James Thomas Rook Jr.

Whenever I get depressed, I think about Kermit The Frog. International Movie Star. Dates a Famous Pig. Can afford all the flies he can possibly eat Rides around in a hand-painted old Studebaker Car with a comedian Bear, that sounds like Yoda.

We already have ...and have had biochemical heat storage systems in place for many thousands of years. It's called FIREWOOD. With sunlight, carbon is extracted from the CO2 in the air and stored in the wood, and oxygen is expelled as a very helpful waste product. Collections of these energy storage molecules, called cellulose, are currently destroying large parts of California with their released heat.

TTH: These are general principles that ALWAYS must be used to test interactions between humans. If you don't ... like being on a muddy steep slope to the edge of a cliff, we may loose our footing and find ourselves having a wonderful ride down that slippery slope ... to the hard rocks at the bottom of the cliff. It's one thing to have that wild ride by accident, or misadventure, and be broken up or killed by your own devices .... it is quite another to killed or broken up because someone speaking as a declared Watchman over your soul gives you bad advice, and it is because of that bad advice you slide, and fall to your peril. The price of Liberty and Freedom depends on each individual maintaining eternal vigilance ... and ALWAYS test the credibility of any advice we are given by ANYBODY. When I was a young man, I was floating down the James River and came downstream to Bosher's Dam, a few miles upstream of Richmond Virginia. There were others already on the dam, which had about four inches of water overflowing the top, and beneath the water you could see the rust spots where steel rebar had once been across the top. The others were jumping off the dam, and some were playing below at the base, among the water and large rocks, and some were jumping off to the water below. I asked someone what was a safe space to jump off, and he said to count seven rebar spots from the side of the dam, and it was safe. I took him at his word, and counted seven rust spots, and jumped off to a pool below, surfaced, and continued my float trip. Today I would have watched, to see who ELSE jumped at that spot before I did. I have missed death and being mangled perhaps a hundred times in my life.... by pure, dumb accident. Not a very smart philosophy. I "lucked out" ...so far. That same summer I went to a pool party at the Presiding Overseers house, (I forget what we used to call them back then ...) and walked into the back yard to see all my friends in the pool, talking and laughing, with their arms hooked behind them on the edge of the pool. I asked my best friend, also named Tom, how deep the water was and he said "Nine Feet". I proceeded to the diving board, made a high bounce, and went in head first. At nine feet deep, my custom was to do an immediate flip under water so my feet hit the pool bottom first, and I would spring to the surface like a breaching submarine. Unfortunately the pool was a uniform three feet deep, and I landed HARD flat on my back, which knocked out my air, and I surfaced far less dramatically. Had it NOT have been my custom to flip underwater, I would have landed on my skull, and been maimed for life, or killed. This was about 1965. Because I was not hurt, everybody laughed, and I laughed too. A few years later (sometimes I am quite slow...) I was thinking about that, and realized how CLOSE I came to being severely paralyzed or killed. I have an outrageous sense of humor, but that ceased being funny. I added the following line to my working philosophy "Never trust anyone at face value... but ESPECIALLY your best friends, and those that apparently have your best interests at heart." It took me about eight years or so to firm up that philosophy, which was consolidated when that same best friend ran off with my first wife ...they were married, and she died of Cystic Fibrosis while married to him. The Congregations were "fine" with their marriage, which I found out about later ... until I wrote detailed letters, certified mail, return receipt requested ( the "green card") to every Congregation in the Richmond area, and to the then World HQ in Brooklyn. At some Congregations in the Richmond area, when they announced his disfellowshipping, because he had been a Bethelite, a Pioneer, and was "Brother Watchtower". and I was a known Barbarian, and because our names sound very similar phonetically ...... ....... they announced from the platforms that it was I who had been disfellowshipped. It was then I permanently lost all the friends I had grown up with in the "Truth", but I was working in California, and did not find out until I returned home, to Richmond, Virginia. Sometimes ... you (meaning me) just have to consistently be a horse's ass to keep from being run over by happy, well-intentioned, flower bedecked rainbow ponies ... with sharp steel hooves.

... more a haze...TRYING to be fog.

this is the silliest piece of absolute NOTHING I have seen in a very long time. They do not even know if dark matter really exists or NOT. The entire article, from beginning to end, and everything in the middle is just plain silly. They have built an "Empire State Building" ... out of FOG.

...sounds like you need better sources ....

I am a firm believer that Good will EVENTUALLY win out over evil .... always. But it may take a forest of slaves, a mountain of corpses, and oceans of blood before that happens.. The ONLY thing necessary for evil to always win, is good men to accept the status quo ... and do nothing. ...and it usually takes a hundred years of tyranny for the sleeping giants to awaken.

I always identified with the Silver Surfer .... but that's another story ......

I agree with this.... we have some VERY REAL problems concerning witch hunts, power struggles and retribution, obscene paranoias and complete lack of Justice and Mercy .... outside of several million words on the subject that never seem to apply to real world situations. I do know the real answer, which is actually found in studying the Cult of Mithras, the sect of the worship of "Sol Invictus", the invincible sun, and have read about 11 pounds of books to discover what is and is not the case ... which if I felt like writing seven pages of text, I could prove, but: In the immortal words of Rhett Butler ..... "Frankly Scarlet ... I don't give a damn!"

...so.... um... what's that in REAL feet and inches?

When I was in the Congo, in 1974, I lived in a house that had concertina wire on top of a triple row of sandbags ... and had three shifts of security of two teams ... one team watched the other team ... they watched each other. I never had the slightest problem with ANYBODY, my whole stay there. The way NOT to have any problems with anybody is either having relatively impenetrable defenses ... or be forced to kill them all. If you have to do that, it sure cuts down on "repeat offenders". 85% of everybody are fine, wholesome people ... it's the exceptions that want you for lunch.

That is an EXTREMELY good example .... that fact rock solid hard evidence, not agenda based fluffery and fuzzy thinking! I am as critical of all the crap going on as anybody here is ... and probably know as much or more than most well educated people about such things .... but I have learned through interactions with MANY kinds of "organizations", not to expect too much from people in groups. The example I most often recall to mind is this: If you understand the Mission of the United States Marines, and their necessity in the real world to defend what is honorable, true and righteous ( ... in a very limited absolute sense ...), then for some, that mission was what you were born to do .... be a "Sheepdog", with fangs and claws ... to be the "point of the spear", to protect your fellow sheep ... who are many times scared of you. It entails willingness to die, or live the rest of your life mangled and broken. That's what the job IS. But as the "Peter Principle", a VERY famous business principle states (paraphrased) "Everyone rises in rank to their own level of incompetency". You could be a very good Marine Sargent, and rise to be an incompetent Marine Lieutenant, etc., ad infinitum. A committee is a peculiar life form with at least six legs, and no brain. This is ESPECIALLY true in fuzzy subjects such as Theology, where everyone is jousting for favor and position with God, and gets used to great piles of free money .... considering it their due. The Governing Body is NOT the exception, and they have 16 legs. This is ESPECIALLY true with anyone claiming to speak for God, whether it is kissing the Pope's ring, or admiring the Governing Body's Rolex watches and gold pinkie rings. When you begin to live like Kings, that vow of poverty becomes irrelevant. That bears repeating, over and over ... as there is a VERY important core principle embedded in that innocuous rock solid and true observation. I personally fully understand that, and though I sigh and cry over all the unnecessary burdens and smelly crap we have to carry ... that I personally have been expected to carry over the years ... and silly irrelevant drivel we are expected to swallow, hook-line-and-sinker ... I still want to be a "Marine" .... just not an Officer. The biggest problem we have ... is HAVING to recruit from deeply flawed but presumably well intentioned humans. .... sigh. ... so does the United States Marines ... and THEY have rifles.

That would put most clergy, including ours, completely out of business.

... that's what I used to fill in my never used swimming pool.

It depends on the context of what is being discussed. That is a philosophical aphorism which is true in a general case, for most things, most of the time. ONLY Feynman's statement should be taken in the context of what he was discussing at the time .... which was NOT Quantum Electrodynamics ( QED) ... but likely (?) the philosophy of how to think about Quantum Electrodynamics, and most other things ... most of the time.

Outta Here: I agree whole heartedly with your premise that whatever we do, there will be consequences. I was trying to reason out the will of God, based on sound reason and logic, as well as what insight we can get from the Bible on the Mind of God, and also follow along with the original thread question and premise, which was: " When is blood still blood? When does a person continue to be a person? " I do not perceive anything about my contribution to this thread as being any form of bluster.

I wish he would do something practical and useful .. like sponsor legislation for Nationwide reciprocity for CCW permitted people, and a Nationwide "Stand your Ground" law. THEN ... the Good Guys would be armed at all times and places, ... and NOT JUST THE BAD GUYS.

From the Notebook's of Lazarus Long: "This sad little lizard told me that he was a brontosaurus on his mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply." Same thing here, only about age. If he self identifies as a Hippopotamus, that would be OK with me, as long as he gives up his driver's license.

Using that logic, the answer to that is indeterminable so ........ you must make your choice on the matter. , and a good example is taking an unborn human baby, and aborting it by killing and cutting it into 13 separate parts ... is no longer human, or a baby. Because it would then not be considered human, could you then make soup for yourself, or dog food for your dog from the parts? Of course! It is merely a matter of personal conscience. (sarcasm alert, for those in Rio Linda ...) I am a self professed Barbarian, who would eat his enemies killed in combat ... and I know better than THAT! The reason we have a Bible, and a Constitution, is so that the people disposed to evolve into Liberal Snowflakes are held in check, and NOT have as many choices on the matter as can be had.

John: Knowing my failings, and I am an original Boy Scout, the cowboy in the white hat ... I don't think it is right to expect much of others. I literally owe my life to the things I have learned that I could not have learned ANYWHERE else. Remember the movie "Forest Gump"? He was retarded and did EVERYTHING wrong .... but it turned out well for him. I appreciate the 15% that the Organization does well ... and the core Theology which IS true. I try to have realistic expectations concerning what they screw up to a fare-thee-well. I work with a LOT of people I don't entirely approve of, or agree with, or even like. I am just a different kinda sheep-like person than what you are used to.

I only claim to be a Barbarian interested in Justice and Mercy ..... but the best way to get it is serving Jehovah God. It's like when R2-D2, C3PO, Luke, and Obi-Wan Kanobe, stopped their speeder on a cliff overlooking Mos Isley Spaceport, and Obi-Wan said (paraphrased) "Never has there been a more wretched hive of scum, and villany" Jehovah's Witnesses, warts and all, in reality ... are the ONLY game in town. Drivel and incompetence and greed, no matter how you dress it up, is still drivel, and incompetence, and greed ... HOWEVER ... the Truth, no matter how you dishonor it by being a standard big ugly bag of mostly water, as we all are ... including EVERYBODY in the Governing Body, as well as you and me .. is still the TRUTH. I was baptized before 1985, before the oath of allegiance was changed to include the Corporation structure. Whether or not I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses is a matter of debate. I think I am. I hope God agrees. It depends on who you ask.

It's a NON-ANSWER. Can you think for yourself, or just giggle for no reason?

Thank you JW Insider, for providing absolute proof. BillyTheKid46 would deny the existence of a car if it ran over his foot, because all his friends don't believe cars were ever invented. I was there .... and as you know, there are literally whole CHAPTERS on this subject that have been posted in the past seven or so years, here on the Archive. Any idea if it is possible to download the whole archive, since the beginning, to a large USB 4 TB hard drive? It might come in handy to have some off-site copies, since the format and such has changed so many times... I am having trouble keeping track of my cartoon and meme collection. Thanks for the "heavy lifting".

The human body has many organs . Two that are not often thought of as actual organs are blood, and skin. If you disassemble blood ...or skin ... into component parts, do they cease being blood ... or skin? If you cut a liver into small one inch squares ... does it cease being liver? But MORE TO THE POINT .... Does God consider fractionated blood, made from whole blood .... still blood?

BillyTheKid46: Can you please tell me WHAT about my post you thought was funny?