James Thomas Rook Jr.

Sometimes, to do the "right thing" ... you have to suffer GREAT personal injury, loss of livelihood, your home, your family, or even have to die. Sometimes you have to do that thing which is abhorrent and against all natural ingrained inclinations ... AND THINK! Dying is easy to do for your faith, losing your money and real estate is harder to do, as there is no glory in it. Dying for your faith is an instant "free pass". OTHER people will clean up the mess. Losing your money, your comfortable job, and your real estate is embarrassing ... and HARD. That is why we have the current policy of chopping off the babies head when it cries. It does not require any real thinking, and we STILL sleep warm at night in a soft bed. Because we know that ... no matter WHAT we do .... the free money keeps rolling in.

You know Jack .... I think it is hypocritical to the extreme that you are very concerned about the Kingdom Hall's networking system getting into YOUR laptop computer or devices, ...... yet you are indignant, and you seem to think you have a natural right to get into THEIRS.

NO.

It is my job to help you THINK. It is NOT my job to supply you with answers.

At Warwick Watchtower World Headquarters they have a very large lake on the property, with a huge remote controlled powered valve on the bottom, ostensibly to release flood waters with the throw of a switch, when they get too high. " Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilt." (Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Reflections on Religion / 1906) "The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example." (Mark Twain / 1835-1910 /A Tramp Abroad)

If while readin' my posts, John, you keep your thumb on the left side of the monitor as you scroll down, you will not lose your place. I throw my lot in with Jehovah's Witnesses ... not so much because I agree with them, but because generally, they agree with ME. I only claim to be a Barbarian, interested in Justice, Truth, and the Theocratic Way. Oh yes ... I almost forgot .... God's thinking makes perfect common sense, as TRUE theology must. Corporate interpretations .... sometimes yes ...... sometimes no. If I am wrong, I must pay the full price for my being wrong. If THEY are wrong, I STILL pay that full price, whatever it is. They pay no price whatsoever for totally screwing up other peoples' lives, when they are wrong.

It is hard to believe that 1999 was 19 years ago .... wow .... like Kermit the Frog says "Time is fun when you are having flies!". Alien Song I will survive.mp4

Before I die, I would like to read a non fiction version of the Warren Report about JFK's death.

What you are seeing is NOT actually what is there.

No man's life, liberty or freedom is safe ... while the Legislators are in session.

I do not use Gmail ... but isn't it FREE ? Corporate users presumably are paying THEIR money to have it THEIR WAY. Welfare recipients, have limited or nonexistent righteous claims to the quality of FREE FOOD .... um... so to speak. I pay $55.00 a year for my email account, and I have a RIGHT to complain. ....and ... have it MY way.

I don't know about Facebook, but Google and Amazon have RISEN to the very top, because of providing FAR SUPERIOR service, products and price than newspapers and brick-and-mortar stores. They did not STEAL that position ... they EARNED it, through the very innovation and service you want to disparage and regulate! Let the MARKETPLACE decide which companies will live, or die! Oh wait! THEY ALREADY HAVE. Getting "The Gubbermint" to regulate what so very obviously works GREAT!, is like getting a senile, but hungry wolf to guard YOUR PET HAMSTER !

Good Golly, Miss Molly! Twist again, like we did last summer? .... Chubby Checker Book 'em, Dano. Chubby Checker - Let's Twist Again (Don Saúl - Viejito Bailando) (EqHQ).mp4

By the way, as a real aside ... did you know that in court cases about child molestation, the WTB&TS has repeatedly claimed "clergy-penitent privilege" to try and keep from having to disclose information to the authorities? They claim they are clergy when it suits their corporate purposes, and declare they are not, when not on trial.

... by the way .... Jehovah never spoke against suicide ... another cultural moray to subvert common sense. Soldiers understand this. Busybodies do not. By the way ... in principle, my comments are still on topic. What is REALLY being discussed here is clergy over-reach, and going beyond the things the Bible actually says.

Would it be murder if someone was trapped in a burning car, was on fire, and I shot them in the head, killing them. TECHNICALLY, yes. ... but not REALLY. Not in the REAL world.of common sense. On 9-11, when the World Trade Center Towers went down, dozens of people leaped to their deaths, rather than be burned alive. Was that suicide? TECHNICALLY, yes. ... but not Really. Not in the REAL world of common sense.

there are many things that are stupid, that Jehovah has not spoken against. Its called FREEDOM. I personally would rail against smoking because it is stupid, suicidal, addiction to drugs, and expensive, but NOT extrapolate and put words into Jehovah's Mouth that he did not speak. The Society's policies often are a VERY good idea (sometimes NOT) ..... adherence where they espoused Bible counsel correctly, saved my life, integrity, and health many times .... but when I used to Scuba Dive, Skydive, Surfboard, ride a motorcycle, and explore the Congo (working), and other things, opinions vary as to their advisability, and I considered their overreaching just being busybodies, forbidding to others what scared them for the sake of total control of EVERYTHING. (Sad, cringeworthy joke: "Everything that is not forbidden ... is mandatory".) Jehovah spoke against becoming a drunkard many times .... and I seem to remember, even against "druggery".. What is "druggery", anyway? And who decides? If Jehovah did not explicitly say that ... I personally would not make the Almighty God my personal agenda spokesman hand puppet. However, "Quod est Necessarium, est Licitum" (That which is necessary, is legal). If someone smoked, say marijuana for glaucoma to preserve their eyesight, or to lessen the pain from cancer, I personally think that prohibition would NOT apply. I am willing to bet my LIFE on that. My mother and father died slow, from cancer. If someone was dying and in great pain from disease or injury, being addicted to morphine I personally consider that drug addiction to be quite acceptable. If they got "high" from it, it would be a side effect. NOT "druggary" at all. TRUE Theology ALWAYS has to make common sense !

Well ... since I have three mixed race children (white, black, Spanish, Inca Indian and Asian mix) with a permanent "tan", a suspicion of racism is thereby cut off at the knees.

Those that REALLY understand about optical compression in telescopic lenses know that if the moon is that close, the "birds" will also be closer, as well. It actually looks like the camera was on "electronic zoom" and not actual optical zoom, which makes the image fuzzier by spreading out the pixels. These "could" just be camera motion or other sensor "artifacts". I seriously doubt that whatever these objects are, that they would be birds, and they are so small they must be flying at great altitude. What is it/them REALLY? I have not the slightest clue.

It's like those that fear if their children play a Beatles Vinyl Album backwards , they will hear the words "Worship Satan". If that is what they and/or their kids hear ( .... and how do you even play a vinyl record backwards? ...) they have VASTLY more critical real world problems than ".... I wanna hold your hand ...." , which backwards is " .... dnah ruoy dloh annaw I ...." wah de do DAH! Hubba Bubba Bubba Zip, Blip, CHING!

Here is a thought I just had ... different races are affected differently by different practices .... could it be that this is a very severe problem for some races, leading them to criminal activity and degradation, yet other races it does not affect in an adverse way at all? I mean .... white people are very susceptible to cystic fibrosis, and malaria, but black people have more of a natural immunity to malaria, and as far as I know, cystic fibrosis is completely unknown (?) in black people. American Indians are said to be completely made crazy by "firewater", or whiskey as known today, but other races , not so much. Jewish people have Tay-Sachs disease, but white people and blacks, and Indians do not (presumably ... I may have gotten some facts mixed up ...) All people and races are NOT the same .... this is a liberal fantasy. I did math for 45 years for a living, but I probably could not compete with the average Asian teenager. There is a REASON why the best basketball players are black, and the best Physicists are Jewish and India Indian ( ...long story there ...). All people are all equal in the eyes of Jehovah and the Christ.... but NOBODY is equal to anybody else ... and there is a reason why there are NO Japanese Sumo Ballerinas, or 6'-7" Fighter Pilots. There is a famous joke, with several variations floating around, that sums this up .... about "Heaven", and "Hell", and the reason it is funny is that there is a basis in truth to it. Heaven: The police are British The cooks are French The engineers are German The administrators are Swiss The lovers are Italian Hell: The police are German The cooks are British The engineers are Italian The administrators are French The lovers are Swiss  Perhaps the reason Jehovah God NEVER mentioned this subject at all, with a view to prohibition.... EVER ... was that with the Jews, it was a simple matter of stress relief ... like a boiling tea kettle letting off steam ..... or like after a large Mexican Dinner, a round of flatulence, later. ( Think about this ... the human body is 90% water, and when full of digesting food and fermentation or gas pressure builds up ... the gas pressure relief valve is at the BOTTOM of a tank of liquid. WOW! ) I do not know , but I suspect that like a drunk American Indian, masturbation among some individuals and/or races can be devastating mentally and socially, while for others merely a form of very private relaxation. Whatever the case is, or perhaps some version I did not think about .... there is ONE THING that ALL CHRISTIANS ARE ABSOLUTELY AND UNAMBIGUOUSLY ORDERED NOT TO DO, UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH! "Do not go beyond the things Written"  Â

I seem to remember that Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian Minister. Never knew about the Pretzels, but just in case the WTB&TS might decide to ban "hot cross buns", I started eating "Cool Contented Buns".

I hope the JW-Archive really will be .... and not fall by the wayside. The Giant Eyeballs with tentacles from Xbghy4713 might find it interesting reading, in the year 2525.

...make sure it is large enough to stake the hem to the ground to make a tent. ... and I suggest you get a "friend upgrade".

I have been commenting here somewhere around 7 or 8 years ... I think ... and somewhere around 8,000 comments. If I wanted to make an off line copy of my comments from the very beginning on the Archive ... how would I do it? Over the years, How well has the JW-Archive.org Archive of past conversations held up?