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Jack Ryan

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Posts posted by Jack Ryan

  1. An Irish priest is driving along a country road when a copper pulls him over: 'Have you been drinking?' He asks. '

    Just water' replied the priest. Cop says, 'So why do I smell wine?'

    Priest looks over at the bottle and says, 'Good Lord, he's done it again'

  2. Friends: Jehovah's Witnesses shunning drove Keego Harbor mom to murder-suicide

    An apparent triple murder-suicide involving four family members left residents of the small town of Keego Harbor stunned and searching for answers. Wochit

    At 45, Lauren Stuart appeared to have it all.

    A successful husband. Two college-educated kids. A modeling portfolio. And a charming home in Keego Harbor with a heart wreath on the door.

    But behind the seemingly idyllic life, friends say Stuart struggled with the anguish of being ostracized from the religion she and her husband had been raised in. About five years ago, Stuart and her husband left the Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian denomination that has been criticized for its strict indoctrination and for its practice of shunning former members.

    Friends and others believe that struggle with being shunned may have driven Stuart to do the unthinkable.

    Last week, Stuart shot and killed her husband and two adult children, and then killed herself. Police found the bodies Friday morning while responding to a call from a concerned relative.

    The tragedy sent longtime family friend Joyce Taylor reeling as she and others say they believe the murder-suicide was the result of shunning by the Jehovah's Witnesses. She said the Stuarts left the religion more than five years ago because of "doctrinal and social issues."

    According to Taylor and several other former Jehovah's Witnesses who talked to the Free Press, when someone leaves the religion, a drastic shunning takes place: No one inside the religion, even parents, are allowed to speak to the departed again.

    Taylor barged into a Kingdom Hall meeting in Union Lake over the weekend, stood on a chair and lambasted the gathering.

    “Excuse me everyone, My name is Joyce Taylor ... Two days ago, four people died as a result of your shunning process,"  Taylor said, while batting away members and yelling at them. "Five years ago you people pulled your support from this small family, the only support they had was you people. You turned them away and you shunned them."

    "For what?!!," she screamed loudly. "Because they wanted to raise their children as they saw fit.”

    According to Taylor, Lauren Stuart and Daniel Stuart, 47, wanted to send their children to college, but the religion forbids that. They did so anyway. Their son Steven, 27, excelled in computers, just like his father, who was a data solutions architect for the University of Michigan’s Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care. Bethany, 24, excelled in art and graphic design.

    "All they wanted to do was raise their family the way they wanted to," Taylor told the Free Press on Monday, saying the Stuarts were ostracized by their parents and everyone in the Jehovah's Witnesses community when they left.

    "They were shunned every way possible. If Lauren went to the grocery store, they didn't look her in the eye," said Taylor, a former Jehovah's Witness herself. "When you are raised a Jehovah's Witness, they choose your friends. They choose who you associate with. And if you go against that, they will dis-fellowship you, or shun you."

    The Free Press called the Union Lake Kingdom Hall on Monday, but no one answered. Multiple phone messages were left with the elders of Kingdom Hall, but none of the calls were returned. Messages to the Jehovah's Witnesses national headquarters also were not returned.

    636546580951050509-Lauren-Stuart-4.jpg

    Lauren Stuart, 45, of Keego Harbor (Photo: courtesy, Brittni Beversdorf)

    Taylor, who last saw her friend a week before she was found dead, said she doesn't know exactly what drove her friend over the edge. She believes that her friend was battling some kind of personal problem, but felt so alone in the world because of being ostracized by her former religious community that she did what she did.

    "She worshiped Danny. Danny worshiped her. They were like hand in glove. But she was very concerned about Dan. He was prone to depression and she was always worried about him," Taylor said.

    She later added: "She was in emotional distress ... she felt alone. I was her lifeline."

    According to interviews with friends, neighbors and employers, Lauren Stuart, after leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses, appeared to be set on making a new life for herself. She contacted modeling agencies and photographers to see whether there was a market for older models like herself. She also worked as a part-time personal trainer at the YMCA in Farmington Hills a few years ago and cleaned houses.

    This is how she referred to herself in one online post:  "I love acting and modeling. I am a very passionate person and it reflects in my work. I am adventurous in nature and so I like a wide variety of acting and modeling experiences. I enjoy learning new things especially with good direction. ...  Life is an adventure and my goal is to die knowing I did the things I wanted to do."

    Bernadette Strickland, director of the John Casablancas modeling studio in Plymouth, was among those who gave Lauren Stuart a shot at modeling.

    "I remember her because she had enrolled in our workshops. She was very nice. She asked a lot of questions," said Strickland, who recalled Lauren Stuart being happy and having a good life.

    "She looked like she had a great family and she was very attractive. She kept herself up so well,"  said Strickland, adding she was "very sorry" and shocked to learn of what happened.

    New Haven photographer Brittni Beversdorf had similar memories. She said she met Lauren and photographed her in 2012. At the time, she said, Lauren and her husband had  just bought their home in Keego Harbor and Lauren was excited about renovating it herself.

    "She was very friendly," Beversdorf said, noting she was "shocked" to learn of the woman's tragic death.

    Taylor said that she last saw Lauren Stuart a week before she and her family were discovered dead.

    "She came over to my house. we had tea, coffee and talked," Taylor said, noting her friend gave no signs that she was about to do something terrible.

    She said Lauren talked about her kids and expressed excitement about her husband being involved in a project at the University of Michigan, where, she said, he was helping develop a software program that helps detect heart attacks.

    "She was talking about the business he was hoping to get going, how much she was looking forward to it. We talked about that, our kids," Taylor recalled.

    And then came the phone call. A week later, a mutual friend called Taylor and told her about the murder-suicide.

    "I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it," she kept saying.

    Keego Harbor police declined comment, saying only that the investigation is ongoing.

    This is not the first such incident.

    In 2001, the shame of being thrown out of the JehovahÂ’s Witnesses drove former Michigander Christian Longo to murder his wife and three young children in Oregon. Authorities said his financial troubles triggered his expulsion from the religious group, which then triggered the killings.

    In 2014, a family of four was found dead in their South Carolina home in a murder suicide carried out by the father, who was a devout JehovahÂ’s Witness. All four were shot in the head.

    https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/02/19/keego-harbor-jehovahs-witness-mom-triple-murder-suicide/351559002/

  3. Oh! Let's go!

    Steve walks warily down the street

    With the brim pulled way down low.

    Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet,

    Machine guns ready to go.

    Are you ready, hey, are you ready for this?

    Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

    Out of the doorway the bullets rip

    To the sound of the beat

    Another one bites the dust

    Another one bites the dust

    And another one gone, and another one gone

    Another one bites the dust

    Hey, I'm gonna get you, too

    Another one bites the dust

    How do you think I'm going to get along

    Without you when you're gone?

    You took me for everything that I had

    And kicked me out on my own

    Are you happy, are you satisfied?

    How long can you stand the heat?

    Out of the doorway the bullets rip

    To the sound of the beat

    [Chorus]

    Another one bites the dust

    Another one bites the dust

    Another one bites the dust

    Another one bites the dust

    There are plenty of ways that you can hurt a man

    And bring him to the ground

    You can beat him, you can cheat him

    You can treat him bad and leave him when he's down

    But I'm ready, yes, I'm ready for you

    I'm standing on my own two feet

    Out of the doorway the bullets rip

    Repeating to the sound of the beat?

  4. He could still be forgiven by Jehovah. Manasseh was reinstated as king after killing his sons. So their is biblical precedent.

    All their sins are now forgiven since they have all died.

    Their next thoughts will be in Paradise.

    And the story even mentions the spouse as  preaching the good news to her neighbor. ... so by her good works her spouse will be saved if he became an unbeliever at some point. Which in this case he had to have at the last moment.

    Except the dog. We will never see him again in Paradise.

     

  5. Keego Harbor Â— A quiet residential street became a horrific crime scene Friday with news that four people — a couple and their adult children — died in what police are describing as a triple murder-suicide.

    636543906898437841-keegoharbor1.jpg

    By late afternoon, some yellow police crime scene tape remained around the two-story wood frame bungalow in the 2300 block of Cass Lake Road where police were sent about 8:10 a.m. on a welfare check after a relative became worried about the family, Keego Harbor Police Chief John Fitzgerald said.

    “A relative had concerns and asked us to look into it,” said Fitzgerald. “It’s tragic and our thoughts and prayers are with the family.”

    Inside the house officers found four bodies who neighbors identified as Daniel Stuart, 47, his wife, Lauren, 45, and their children, Bethany, 24, and Steven, 27.

    Fitzgerald said the “perpetrator” was among the dead but would not provide details other than to stress “we think we know what happened here and there is no danger to neighbors.”

    Fitzgerald said police have recovered what is believed to be the murder weapon but would not elaborate. He said all the deaths remain under investigation.

    Neighbors John and Jackie Tristani said they awoke Friday to learn police were outside the victimsÂ’ home.

    “My son said police were repeatedly calling out ‘Lauren, come outside,’ " said John Tristani. “When she didn’t respond they (police) went inside. A few minutes later, they came back outside, shaking their heads.”

    Tristani said he had been watching television late Thursday night and never heard anything from the Stuarts' home.

    Sources close to the investigation said the family pet, a dog, was also slain by the killer. Investigators also found a note which may help explain what led up to the deaths. They would not discuss its contents.

    The deaths puzzle the Tristanis, who knew Lauren Stuart as a “hard-working” neighbor who could often be seen working in her yard and remodeled the house largely on her own.

    “She would often come over and borrow tools – a saw, a pickaxe – whatever,” said Tristani. “She was always doing something.”

    The Tristanis said in one of their first meetings with Lauren Stuart a few years ago she attempted to “recruit” them into the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

    “I said we were Catholics and weren’t interested,” he said. “She accepted the answer and it was the end of that.”

    Lauren Stuart worked at an area gym, he said, and her husband was involved in some form of medical business in the Ann Arbor area.

    Darlene and Dennis Buck, who live a block away on Cass Lake Road, said they were enroute home from a trip to northern Michigan when they learned of the murder-suicide.

    “We have lived here since ’74 and nothing like this has ever happened in our neighborhood — not even close,” said Darlene Buck.

    Jackie Tristani said she found it all “scary” – not just the deaths but that something might have been going on in a neighbor’s home without her knowledge. She had tried to get Bethany a job at her workplace and her son knew both Bethany and Steven. There was never any mention or indication of trouble inside the home, she said.

    “I would hope that if there was a problem inside there someone would have reached out, we would have tried to help,” she said, her voice quaking. “Maybe we could have done something.

    “But you never really know everything there is about your neighbors, do you?”

    http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-county/2018/02/16/4-dead-keego-harbor-murder-suicide/345756002/

  6. The video starts in a board room meeting where a group of men are brainstorming experiences which they can share – and one of the pinpoints “Sally”. ?

    The clip then cuts to a young woman walking around what appears to be a market.

    She seeÂ’s women wearing rainbow bracelets, with rainbow posters showing two stick-figure women holding hands.

    When she goes to the till she’s asked if she would like to “make a donation to the marathon”, to which Sally says “no, thank you”.

    She then walks to a separate store and purchases a blanket.

    While waiting she sees a number of women wearing the bracelet.

    The woman who serves her asks Sally if she would like her rainbow bracelet in the bag or if she would like to wear it now.

    “No thank you,” Sally repeats again.

    “What’s wrong honey?” A third woman then questions her. “You got something against them?” 

    “Well no I don’t have anything against them personally,” she begins to reply, but she is then cut off.

    “So what’s the problem?”

    “I respect that they have a right to choose their lifestyle but as a Bible reader,” Sally begins to try and explain.

    “Excuse me I’m a bible reader too I go to church and our church is one of the biggest supporters for this marathon,” the woman replies.

     

    “Displaying courage now will help me display courage in the future,” a voice tells her.

    “Well I’m one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and we believe the bible teaches sex is for a man and a woman who are married,” Sally says.

  7. YouTube and Instagram face being blocked by Russian internet service providers as a result of a standoff between one of the country's richest businessmen and an opposition leader.

    Russia's internet censor blacklisted material on both services after a court ruled that it violated billionaire Oleg Deripaska's privacy rights.

    However, Alexei Navalny has refused to remove the videos and photos, which he claims are evidence of corruption.

    A Wednesday deadline has been set.

    If neither Mr Navalny nor the US tech firms involved delete or otherwise block local access to the imagery by the end of the day, then Russia's ISPs will be required to take action themselves.

    A group representing the industry has indicated that this could result in all local access to the social networks being curtailed since ISPs lack the facility to censor specific posts.

    "It's impossible for internet providers to block certain pages on Instagram and YouTube," a spokeswoman for the Russian Association for Electronic Communications told the BBC.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43058399

  8. “Going door to door puts a face to the movement,” Brewster said. “It allows [for] a more personal interaction with the people. It is not some distanced thing.”

    Organizer Phil Kim used Territory Helper, a website created by Jehovah’s Witness congregations for their canvassing, to print maps of Mckinleyville neighborhoods for volunteers.

    “They do a lot of door-knocking,” Kim said. “It’s kind of funny they’re helping us out, [because] we’re using the program they created. It helps to coordinate where everyone is walking, so people aren’t knocking on the same doors. It’s a way of dividing the maps in little sections.”

    www.jpg?resize=333%2C500&ssl=1
    Healthy California Act volunteers speaking with a McKinleyville resident. Photo by Bailey Tennery.

    Anne Olivia Eldred is a part of the California Nurses Association. She said itÂ’s better to take care of people before they get sick, rather than waiting until they need immediate treatment that is expensive.

    https://thelumberjack.org/2018/02/13/nurses-knock-mckinleyville-doors-to-spread-awareness-about-sb-562/

  9. The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office arrested Jeshua Drake, 43, on sexual abuse charges on Tuesday.

    Deputies said Drake’s charges stem from incidents that happened over twenty years ago between 1991 and 1993 when he and the victim were both Jehovah's Witnesses from the Sandy congregation.

    The Sandy Police Department believes there may be more victims.

    Drake was indicted by a Clackamas County grand jury two weeks ago for three counts of first-degree sexual assault.

    Anyone with information about Drake or potential victims should call the Sandy Police Department tip line at 503-489-2195.

    A jail booking photo of Drake was not immediately available Tuesday. 

    http://www.kptv.com/story/37498850/sheriff-jehovahs-witness-sexual-abuse-suspect-arrested-in-clackamas-co

  10. September 23, 1911, Brooklyn Eagle:

    SKEPTICAL UNCLE SAM SEEKS TO KNOW MORE ABOUT 'MIRACLE' GRAIN 

    Postoffice Inspector Dickson Will Have the Wheat Sold in Tabernacle Tested, He Says. 

    PASTOR RUSSELL IS LOYAL, 

    But He Doubts the Faith of Those Who Are Not Members of His Faithful Band.

    Uncle Sam has decided to make an official test of the "Miracle" wheat sold at $60 a bushel at Pastor Russell's Tabernacle in order that the faithful who have invested their money, and a waiting world as well, may learn more fully of the astonishing merits of the precious grain.

    W. W. Dickson, chief of the postal inspectors in Manhattan, has received a communication regarding the notice which appeared in Pastor Russell's semi-monthly, The Watch Tower, setting forth the unusual qualities of "miracle wheat." He promises to set going the wheels of inquiry. He says the Watch Tower notice may or may not represent grain that yields from ten to fifteen times the amount sown, and may be worth $1 a pound, as advertised. But he wants to find out. Accordingly, he has mapped out a plan. It is likely that Inspector John N. Parsons, who generally conducts investigations into Brooklyn affairs, will have the task of testing the yielding qualities of "miracle wheat." Pastor Russell said today that he had full confidence in the qualities of the grain, as noted in the Watch Tower, but he admitted that his confidence was based only upon letters written to him by “brothers” of the "millennial dawn" sect, and that he had never supervised the sowing and growing of "miracle wheat.”

    Inspector Dickson will ask that he be furnished with a sample of "miracle" wheat. It will be analyzed by Government chemists in Manhattan. Along with the sample, Inspector Dickson's men will find out who bought “miracle” wheat from Brother Dockey, the watchdog of the cereal treasury, so that it may be learned what interstate shipments were made of "miracle" grain.

    Brother Dockey Says Supply of Wheat Is Limited. 

    Pastor Russell could not state today just how much "miracle wheat" there was on hand at the Tabernacle. He telephoned Brother Dockey to come right over to Pastor Russell 'shome [sic] at 124 Columbia Heights. Brother Dockey did so. Brother Dockey announced that the supply was limited. It is still selling at $60 a bushel, only there isn't enough for any one person to buy as much as two bushels. So Brother Dockey is selling preferably by the pound, still at $1 a pound. He had 20 pounds left a few days ago, but someone—he thought it was another "brother"—telegraphed from California that he must have 100 pounds. So Brother Dockey is reserving 100 pounds until the Californian sends on $100. This leaves 100 pounds still in sale at the Tabernacle. Brother Dockey was loath to name the amount until Pastor Russell gave him permission. 

    An Eagle reporter yesterday bought one pound for $1. Brother hockey wouldn't sell it for less, though the reporter shamelessly tried to "beat him down." Today Pastor Russell, in Brother Dockey's presence, made an offer to the reporter. 

    Pastor Russell Would Buy Back Reporter's Wheat. 

    "If you will bring that pound of wheat back I will pay you what you gave for it," said Pastor Russell. The reporter indicated that his pound of "miracle wheat" was not for sale.

    "It's pretty late to plant it now, unless you send it down South," reminded Brother Dockey. 

    Brother Dockey stated that less than 5 per cent of all the "miracle wheat" sold at the Tabernacle went to people other than Pastor Russell's followers. "Other people than my own," explained Pastor Russell, "wouldn't believe that this wheat contains extraordinary qualities. It is too much of a miracle for them to comprehend." 

    "It wouldn't do to try to fool our own people, either," Brother Dockey interpolated. "If we did that they would never have confidence in us again."

    Pastor Russell says that as long as Brother Bohnet, Brother Flemming and other "brothers" continue to display generosity enough to hand over the proceeds from the sale of "miracle wheat" to the society, the grain will be sold' at the Tabernacle. Regarding the advertisement in the Watch Tower, Pastor Russell says that, as Brother Dockey said yesterday, no guarantee is offered that "miracle wheat" possesses powers of extraordinary yield. Pastor Russell does say, however, that he was responsible for the notice being inserted in the Watch Tower and that he believes in "miracle wheat" and intended to have his readers, all over the world, fully understand that he thought highly of it.

     

    Here we see that Russell had fears that the Miracle wheat was not going to work, he had elitism even for the wheat, he was deluded to think that wheat would produce or not based on "faith", that there WERE ads placed in the Watchtower, that he had responsibility for the ad, and that he knew he was respected. It also shows that there was a "cult of personality". If Russell liked it, than people would buy it.

  11. On September 23, 1911, in the Brooklyn Eagle, this picture appeared.

    Russell sued the Eagle for libel because of this picture, and lost the case.

    The picture implied that Russell was making easy money, and that if he could manage to get his followers to buy Miracle Wheat at 60 times the regular price, then he could be of much "help" in the corrupt Union Bank.

    093cdf145f49f73f5351d14fe165f2a8.png

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