JW Insider

6 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

he wanted to  put windmills on the top of municipal buses

That's silly! What if the bus is at a stop sign and there is no wind? There should be a large depression in the roof of each bus to collect rainwater, and then solar-powered windmills could pick up buckets of water from the roof to spill the water onto small turbines to make electricity.

3 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

 

In the spirit of non-competitive one-extra-man-ship I always like to respond as follows:

• First person: See ya later, Alligator!
• Second person: After a while, Crocodile!
• Me: Mañana, Iguana!

46 minutes ago, Anna said:

My hubby and I can still go any time, but I feel bad because I know my mom and step dad would like to try again

My parents, from California, visited Brooklyn Bethel every few years, and even after my father's retirement, he got invited to stay on a temporary basis for some electronics and audio work. But they had only been to Patterson twice, and Wallkill once. They keep thinking every visit might be their last opportunity with health issues and "this old system the way it is." But every couple years they still come back for another visit.

2 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Fake news was a theme of:

• Orwell's "1984."
• Or Well's "War of the Worlds" from 1894. (H.G.Wells)
• Or Orson Welles' broadcast of Well's "War" as actual fake news in 1938.

Oh, and I almost forgot. We've heard the oft-repeated newspaper and radio reports that many thousands were fooled into thinking that this "fake news" was accepted as so real, that there was a mass panic, and perhaps even suicides. True?  Well that was probably fake news, too.

Note: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/10/30/241797346/75-years-ago-war-of-the-worlds-started-a-panic-or-did-it

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Three years ago the expression Fake News was absolutely unheard of. Today it is ubiquitous.

The above is from Al Gore's book "The Assault on Reason." I assume that it was him and not Donald Trump, as Trump actually claimed, who invented the term "fake news" (shortly after inventing the Internet). But he's right. Fake news was a theme of:

• Orwell's "1984."
• Or Well's "War of the Worlds" from 1894. (H.G.Wells)
• Or Orson Welles' broadcast of Well's "War" as actual fake news in 1938.

Fake news has been at the heart of most of our supposedly real news for centuries. It's recently become a way to try to differentiate unsanctioned fake news from official fake news.

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Gays took decades to enter into the mainstream.

You missed all those pride parades in ancient Greece?

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

it is feared persons will lose interest in the real thing

That's a bit of fearmongering that tends to contradict the fearmongering over a rising population.

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Suicide, upping several-fold in but a few years, by youngsters sending the strongest message

Another contradiction to Malthusian fearmongering.

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Autism, which once claimed one in a thousand, now claims one in forty. 

Turn up the sensitivity on the meter and everyone will find their way onto the spectrum. It's probably more like: Autism, which was once diagnosed in 1 out of 1000. . . .  Now, one can easily go back and retroactively diagnose Fred Franz, Alan Turing, The Absent-Minded Professor, etc.

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Anxiety has replaced depression as the #1 mental health malady. It cannot be because there is nothing to worry about.

Agreed.

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

The Church of Satan didn't command much ground until recently.

Actually, it had gained ground as "Jewish" and early "Christian" Gnosticism to the point where it was actualy threatening to compete with actual Judaism and Christianity for many years. In the common forms of Gnosticism, Satan was the good god, and Jehovah was the bad god. Now it's more of an attention grabber.

3 hours ago, JW Insider said:

But for the moment, it takes a bit of extra fearmongering to convince people that Satan's anger is at its highest peak, because his short period of time is even shorter now than it was in 1916 and 1941.

I think you provided some very good examples of what I meant. These things you mentioned are serious or symptoms of serious problems, but they don't give us the kind of ammunition we had in the 40's and 50's. Also the fearmongering of the 70's was coming at us from all directions. The WTS did not invent it, it just resonated with the WTS when brothers read books like "Famine 1975" "The Population Bomb" and any quote that indicated the world couldn't last but a few more years at most.

But now, we are so enamored to problems, that even the usual fearmongering has fizzled.

As @Outta Here helps remind us indirectly, and as @Kosonen reminds us directly, however, there is enough flexibility in the Bible passages to account for anything and any situation. If it's madness and chaos, it's because it was exactly predicted for our time. If it's relative peace and security, it's because it was exactly predicted for our time.

Make America Great Again!?!?!?!

These were the US IRS Tax Brackets the year I was born: 1957. (See way down below.) It was the tax rate paid by my parents and the rest of the so-called "Greatest Generation." A person who made a Billion dollars in one year (with "windfall" exceptions) could keep $100 Million of it. Today, most persons who happen to make a billion dollars in one year can pay a million of it to a tax attorney and may then end up paying between $0 and $10 Million, keeping about $990 Million (99%). Yet, for some reason businessmen back in the 1950's ended up investing even more of what they kept into further investment in their companies, increasing benefits for workers, etc. Now the highest percentage is spent on maintaining their grip on their money, finding ways to take even more from employees, lobbying for lower taxes and harsher labor laws for workers, making sure their own families maintain control, and luxury expenditures (such as jets, yachts, personal real estate). And a percentage invariably goes to "philanthropy" as a method of controlling the potential public outcry against the new status quo.

15 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Using ANY criteria ... there is less "bad stuff going on", and has been for the last 70 years, all over the world, an every area of human interaction.

Interesting point. From about 1914 through 1948, there was so much bad stuff affecting so many people and very large population groups (India-Pakistan, etc) that it would have been difficult to argue against the Watchtower's message that Jesus had been present since 1874 (changed to 1914 in 1943) and that "Babylon had fallen" and that the "Great Tribulation" had actually started in 1914, with a short reprieve for the chosen ones, only to start up again "shortly." The "tribulation" was expected to start up again in the few "remaining months" remaining in this system. That expression about only a few months, not years, was used in the 1940's, 1950's, and then again about the 1970's.

It was easy to explain that Satan was angry and knew he had only a short period of time when looking at the world from 1914 through 1945, especially in Western terms. But the great wars grew mostly cold after 1945, and even though millions have died since in smaller wars, these have not really reached levels reported in the 1914-1945 era, or even the few hundred years prior to that. Pestilence and plague even famine have reached the lowest levels in hundreds of years due to soap and the end of the age of exploration.

Of course, the "outbreak" of human population is now due in large part due to lack of pestilence, plague, war and famine. This means another reckoning when the population of this "outbreak" reaches the ends of the terrestrial Petri dish. This means war, famine (and thirst) all over again.

But for the moment, it takes a bit of extra fearmongering to convince people that Satan's anger is at its highest peak, because his short period of time is even shorter now than it was in 1916 and 1941. Even as Witnesses, we may no longer be growing in population relative to the rest of the earth, but we still enjoy the greatest levels of peace and security. We can only assume that Satan changed his tactics, and that the end will just as likely come during a period of peace and security. To keep us on our toes, however, showing a few videos anticipating armed forces against us might be useful, too.

18 hours ago, TheWorldNewsOrg said:

I guess I would call this the "Upper-class"

20 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Not Joe Cocker.

But still . . .

• A version by Joe Cocker (from his 1969 debut album) played over the ending credits of the 2004 film Layer Cake.^[16] Cocker re-recorded it for his 1996 album Organic.

FWIW, I have a tour of Warwick scheduled for 11:00am on Friday 12/7, and will also be in Mahwah and Wallkill over the weekend, touring Wallkill soon after 10am on Monday. If anyone else from here wants to meet up I'll be wearing black slacks, black shoes, a white shirt, and a mostly black tie.

That probably won't help, will it? So I will wear a mostly white shirt that is actually blue striped (an LLBean style) if you look at it closely, and I will wear a black tie with blue geometric designs (small diamonds in gray, lt.blue, dk.blue, black). Also the black shoes are really "sneakers" just made to look like dress shoes, not very shiny.

(Also, I'm 61, married, 6'3'', 245lbs, have some gray on the sides of my short brown hair, and I like long walks around the lake.)

Anyway, for real, if anyone wants to meet up, I'll answer to "JWI" or something similar, or even my real name. That goes for anyone who works in Warwick or Wallkill, too, who might be following along.

11 hours ago, Money & Finance said:

Gates first purchased a Porsche 911 Turbo in 1979 and rumor has it that he was pulled over quite a few times in the blue sports car.

So let me make sure I have this straight. Gates becomes rich when Microsoft goes public in 1986, so he pays off a mortgage and goes out and splurges on a fast car in 1979, and that helps explains the mugshot from 1977.

The mugshot is actually for an unknown offense. Gates was still trying to tie it to a "traffic" offense 20 years later, but speeding is, on its own, not an offense that one gets arrested for. If it were another kind of "trafficking" or perhaps, as one rumor had it, the theft of some construction equipment or materials, this might make more sense. It might not have been any kind of "theft" but that would have been a terrible legacy for someone often accused of the improper "borrowing" of ideas from CP/M, Unix variations, earlier versions of Basic, Xerox Alto, etc.

My first major "platform" was a Xerox Sigma 7. I was working for Honeywell, and then a company that was Wang's biggest client tied to IBM's mainframe VM. During these years Microsoft was becoming famous for trafficking in "vaporware" which was a sales trick to keep customers from switching over to other software vendors (WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, AmiPro, etc.) while Microsoft had not yet figured out how to copy the features that were gaining market share for those other products.

1 hour ago, The Librarian said:

What doubts? Just curious

FWIW, this part of the Temple of Herod where it was found was apparently from a strata of several items that more likely came from the time of the official Jewish Revolution in Judea which is dated to 66 CE.

The wine bottle motif, was in fact a motif that was given prominence during the Jewish Revolution and is also found on Jewish Revolutionary coins dated to the 2nd and 3rd year of the Revolution. 

Pilate's stone inscription at the "Palestinian" port of Caesarea was in Latin not in Greek. Pilate was part of an occupying force which at the time, was already differentiating itself from previously Hellenized regions by using Latin instead of Greek.

One of the goals of the Roman occupation was to impress the occupied regions with the splendor of Rome and the opulence, talent, finery, etc. Pilate, and other governors, were known for gold rings and expensive tastes, not cheap alloys. (Not only that but the cheap ring is further devalued because it already had a metallic defect when forged based on the way the lettering tries to avoid it, but then runs out of space to balance P I L - A T O, and ends up with P I  - L A T O.)

The skill of the craftsman who inscribed this ring was typical of what a local person, soldier, or freed slave might buy to show his family name. It is crude and awful. In my metal shop class back in 1968, half the class could easily have done a better job with crude equipment. 

To make it Pilate's ring, it is translated in the genitive, as if meaning "belonging to Pilate." But the last letter is not actually visible, and was only chosen to be an O as one method of making this appear to be a "seal ring" or "bulla." As a "bulla" it would have failed in its purpose, as no one would believe a sealed letter stamped with this "bulla" actually had come from Pilate.

It would be the most embarrassing cheap bulla any governor ever had. Like a very bad counterfeit. (I was at the Jewish Museum in NYC about a year ago and saw perfectly executed jewelry designs from the first century that would have belonged to a well-to-do Jewish family. A rich Roman governor would have access to at least the same kind of "laser-accurate" lettering.

There are additional problems with the artifact based on the political situation in Israel, which are harder to prove. But it has long been known that finding artifacts that are of interest to Christians (Westerners) are often timed to embarrassing news about Israel's atrocities. The US is covered from hearing about most of these, but there are English outlets of Israeli news, such as haaretz.com that do not hold much back.

This can sound conspiratorial to many Americans, but finds in the disputed portion of Jerusalem with David's name on it are sometimes forged, but the very real, possible finds are often held back until the timing works better. Same goes for Gaza and West Bank. This particular find was from near Bethlehem and therefore the West Bank. The item has been known for many years, and was supposedly only recently cleaned up for publication. This is in the midst of a decision on Netanyahu's fate in court over a scandal, another scandal where the Israeli Defense Minister was just discovered to have been lying for the last several years about involvement in Syria, and a several other embarrassments from this week. haaretz.com reported on this particular artifact, but also just ran an article that telegraphs some upcoming fighting we can expect out of the West Bank now that Gaza has grown quiet:

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-with-gaza-border-quiet-next-challenge-could-come-from-west-bank-1.6701110

I don't know enough about Israeli happenings to evaluate any of these latter ideas. But my doubts are based on the first few ideas already mentioned above.

5 hours ago, Outta Here said:

We still use that expression even now when something unexpected happens

Interesting, but not completely unexpected. Even so, someone could have defended or explained the somewhat more explicit violence of "Mack the Knife" in the same terms. Mack the Knife is also described by its color beginning in the very first, opening lines:

"Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear
And it shows them pearly white
Just a jackknife has old MacHeath, babe "

And these serrated edges, the "pearly white" teeth of his jack knife, soon produce billows of red. So the "silver" description is not a surprise.

Of course, "Mack the Knife" is really a rendition of the theme of a German opera and song which we might know through the "Threepenny Opera:" (the following is taken from a web link)

• Our first installment of Between the Lines is standard “Mack the Knife”. We’ll do a little history about the song before we go line by line. The song originally entitled, “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer”, is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper. Yes, it was a German opera first. In fact, the translation is literally The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 and quickly “Die Moritat von Mackie Messer” became the standout hit of the opera. That translates to “The Ballad of Mack the Knife.”
• The opera is based on John Gay’s 1728 opera The Beggar’s Opera which, in turn, is based on the thief, burglar and escape artist Jack Sheppard (1702-1724). Macheath is a character in The Beggar’s Opera and in turn becomes the focal point of Die Dreigroschenoper.

Perhaps I haven't looked hard enough, but I have never yet seen anyone tie Mack to Maxwell.

39 minutes ago, JOHN BUTLER said:

So why were they considered so wicked ? 

Because it was a job given to Jewish people to collect taxes from fellow Jews to hand over to the Romans so that they had enough money to be even more oppressive and so that the Romans could display their riches and opulence as a direct humiliation of the people they were oppressing and occupying. For nearly Jesus' entire life on earth up to the 70 C.E. and even as late as 130 C.E., there was a continuous state of revolution against Rome by the Jews from Judea to Galilee, especially Galilee.

Imagine the same situation in Gaza or West Bank today where the Israelis continually abuse and terrorize the Palestinians, hoping to provoke enough backlash so that they can excuse the tactics of bulldozing and exploding their homes to steal their land and squeeze them further into economic ruin. Now imagine a Palestinian who takes a job of collecting taxes from fellow Palestinians to give to the Israelis.

7 hours ago, Anna said:

Didn't Paul say we should treat ones who have left as tax collectors? 

It was Jesus, but Paul's words were very consistent with this. It is more powerful coming from Jesus, anyway, because Jesus was known (notorious) for associating with tax collectors.

52 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

He was trying to tell me that ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ was included on an album instead of standing alone as a single release. Can you believe that anyone could be so stupid?

LOL! I managed to avoid even hearing more than about 3 or 4 Beatles songs growing up in Missouri from the mid-60's and part of the 70's. Even on long pioneering days driving in the countryside, when the music would go on, it was usually Kingdom Songs on harmonica, or an 8-track tape of John Denver, Glen Campbell, etc.

I still have not heard half the Beatles songbook, and it still surprises people. I knew a lot of them only through instrumentals and covers my father would listen to. My wife, on the other hand, attended Woodstock when she was 15 and her step-father took her to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium when she was like 10.

Anyway, that's a real Grammy, and his more recent one looks the same, just shinier, but I didn't get to the studio yesterday to take a picture. I attended two of the main Awards shows at Staples Center, LA, then last year when it was held just 20 blocks away from us, we didn't go. My "relative expert" has had to go to LA at different times during the year to listen to 100's of songs in several genres just to evaluate the "production quality" of each. 

As an expert yourself, what do you think of my theory that "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was a direct satirical/parody response to the popularity of "Mack the Knife"?

6 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Crocodile apologies

Hey, that's the same picture on which I based my first original "meme"

But then again . . . too few to munch on . . .

I have some doubts.

16 hours ago, Space Merchant said:

Expelling is Biblical.

Expelling is Biblical. That's true. But what is the method and are Christians under some kind of rule of law that needs to be applied uniformly in all situations? What if it was a principle that is good, but the way it was executed even in Bible times turns out not to have been a Christian method.

For example, the Bible allows for a husband to disfellowship his wife. (The Bible never allows for a wife to disfellowship (divorce) a husband, by the way.) But are we under Mosaic rules for divorce just because it is Biblical? In fact, Jesus said that even though it was Biblical, it wasn't what Jehovah really wanted.

• (Matthew 19:7, 8 )  7 They said to him: “Why, then, did Moses direct giving a certificate of dismissal and divorcing her?” 8 He said to them: “Out of regard for your hard-heartedness, Moses made the concession to you of divorcing your wives, but that has not been the case from the beginning.

Jesus doesn't say Moses wasn't inspired when he made the Biblical concession for divorce as one of the laws in the "perfect" Law covenant. But Jesus rejects this particular "jot and tittle" of the Law as a mere concession for human hard-heartedness, especially because it was being misused in practice.  "Hard-heartedness" is a form of having "no natural affection." (See my earlier post on this topic.)

There is an even more obvious case where the Governing Body now rejects something that is definitely Biblical. In the Bible, it's OK to "beat" your children, physically. When asked about this, GB member Geoffrey Jackson, in front of the Australian Royal Commission,  said that the GB now believe that the "rod" of correction is not a physical rod, but that it is the "virtual" rod of righteous corrective discipline. Of course, what do we then do with the Mosaic Law that says that if you beat your slave to death that there is no punishment as long as it takes the slave a day or two to die? (There is a punishment if the slave dies within in a shorter time period.)

• (Exodus 21:20, 21) . . .“If a man strikes his slave man or his slave girl with a stick and that one dies by his hand, that one must be avenged. 21 However, if he survives for one or two days, he is not to be avenged, because he is someone bought with his owner’s money.

The way in which the point was made in front of the ARC was for the GB member to avoid this Scripture:

• (Proverbs 23:13, 14) 13 Do not hold back discipline from the mere boy. In case you beat him with the rod, he will not die. 14 With the rod you yourself should beat him, that you may deliver his very soul from Sheʹol itself.

Instead, he used another verse, from the previous chapter, which was more ambiguous:

• (Proverbs 22:15) 15 Foolishness is tied up with the heart of a boy; the rod of discipline is what will remove it far from him.

Of course, all of these verses use the same Hebrew word for "rod/stick" and the same Hebrew word for "beat/smite/strike." Same word for "rod" or "stick" is used here too:

• (Proverbs 26:3) 3 A whip is for the horse, a bridle is for the ass, and the rod is for the back of stupid people.

I'm not in favor of the physical beating of children. There are times when the principle is correct, but the methods used were "hard-hearted." The Governing Body says we have updated our understanding to that of the world here, and I think everyone knows that Brother Jackson is not so stupid as to think that the Bible was not really referring to physical beatings with these Hebrew expressions. It's time we progressed in our understanding of what it means to disfellowship, too. 

You've argued that other religions see familial DFing, for example, as Biblical. But so what? In other religions they might still beat their children, beat their wives and servants, promote racism, divorce on any ground, and promote a lack natural affection, too.

On 11/24/2018 at 6:50 AM, TrueTomHarley said:

I do know my Dylan fairly well

Turns out you are more right than I thought. Sorry to have doubted you. A further discussion with the same aforementioned relative expert gave me the following reference from one of his books.

Oh whoops! What's that I accidentally left in the background of the picture? A real Grammy Award?

20 minutes ago, Witness said:

Since the “whole world lies in the power of the wicked one”, there is not a concrete non-religious group nor any established religious group found in Satan’s world that is able to keep its “core moral values over time.”

Witness, I don't remember ever giving you an upvote before on any topic, but I can tell from the way you took this issue seriously, and from how well you wrote the entire last response, that you are sincerely concerned about handling the word of God aright, and thinking deeply about the issue here.

Naturally, I don't agree with everything you say --especially the degree to which you take exception to WT practices-- but I was surprised at how closely your response matched the way I was about to respond to Tom on this same topic. Your first point was to make clear that the way in which DFing is handled among JWs has caused serious problems among us, and serious harm to former associates, spiritual damage to both the expelled and those perpetrating the type of DFing that we practice. The way we treat families has become evidence to others that we are not a group of people known for love among ourselves, and that we often show "no natural affection."

Of course we dismiss the way we treat the dismissed and point to how much love we have among those of us who remain faithful to the organization. But this always reminds me of these verses:

• (Matthew 5:46-47) 46 For if you love those loving you, what reward do you have? Are not also the tax collectors doing the same thing? 47 And if you greet your brothers only, what extraordinary thing are you doing? Are not also the people of the nations doing the same thing?

You are aware of the recent push to encourage us to have even less natural affection among family members by encouraging total emotional blackmail through the DFing process. This has started up again in the last couple years from videos shown at meetings and assemblies, and similar counsel. We should immediately think of how Paul told Timothy about the kinds of things Timothy should expect in congregations of the first century because it had been predicted that in those last days Timothy would see persons "having no natural affection." But there is an interesting point Paul made in this context that is usually overlooked:

• (2 Timothy 2:23-3:5) 23 Further, reject foolish and ignorant debates, knowing that they produce fights. 24 For a slave of the Lord does not need to fight, but needs to be gentle toward all, qualified to teach, showing restraint when wronged, 25 instructing with mildness those not favorably disposed. Perhaps God may give them repentance leading to an accurate knowledge of truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the Devil, seeing that they have been caught alive by him to do his will. 3 But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, . . , 3 having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, . . . puffed up with pride, . . .  5 having an appearance of godliness but proving false to its power; and from these turn away.

What is missed is that Paul told Timothy to reject foolish and ignorant debates, but also to turn away from these people who showed "no natural affection" in those last days. This is the way that the principle of DFing actually works among Christians. It's about turning away from the people, even brothers, who show no natural affection. It's not about a congregation always being in total agreement about the exact rule by which someone is greeted and another person is not greeted, or someone can eat with us and another person cannot. In fact, this doesn't ever mean that we reject the chance to speak about spiritual things with such persons, it's just that we don't share in their conduct. We avoid their influence on us, and we avoid associating in such a way that we could give others the impression that we have joined in their conduct or support their conduct. We don't become influenced by their wrong, and show restraint in engaging with them when we are the ones personally wronged.

In other words (I think it's rare, but) if we do witness a misuse of the DFing process that promotes "having no natural affection" then it is up to us to disengage and disassociate from that kind of behavior even when it is being promoted by elders in our congregation or in the worldwide congregation. We can't completely disfellowship our elders from their responsibility, but we can avoid giving the impression that we agree with these practices. Just as we avoid joining in association with a person who calls himself a brother who is a known drunkard, reviler, fornicator, etc. We should be willing to speak out against the kind of videos we have seen recently which praise a person for avoiding familial contact with their own brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers. Of course, when it comes to those who no longer call themselves a brother (or sister) in the congregation we can treat them just as we would any other sinner or tax collector; we are in no danger of giving the impression that we support their conduct, because they are not even claiming to be related to us in the faith. 

In fact, in the other place in the NWT where the expression "no natural affection" is used, we have an additional idea in the context:

• (Romans 1:28-2:2) . . .God gave them over to a disapproved mental state, to do the things not fitting. 29 And they were filled with all unrighteousness, . . . . disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, false to agreements, having no natural affection, and merciless. 32 Although these know full well the righteous decree of God—that those practicing such things are deserving of death—they not only keep on doing them but also approve of those practicing them. 2 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, if you judge; for when you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in harmony with truth, against those who practice such things.

1 minute ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

This is why, in the history of the world, the majority has ALWAYS been wrong.

Point taken.

Just now, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

IT was a very accurate parody of what apparently really happened in Canada recently

I heard a little about the Canada fiasco only on this forum, and it seemed so ridiculous that I assumed it was a couple of mentally imbalanced JWs, and that most of the story was inexplicable because it was from their perspective. Have to admit that I never read the newspaper accounts. Seemed like a waste. I was surprised that someone put so much "professional" effort into this video -- over something that was probably (similarly) ignored by most.