James Thomas Rook Jr.

Agenda driven thinking is ALWAYS delusional ... whether you are on the "outside looking in" ... or the "inside looking out". WDS - the sword that cuts BOTH ways.

The preponderance of evidence, as I saw it then, and as I see it now, as shown leads me to believe that it happened EXACTLY as Jack Ryan just posted. It is consistent with the fact that for 50 years in Mexico, Jehovah's Witnesses were a "cultural association", until the law was changed so they could own REAL ESTATE. Straight from "central casting". When I was a younger man, I used to bet my life that I understood parachuting as well as I understood that hitting the ground at 220 miles per hour is NOT GOOD ... A series of ACTUAL life or death "leaps of faith". I am USED to the idea. It's all about how you rate the probabilities of this thing ... that thing .. or the other thing .... whatever it is, as being true, false, or somewhere in the middle. Sometimes, the credibility gap is compensated for by a gullibility fill. Sometimes the truth really hurts. WDS - the sword that cuts BOTH ways. The preponderance of evidence, as I saw it then, and as I see it now, as shown leads me to believe that it happened EXACTLY as Jack Ryan just posted.

WDS - the sword that cuts BOTH ways.

This is a fallacious premise .... reading some of her statements she actually says SHE IS NOT, a "staunch Jehovah's Witness". (massive paraphrase ...) I get the impression she is not even baptized ... ( anyone REALLY know?) She agrees with some stuff ... and not others ... sorta like eating parts of a fish. "But frankly, Scarlett ... I don't give a damn." - Rhett Butler - "Gone With The Wind"

The picture I saw had the Chilean Flag behind the metal bars in the windows, behind the glass, inside the building, facing out, and there was a high steel rod fence with a gate around the property, with the flagpole on the property, on the grounds. It may have been put there by Eskimos for all I know. ... but that is not probable.

I don't know anything other than what was in the news several years ago ... that on a particular national holiday, Chile requires Churches to display the National Flag for that day on their building or flag poles ... and the Elders put one inside the building, showing through the windows, and put one on a flag pole (what's a Kingdom Hall doing with a flag pole ...anyway..?), to avoid paying a fine, somewhere around $240. I have several photos on my hard drive somewhere, from several angles. That's all I know.

It allllllll boils down to this .... do we allow ... and overlook ... a certain amount of BAD ART ... in order to have harmless FREEDOM AND LIBERTY? I will. ... rather have harmless Freedom and Liberty AND good art ... but like the singer "Meat Loaf" once sang ... "Two Outta Three, Ain't Bad".

You would be completely surprised in many cases if scriptures were read in CONTEXT .... a half page before, and a half page after.

In Real Estate evaluation there are four things that are the essentials .. all else is secondary ...."Location, Location, Location .. and cash flow". Context. In conveying an idea to someone else, it's all about "Presentation. Presentation, Presentation .. and interest." Context. In Leviticus 19:28 these things are ALSO true..... WHAT IS THE CONTEXT? The CONTEXT is not about decorations and minor surgery, medically necessary or cosmetic. I should have also added the MOST important element that Leviticus was talking ABOUT .... pagan religious rites and practices. And that unknown woman in the picture with those .... things ... on her eyebrows. ... it looks like she has fuzzy-wuzzy catipillars covering up zippers.

WDS - the sword that cuts BOTH ways.

Probably just a temporary sales glitch. When Obama was elected it caused the immediate acquisition of about Three Million new guns into the hands of people, many who already had several, or many. I appreciate Obama SO MUCH! ... best gun salesman of the 21st century!

It depends on each individual person ... that's why in the Christian Congregation ... we are encouraged to develop a TRAINED conscience, depending on insight and rationality. The tattoos mentioned in the Bible refer to markings that would identify one as a member of a band of barbarians, soldiers, religious groups, clan, tribe, or cultural background. ... anything that would show fealty, association or legionship with elements of human or spiritual association CONTRARY to the principles and concepts of that approved by Jehovah God. It is embodied in the FIRST of the Ten Commandmenta ... which in principle covers the entire subject of tattoos. You have to use some common sense ... which in perusing and perusing a religious agenda ... is NOT all that common. Under the Christian "rules", we no longer have to sacrifice animals on an alter ... we can eat Bar-B-Que and pork chops, and a LARGE list of other things forbidden by COMMON SENSE to benefit mankind in its collective infancy years when thinking about societal safeguards was almost completely unknown, collectively. There is a difference between knowing a "rule" or regulation .. and knowing or NOT knowing the mind of God, and WHY he decided to restrict this, that or the other thing. Now, since Jesus has expounded on the underlying PRINCIPLES of the Law ... we should slowly, more and more each day, understand WHY Jehovah wants, or wanted ... or even CARED about what we do, or used to do. That's why we HAVE a conscience. I think tattoos are ugly, and inappropriate, and don't have any, although I am sometimes fascinated by "possibilities", and I am curious and ask about other people's INK when I see them. They usually appreciate the interest. They think it looks good, and it certainly attracts attention. Sometimes people are so terribly starved for human attention that they will do all kinds of stuff to try and get some .... necessary to many people as food, water and air is. The uglier a person is, the probability is that they NEED permanent makeup. Or some really serious plastic surgery.

... and now, a cryptic "blast from the past", or, as Monty Python once said: " ... Something different ..."

Having done land surveying for more than 30 years, I appreciate the value of large navigational markers. Around your home you may have wooden stakes in the corners or your lots, or metal pins in the ground, but I have installed markers that cost $20,000 and required you to dig holes 10 feet deep to set the concrete foundations for the markers ... for one point the size of a tack ... that you could see from afar off. Several years ago I went to Norway, and across land and sea, on roads and islands between fjords, there is a massive monumentation system that defines and marks the Arctic Circle .... a THEORETICAL circle that most people do not understand why it's important, at all. It must have cost at least a billion dollars to install all of these .... not counting the surveying that located where they should go. Sometimes ..... things that MOST people do not understand, are very important to those that do. This is why I think WDS , the sword that cuts both ways ... is so very, very dangerous.

Sometimes it takes a REAL ARMY (Spiritual or physical) to fight against overwhelming forces. Some people are experts at everything ... but too few to mention. THAT is REALITY .... Each person has to decide for himself or herself, when the evil that ALL men do, outweighs all the GOOD that some men TRY to do. In France, when the Allied Forces invaded on D-Day, to destroy the Nazis, they bombed and destroyed many innocent civilians to get rid of the cancer that was Nazism. This is called "Collateral Damage". One French man was hiding in his basement, when Allied Bombs, attempting to kill Germans, destroyed his home, and trapped him in the basement, injured, and he died of his injuries, but also thirst and starvation. In the dark. He left behind his skeletonized remains, and a THANK YOU LETTER TO THE ALLIES ... for rescuing France from a great cancerous evil, even though it resulted in his PERSONAL death, ... and he died slow, and alone. In the dark. From time to time, and over long periods of time, I have been damaged by incompetent and ignorant Elders ... but I think the perspective of the Frenchman is the correct one to have ... and that is the one I have, and I am sticking with it. I didn't like it then, and I don't LIKE it now ... but reality is what it is ... and I am determined NOT to think like a petulant, whiny child, expecting mere mortals to be more than what they really are. Or, as fictional Vulcan First Officer Spock once said in a Star Trek movie ... "Sometimes, the needs of the many are greater, than the needs of the few .... or the one."

WDS .... the sword that cuts BOTH ways.

Who knows, the CO might have felt the same.... He grinned, but said "Well.... they have their place ..." I rolled my eyes, but did not say anything more.

I agree with that. BUT ... it is a crystal clear and dramatic example of "WDS" *, on the part of those AGENDA driven people. With bad detectives .... seeing is believing. If they had not BELIEVED something ... they would not have seen it. * ( _"WDS" = "Watchtower Derangement Syndrome" - the sword that cuts both ways.)

And you know why, because if you were into Caleb and Sophia that would be really weird, since you are an adult. I am 72 years old... and am a BIG fan of Pooh Bear! I'm A Little Black Rain Cloud, of course..mp4

You can do better, John?

It is not fake... there is no substitute that is better. It's just that it LOOKS fake to reasonable people, because of human greed.

Weapons good ..... crucifixes not good. Even the Apostles had their personal weapons at the Memorial. (Luke 22:36)

Like Jesus did when he taught in the Synagogue? Hahahhahaa!

Sigh ... this is getting tiresome, and I have to go put new headlights on my car this afternoon. The stone Watchtower on the old magazine cover had WINDOWS in the side of the tower. WINDOWS to let in light, and ventilation, but designed the way they were so that you could shoot ARROWS, spears, and pour flaming oil and push stones on the ones seeking to scale the walls to break into your fortification. The walls are several feet thick. That means that, from the INSIDE, by varying your angle from left to right, and top to bottom, you can shoot OUT of a VERY narrow slit, as the incoming projectiles have a good chance of being deflected by the wall and SIDES of the cross SHAPED window. It's NOT a crucifex design .... its a weapons platform, that happens to be cross shaped. There is a difference! If your mind has an agenda driven motivation, EVERYTHING you see , hear and experience will be WRONG. This will appear normal, and wise to you. It's not what we think we know ... or what we really do know ...... it's about not getting suckered into a mind set where everything we actually do know .... is WRONG. There is a LOT out there.... and if you have WDS ( Watchtower Derangement Syndrome ), seeing things that are not really there,you will miss most of it, and die ignorant .... and wrong. It's a sword that cuts BOTH ways.

.... however, as I told my CO one day when he asked what I thought about the organization "I can do without Caleb and Sophia".