James Thomas Rook Jr.

I knew that already, when I could feel the pain in my frame, and axles, and my skin was yellow.

...in my dream, the buses were out racing on the weekend, or something.
When I woke up I thought "Where did all of THAT come from?"

Too true, TTH.
Saturday night I had a full color vision in a dream while I was sleeping, and woke up and told it to my wife, Susan.
In this dream I was in a race with three large bright yellow school buses, racing up a hill to a Tee intersection, in single file, along a wooded country road, and I was the third school bus in line, and being old it was a big struggle to keep up, as the other two were newer school buses with newer engines.
I was the actual bus ... not a driver IN the bus, and the other buses were the same.
As I tried to pass I was hitting logs, and potholes, and I could feel it in my frame and in my axles, and realized the probability of me getting to the Tee intersection first was slim.
... and  then, the lead school bus said to the second school bus, which I overheard above the roar of the engines and the clashing of gears "You know, when we get back, they are going to check the mileage, and they will know we have been racing ...."
I have been trying to put that into some context, but am at a loss.
 

Now I understand why many executives disallow any reports to them longer than one page.
They KNOW how easy it is to be hypnotized by many words, which for some, is a finely tuned art form.

As Les Nessman of WKRP, Cincinnati Radio once said in a live broadcast Thanksgiving Promotion from a shopping mall with an overhead helicopter tossing out turkeys from about 2000 feet, and they spattered as they hit cars and pavement "they are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement" Oh, the inhumanity of it!", and Station Manager Arthur Carlton said "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly !!".
WKRP _As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly_ Thanksgiving (1).mp4

I have been thinking about writing a novel about a Jehovah's Witness that goes back in time, and successfully assassinates Adolf Hitler, and how the world progresses from that point onward.
It will have a LOT of known facts, and a LOT of stuff completely made up from my imagination. 
I think books like this are called "Docu-Novels"
In order to not be intellectually dishonest, I would have to market it as a "docu-novel", and then I would not have to have a statement inside stating that
.... but, knowing how people ARE .... it might be a good idea to put a statement like this on the inside title page .....
...in LARGE type.
.... uh .... in order to not be intellectually dishonest,

I bet you are a LOT of fun at parties ! (NOT)
It's called casual conversation.
Not EVERYTHING has to be an epistle of epic proportions and importance.
Now, the part where I agree with you.
Your last sentence.
I could do with a one page synopsis.
It's like being stuck in the 7th grade ..... FOREVER.

The interpretation of the dream O, J.T.R. Junior, is this:
The third bus is YOU!
 
(Hope that helped!)

Anna: ....
I tried to read all that stuff from the 1968 Watchtower you posted.  I REALLY did.
But I concluded that the whole thing could probably be condensed to two short paragraphs, and to read it in it's entirety would probably be fatal to me, from the handful of caffeine tablets I would need to finish it.
...continuing with TTH's comments about John F. Kennedy being the impetus to get mankind to the Moon ..... the thought just occurred to me that with all his foibles, weaknesses, and missteps, ( Bay of Pigs .. what's THAT?), and setting the stage for the Vietnam War, etc., he was sorta like the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, with all their foibles and general cluelessness.
What he did RIGHT ... makes up for everything else, with change left over.
Same thing.

Now I understand why many executives disallow any reports to them longer than one page.
They KNOW how easy it is to be hypnotized by many words, which for some, is a finely tuned art form.

Anna: ....
I tried to read all that stuff from the 1968 Watchtower you posted.  I REALLY did.
But I concluded that the whole thing could probably be condensed to two short paragraphs, and to read it in it's entirety would probably be fatal to me, from the handful of caffeine tablets I would need to finish it.
...continuing with TTH's comments about John F. Kennedy being the impetus to get mankind to the Moon ..... the thought just occurred to me that with all his foibles, weaknesses, and missteps, ( Bay of Pigs .. what's THAT?), and setting the stage for the Vietnam War, etc., he was sorta like the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, with all their foibles and general cluelessness.
What he did RIGHT ... makes up for everything else, with change left over.
Same thing.

I was thinking that this was part of the normal run of the buses, and knowing you can't tell if a bus was speeding by checking the mileage.
So it reminded me of the joke about the two fishermen, who normally had bad luck, but rented a boat so that they finally found a place way out on the water where the fish were biting exceptionally well. When fishing was done for the day, the first fisherman says to the second, 'Make sure you keep track of where this place is so we can get here again tomorrow.' The second fisherman say, 'I already did. I put a big X on the side of the boat right here.' The first fisherman says: 'But how do you know we'll get the same boat tomorrow?'

Now I understand why many executives disallow any reports to them longer than one page.
They KNOW how easy it is to be hypnotized by many words, which for some, is a finely tuned art form.

Now I understand why many executives disallow any reports to them longer than one page.
They KNOW how easy it is to be hypnotized by many words, which for some, is a finely tuned art form.

Lol. Same thoughts here. That is why I posted it, genuinely wondering if anyone really read it when it was first published. But then people did read a lot more 50 years ago...... but then they also might have been clueless and just, like I said, zeroed in on the number 1975, which was a mere 7 years away at the time.....
If it's any consolation, I only read to about paragraph 10 😃

You know, I can see how the idea might come up for discussion at Bethel. Despite my innocuous take expressed about it—a take that has mostly played out (but may someday not)—there certainly were military overtones in JFKs speech rallying Americans to support a moon launch. 
We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon...We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.

It is worth a simulated launch, I guess—presenting the idea—but I’m glad that it blew up on the pad.
It would have been lost on most people. Relatively few catch the implications of anything. They take it at face value—“Space: The final frontier: these are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise—it’s continuing mission: to seek out new world’s, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
On a flight to Damascus, Bill had a vision of such. Some odd fellow that he took for an angel presented the idea to him right there on the Shatner wing. Like Paul, it disoriented him completely for a time, and the other passengers heard of the disturbance, sure enough, but witnessed nothing themselves.
As a boy, I never once trembled when they launched a rocket from Cape Canaveral. I always took it in the spirit of advancing technology, advancing exploration. It’s one of the few accomplishments of men that has NOT been quickly put to military use, as airplanes were. 
In contrast, WWI was not only perceived by just about everyone, but it was instantly perceived as a negative. Probably that’s what the other—how many were there then—GB members pointed out, sending Bert and his co-astronauts scuttling off to the pantry for a donut.
Robocalls from the cloud, on the other hand, ARE perceived as an instant evil, as any time-share owner in the Everglades knows.

My donations are always by check, and written thereon is "for local needs".
It's like paying taxes, some of which are used to make hydrogen bombs, and ICBMs.
Not my problem.
Jesus and the Apostles needed NONE of those things you mentioned, Arauna.
If you are NOT inspired of God, as the GB admits they are not ( February 2017 Watchtower), you do need all of those things you mentioned.
They are actually essential, as I would freely admit.
.... and HEY!, I am just guessing about all of this ... as is everyone else.
And Arauna .... did you get NOTHING out of the "Follow Jesus" Assemblies?
Jesus set the example .
We are either following that example, or .....
WE ARE NOT.
The fact of the matter is that the GB DOES use the billions for their own purposes.
but, I am, as you stated, "no one to criticize" ... as I do not follow Jesus' example either.
If I had that kind of money, I would buy a Chinook double rotor helicopter, instead of Rolex watches, and cartoons of Caleb and Sophia, etc.
uh ... for Witnessing on beautiful Pacific Islands, of course ....
 
 

I strongly suspect that Jehovah's Holy Spirit is given in direct proportion to the amount of Spirit you actually need.... considering that Jesus Christ and the Apostles had NO Real Estate whatsoever, as part of their Organization, and only enough money for the days food, and to the best of my knowledge, just the clothes on their backs, they needed a lot ... and they received a lot of Holy Spirit.
The Governing Body has billions of dollars in Real Estate, all over the world, and controls billions of dollars worth of money, to spend as they alone see fit.
... and dat's de fact, Jack.
SOOooooo... they are on their own.
..... as are the great majority of us.
I have SEEN Jehovah's Spirit build up and sustain several of the Anointed ones, who had no strength of resources of their own, and I suspect when it is needed ... actually NEEDED .. the rest of us "ground pounders" get it as well.
That is just my guess of how it works ... no more.
...and I suspect it is INVERSELY proportional to how much you have naturally, WITHOUT Jehovah's intervention.
 
 
 
the formula for that is 1/x.
There is probably a button on your pocket calculator for that.

Answer:
Hatred borne of jealousy ...
.... because the people  covering the Earth, outside of Adam and Eves' family, were NOT directly created beings of Jehovah, and did NOT have an opportunity to live forever ...
...and they KNEW that to be the case.
That is why Cain was afraid that wherever he went in his enforced exile to wander the Earth, those evolved  humans would kill him.
I do not "have Polaroids", but that idea solves a LOT of problems, including millions of tons of hard fossil evidence, all over the Earth, that only the willfully stupid would say means nothing ... and it solves the problem of who Cain married.

2011, after the Nation realized they could NOT keep their doctor, they could NOT keep their health plan, and the $2500 every person was going to save on their Health Care, was going to cost them about $10,000 more, and if they did not buy it, the IRS would add a whopping fine to their Income Tax return.
On a related note, in 1980, the Governing Body in considering the "signs in the heavens ..." actually considered declaring Sputnik to be the fulfillment of Bible Prophesy, Schroeder, Karl Klein and Grant Suiter proposed moving the beginning of the "generation" to the year 1957, to coincide with the 1957 Sputnik event,  and it almost became "new light", except a 66-2/3 majority vote was needed to adopt that policy, and one member of the Governing Body went to the restroom, and when he came back, he changed his vote, and it failed by one vote.
In retrospect, perhaps the Brother should have held his water.
 
 

It's a difficult doctrine, with an easy explanation.
The Earth is about 3.5 billion years old.
Each creative day is (3.5 billion divided by 7 = 500,000,000) about 500 million years..
Armageddon will occur at the "End of Days".
Therefore ... "Stay Alive, 'till 500,001,975".
See?
The math works out perfectly, AND it agrees with fossils !
TA DA!
Plus! --- the .ORG gets a LOT of "wiggle room".
As Marvin Webster sez: "Ya'll think about it."
 
 

My donations are always by check, and written thereon is "for local needs".
It's like paying taxes, some of which are used to make hydrogen bombs, and ICBMs.
Not my problem.
Jesus and the Apostles needed NONE of those things you mentioned, Arauna.
If you are NOT inspired of God, as the GB admits they are not ( February 2017 Watchtower), you do need all of those things you mentioned.
They are actually essential, as I would freely admit.
.... and HEY!, I am just guessing about all of this ... as is everyone else.
And Arauna .... did you get NOTHING out of the "Follow Jesus" Assemblies?
Jesus set the example .
We are either following that example, or .....
WE ARE NOT.
The fact of the matter is that the GB DOES use the billions for their own purposes.
but, I am, as you stated, "no one to criticize" ... as I do not follow Jesus' example either.
If I had that kind of money, I would buy a Chinook double rotor helicopter, instead of Rolex watches, and cartoons of Caleb and Sophia, etc.
uh ... for Witnessing on beautiful Pacific Islands, of course ....
 
 

I strongly suspect that Jehovah's Holy Spirit is given in direct proportion to the amount of Spirit you actually need.... considering that Jesus Christ and the Apostles had NO Real Estate whatsoever, as part of their Organization, and only enough money for the days food, and to the best of my knowledge, just the clothes on their backs, they needed a lot ... and they received a lot of Holy Spirit.
The Governing Body has billions of dollars in Real Estate, all over the world, and controls billions of dollars worth of money, to spend as they alone see fit.
... and dat's de fact, Jack.
SOOooooo... they are on their own.
..... as are the great majority of us.
I have SEEN Jehovah's Spirit build up and sustain several of the Anointed ones, who had no strength of resources of their own, and I suspect when it is needed ... actually NEEDED .. the rest of us "ground pounders" get it as well.
That is just my guess of how it works ... no more.
...and I suspect it is INVERSELY proportional to how much you have naturally, WITHOUT Jehovah's intervention.
 
 
 
the formula for that is 1/x.
There is probably a button on your pocket calculator for that.

Answer:
Hatred borne of jealousy ...
.... because the people  covering the Earth, outside of Adam and Eves' family, were NOT directly created beings of Jehovah, and did NOT have an opportunity to live forever ...
...and they KNEW that to be the case.
That is why Cain was afraid that wherever he went in his enforced exile to wander the Earth, those evolved  humans would kill him.
I do not "have Polaroids", but that idea solves a LOT of problems, including millions of tons of hard fossil evidence, all over the Earth, that only the willfully stupid would say means nothing ... and it solves the problem of who Cain married.