Posts by konceptual99

31

Never Bring a Knife to a Drone Fight

by LoveUniHateExams in

apparently, it's good news, everybody - mohammed emwazi (aka jihadi john) has been targeted by a us drone strike.

the location was in raqqa, syria, a few yards from isis hq, near a clock tower where crucifixions are carried out.

there are conflicting reports, some say he died instantly at 11:40pm yesterday, others say that he was badly injured and taken to a nearby hospital.. from what i've previously read about emwazi, he was apparently terrified of being targeted by drones - yesterday it seems his nightmare was made reality.

konceptual99

The only reason for bringing up the Irish situation is that it illustrates a situation where continued military intervention was only really stopped when the status quo of violence was trumped by the majority marginalising the extremists.

Of course ISIS is a different problem in many ways but it is backed by an ideology that allows the extremism to breed beyond national borders and loyalties. Military intervention over the past 25 years has not stamped out Islamic extremists. It has not marginalised the thinking of these lunatics. The people to change Islam are Moslems.

Extreme behaviour by "Christian" nations stopped when the West became more secular, less dogmatic and more tolerant. It has taken hundreds of years but the pace of change has increased as less and less people have bought into the prejudices that religious belief allows to be propagated.

islam is along way behind but I only see real change coming as the ideology gets marginalised as more and more people are secularised and educated. Making that happen in the Moslem world is the challenge.

31

Never Bring a Knife to a Drone Fight

by LoveUniHateExams in

apparently, it's good news, everybody - mohammed emwazi (aka jihadi john) has been targeted by a us drone strike.

the location was in raqqa, syria, a few yards from isis hq, near a clock tower where crucifixions are carried out.

there are conflicting reports, some say he died instantly at 11:40pm yesterday, others say that he was badly injured and taken to a nearby hospital.. from what i've previously read about emwazi, he was apparently terrified of being targeted by drones - yesterday it seems his nightmare was made reality.

konceptual99

Odd then how it worked in Japan and Germany.

You can't compare the two - the context and situations are very different. Radical Islamism is a thought virus. Repeated attempts to stamp it our have failed over and over again. I am not arguing that there is no case for military intervention just that real change cannot be forced on people with the sort of entrenched ideological lunacy inherent within jihadist Islam. There has to be a fundamental change in the mindset.

31

Never Bring a Knife to a Drone Fight

by LoveUniHateExams in

apparently, it's good news, everybody - mohammed emwazi (aka jihadi john) has been targeted by a us drone strike.

the location was in raqqa, syria, a few yards from isis hq, near a clock tower where crucifixions are carried out.

there are conflicting reports, some say he died instantly at 11:40pm yesterday, others say that he was badly injured and taken to a nearby hospital.. from what i've previously read about emwazi, he was apparently terrified of being targeted by drones - yesterday it seems his nightmare was made reality.

konceptual99

Ermm....try the fact the IRA lost its main finance/support network after 9/11 when the US population had a taste of what terrorism actually means...
That said...basically, in the case of Ireland, terroism worked

Accepting that the the causes of both the start and end of the Troubles are more complex than any single sentence you or I could write, I think you'll find the Good Friday Agreement pre-dates 9'11 by several years.

I have no doubt that any argument suggesting that the British Government really stood by some public stance of not talking to terrorists is utter rubbish but there is no doubt that the perpetuation of extreme violence to support either end of the idealogical spectrum lost it's appeal over time to a greater proportion of the population.

Of course concessions were made. The inclusion of Sinn Fein in the political process and into Stormont was critical in seeing the end of the violence. You can argue terrorism worked however there was no unification of Ireland. There was no complete delivery by the IRA of their ultimate aims. If Northern Ireland needs defending it will be the British Army that does so. The majority of Unionists lost interest in listening to the moronic ramblings of Paisley and Adams and McGuinness had to present an acceptable political face rather than be seen as the puppets of a bunch of paramilitaries.

The extremism of ISIS leaves no room for such compromise. Military action may be the only way of containing the problem for the moment but ultimately it will need solving by communication and hopefully the moderate voices shall start to gain traction at some point.

63

Raining before the Flood?

by GrownMidget in

i remember at my teen years when i was studying with a brother that he said to me that there was no rain before the flood.

instead there was this mist that you have.

never before or after this have i heard something like this.

konceptual99

Nice one George - I'd forgotten that one.

31

Never Bring a Knife to a Drone Fight

by LoveUniHateExams in

apparently, it's good news, everybody - mohammed emwazi (aka jihadi john) has been targeted by a us drone strike.

the location was in raqqa, syria, a few yards from isis hq, near a clock tower where crucifixions are carried out.

there are conflicting reports, some say he died instantly at 11:40pm yesterday, others say that he was badly injured and taken to a nearby hospital.. from what i've previously read about emwazi, he was apparently terrified of being targeted by drones - yesterday it seems his nightmare was made reality.

konceptual99

@luhe

Correct - they might might be perfectly sane just completely indoctrinated. The use of the term "mental" is relative. Anyone who is prepared to cut off the head of an aid worker just because of political and religious ideals is mental even if they don't have a medically definable mental illness.

I'm not questioning the principle of a military role, just that the solution has to be a complete change in attitude of the majority of people. The end of the troubles in Northern Ireland was essentially because the majority of people got tired of living in an urban war zone. Their ideals were trumped by their desire to have a normal life and the moderate voices started to outweigh the extremists.

The Israel/Palestinian issue and the West/extreme Islam conflicts are no where near this tipping point but will be one day I hope. The other problem is that all the wannabe jihadi lunatics are only too pleased to be squashed like a bug. Take away an afterlife full of virgins and then see how many of them want to blow themselves up...

19

Book Review: The Hunt for Vulcan: . . . And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe

by Viviane in

i recently read this book and found it to be excellent.

it's the story of how we never stop knowing, how science works (even when it doesn't), how gracefully math can describe the world we live in and more.

the story begins with how sir isaac newton, author of pricipia mathematica and holder of the lucasian chair at cambridge, developed math to describe the gravity and the motion of the planets with no need god holding them in place.

konceptual99

Thanks for the recommendation. I was looking for something to read in the popular science vein.

31

Never Bring a Knife to a Drone Fight

by LoveUniHateExams in

apparently, it's good news, everybody - mohammed emwazi (aka jihadi john) has been targeted by a us drone strike.

the location was in raqqa, syria, a few yards from isis hq, near a clock tower where crucifixions are carried out.

there are conflicting reports, some say he died instantly at 11:40pm yesterday, others say that he was badly injured and taken to a nearby hospital.. from what i've previously read about emwazi, he was apparently terrified of being targeted by drones - yesterday it seems his nightmare was made reality.

konceptual99

As glad as I am that this evil nutjob got what was coming to him, sadly there are thousands of equally mental nutjobs waiting in the wings to take his place.

The problem of radical Islam getting to any point of reconciliation with progressive, humanist values requires a sea change in attitude aside from a large political change. It will never be solved through military means.

12

Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31st August 2013 for Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain

by OrphanCrow in

downloadable as a pdf here.. i did a search and couldn't find this posted on the forum.

if it has been and this is a repeat post....i apologize.. there is lots of information in that pdf that may be of interest to our members who like numbers and money and misc info pertaining to wts organizational structure, etc..

konceptual99

No disrespect taken. This financial statement did not turn up in searches on this forum. If you can find a thread on this forum where this has already been discussed, it would be much appreciated. No disrespect intended.

I linked to them in this thread:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/499050001/jw-deny-rumours-moving-uk-hq-chelmsford-project-has-collaspe

and referenced the documents in a reply to Jeff in this thread:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/493870004/how-read-financial-statements

63

Raining before the Flood?

by GrownMidget in

i remember at my teen years when i was studying with a brother that he said to me that there was no rain before the flood.

instead there was this mist that you have.

never before or after this have i heard something like this.

konceptual99

At the meeting last night I was already steaming and boiling more than Noah would have been underneath all that water vapour and then someone went and misread one of the paragraphs and said the ark was the biggest vessel EVER built - bigger than the super cargo ships and massive cruise liners that sail the world today.

I let out a barely concealed snigger and went back to reading New Scientist.

33

Letter to be read at meeting this week about the downsize

by dropoffyourkeylee in

a family member who is a bethelite informed me today that there is a letter to be read soon ( this week or next) concerning the downsizing.

so probably someone who has their midweek meeting early in the week will be able to fill in the details.

konceptual99

sir82 and Simon have called this 100% correct.

Announcements have to be made so there is a clear party line to push cynical and critical comments underground.

In the main however, no one mentally in will care. Everything is a blessing, everything is an evidence of the chariot going at warp factor 10 even if it's a direct contradiction of a previous announcement.

The good news is that when people do start asking questions, the double speak is highly visible. The audit trail of what the organisation has said in the publications has been well documented for some time (e.g. jwfacts). The move to distributing BoE letters and other internal documents electronically has opened up more about processes and procedures to scrutiny. Most recently, the visibility of the GB and their need to respond more rapidly to community chatter means that there is no longer a simple wall of silence (AKA "waiting on Jehovah") where the org felt no desire to say anything.

So, letters like this mean very little to most dubs in terms of their cognitive dissonance. To those waking up however, they are yet more pieces in the jigsaw of WTS propaganda.