nornen:

Nephihaha:My local Mormon chapel DOESN'T have a basketball court. LOL!

Then they aren't proselytising hard enough. Right this morning at 8:45 I was waiting for a meeting to start at 9:00 and was having a smoke. Somewhere near 12th street with 4th avenue of zone 9, Guatemala City. And I was right in front of a church called "iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los últimos días". And they had... a basketball court. I really was tempted to take a photo, but I thought that a nice photo on lernu.net wouldn't justify to get me mugged and my phone stolen.

Just out of passing interest... here is a Mormon site in Esperanto...
http://poresperantamormonaro.weebly.com/

nornen:

kaŝperanto:They are also always dressed so nice.

But they stand no chance against proselytising Mormons: those are even better dressed, have even worse sunburns,... and they have basketball courts. Seriously. They do have basketball courts in front of all their churches. Other proselytising christians can go home, Mormons won. Like really, basketball courts! You can't beat that. Mormons are the Harlem Globetrotters of missionaries. Trick shot right into heaven.

Dear Jehova's Witnesses,
if you want to compete in the Proselytism Games of 2015, stop building watch towers. Build basketball courts!

yours sincerely
Nornen

P.D.: I have not even a clue about the doctrine of the Mormons, but I don't care. They have basketball courts.

I know a former Mormon, and she said that the best way to repel a Jehova's Witness is to say you are a Mormon. Apparently their conversion rate is higher, so it is more likely that a Mormon will convert them than the other way around, so the Witnesses are instructed to leave you alone in that case.

kaŝperanto:

nornen:

kaŝperanto:They are also always dressed so nice.

But they stand no chance against proselytising Mormons: those are even better dressed, have even worse sunburns,... and they have basketball courts. Seriously. They do have basketball courts in front of all their churches. Other proselytising christians can go home, Mormons won. Like really, basketball courts! You can't beat that. Mormons are the Harlem Globetrotters of missionaries. Trick shot right into heaven.

Dear Jehova's Witnesses,
if you want to compete in the Proselytism Games of 2015, stop building watch towers. Build basketball courts!

yours sincerely
Nornen

P.D.: I have not even a clue about the doctrine of the Mormons, but I don't care. They have basketball courts.

I know a former Mormon, and she said that the best way to repel a Jehova's Witness is to say you are a Mormon. Apparently their conversion rate is higher, so it is more likely that a Mormon will convert them than the other way around, so the Witnesses are instructed to leave you alone in that case.

This is so awesome. Just the idea. Two proselytising sects of the same overall religion estimating their relative combat readiness. It is just hilarious and ridiculous.

Mormon: Vegeta, what does your scouter say about his power level???!!!
Jehova's Witness: It is over nine thousand!!! [1]

----
[1] The japanese original states "八千以上だ", but we won't start arguing about 1,000.

nornen:
This is so awesome. Just the idea. Two proselytising sects of the same overall religion estimating their relative combat readiness. It is just hilarious and ridiculous.

Mormon: Vegeta, what does your scouter say about his power level???!!!
Jehova's Witness: It is over nine thousand!!! [1]

----
[1] The japanese original states "八千以上だ", but we won't start arguing about 1,000.

Hah, I never even really watched much of that show, but the reference is quite pervasive. It does seem odd that they would have reasoned over that subject. I just imagine a secret meeting in which they negotiate terms with the leaders of the other sect - the Geneva Convention of spiritual warfare.

kaŝperanto:

nornen:

kaŝperanto:They are also always dressed so nice.

But they stand no chance against proselytising Mormons: those are even better dressed, have even worse sunburns,... and they have basketball courts. Seriously. They do have basketball courts in front of all their churches. Other proselytising christians can go home, Mormons won. Like really, basketball courts! You can't beat that. Mormons are the Harlem Globetrotters of missionaries. Trick shot right into heaven.

Dear Jehova's Witnesses,
if you want to compete in the Proselytism Games of 2015, stop building watch towers. Build basketball courts!

yours sincerely
Nornen

P.D.: I have not even a clue about the doctrine of the Mormons, but I don't care. They have basketball courts.

I know a former Mormon, and she said that the best way to repel a Jehova's Witness is to say you are a Mormon. Apparently their conversion rate is higher, so it is more likely that a Mormon will convert them than the other way around, so the Witnesses are instructed to leave you alone in that case.

Or you can just do what a former roommate of mine would do: answer the door naked.

orthohawk:

kaŝperanto:

nornen:

kaŝperanto:They are also always dressed so nice.

But they stand no chance against proselytising Mormons: those are even better dressed, have even worse sunburns,... and they have basketball courts. Seriously. They do have basketball courts in front of all their churches. Other proselytising christians can go home, Mormons won. Like really, basketball courts! You can't beat that. Mormons are the Harlem Globetrotters of missionaries. Trick shot right into heaven.

Dear Jehova's Witnesses,
if you want to compete in the Proselytism Games of 2015, stop building watch towers. Build basketball courts!

yours sincerely
Nornen

P.D.: I have not even a clue about the doctrine of the Mormons, but I don't care. They have basketball courts.

I know a former Mormon, and she said that the best way to repel a Jehova's Witness is to say you are a Mormon. Apparently their conversion rate is higher, so it is more likely that a Mormon will convert them than the other way around, so the Witnesses are instructed to leave you alone in that case.

Or you can just do what a former roommate of mine would do: answer the door naked.

Did he roam around naked in the off chance a Witness would show up, or did he check the peephole and take the time to strip before answering the door? I imagine there must have been quite a few awkward incidents with the mailman if it was the first case, not to mention his being a naked roommate.

kaŝperanto:

orthohawk:

kaŝperanto:

nornen:

Did he roam around naked in the off chance a Witness would show up, or did he check the peephole and take the time to strip before answering the door? I imagine there must have been quite a few awkward incidents with the mailman if it was the first case, not to mention his being a naked roommate.

People approaching the front door could be seen from the living room window. Once day shortly after he moved in, we were watching TV and all of a sudden, he jumped up and started shucking clothes. I asked what was going on and he just said "Jehovah's Witnesses!" and then went to the front door and waited for the knock. He has a strange sense of humor.

kaŝperanto:I say in the abstract I absolutely support one world government. In reality at the present time I can't, but it is an inevitability in the long term (unless we cease to progress). Once we get to the point where there are few-to-no uneducated people left in the world I'd say it would be a very important step in the right direction. Until then the uneducated, ignorant, or otherwise gullible masses will be used politically for the will of the ruling class (or, even more terrifying, for their own misguided will). I'm as apprehensive of a powerful central authority as the next guy, but I'm even more afraid of allowing some nations or individual people to do whatever the bleep they want because it is their "right" to do/think/act as they do.

I suppose it is similar to how social/communism could potentially work if everyone is "on-board" (i.e. not selfish/corrupt/other impossible things). I wouldn't see this happening until we have solved energy and food problems, and reconciled the vast disparity in wealth between 1st world countries and the rest of the world's population. We are still too much of an "infana raso" to fully realize most great things (Esperanto/another universal language included).

One world government does not mean one authoritarian government. Why can we not have a "federal" type system like exists between the states and the central government in the US? There certainly exists now enough people who could place the whole world above their own national interests, but there is no way they could stand being politicians.

As for correlatives, they just take time to master. I recommend separately mastering the beginnings (ki-, ti-, cxi-, neni-, i-, etc.) and the endings (-u, -o, -el, etc.). That way you can always figure out what a correlative means, but it might take you some time to just hear "iel" and think "somehow" right away.

I agree with you, but probably we think too much as people who live in the United States. In other parts of the world, they have a different opinion of reality.

gianich73:
I agree with you, but probably we think too much as people who live in the United States. In other parts of the world, they have a different opinion of reality.

In what way do we think too much? Most people I meet don't think much at all. We certainly think far less than those of the 20th century about a multitude of issues. We care more about virtual realities than about our own.

robbkvasnak:[You said it: TOGETHER... (the American must realize and admit they're not alone on this planet, which is not theirs...)/quote]Uff! Ĉevino, there is no one single "American" - this seems to be a pathological mental disorder that you have. There are over 315 million US-Americans and just under 1 billion "Americans" (i.e. residents in the Americas).
I live in an American country and probably the one that you (somewhat erroneously) refer to as "America", i.e. the United States of America. I, too, am discouraged by a majority of the people who are my neighbors and those who live within the borders of the country I live in - not all of them are citizens and so it is hard to classify them with one word - I have 35 students who fall into this category.
If we are to have a civilized conversation, one that really leads to solutions and answers, name-calling and sweeping generalizations lead nowhere - worse, they result in faulty conclusions, demagogy, hate and prejudice.
If we are to survive on our little blue planet, then we need clear-headed conversations - especially among Esperantists who by definition have a basic concept of the problem of human communication on a larger-than-national basis.
Yes, there are people in the world - like the Koch brothers but also the Mexican Mr. Slim - who think that because they have amassed monetary wealth that they speak for the world. Yes, the supreme court in the USA gave broad, unprecedented power to the rich in our country to influence politics with their ill-gained or inherited money - to the detriment of those living in this country AND ABROAD. But if we try to put everyone in the same category as these selfish, super rich egoists, we divide to our own disadvantage in the argument for sanity.
Please try to remain within civil discourse and stop ranting.

Cannot have been better said. And I am a born American from Cuba.