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Being sick of Jehovah's Witnesses at your door isn't good enough reason to shove them, court rules
By adamg on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 7:48pm
The Massachusetts Appeals Court has upheld a Newton man's conviction for pushing two Jehovah's Witnesses who'd rung his door - sending one to the hospital with a broken shoulder and arm after she lost her balance and fell.
Neal Farber was arrested on Aug. 13, 2008 after allegedly pushing the two 60-something women away from his house after first screaming at them that he was tired of them and their religion.
Farber acknowledged yelling at the women, but said he didn't push them; both, he said, tripped on his crappy front walkway, in bad need of repair.
A Middlesex County jury disagreed, and in an unpublished ruling last week, the appeals court said Farber got a fair trial and that it wasn't the responding police officer's fault if Farber kept talking to him even after being advised of his rights. The court summarized the events of the day:
The defendant, who had been working in his upstairs office, came downstairs and opened the door. Ms. Noone identified herself and Ms. Johns as Jehovah's witnesses and started to talk about a tract that was in her hand. The defendant had worked at home for many years and Jehovah's Witnesses had come to his home on several occasions. Each time he had told them that he did not want anyone coming to his home and trying to convert him to their religion. After learning the women's intentions to speak to him about the bible, the defendant yelled at them to leave. As they turned to leave, the defendant followed them outside, yelling, 'nobody wants you around here,' and 'your religion shits.' The two women went down the walkway followed by the defendant, who was still yelling at them. His voice got louder as he came closer to them.
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Comments
but
is it OK to want to shove them?
Sure
Only if you're a weak little excuse for a man.
What's a good excuse for a
What's a good excuse for a man? Forcing some silly superstitions on people who don't want to be bothered? (This applies to all proselytizers, not just JW's) We're out of the middle ages, people.
Put your faith in the Scientific Method. Identify a problem, propose a hypothesis, conduct experiments, make observations, etc.
Religious Method: God did it. If you continue to question His actions, you'll go to hell.
Epic Fail
No one said anything about the validity of their claims. They're just as silly as any other religion. Don't let that keep you from arguing with the guy in your head though.
Do you punch out the Greenpeace kids when they knock on your door or are 60 year old women all you can handle?
Science at it's finest: The
Science at it's finest:
The professor of a university challenged his students with this question. "Did God create everything that exists?" A student answered bravely, "Yes, he did". The professor then asked, "If God created everything, then he created evil. Since evil exists (as noticed by our own actions), so God is evil. The student couldn't respond to that statement causing the professor to conclude that he had "proved" that "belief in God" was a fairy tale, and therefore worthless. Another student raised his hand and asked the professor, "May I pose a question? " "Of course" answered the professor. The young student stood up and asked : "Professor does Cold exists?" The professor answered, "What kind of question is that? ...Of course the cold exists... haven't you ever been cold?" The young student answered, "In fact sir, Cold does not exist. According to the laws of Physics, what we consider cold, in fact is the absence of heat. Anything is able to be studied as long as it transmits energy (heat). Absolute Zero is the total absence of heat, but cold does not exist. What we have done is create a term to describe how we feel if we don't have body heat or we are not hot." "And, does Dark exist?", he continued. The professor answered "Of course". This time the student responded, "Again you're wrong, Sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in fact simply the absence of light. Light can be studied, darkness can not. Darkness cannot be broken down. A simple ray of light tears the darkness and illuminates the surface where the light beam finishes. Dark is a term that we humans have created to describe what happens when there's lack of light." Finally, the student asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?" The professor replied, "Of course it exists, as I mentioned at the beginning, we see violations, crimes and violence anywhere in the world, and those things are evil." The student responded, "Sir, Evil does not exist. Just as in the previous cases, Evil is a term which man has created to describe the result of the absence of God's presence in the hearts of man." After this, the professor bowed down his head, and didn't answer back. The young man's name was ALBERT EINSTEIN
Citation for this:
Re: fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd:
Prove this story exists and that Einstein had anything to do with it. I'm betting the line of "evidence" for it terminates in some prayer circle. Einstein wasn't a student for very long - not in large classes anyway. He was an odd clerk who mostly taught himself or sought out mentors.
Let me guess: you found it via e-mail forward or on one of those silly "IT MUST BE TRUE AND SNOPES IS A COMMUNIST" places, because this is what Snopes has to say about this "story": http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp
regardless of einstein being
regardless of einstein being involved, it does prove something.
Perhaps by prove, you mean
Perhaps by prove, you mean the absence of knowledge?
Please don't repeat BS like that
It reeks of a story that came from a religious advocate, who stole a clever argument and embellished it with made-up bullshit to make it more persuasive to idiots, then delivered it with a smug, self-satisfied expression.
(Then he reluctantly had to excuse himself, much as he would like to stay and smirk, because he was running late to molest some more altar boys.)
Thanks for posting that
So that I could post this:
http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp
There are no atheist in the
There are no atheist in the ICU.
no atheists in the ICU
but plenty of people in the morgue know the sad truth.
just like A.A
Jehovah's Witnesses is a CULT!
I can understand being tired
I can understand being tired of them coming, but thats a little bit rediculous. Assaulting a religious person, kind of ironic.
He did tell them many times before
You think they might have a list of houses or something. You know, one which tells them, "this guy is a nutcase who's sick of us..."...
Heaven can wait
Way back when a friend of mine got tired of dealing with JW's at the door and one day answered wearing black eyeliner, all black clothes and his pentagram around his neck. They just sort of looked at him and before they could say anything he said "I worship Satan." They never came back to his house. Of course that could have backfired and they could have returned the next day for a 100 person prayer-fest on his lawn, but in this case it seemed to work -- so it seems like there might be some sort of intel they share with one another about the houses in a neighborhood.
Oddly enough, just smiling, saying "no thank you. Good bye" and closing the door while they're still talking works really well and doesn't get your blood pressure up and returns you to your work the quickest.
No need for dramatics
I just smile and say, "I'm Catholic. We're really hard to convert." Then I wish them a good day and close the door.
My father, who is much more patient than I am, used to take a different approach and invite them in, then debate with them about their interpretation of scripture. Thirty minutes of that and they rarely came back again.
There are Catholics, and then there are...
Funny, my mother used to take that approach - sort of. In a way that few women I've ever met could, she would say that we were "very militant Roman Catholics" and she needed to add nothing more before J-Hova was on his way back down the driveway.
The best part was that she hadn't been to mass in decades.
Living in a shitty apartment building works, too
Hardly ever any evangelists, fund-raisers, or campaigners. And we don't even have to buy candy at Halloween, because ours it one of those buildings that parents hurry their children past.
Thank you, bloated Boston housing prices and shitty housing stock.
Is there an exemption ...
for chasing non-fed young missionaries from your doorstep on Thanksgiving with the family shotgun when they arrive and offer to lead your family prayer?
Yes, we had this happen with a couple of Mormon missionaries (not the shotgun part, though!) I talked to my office mate about it - she and her husband attended the local meeting - and it appears their leader didn't feed them that day and expected them to just go invite themselves to dinner somewhere. It was dealt with.