Pudgy

Neither gold, or bitcoin will have any value in the aftermath of a nuclear war.
The ONLY precious metal will be Lead.
...and besides, most of the USA's gold is in basement vaults in the banks in New York City, in case international transactions need to be made between governments, in gold.
Whether it is radioactive or not, the gold in Fort Knox is only a symbol, which with the USA now 22 TRILLION dollars in debt, printing money with no backing whatsoever, it far exceeds the entire gold reserves of the entire Planet Earth, several times over.

I guess a good way to know is by being able to count how many outside people show up at the ZOOM meetings.
I have noticed more “regulars” are showing up with sharper webcams, and green screens, or virtual backgrounds.
I do wish they would adjust the camera angles so as not to emphasize neck waddles and nose hair. 

SCENARIO ONE:   Let's assume that everyone reading these words has full and complete knowledge of the "King Of The North".
SCENARIO TWO:  Let's assume that everyone reading these words knows absolutely nothing about the "King Of The North", and visualizes either Santa Clause, or Superman in his Fortress of Solitude, or nothing at all.
NOTHING we can do about it.
Why not spend our time on something we CAN do something about?
Could be Theocratic or secular ... complicated or simple ... anything at all!
About the "King Of The North", whoever it is, and whatever occurs, we are completely powerless.
For you it may be more valuable to sit down with a protractor and a calculator, and teach yourself coordinate geometry.
For me, it might be more valuable to visit my Mom at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm.
Infinite variety.
 

I guess a good way to know is by being able to count how many outside people show up at the ZOOM meetings.
I have noticed more “regulars” are showing up with sharper webcams, and green screens, or virtual backgrounds.
I do wish they would adjust the camera angles so as not to emphasize neck waddles and nose hair. 

I guess a good way to know is by being able to count how many outside people show up at the ZOOM meetings.
I have noticed more “regulars” are showing up with sharper webcams, and green screens, or virtual backgrounds.
I do wish they would adjust the camera angles so as not to emphasize neck waddles and nose hair. 

When you hear tapping, tapping, gently rapping, tapping in your house late at night, it may be a Raven, or a Demon using Morse Code.

Hmmmmm……. I always thought those tunnels were used for giant radioactive ant men to get to central Australia. 
….. since the “other” stories about the tunnels have no proof, mine is EQUALLY valid. 
…… and Certainly worth what you paid for it.
For $15.00 I will send you a genuine hand drawn map!

I don’t know of any forum besides this one that is not fully skewed one way or the other. Are there any? 
There are many sites run by those who unabashedly oppose Jehovah’s people. These I would never take part in, for I would feel like a troll if I did. You have to let someone else’s point of view stand on their own website. 
That’s not to say that I have never done it. I have in the past, on an experimental basis, to see what would happen. Never so much as to be thought of a ‘regular’ anywhere. I don’t do it anymore.
I even owe @Pudgy’s friend an apology, for I told him I had commented on a hostile site maybe 3 or 4 times. It was at least 12 times, he said! No, it was 3 or 4–why on earth would I lie about that? He responded that he used to be an engineer for the municipality, and as such, he learned to be precise. I told him that if he used to be a municipal engineer and no longer was, possibly the reason was that he could not count!! Furthermore, I would hate to visit whatever city he was the waterworks engineer in, for no doubt under his stewardship there wasn’t a single toilet there that flushed!
However, much later I realized he was right. There had been over a dozen, but only 3 or 4 recently. The rest were so long ago and on another website that I had forgotten about them! So maybe the toilets are okay after all.
Since then I have been on the Reddit site a few times, but no longer. That began when i found the Philly.com reporter wrote a front page anti-JW article and then returned to that forum where he was hailed as a hero! If he goes there for his “facts,” I figured, maybe I can go there and present a few that are more balanced. But I stopped. I was being a troll, and I don’t like to be a troll.
The downside of handling apostates the way we do is that we almost create an aura of mystique about them that they do not deserve. On some level, they are no more than Demas, who left Paul because he loved the present system of things. Plus, if someone, often a youth, falls for the oldest trick in the book—going somewhere because he has been advised not to—he or she comes across material that they are completely unprepared for, and may be stumbled. Thereafter few are able to help them because they don’t know what is there themselves. That’s originally why @Annabegan familiarizing herself with ‘apostate’ thinking. She had a teenage son, and did not want to find herself helpless in the event he came across hostile material & was troubled. (Last I heard, he is now an adult, doing just fine, has never displayed such curiosity, and is bemused that his mom keeps up with weirdos on the internet.)
I wrote ‘TrueTom vs the Apostates’ with the recommendation not to read it unless you were one troubled by all the bile opposers throw our way, that if you were one who could shut off the TV, pull the plug on the computer, or stuff the newspaper in the trash at a anti—JW presentation without ever giving another thought to it, then there’s no reason to read TTvtA,, but if not, well—that’s why I wrote it.
They have a mystique they do not deserve and part of that reason is we lend it to them by such insistent direction to STAY AWAY. It is good counsel, and it is scriptural counsel for sure, but everything is a matter of degree. I think it can be observed that if apostates were a huge issue in the first century (and they were—no NT writer does not deal with them, and two Bible chapters are exclusively devoted to them) then they should correspondingly be a huge issue today. Nobody has apostates so vitriolic as do Jehovah’s Witnesses. What if we didn’t have any? Wouldn’t you have to wonder why, since they are so plainly in the NT? ‘Our’ apostates exactly pattern themselves after the pattern of the first-century, and they thereby validate us. I am almost proud of ours. Ours are the best. 
The chapter ‘Who are the apostates?’ has quotes from a few scholarly types who point out that ‘apostates’ almost have to attack their former faith with brainwashing and mind-control memes, otherwise they have to explain how, if it is as bad as they now maintain it is, they could have been so stupid as to follow it in the first place. I wrote the book to forward a response with views that I had never seen presented before. I forget what the free download section is. At first it was the standard 10%, then I made the whole book free, then later 1/3–I forget what it is now.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/917311
At long last I’m getting books into print. Don’t Know Why is available now on Amazon, Tom Irregardless will be very soon, and TTvtA after that. Alas, it is already time for TTvtA—Round 2, but it will be a long time before that sees the light of day.
I think we have a “good” assortment of “apostates” on this forum in that some of them are flat-out crazy, and the ones that aren’t are over-the-top in their venom—‘hate OCD’ is how Aruana puts it, and it is hard to argue with regard to spiritual things that it is not so. Might some be persuaded by them? I’m sure some are, but I haven’t seen it happen here. With but one negligible exception, nobody here, good guys or bad, has budged one iota in basic orientation. Surely people can see that there is not the tiniest amount of spiritual food provided by ones here who oppose, even ones who claim anointed status. Maybe you can argue that the spiritual food provided by God’s organization is not without a pebble here and there, necessitating revisions as “the light gets brighter,” but there is none whatsoever from the hostile ones here.
Some of them are broken people. @JW Insider considered one of them not long ago and felt terribly for her. That doesn’t mean that they can be fixed by human hands. Horrible suffering is endemic in the world today, and some of it has happened in a Witness context. Hopefully they will respond to present reach-out efforts from the Christian organization, but just how, or if, they will respond must remain in their court.
I am reminded of a Bashevis Singer short story in which a 19th-century Jewish settlement in Poland is paralyzed because the priest (rabbi?) cannot bring himself to sacrifice animals. He just loves them too much; he is too kind and gentle. Finally one settler tells him that it’s fine to be merciful, but he doesn’t have to be more merciful than God. 
 
 

I remember from about 1962 to 1965 in the Truth many people were telling each other stories about demons, ectoplasm phantoms, and other "ghost stories", which I did not believe, but it was clear that THEY believed them, as they told them with serious rapt attention to detail.
...always relating someone elses' experiences ... never their own .... but they told the stories as if they were there.
I was warned repeatedly not to buy things at yard sales, or any used items, as they may be demon possessed, and owning any such item was inviting the demons into your home.
I am glad I spent several years in the Scouts (... before it went to hell in a hand basket), before I developed an interest in the Truth, so I was used to campfire "ghost stories" ... but the fact that most Witnesses I knew gave at least lip service to these beliefs made me wonder whether or not there was something to it.
Empirical "evidence" from such testimony slowly mounted in quantity and scope that it became clear that anything a Sister bought at a yard sale was demon possessed, but Brothers could freely buy tools and used cars without any fear whatsoever.
Later on, in slow, painful lessons, I came to realize we can be our own worst enemy.
.... and I often wonder about the specifics of the Apostle Paul's "thorn" in his side, and the fight he had within himself.
 

If you want to read a series of books just as good as "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", read the first book of a great series "Callahan's Cross Time Saloon" by Spider Robinson.

I remember from about 1962 to 1965 in the Truth many people were telling each other stories about demons, ectoplasm phantoms, and other "ghost stories", which I did not believe, but it was clear that THEY believed them, as they told them with serious rapt attention to detail.
...always relating someone elses' experiences ... never their own .... but they told the stories as if they were there.
I was warned repeatedly not to buy things at yard sales, or any used items, as they may be demon possessed, and owning any such item was inviting the demons into your home.
I am glad I spent several years in the Scouts (... before it went to hell in a hand basket), before I developed an interest in the Truth, so I was used to campfire "ghost stories" ... but the fact that most Witnesses I knew gave at least lip service to these beliefs made me wonder whether or not there was something to it.
Empirical "evidence" from such testimony slowly mounted in quantity and scope that it became clear that anything a Sister bought at a yard sale was demon possessed, but Brothers could freely buy tools and used cars without any fear whatsoever.
Later on, in slow, painful lessons, I came to realize we can be our own worst enemy.
.... and I often wonder about the specifics of the Apostle Paul's "thorn" in his side, and the fight he had within himself.
 

I remember from about 1962 to 1965 in the Truth many people were telling each other stories about demons, ectoplasm phantoms, and other "ghost stories", which I did not believe, but it was clear that THEY believed them, as they told them with serious rapt attention to detail.
...always relating someone elses' experiences ... never their own .... but they told the stories as if they were there.
I was warned repeatedly not to buy things at yard sales, or any used items, as they may be demon possessed, and owning any such item was inviting the demons into your home.
I am glad I spent several years in the Scouts (... before it went to hell in a hand basket), before I developed an interest in the Truth, so I was used to campfire "ghost stories" ... but the fact that most Witnesses I knew gave at least lip service to these beliefs made me wonder whether or not there was something to it.
Empirical "evidence" from such testimony slowly mounted in quantity and scope that it became clear that anything a Sister bought at a yard sale was demon possessed, but Brothers could freely buy tools and used cars without any fear whatsoever.
Later on, in slow, painful lessons, I came to realize we can be our own worst enemy.
.... and I often wonder about the specifics of the Apostle Paul's "thorn" in his side, and the fight he had within himself.
 

The broke spend.
The middle class save.
And the wealthy invest.
 
It’s really just that simple.

What WTJWorg calls “extraterrestrial” goes in two directions of interpretation. One is that they are spiritual creatures, actually angels, because they live outside the realm of the Earth. The second assumption is that it could be the same as on Earth, only so - people like Adam and Eve but on some other planet.
But in the continuation of the article, they directly deny the possibility that God created another Adam and Eve on another planet. And they confirm this with the words: The Bible indicates that it is very unlikely that God at this point has created intelligent physical creatures on any planets other than our own.
Please nicely, what kind of proof and fact is that in fact. Nowhere in the Bible is there a claim or indication that refutes or proves "extraterrestrial life" in any elementary/ material /physical form. The explanations they offers are based solely on the word IF. And then they continue with the imagination, but they also do it with a limited imagination. Because they and their explanations are limited to some earthly events and circumstances. Again, a linear thinking comes to the fore that, due to a theological limitation, does not allow them the idea that their God is outside their human framework.
When they use Isaiah 43:10, they do so in an unimaginably wrong way. These words are more an expression of poetry and the establishment of some special relationship between the two sides. Come on, please nicely read it over and over again. So, how could the Israelites be witnesses that God has always been and will always be. They have lived several decades of their lives so they cannot witness any events before their birth or after their death. They can bear no witness to the eternity and uniqueness of one God. They can only be witnesses to the covenant relationship that was established through their patriarchs and representatives.
The same passage from Isaiah 43:10 is used for "extraterrestrial people". What madness. How could some, supposedly obedient people on another planet who knows where in the space, they could have witnessed for people on this planet? Quote: would they not have been called in as witnesses to testify. This would mean that God would bring and present these witnesses from that other planet here on Earth. Otherwise, maybe when the space technology of both planets evolves so much that people on them will be able to communicate and share experiences. But other than that, what would Adam and Eve on a planet tens of light-years away from Adam and Eve on this Earth have in common? Except for the same Creator? Why do JW think that the sin of Adam and Eve on this planet should have any consequences for these other people elsewhere?
These Adam and Eve of ours did not raise the universal question of who has the right to rule the world and who should be obeyed in the whole universe. They used the gift that the same God gave them - free will. They violated the direct order and endured the consequences. Someone else came up with the idea that this raised an issue that has fatal consequences for the entire universe about which (the universe) WTJWorg knows nothing. Nor will they learn about the universe from the Bible, because as they themselves say the Bible is not a “scientific manual”. If we want to address devil for "universal issue" that will be more appropriate. Not Adam And Eve. They and people on Earth are so limited with Earth's gravitation for raising this "issue" in Universe. Just recently they developed space program and try to explore out of Earth. But that is not important because "universal issue" as was explained in WTJWorg took place with Serpent, Adam, Eve and Tree before cca 6000 years.  
The Bible Answers
According to the Bible, extraterrestrial life not only exists but exists in abundance. It is more complex, more interesting, and more believable than anything that evolutionists, science-fiction writers, and moviemakers have dreamed up. After all, an extraterrestrial is simply a being who originates outside this earth and its atmosphere..........
Some influential religious figures have insisted that God would not create any world without purpose and that all habitable worlds must therefore be inhabited. Is that what the Bible says? No. The Bible indicates that it is very unlikely that God at this point has created intelligent physical creatures on any planets other than our own. How so?
If God did create such beings, he did so before he created Adam and Eve. Such beings either remained faithful to their Creator, or like Adam and Eve, they sinned and fell into imperfection.
But if they became imperfect, they needed a redeemer. As one essayist put it: “One has this dreadful thought that on Friday [the day Jesus Christ was executed], every Friday, somewhere in the universe Jesus is being hanged high for someone’s sins.” But that is not Scriptural. The Bible tells us that Jesus “died with reference to sin once for all time.”—Romans 6:10.
What if these beings had remained perfect? Well, when Adam and Eve sinned, they were, in effect, questioning God’s right to rule over a world of intelligent physical beings. If another planet existed at that time, a world full of intelligent physical beings who were living harmoniously and loyally under God’s rule, would they not have been called in as witnesses to testify that God’s rule does indeed work? This conclusion seems inescapable, since he has already used even imperfect humans as witnesses in his behalf on that very issue.—Isaiah 43:10. -https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/101990244
 

Several years ago we visited San Diego for a few days. It was atypically cold and the locals were all apologizing for it.
I did learn something about % chances of rain there. If the weather forecaster said 80% chance of rain, and thereby you thought the day would be rained out, what it meant was that the day would be pure sun expect for about 15 minutes when it would rain like a monsoon, after which it would be pure sun.
Where I come from if they say 80% chance of rain, that means it will rain all day today plus all day tomorrow plus all day yesterday. When the sun at last appears, those who are superstitious will be terrified at the ball of fire from the sky.
The doctor who wrote the White House with the medical regimen that quickly cured Trump when the latter came down with kiss-of-death Covid thinks there will some day be the equivalent of Nuremberg trials for those who let hundreds of thousands of people die by discrediting and even withholding treatment of an eminently treatable disease.

I remember from about 1962 to 1965 in the Truth many people were telling each other stories about demons, ectoplasm phantoms, and other "ghost stories", which I did not believe, but it was clear that THEY believed them, as they told them with serious rapt attention to detail.
...always relating someone elses' experiences ... never their own .... but they told the stories as if they were there.
I was warned repeatedly not to buy things at yard sales, or any used items, as they may be demon possessed, and owning any such item was inviting the demons into your home.
I am glad I spent several years in the Scouts (... before it went to hell in a hand basket), before I developed an interest in the Truth, so I was used to campfire "ghost stories" ... but the fact that most Witnesses I knew gave at least lip service to these beliefs made me wonder whether or not there was something to it.
Empirical "evidence" from such testimony slowly mounted in quantity and scope that it became clear that anything a Sister bought at a yard sale was demon possessed, but Brothers could freely buy tools and used cars without any fear whatsoever.
Later on, in slow, painful lessons, I came to realize we can be our own worst enemy.
.... and I often wonder about the specifics of the Apostle Paul's "thorn" in his side, and the fight he had within himself.
 

I have a set of about two dozen children's books where each book includes a child's imaginary friend and the interactions with that friend. I would never read these to my children, but psychologists say it is extremely common. I realized when talking to my 5 year old granddaughter at age 2 she was already talking a lot about an imaginary friend. When she was three and four  she also gave ages ranging from 5 to 25 to her dolls and stuffed animals and tells me stories about how each of them get along with each other. I don't recall anything so creative about myself or my own three children.
We had a brother from Florida/Bahamas in our congregation, the brother who handled the literature counter, and he was always telling stories about ghosts and demon possession from back home. Sometimes a crowd of young sisters would gather around the literature counter and I could correctly guess that he was telling another ghost story. But I also recognized that some of his stories were just plain old superstitions, or stories that turned out to be false, but that many people believe, such as snakes that turn themselves in a hoop and roll down hills to attack, or eat their own tails until just a snake head remains, etc. I was nearby when an elder told him to stop telling these stories, and he was defensive about how everyone should know the machinations of the Devil.
My wife and I studied with a couple who both claimed to hear demons in the house breaking dishes and whatnot. They always made a big deal about how they both heard it at the same time, and it wasn't boiler pipes, or rats, etc. (or ravens: Never Morse! Never Morse!) But it caught my attention that their attempts to call out Jehovah's name would sometimes work for only one of them, not the other, and which one was helped would sometimes be reversed. They both ended up being baptized and are still doing well, but they also told me later that at the time they were experimenting with sexual aberrations, wife-swapping, etc., and now they think it was their "guilt" talking, and maybe some drugs, too. 

Exactly.
And you Arauna, do not come off as emotional at all. You come off as passionate, to be sure, but never at the expense of clear thinking.
He, on the other hand, makes so many contradictory, nonsequitur, and ridiculous statements, his thinking is so muddled that, despite my nobler instincts, I am drawn in again and again to kick him in the rear end. Accusing others of being sexist and then proving it true of himself in spades is just the latest example.
(Not to mention, no doubt, his subsequent crying like a baby that merely quoting his words is “misrepresenting” hm.)
For crying out loud, you dodo, just tell me what you mean to say and I will say it for you. (though perhaps not with the same malignant spin)

Truly noble of you considering all the other hate you throw around freely! 

Hmmmmm……. I always thought those tunnels were used for giant radioactive ant men to get to central Australia. 
….. since the “other” stories about the tunnels have no proof, mine is EQUALLY valid. 
…… and Certainly worth what you paid for it.
For $15.00 I will send you a genuine hand drawn map!

It seems to me that the only reason people argue about the stake or the  cross is to enhance their own credibility about other things, reasoning that if you can prove the stake concept is correct for the cross concept is correct you have more credibility.
It doesn’t 
…… Unless of course you actually have photographs.

When you hear tapping, tapping, gently rapping, tapping in your house late at night, it may be a Raven, or a Demon using Morse Code.

Thanks for responding. As soon as I opened "6 screens" I knew I would have trust issues with the video, because I have known completely false information in the past to come from that site on the only other video I have watched from them so far. And then I noticed that this 'tl;dw' too long ; don't watch. But I might get to it another time.
I did watch 5 minutes and lost interest after the kinds of admissions made in those first few minutes.
An an early mistake caught my attention. It won't mean much unless there are other similar ones, which may or may not come up later. (It was the idea that the arrangement just before the elder arrangement was the "company servant." The actual sequence was "company servant" a very long time ago, before her birth, then for many years the "congregation servant," and then the "elder arrangement" (with the "presiding overseer" and more recently "chairman of the BOE"). It's possible evidence she's confused what she's read with what she's experienced.)
The potential of this resulting from CSA trauma also fits a couple of her descriptions and even a potential Freudian slip or two: For example:
When she accidentally uses the the word "insect" for "incense" (at 00:05:16) she just happens to use two words that could phonetically combine to "incest." And then she relates it to a "bunch of men" in the woods watching her in "her little blue robes" which might give away more than she thinks she is giving away. And her subsequent protest that this wasn't a CSA experience rings hollow.
This Freudian theory sounds like a stretch, I'm sure, but I don't know if you are aware that this exact same Freudian slip was already made to be the key to a 1995 movie about CSA called "ANGELS and INSECTS." Spoiler alert: In the move, the problem with the girl is discovered when the solver rearranges the word INSECT to spell INCEST, and the entomological and etymological conflation finally explains all her obsessions.  It's almost too much that she will then, you say, go on to make use of the title "ANGELS and WOMEN" in the same video. It smacks of being a test case for Bruno Bettelheim's famous 1976 book: "The Uses of Enchantment."
Anyway, as interesting as it might be, there is also the area of demon possession which I know nothing about, and don't intend to learn about either. This may mean that no matter how much I think I could learn from it, I will never wish to wrap my head around this type of experience. It just becomes a matter of prayer and supplication, and I can say no more.

I think that we are all adults here and it is not the Librarians duty to protect anyone. No one is master over our faith except we ourselves.
Is this the devils platform....or is it a platform for ones to state their opinions, and/or facts (which are up to us to verify). It would be sad if we were swayed by someone's mere opinions. It would be sad if we were swayed by someone stating something as truth or facts even before we checked whether what they were sayin was indeed true. I feel this platform gives me opportunity to keep an open mind, not be gullible, be more discerning  and actually make the truth my own.
I don't understand why you say these things about JWI, I don't seem to see anything about him being sly. As far as I know he has always been open about his beliefs, and always admitted that he could be wrong (all humans can be wrong). But it shouldn't matter to us what JWI thinks, or anyone else for that matter because in the end we are all accountable to God individually. If we are going to allow ourselves to be swayed by someone else's thinking besides God's, then it means we haven't learned much from the Bible. This forum is the least of my worries, honestly. But I accept you feel differently about it....