James Thomas Rook Jr.

It is a matter of faith ... and to stay economically viable ... you cannot be a heretic.

Some people like to fly around in expensive Jet Planes ... some people like to construct massive edifices... and some people like to command great armies of various types. None of those things are the issue. The issue is ... are they being honest to the people that are paying the bills ?

Skin is skin ..... but when you are sitting around a campfire on a cold night ..... quite comfortable ... ( even though you may have to rotate ) .... and you half the distance, you are going to have 4 times the energy impinge on your body ( all radiation follows the inverse square law ). You may get hot enough to damage your skin. To find the approximate distance between the orbits of two planets in AU, subtract the two planet-Sun distances. For example, Earth orbits at 1 AU from the Sun and Venus orbits at 0.72 AU from the Sun. Mercury is 0.39 AU from the Sun. ... and that makes ALL the difference. Plus the atmosphere of Venus is almost 100% carbon dioxide, AND 93 TIMES MORE DENSE (HEAVIER) THAN EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE ... than our Earth's predominately nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere, with TRACES of carbon dioxide, by comparison. Venus is almost completely covered with sulfur dioxide clouds, which has completely different infrared absorption characteristics than that Earth's water based clouds. Just because Earth and Venus share approximately the same size does NOT mean they are in any way whatsoever similar otherwise. And a comparison with Mercury makes no sense at all, because Mercury, except for some temporary Solar wind particles, has no atmosphere whatsoever, and it is unique in that it does not rotate every 24 hours like the Earth does, but only rotates exactly three time for every two Mercury years. What occurs on Mercury is a COMPLETELY different energy transfer situation. You are comparing "Apples, Giraffes, and Volkswagens". Ever watch the old TV show "Have Gun - Will Travel" on TV in the 60's? I was always jarred seeing Paladin riding his horse across the Arizona and Texas deserts in summertime ... dressed completely in black. I am almost sure this filming was done on a lot in California ... but what was depicted would have caused him to have a heat stroke in about five minutes. I have a black suit I wore out in Service last Saturday, and at 80 degrees, I was sweating like a human bathroom shower head. You are comparing things that are in NO WAY even remotely similar .... except Venus is roughly the same size as Earth. Mercury is a unique situation unto itself. I used to do Solar Isolation calculations for a living, for the Parson's Brinckerhoff family of engineering companies ... and often had to dispel the opinions of those who did not. Very few people understand complex composite energy transfers in disparate systems .... I grew up with it. The FIRST rule of Engineering is "make a sketch", and correctly label the component parts ...

Justice you only get from God. Any committee, like an insect, is usually a life form that has at least six legs, and very little brain.

.... an increase in carbon dioxide is NOT making the Earth warmer. The Earth is getting warmer because of the variability of our Sun, and the Earth's orbital eccentricities .... and that increased warmth is causing more bacteria in the soil to flourish and reproduce, and they poop MORE CARBON DIOXIDE. Get it?

The last time we had a crisis such as since 1880, the global temperature has risen by 0.74 degrees celsius, is when my grandmother went to a pig eating contest and her corset exploded! So ... in 138 years the Earth's temperature went up 3/4 of one degree ... which is quite understandable if you understand orbital mechanics, Milankovitch Cycles ( Look it up on Wikipedia ....), and the fact that our Sun is a variable star with 40,000 year, 4,000 year, and 11 year cycles. Please feel free to run down the hallway screaming with your hair on fire. Until you can change the physics of nuclear fusion, and specifically our star, the Sun, there is ONLY one thing a rational person can do. Improvise and adapt.

....perhaps tomorrow ...... The Wizard of Oz_ Pay No Attention.mp4 .... perhaps 20 years from now ... on a windswept plain next to a dried up lake in New York State, next to some crumbled buildings giving silent testimony to the greed of man, in a collapsed water damaged building .... on a bookshelf ... the books eaten by worms. Â

My wife and I have cut back our contributions back about 70% for the last three years, SOLELY due to how the WTB&TS has handled their pursuit and perversions of Justice by their legal staff. Whether or not the GB is aware of that and everything else that is going on financially I do not have solid proof for, but understanding people in general, makes me dislike them even more. Since I still believe Jehovah's Witnesses are "The only game in town", and there is clear hard evidence that the "game has been rigged", and I have no vote whatsoever ... and neither do you ..... I have only two choices. Vote with my feet ... or vote with my wallet. It appears MILLIONS of Jehovah's Witnesses are doing that exact same thing. Sometimes .... as many Congregations are finding out, as their Kingdom Halls THEY built and THEY paid for are cruelly confiscated and sold out from under them ... you have to just stand there, and allow yourself to be robbed. Ever notice in this year's Watchtower Study Editions they have prominently mentioned the baptism Dedication Oath , and ONLY cited the FIRST of the two questions? I have noticed this twice ... but they did NOT cite the second question. There is an OBVIOUS reason for this. This is WHY the Baptismal Dedication Oath was changed in 1985 to include "Part Two", to make us a vassal of the Governing Body and its lawyers .... and why we can now be legally disfellowshipped for such nebulous, undefined things as "brazen conduct". It cost them several millions of dollars in lawsuits to figure that out. What is this undefined, "brazen conduct"? If you call them to account for things needing serious reform, it means they do not LIKE you. You cannot expect to treat people with pervasive, institutionalized cruelty, even in mild mannered, soothing gentle tones .... and expect them to like you back. It is a double edged sword that cuts both ways. I was showing my eldest son various weapons I have, and I stopped .... paused .... ... and in a conspiratorial low voice asked "I don't have any ammunition for it, but would you like to see the most powerful weapon ever developed in modern times?" With wide-eyed awe, he wondered what I had that would be that weapon, and he replied in a nodding whisper .... that he would. I turned around, and out of my desk drawer, I showed him my checkbook. And yes, dear young ones .... be assured that Jehovah loves you ... and the Governing Body loves you. Just be sure to keep that saved ice cream money rolling in.

IT SEEMS THAT EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT THE SOCIETY IS DOING ..... .... EXCEPT THE PEOPLE PAYING THE BILLS.

News just in: Doing the math in reverse shows that the sale price of the Watchtower Properties in Brooklyn, was ONE BILLION TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS. Â

As crusty as I am ... that has always been my viewpoint, and still is .... When the philosophical Three Stooges are continuously cringeworthy, yet accomplish what actually gets done done at the bottom, there is a LOT to be said for that. It does bother me when I find on tax rolls in Colony Park, about 28 miles from the WHQ, multi-million dollar houses in residential areas owned by the WTB&TS, and right outside the gate of the WHQ massive tracts of land are owned by members of the Governing Body, and finances at and above the Convention level are military secrets. Rats .... I thought I was going to be complimentary of the things we do right ... but memory is putting the kabosh on that. I need a drink. But ... I would rather have a bottle in front of me ... than a prefrontal lobotomy.

That would mean that in 60 seconds. or only one minute ... the entire flow could cover 7.1667 MILES ... or looking at it another way ... the flow could cover 5 miles in 42 SECONDS? Is that really what you were trying to convey?

I hope my frozen nipples do not punch holes in my under shirt.

I have been thinking about using the empty flat mouthwash bottles ( I save bottles ...) and freezing water inside of them, and putting them inside my suit coat inside pockets. It will make me look like I have a lot of chest muscles ! I will be SOOooo cool !

Years ago, I went to the funeral of a much beloved elderly Brother, with several friends. Steve got the idea that just before the casket was closed, we each could "pay our last respects" (literally) by each of the four of us putting a hundred dollars into the coffin. I was embarrassed because I only had six dollars ... so I got in line last. Steve goes up and puts a hundred dollars in the dead Brother's suit coat pocket. Sydney goes up and puts a hundred dollars in his suit coat pocket. Alan goes up and puts a hundred dollars in his suit coat pocket. Now it was my turn. Just before they closed the lid, I went up and removed the three hundred dollars, and replaced it with my $400 personal check.

That's how much I sweated last Saturday out in Field Service .... I am going to have to take a small towel with me next time. ... and some deodorant!

Years ago, I read in Italy, where there is an active volcano, the townspeople took religious statues from their churches, and put them in the path of oncoming pyroclastic magma flows .... and ran like hell! If they REALLY had faith, they would have stood behind the statues, and waited.

hMMMMmmmm ... I thought there was only ONE unforgivable sin ..... Telling a racially offensive joke to white people ... that was NOT outrageously funny !

The problem with all financially Liberal minded groups of people ... is eventually the waterfall of free money shuts off, and when you run out of OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY, you have to start thinking rationally .... or go bankrupt. BUT HAVE NO FEAR! WITH THE NEWEST GOVERNING BODY MEMBER .... HELP IS ON THE WAY ! Â Â Â

It's not as if we had on our currency and coins "Don't Eat Yellow Snow" ! Which is actually a VERY good idea.

That is a really cool app .... but I wonder what the measuring tolerances are ? You can buy a laser distance measurer for about $60, good enough for putting wrapping paper on a box, or some similar iffy thing. I paid $925 for mine, a Lietz Disto, which is good to plus-or-minus 1/16" at 300 feet. It depends on what your accuracy needs really are. Even so .... I would like to see the APPS results taken from 4 different angles and disparate distances, to see if the results are the same.

I always wondered why the two lab mice, Pinky and the Brain, in their never ending quest to take over the world, went back to their cages in the Laboratory at night, where they were used for experiments.

I have yet to look at these videos except to time them, and it appears that : Video 1 = 12 minutes and 5 seconds Video 2 = 2 minutes and 26 seconds Video 3 = 4 minutes and 8 seconds Video 4 = 4 minutes and 55 seconds Video 5 = 13 minutes and 16 seconds My guess is that this was originally one hour in length and this 36 minutes and 50 seconds is what survived after the hard data was edited out, and two years after the fact, these tapes were deliberately leaked by the GB as a "rabbit trail". I have not checked anything, and perhaps I will sit down and ponder these things later... hopefully someone else will have done the "heavy lifting" by then.

It's really quite simple ....... Overlapping Donations.

I suppose "news" from 2016 is better than no news at all ..... I wonder how we are doing since the WTB&TS confiscated all the Kingdom Halls globally, and had several billion dollars Hurricane damage?