where mis-interpretation of a written message is likely to result in death).
All I can say is that if the WTS didn't want us to think that 1975 was a probability, then their communication skills were abysmal!
Biil.
my life has been transformed by higher education.
however, i am aware that college is not for everyone.. here are some interesting thoughts:.
http://www.theatlasphere.com/columns/080926-williams-higher-education.php.
All I know is that the $80 per hour I am now paid as an electrical engineer is definitely superior to the $30 per hour I was on as a "sparky":
- to say nothing of the improvement in working conditions (having previously worked in such unsavoury environments as the rendering plant at a local meat processing plant).
My present employer is rather unique, though, being prepared to recognize that a person's sheer amount of practical experience can compensate for lack of academic qualifications. In practice, almost always you would not get even a look in without a four year engineering degree to your name.
Consequently, I cringe whenever hearing about somebody passing up the opportunity to go to college (as I did, for cultic reasons), or deciding to drop out from college once there.
Bill.
(With a 40 year degree from the University of Hard Knocks!)
are you moving on?.
i see some have a very hard time in life because of their witness past..
Not anymore. It was badly damaged, but in the last eleven years, I have been able to rebuild my life.
Like many, I felt badly affected by the WTS's anti-stance toward a university education. Currently, though, I am in the process of applying for membership of the Institute of Engineers, as an Engineering Associate (this is about as far as a busted @$$ electrician like me, who is staring down the barrels of 60 years of age, can aspire to go!)
If successful, I would feel a certain sense of satisfaction from achieving this on the 40th anniversary of their making me abandon my apprenticeship. Anybody want to wish me luck?
Bill.
