James Thomas Rook Jr.

Vote with your wallet. They don't give a flying twit what bothers you unless it affects sales.

I understand that 10 months out of the year Santa and his elves cater huge intergalactic parties at the North Pole at Superman's Fortress of Solitude, which is deliberately mis-labeled to confuse the IRS.

He could have avoided his death had he merely watched the 2008 movie "Rambo" several times. "Death by Misadventure" is another way Nature thins the stupid gene pool. It's automatic, completely fair and impartial, and there is no appeal. He may actually win this year's 2018 Darwin Award for this.

You have done well, Grasshoppers ... Now it is time for you to read Robert Ringer's "Winning Through Intimidation" .... and Robert A. Heinlein's "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long".

As long as there are alcoholics, there will always be drunks to roll. They ALWAYS have money.

When the GB declines to defend themselves and their policies before an audience of a MILLION people at one time .... why should I bother going out in the cold to knock on doors for twenty five years, to get ONE new convert ... when they are chasing them away by the tens of thousands?

Apparently, from your thread, Jack Ryan, almost a million people saw the show. ... and there will be MORE about Jehovah's Witnesses. I clicked on "21 replies", in your above post, to review it. I had forgotten much. The Governing Body was invited to be on the show ... but declined. ( !!!!!!! ) Instead, the program showed their published opinions in recordings and videos, verbatim. It was QUITE fair. The Society was quoted and shown with precision accuracy .....sigh. This is where understanding the Law of Unintended Consequences is so very vital.

Here in the United States we have Cable TV with such things as "History Channel", "Discovery Channel", "Scifi Channel", and "A&E" the "Arts and Entertainment Channel". Apparently around November 13 of this year they had a famous (?) TV star, Leah Remini, who had been a Scientologist since she was eight years old turn Apostate, and she has done at least two TV seasons exposing the ills of the Church of Scientology", do an Expose' of Jehovah's Witnesses. I do not watch TV as a rule, and missed it, and I spent a few days looking for it and trying to download a copy. It was not on YouTube, but I did find it under "Aftermath Jehovah's Witnesses" on the Russian equivalent of YouTube, "Rutube.ru". It would not download with my usual download software, so I had to find a free screen capture software, which took about four hours to get the settings just right, and I was able to download the two hour program from my monitor, as it was playing. Therefore, I watched the TV program three times, as I experimented with the settings to get a good screen copy to my hard drive.. I could see both sides of the program viewpoints presented, and did not find us to be misrepresented in any way whatsoever ... but if there was EVER a clear example of the Law of Unintended Consequences, the horror the Governing Body has caused in disfellowshipping the way that it is currently done ... by ripping families apart, and creating irreparable damage that can never be corrected with reinstatement, was chilling, and puts us in the same class as Scientologists ... which completely disregarding the horror and hardsip, and cruelty without any mercy whatsoever it creates locally, shames Jehovah's Name and Reputation over the whole planet. I don't believe there is anything a local Jehovah's Witness could do ... rob a bank ... have a harem ... have sex with horses ... etc., ad nauseum ... that would besmirch Jehovah's name and reputation globally as much as our current blatantly cruel public policies of destroying whole families for the sins of one person. I am very glad to have the education I have to know that the TRUTH is still the truth .... even though the 85% drivel has rotted and fermented into rotten sewage. Most JWs do NOT have this educational advantage ... so their lives are permanently destroyed. I don't expect much from people, and almost NOTHING from groups of people .... so for me, like getting one of those great salads at the Olive Garden Restaurant, and finding a big chunk of solid sewage in it ... I hold my nose, and eat around it. This TV Special is global news .... what could I possibly say to the average person that would clear the Name of God, that the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, NOT THE TELEVISION PROGRAM, has corrupted by its Pharisaic policies that have real world consequences? The exact same thing happened in ancient Israel, and a system that God blessed and supported for a thousand years and more was abandoned by God. The exact same thing.

I'm not going to say who I am with right now, and he has retired .. but he used to be a mild-mannered reporter for a daily metropolitan newspaper, and sang Kingdom Songs way back when they were published in Kryptonese.

Fred?

OK... I can see how 80 million pounds of cranberries are eaten a year, or some other time period ... but I would like to see the calculations of just HOW it was determined that they were eaten in one particular 24 hour period. I think it was Mark Twain that said " There are lies ... damn lies ... and statistics."

...that's all they need... someone to come and visit them at a ....uh ... "rest home" .... who keeps looking at their watch.

I was determined to carefully consider all the things posted above, but I fell asleep, and woke up with reverse keyboard imprints on my forehead, and drool on the table top, and a series of "y"s in a file, about a half million characters long... I guess. It all boils down to "How credible are the opinions of those who know, or PRETEND to know the answers about ANY subject." Fairy tales from a theologian can be almost always dismissed without even thinking ... but fairy tales from a genuine Fairy ... wings and all ... you probably want to pay more close attention. 1.) How many times has whatever counselor you have been RIGHT in the past? 2.) How many times has whatever counselor you have been WRONG in the past? Would you put on a parachute this person has packed ... and jump out of an airplane, after he has asked you to leave your wallet with him? I remember a prayer "Please God, save me from those people with the very best of intentions who try to rule my life, as right or wrong ... they intend to be rulers of my life!" People with the very best of intentions have ruined more lives than invading armies, as they believe they have the blessings of God, and after they totally screw up your life, still have a free and clear conscience, knowing absolutely that the fault was yours.

My mother started studying with Jehovah's Witnesses in the late 1950's, and we used to celebrate Christmas. I think I was seven years old when I heard that Santa Clause had been shot down over North Korea, in late December 1952, by a Soviet pilot flying a MIG25 Fighter plane. I remember thinking about those machine gun bullets strafing the sled full of toys, and the exploding reindeer, and Santa falling over the side, spinning to Earth over ten thousand feet below, almost cut in half. Later, I listened to the recording of what United Nations Intelligence had recorded from the MIG pilot, in Russian, and he shredded the hopes for Christmas that year 'Eat Lead, Capitalist Toymonger!". As a toddler, after the end of World War II, I too had sung Christmas Caroles ... "Oh little town of Hiroshima, how still we see thee lie ... Beneath those cold and bombed out seas, the strontium clouds roll by. And in the twilight's gleaming, the Bombs's unearthly light ... The hopes and fears of all the years, were blown to hell, tonite. " Happy New Year Billy!! I still have a freezer full of those old guys from previous years passed, in the togas.

..... Reba McEntire - Fancy.mp4 Jolene -Dolly Parton Lyrics.mp4 Marilyn Monroe Diamonds are a girl's best friend.mp4 The Alien Song (I Will Survive) - COMPLETE __tapiflour__.mp4

As a younger man, having dispensed evil, with the very best of intentions, a pure heart, and ignorant as home-made sin, I know how it goes ... to my everlasting shame.

How deep is my love? If I would wade through the Oceans of my love, it would scarcely get the tops of my feet wet. I used to love almost all people ....... now I love humanity ....... but can't stand people.

It's usually JTR, not JT, but they should be forgiven because they do it out of gross ignorance, not premeditated evil. And I do not condemn ANYONE ... I just comment on stuff, and people in a group and how they behave collectively.

if the above confuses you ... meditate that it DOES make sense ... and think about it until it really does. Thinking properly is REAL HARD WORK! That is why most people stay confused their whole lives , or are easily misled by which ever way the wind is blowing.

We as Jehovah's Witnesses have the lamentable custom of having personal opinions, and teaching them as Edicts from God ... which does convince those not aware and educated about the very real difference between a deeply held personal opinion, and an Edict from God. There IS a difference. It is intellectually dishonest to have a deeply held personal conviction, and not clearly label it as exactly that, and no more. Emotionally, I have a deeply felt belief in the "Rainbow Bridge" Intellectually, I would never teach that, because it is ONLY a deeply felt complete fantasy. There IS a difference. I hope Jehovah God, and the people whose lives we ruin because of our adamant cultural fantasies, will forgive us, for screwing up their lives, and condemning them to a lifetime of isolation, of loneliness, and of unnecessary fear and paranoia.

For school children I would buy a Windows 10 system and teach them how to use it. My wife teaches mathematics in the Public School System, and they universally have Chromebooks, because they cost so very much less, and are much simpler to use, but the Public School System in 85% of the cases is NOTHING to be used as an example of what should be done. .... but a child that can naturally speak 5 languages just by being exposed to them, can also learn an adult operating system for a computer. If I had it to do over, I would NOT have given my children Leggos ... I would have taught them to lay real brick. (I have a Windows 10 system, but I prefer Windows 7, with a Classic XP Shell, which makes it LOOK like XP.)

The human brain shares some characteristics of human muscle, although mostly made of fat. I saw a sign in a Space Training Area ... "Only exercise the muscles you want to keep" Read two books a week, and you will probably keep you mind whole and functional your whole life. Use it, or lose it. A good test is see if you can chew bubble gum, yodel, and operate a yo-yo at the same time.

..... too soon?

Even back in Jesus day there was controversy and dissension about was it a cross, a stake, an "X", a tree, a hewn plank of gopher wood, or just a 10 foot length of a section of one of the cedars of Lebanon, with or without cross arm. When they were going to do executions people would come into town from the farm areas to watch .... especially someone as famous as Jesus had become, and they would rent a hotel room (barn, shelter, or sleep on the town square, hoping for some hospitality to be shown at a private home, as was the custom back then.). There is recorded in Josephus about a disciple who came into an Inn in Jerusalem, the night before Jesus was killed, the same night in another part of the city that Jesus was being arrested, placed two very large black iron nails on the night clerk's counter, and said "Can you put me up for the night?"

Sigh .... the chemical industry also makes laundry bleach, and paint, and gasoline. ...and a million other things. You are supposed to be smart enough to not drink laundry bleach, and paint, and gasoline .... and a million other things.