If I sound to you like I am ANYBODY's puppet, ... and apparently to you, it seems I do, or you would not have asked the question ... you have some serious WDS problems. 

VERY SERIOUS WDS PROBLEMS.

Your agenda driven thinking has severely warped your entire perspective .... which of course, as it does to EVERYBODY with agenda driven thinking.

And of course, to YOU ... your thinking seems normal.

You have plenty of company.

Your daily reminder that you are not a predator

I dunno ... when I go to Golden Corral for breakfast, and load up on bacon, pork chops, fried chicken, sausages, eggs, I occasionally think of the TRILLIONS of animals that we kill each year to gobble up with gusto.

Actually, humans are the greatest, and most efficient predator that has ever lived on this planet, by a considerable margin.

Think about it!

How do I make my scrambled eggs moist but well cooked?

I dunno, how many guesses do I get?

My recommendation (after a great deal of experimentation with various Tax Filer DVD's and web sites over a decade, and more), is to download the paper copies from IRS.GOV. , and the instructions, and go through it line by line.

Make copies, and send the originals by certified mail, return receipt requested.

As much as I am amazed, entertained, and chagrined by TPT's (Tight Pants Tony's) thinking processes, sometimes I think of it a "Creepygate", I think "Bottlegate" is a tempest in a teapot ... that is to say .. much ado about NOTHING !

Absolutely NOTHING!

WDS (Watchtower Derangement Syndrome) is a phenomenon that cuts BOTH ways ... from the inside, looking out ... and from the outside, looking in ... and in this case, the AGENDA DRIVEN THINKING from the outside looking in has severely clouded the thinking and reasoning abilities of the complainers.

Agenda driven thinking is ALWAYS faulty.

HOWEVER, that being said ... the video above is well worth watching.

3 hours ago, Witness said:

“Elders, you can learn some helpful lessons from what we have just discussed: (1) The best thing you can do to prepare for the future attack of “the Assyrian” is to strengthen your faith in God and help your brothers to do the same. (2) When “the Assyrian” attacks, you must be completely convinced that Jehovah will save us. (3) At that time, the direction that you receive from Jehovah’s organization may seem strange or unusual. But all of us must be ready to obey ANY instructions we may receive, WHETHER WE AGREE WITH THEM OR NOT, because obeying these instructions will save our lives

I would of course be suspicious if the "special instructions" involved drinking grape kool-aid while witnessing in the jungle,  and I might just pat my stomach, smile, and lie that I had just drank a half gallon of water. Thankyouveryverymuchbutno.

Some things would be harmless to do if they made no sense, whatsoever .... others might get me killed ... and still others might cause harm to someone else, mentally, physically, or emotionally.

Some thigs are just useless "busy work" to keep the troops occupied.

I did not write any of the 64 MILLION letters to the Russian Federation, because I understood

1.) It was political activism, and

2.) It was a completely useless gesture, considering that NO ONE can, or would, or would even TRY to read 64 million letters, and it would just consolidate the Russkies being irritated, and have them think we are complete, total and  and absolute fools, and

3.) I understood the Universal Postal Union Rules of Terminal Duty ... that they got 70% of the face value of the postage to deliver those millions of letters ... my estimate was $56,000,000, to supply them with 11 train boxcar loads of thin sliced firewood.

... Winter was coming, and it was "fuel at the proper time".

It was a complete waste of time and resources .... and about 90 million dollars of the Brotherhood's money in postage ...  56 MILLION DOLLARS put into the Russian Federation Treasury .... and it was in actual fact an attempt to politically influence the Russian Court System. Complete with perhaps a ton of plausible deniability bribe money.

The reason we HAVE a conscience is to serve as a guide for us when we run across new ideas and experiences.

All that being said .... if they want me to put my hands under my armpits, and flap my elbows like chicken wings, and make rooster noises, I have no problem with that.

... that's just the way I am wired!

You can always tell those who successfully wage war against sin and criminal activity.

They never die.

I have driven in traffic, in Lima Peru.

It is like  a hive of bees flying combat. They have traffic lights only because other countries have them.

This sprinting accomplishment reminds me of the Texan who once bragged "It takes THREE DAYS to drive across Texas."

The other guy said " Yeah .... I used to have a car like that".

As a practical matter in the real world, I do not care if his father was born on Mars.

5 hours ago, JOHN BUTLER said:

As for this Tom, you are totally wrong,  Quote "Time heals most everything that wants to be healed."

You honestly do not understand, we don't have a choice but to remember those things. 

Collateral damage is a fact of life .... in everything we do.

It should not be ... but it is.

It looks different when you have been interrogated in the back "ROOM 101". eleven times about things Jehovah cares NOTHING about. and threatened with censure or disfellowshipping.by people who can, and do destroy peoples' lives.

With the finest of intentions, and full confidence of the righteousness of their reasoning.

This is why the Watchtower is continually "pushing" that we forgive each other freely.

So that we might forgive those Elders, and Governing Body. and not exact vengeance.

8 hours ago, Anna said:

What about all those nasty cow farts?

The most methane produced on Earth is by Volcanoes, which seem to not to want to cooperate with the people brokering and selling Carbon Credits, to promote Socialism through equalizing money throughout the Earth ... minus their 15% commissions, of course, like the companies Al Gore created to do exactly that .... and the second highest methane producers are Chinese rice paddies.

None of which matters, because we live in an atmosphere that is about 21% Oxygen, 78% Nitrogen, and 1% other gasses, which are totally irrelevant ... including methane. 

The ONLY real "greenhouse gas" is  plain old WATER VAPOR .... big mile deep clouds ... shiny on the top ... dark on the bottom .... like a giant floating space age blanket.  The more clouds you have in the daytime the cooler it is.  The more clouds you have in the night time, the warmer it is.

Between belching and farting that's how cows tell jokes, in Stereo.

Then ... I close my bathroom window.

What?

Me Worry?

10 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

 I came pretty close. Trouble is, I could not be sure that you and he might not hit it off and come after me, even though he was my creation.

Although I personally would not care, one of your created multiple personalities  might in fact come after you.  It HAS been known to happen ... usually while someone is  sleeping.

May I suggest you start sleeping with a razor sharp hatchet under your pillow?

Alfred E. Neuman?

I am inclined to adopt the philosophy of Tarzan of the Apes, on vigilante justice.   One night Tarzan was perched in a tree, watching a tribe below, and one man was awake,  tending a giant stew pot that was cooking the bodies of a neighboring tribe that had lost a battle, and Tarzan drops silently to the ground, and from behind lifts the cook by his ankles and sticks his head in the boiling stew, and pushes him in.

Although Jehovah God has never expressed any prohibition against cannibalism,  Tarzan reasoned that  even Great Apes (his family) did not eat each other, and neither should men.  He obeyed the dictates of his NATURAL conscience, as created by author Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The idea of taking someone back to "white man's justice". was totally foreign to Tarzan.

Perhaps that is why the Society discourages education and reading anything other than it's own publications.

Yet, on reflection, many, many dozens of times I have refrained from killing someone who SERIOUSLY needed killin'.

I wonder if that makes me "more theocratic" ... or just a wimp.

I remember that interview.

My contribution to "Global Warming" is limited to accidentally leaving my bathroom window open.

REMEMBER !   Every home, office, factory and other building that is heated ... every single one ..... without exception ... eventually loses that heat from the inside, to the outside.  Think of 5 BILLION hot spots on the Earth, sucking up natural gas, oil, electricity, propane, coal and uranium, and turning it into HEAT!

Even in the summer, air conditioners pump HEAT to the outside air.

Now that you are excited, and hyper-ventilating in an ecological save the planet or we are all doomed panic ....  what does that mean as a practical, real life matter?

Absolutely NOTHING!

I saw the movie with my wife, and I could have done without those scenes ... but it helped to show what a scumbag pervert Freddie Mercury had become, even with, and in spite of his INCREDIBLE musical talent when combined with the OTHER musical talents of the rest of the Band.  His perversions and excesses destroyed him and this incredible music, his Band, and eventually killed him, from AIDS.

There were certain things about that movie I found repulsive, but I think to tell the story of the rise and fall of the band "Queen" it was important, and the truth  enhanced the intellectual integrity of the movie.

I personally would have NOT edited out those truly awful scenes.

One thing I did learn from the movie was that each of the four Band members CONSTANTLY disagreed with each other about EVERYTHING, and that synergy is what made their music so profoundly GREAT!  When Freddie Mercury went solo, and had people that agreed with everything he told them to do, and they did it ... his talent died as if snuffed out with a rag.

It confirmed what I already knew .... that when everyone is speaking in agreement, it is clear evidence that NO ONE is thinking.

In this case ... the Chinese censors.

4 hours ago, JW Insider said:

It's not fully analogous, but some TV Science channel once ran a special about how you could kill the Sun with a chunk of iron.

It would have to be a small star sized chunk of iron .... probably not something you could get at an automobile scrap yard.

Further, when a star collapses, it can go Nova, or Supernova, which is how we get elements heavier than iron.  This is the natural life cycles of Stars, and there is NOTHING we can to to speed it up, slow it down, or ANYTHING ... except watch.

I suspect in the New System, with perfect people, and 10,000 years of scientific advancement, this will STILL be true.

Same with "Climate Change", AKA "Global Warming.

There is nothing we can do except watch .....

and perhaps move to the mountains, or buy a boat.

4 minutes ago, BillyTheKid46 said:

Therefore, whose fault is it that the earth is eroding faster than it would naturally? That affects climate change and enhances the effect of natural disasters.

Billy ... climate change may contribute to accelerated erosion ..... but accelerated erosion DOES NOT CONTRIBUTE TO CLIMATE CHANGE.

"Everybody says" that because the CO2 levels are rising, the earth is getting warmer.

THEY ARE WRONG

The Earth is getting warmer because it is a natural cycle, due to orbital mechanics of our planet, and the variability of our Star, the Sun.

BECAUSE it is getting warmer, bacteria is flourishing  more than when it is cooler.

Bacteria exhale CO2, just as we do.  Then the trees use CO2, strip off the carbon to make wood, and exhale oxygen.

You are fixated on erosion.

There is an expression for this phenomena of perspective.

"When you are a hammer ... EVERYTHING looks like a nail."

19 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

And if funds for these purposes were to run out, it would also not follow that climate change disasters had diminished. 

Coincidence is not causality.

1 hour ago, TrueTomHarley said:

For me, that is statements of the WT that they are now devoting multiple times the resources that they one did to disaster relief.

That's the thing about WDS ... it makes you see things that are not there .... a theocratic hallucination.  A mirage. The remembrance of a favorite cartoon that was never actually made.

The hokey pokey,

That's what it's all about.

Got it all covered!

I don't believe anybody about anything.

Works for me!

...... and a LOT less work!

I lived in Hollywood, California, up in the hills, on Pacific View Trail, for several years, and SAW several famous people, but had no interest in meeting them.

I did have a race with Paul Newman, on Pacific Coast Highway, me on a Honda 350 motorcycle and him driving a Limo, circa 1969. 

We pulled up at a stoplight in Malibu, grinned at each other. I revved up my motorcycle ... he revved up his Limo, and when the light turned green we both roared North.   

I got up to 45mph, and dropped back ... he disappeared into the distance..

But technically .... I did race against Paul Newman.

1 hour ago, BillyTheKid46 said:

It would certainly be something to consider if a person lives in a fantasy world dictated by their own imagination. Something missing from that fantasy of 283 million years of evolution seems to be humans. Unless someone can find factual evidence man existed 283 million years ago and were privy to the same conditions of climate change by natural erosion.

Billy ..... you are the best I have ever seen at misapplying whatever anyone says.   You take someone's key words and misapply them to  fit your own agenda.

("Something missing from that fantasy of 283 million years of evolution....")

In this case, the word "erosion", which you have mentioned several times, and has NOTHING to do with this conversation.

This is a COMMON problem of ALL agenda driven thinking processes

I said the piece of petrified wood I have is 283 million years old ... NOT that mankind was 283 million years old.

When your ENTIRE thinking processes are controlled, governed, and shaped by AGENDA ... you can ignore a billion and more tons of HARD EVIDENCE.

Agenda driven thinking ALWAYS results in theocratic hallucinations.

Add that to negligible reading comprehension, and you live in a cartoon world, untouched by tawdry or magnificent reality.