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No I don't.  I always try to see how things fit in with the bible. That is why I said that one cannot apologize for any governments now in place - they have truly eaten more people's lives in a beastly fashion than most previous governments ever on this earth, and in a much shorter time! 
The only thing that frustrates me are people who speak directly against God in such as blatant fashion - to their own detriment (to quote Paul).  They are acting against their own lives.  I am absolutely honest when I say anything and I sometimes come across as abrasive when I confront...... it is the South African way ....But I also say - I hope you do not take my jabs too seriously!
We all have to give an accounting of ourselves before Jehovah!  I know that my anti-human-government stance may come across as political to those in authority because they do not allow anyone to question their authority in any way.  I am not anti-authority - I am totally for law and order but not the kind that is now prevailing as pseudo-law. I cannot see any good whatsoever in all the governments now ruling and I am sure that humans will soon face total disgust, anxiety and fear for what is waiting for humankind.  It is going to be ghastly when one has children crying because there is  very little food, and parents dying from immunity disorders due to mandated medicines etc. I am sad and have even cried over my own children who are forced into certain actions which I know can cost their lives and leave their children to be orphans. 
We ain't see nothing yet!  Satan is determined......  It is his way or death!  It is only by the grace of Jehovah that we will get through this darkness!  Literal cold and darkness is waiting for North America this year and for Europe.... and the moral darkness will soon descend upon all of us......with new government mandates. Jehovah as our only light.  Those who have his spirit will be able to sustain themselves on His words!

The AKC sent me a MasterCard with my picture on it, and I thought since my Guardian is interested in such things, I would get him the latest MS flight simulator, yoke, throttles, pedals, and Oculus Headset, etc.
I think the last VideoGame he played was “Duck Hunt” circa 1970s, (?) on a Vic 20, and that was because he liked to see my Mom laugh at him when he missed.
….. that was back when pixels were the size of legos.
 

I just glanced at what was said above. It seems it is a much created fluffy storm in a tea cup  - about nothing! 
If I were living in 1919 or in 1935,  and finally understood the scriptures which indicated that a people will live through Armageddon: such as Revelation 20: 1 -3,  Revelation 7 (great crowd).... would you not write a book and articles with a advertising heading such as " Millions now living may never die!". 
If you suddenly understood that some people will live through Armageddon?  Yes, I would. I can imagine that because I can put myself in their place! Besides, I wrote for a newspaper when reporters could still be called reporters! 
As I have said before on this forum is that people leave out historical context and look back at history with all the knowledge of 2021!    Hindsight is 20/20 vision. .....
You remind me of these people who are pulling down statues of kings because they had a black page-boy - with 2021 vision he is now classified as a full blown racist!..... and worthy to be written out of history! 
People get realistic! We all know that one needs to believe in the ransom sacrifice of Jesus whether you go to heaven or live through Armageddon here on earth. 
This whole mud throwing title and the rhetoric  is just an artificially created storm in a tea cup.
 

The historical context is interesting because it confirms today’s perception of the past historical context. And that is: They expected Armageddon and the establishment of an earthly Paradise during their lifetime.  After the failure of hope, they started a dogma with heavenly life for the chosen earthlings (variations on this theme exist in JW literature)
Today’s WTJWorg context has refuted all of this as outdated and misconceptions. JW Hope has new models of belief and beliefs, today.
Then we have the Context of Present Time, which confirms that both the WTJWorg contexts, the one from the time of Rutherford and the one from the time of present (the year 2021) WTJWorg Administration, are revealed by failed and inaccurate expectations, beliefs and interpretations, aka dogmas.
JW Hope has new models of belief and teachings, which will be the reason for discussions in this or some other Forum in the future.
What Rutherford thought then, and what we think he thought then are two things. Whatever he thought can be assumed on the basis of books and magazines from that time. So, let me agree with the question from the title of this topic.
 

@Arauna, I love it that you are a thinking person who is willing to get input from a variety of non-typical, non mainstream resources. You also show yourself willing to engage in dialogue with those holding non-typical opinions without running away with your hands over your ears. You stand up for what you believe and you give your reasons.
I am very aware that I will not gain any friends or followers by being an "apologist" for China, and it will surely lower my credibility in other areas where years of reading and research has forced me to hold unpopular opinions, such as those I now hold concerning our own traditions regarding Bible chronology.
In fact, that reminds me of a perfect example that highlights why I appreciate the difference between your style and others. As you probably know I'm engaged in an off-and-on discussion on the subject of our chronology with someone else on the closed part of the forum. He is an example of nearly the opposite. When he disagrees with evidence, he merely finds a variety of ways to basically say: I disagree with you; I'm right; you're wrong; my view has all the best evidence behind it. But he never directly engages with any of the evidence.
What I'm saying is that I hope you don't take my opinions personally in any way. I hope my disagreements with your political views don't make you think you are offending me. I actually enjoy the dialogue, as you probably already suspected. I hope you haven't engaged with so many obtuse people here that you think your input is wasted on all of us.
Personally, I always agree with much of what you say. Often what I disagree with is still intriguing enough to make me want to look into it more. It may not sound like it because I don't usually respond to things I already agree with, only the things I have trouble with.
Your last post is a great example. I agree with much of it, but you also give a few lines I'm so tempted to respond to. This particular topic isn't the place, but I look forward to another topic at another time, soon.

@Arauna, I love it that you are a thinking person who is willing to get input from a variety of non-typical, non mainstream resources. You also show yourself willing to engage in dialogue with those holding non-typical opinions without running away with your hands over your ears. You stand up for what you believe and you give your reasons.
I am very aware that I will not gain any friends or followers by being an "apologist" for China, and it will surely lower my credibility in other areas where years of reading and research has forced me to hold unpopular opinions, such as those I now hold concerning our own traditions regarding Bible chronology.
In fact, that reminds me of a perfect example that highlights why I appreciate the difference between your style and others. As you probably know I'm engaged in an off-and-on discussion on the subject of our chronology with someone else on the closed part of the forum. He is an example of nearly the opposite. When he disagrees with evidence, he merely finds a variety of ways to basically say: I disagree with you; I'm right; you're wrong; my view has all the best evidence behind it. But he never directly engages with any of the evidence.
What I'm saying is that I hope you don't take my opinions personally in any way. I hope my disagreements with your political views don't make you think you are offending me. I actually enjoy the dialogue, as you probably already suspected. I hope you haven't engaged with so many obtuse people here that you think your input is wasted on all of us.
Personally, I always agree with much of what you say. Often what I disagree with is still intriguing enough to make me want to look into it more. It may not sound like it because I don't usually respond to things I already agree with, only the things I have trouble with.
Your last post is a great example. I agree with much of it, but you also give a few lines I'm so tempted to respond to. This particular topic isn't the place, but I look forward to another topic at another time, soon.

MyVideo_1wrwc.mp4 The actual view is much smoother than the choppy capture in the video.

MyVideo_1wrwc.mp4 The actual view is much smoother than the choppy capture in the video.

This didn't have to be a JW Club topic, but I'm interested in whether any Witnesses here, especially those over, say 50 years old, play any video games. As an old fogie myself, I have always tried to discourage it in my children, but one of my sons although he is going to be 30, started playing video games again last year. He's an attorney, and doesn't have the time now as he travels between various court houses all day. But through most of Covid courthouse closures he worked everything from a home office on Zoom. My youngest son lives far enough away that I don't know for sure, but he apparently takes no interest in either sports or video games. My daughter doesn't really like any of them, but has trouble pulling her five year old away from the iPad on weekends. It's forbidden through the week.
My older son bought me an Oculus VR headset this year, and I haven't made much use of it. It's good for more than games, but I just haven't taken the time.
There are two games I play where I figure I don't have to feel guilty because I can easily relax with them and listen to JW videos, news, radio, etc. One is chess, and the other is a flight simulator.  I don't have a working version of MS Flight Simulator any more, of if I do, it's hasn't been tried for 15 years. But I do play the flight simulator on Google Earth. It's so much better than it used to be years ago. if you fly from JFK through most of NYC and several other urban areas, the AI has produced 3D versions of every house and even the trees all over NYC and Long Island and Jersey.
I enjoy flying over places I read about anywhere in the world. Or revisit places I've traveled to (Haiti, Turkey, Sydney) or places I lived in (CA, MO, NY). Today, I flew from NYC JFK up to Tuxedo and Warwick. I 'visited' Bethel, doing a couple of flyovers. The scenery is taken from almost exactly a year ago, so you can see the leaves start to change.
I just recorded a part of that flight, and it was a couple of gigabytes, but if I can chop a small piece of it down to under 20 MB, I might post a part of it below. In the VR headset, I give it a curved screen and a much wider 180 degree view, so that it resembles a cockpit, but the video (if I can post it) will just be a flat view from the middle of the screen.

MyVideo_1wrwc.mp4 The actual view is much smoother than the choppy capture in the video.

This didn't have to be a JW Club topic, but I'm interested in whether any Witnesses here, especially those over, say 50 years old, play any video games. As an old fogie myself, I have always tried to discourage it in my children, but one of my sons although he is going to be 30, started playing video games again last year. He's an attorney, and doesn't have the time now as he travels between various court houses all day. But through most of Covid courthouse closures he worked everything from a home office on Zoom. My youngest son lives far enough away that I don't know for sure, but he apparently takes no interest in either sports or video games. My daughter doesn't really like any of them, but has trouble pulling her five year old away from the iPad on weekends. It's forbidden through the week.
My older son bought me an Oculus VR headset this year, and I haven't made much use of it. It's good for more than games, but I just haven't taken the time.
There are two games I play where I figure I don't have to feel guilty because I can easily relax with them and listen to JW videos, news, radio, etc. One is chess, and the other is a flight simulator.  I don't have a working version of MS Flight Simulator any more, of if I do, it's hasn't been tried for 15 years. But I do play the flight simulator on Google Earth. It's so much better than it used to be years ago. if you fly from JFK through most of NYC and several other urban areas, the AI has produced 3D versions of every house and even the trees all over NYC and Long Island and Jersey.
I enjoy flying over places I read about anywhere in the world. Or revisit places I've traveled to (Haiti, Turkey, Sydney) or places I lived in (CA, MO, NY). Today, I flew from NYC JFK up to Tuxedo and Warwick. I 'visited' Bethel, doing a couple of flyovers. The scenery is taken from almost exactly a year ago, so you can see the leaves start to change.
I just recorded a part of that flight, and it was a couple of gigabytes, but if I can chop a small piece of it down to under 20 MB, I might post a part of it below. In the VR headset, I give it a curved screen and a much wider 180 degree view, so that it resembles a cockpit, but the video (if I can post it) will just be a flat view from the middle of the screen.

Jesus made this statement almost 2,000 years ago.... why don't you go for it and call him a liar too??   You know what Jesus says about Hypocrisy? 
Jesus said to her: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life; and everyone who is living and exercises faith in me will Never Die At All. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

No, but it raises a better one.
Please address Jesus’ words that seemingly make him a liar: 
“and everyone who is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all.”

This didn't have to be a JW Club topic, but I'm interested in whether any Witnesses here, especially those over, say 50 years old, play any video games. As an old fogie myself, I have always tried to discourage it in my children, but one of my sons although he is going to be 30, started playing video games again last year. He's an attorney, and doesn't have the time now as he travels between various court houses all day. But through most of Covid courthouse closures he worked everything from a home office on Zoom. My youngest son lives far enough away that I don't know for sure, but he apparently takes no interest in either sports or video games. My daughter doesn't really like any of them, but has trouble pulling her five year old away from the iPad on weekends. It's forbidden through the week.
My older son bought me an Oculus VR headset this year, and I haven't made much use of it. It's good for more than games, but I just haven't taken the time.
There are two games I play where I figure I don't have to feel guilty because I can easily relax with them and listen to JW videos, news, radio, etc. One is chess, and the other is a flight simulator.  I don't have a working version of MS Flight Simulator any more, of if I do, it's hasn't been tried for 15 years. But I do play the flight simulator on Google Earth. It's so much better than it used to be years ago. if you fly from JFK through most of NYC and several other urban areas, the AI has produced 3D versions of every house and even the trees all over NYC and Long Island and Jersey.
I enjoy flying over places I read about anywhere in the world. Or revisit places I've traveled to (Haiti, Turkey, Sydney) or places I lived in (CA, MO, NY). Today, I flew from NYC JFK up to Tuxedo and Warwick. I 'visited' Bethel, doing a couple of flyovers. The scenery is taken from almost exactly a year ago, so you can see the leaves start to change.
I just recorded a part of that flight, and it was a couple of gigabytes, but if I can chop a small piece of it down to under 20 MB, I might post a part of it below. In the VR headset, I give it a curved screen and a much wider 180 degree view, so that it resembles a cockpit, but the video (if I can post it) will just be a flat view from the middle of the screen.

Communism has a terrible reputation, and much of it is well deserved. There have been terrible communist regimes. They rarely did better, and often did much worse, than the regimes they were trying to replace. One of the initial ideas, of course, was that religion was all "superstition" that would get in the way of human progress. Humans make bad leaders in general, and although false religion permeates leadership in most places, at least most countries will give lip service to faith and spirituality.
It's not that I just want to speak up when claims are made that might be only partially true or even completely untrue. I read or hear 100 things a day that are probably untrue, and never bat an eyelash. When I do speak up it is usually when these types of dubious claims are leveraged as the basis to make even more grandiose claims. The more fearsome predictions are taken to a much higher level and then "cemented" with a Biblical or prophetic assurance.
That bothers me because there is a long track record of Western dishonesty about communist regimes that is appalling. Even if 95 of the last 100 negative claims in mainstream media about China are completely debunked, they continue to be repeated because they work. The most trusted news sources in the United States, for example, can be counted on to give a constant barrage of anti-China stories, and the next one, no matter what, will be believed even if most of them can be shown to have never been true.
What people will instantly and unquestionably believe about HK, Taiwan, Mongolia, Tibet, Falun Gong, and Uyghur Muslims is amazing to me.  Every year China's economy is predicted to fail. Every few days on PBS, NPR, or NYT there is fearmongering about how China will erase all the gains made by the US on climate agreements (when it's been the opposite for years now). You can always find a story about Uyghur being slaughtered by the millions.
What is amazing to me about that last one (the Uyghurs) is that every story about supposedly MILLIONS of persons always finally boils down to less than 12 interviewees, and even those 12 seem to be copies of just a couple of different stories. You'll have "Bitter Winter" people like Massimo Introvigne claim he knows how bad it is, but he also is dependent on the same few individuals. Where else in the world could a million Muslims be slaughtered and yet you can find Muslims voluntarily leaving and returning by bus to these same "concentration camps"? How is that you can find Muslims in nearby India and Pakistan who approve of China's methods of handling Muslim fanatics. And how is it that thousands of random pictures from Muslims come out of this same province through Twitter, Flickr, etc., where the Muslims in the background are seen going on with their daily lives, and there is no flood of refugees to nearby countries.
What country has sponsored and built more Muslim mosques and schools than any other country in the world? China.
President Xi speaks out regularly against the prejudice that many Han Chinese have against non-Han, including Muslims. Xi constantly points to and celebrates the diversity of the Chinese people. He personally promotes celebrations of Muslim culture and Mongolian culture. Mongolians themselves have nearly lost their traditional language, yet the government has made sure that signs in Mongolia are bilingual. The signs in Xinjiang province (where most Uyghurs live) are also in their own language.
Like Ancient Rome and Modern Russia, China only approves historically long-standing traditional religions, and does not trust new religions. In China, they are especially harsh with "new" religions whose backing and publications ultimately come from the United States. If they try to proselytize others with an anti-communist philosophy, they are going to have even more trouble. Falun Gong is rabidly (and openly) anti-communist, and many have been jailed for promoting an illegal religion. This policy has not been good at all for JWs there, and several have also been jailed for proselytizing or smuggling in the literature. Chinese Baptists and their missionaries have been jailed for the same, even though they have been around more than twice as long as JWs.
The details of investigations about Chinese policies could go on for 100's of pages. (But this is a thread about Kazakhstan, so I'll only do one or two pages.) The Chinese track record on religion is not good. But it doesn't mean that fear-mongering is correct about supposed concentration camps and organ harvesting of mass disappearances of people. More than one person in the CIA has claimed that their job was, as one put it, to make up stories and promote the idea that "communists eat babies." I don't think there is any reason to believe that such stories are still promoted in one way or another. (A recent NYT "documentary" on the Uyghurs was found to have blatantly mistranslated official Chinese documents related to the programs in Xinjiang.) It doesn't mean that terrible things don't happen in China, but such stories are intended to make it look like communism is 1,000 times worse.
The intent of that propaganda has been to make it easy for citizens of Western imperialist nations to easily accept warfare against communist nations whenever it's deemed to be useful for Western interests. Currently, terrorism is the war catalyst, but who knows when we'll need another red scare?
When I see unsubstantiated claims along this line, I sense that it is part of warmongering, even though unintentional by those who repeat the claims.

Her spirit is amazing. I love her in that video. So sincerely happy.

Today he tweeted this: “Not in the mood for anything today. Except maybe another cup of coffee.”

This other thing I've been reading suggested a need to research claims made because of the tension then and continuing tension now between Jews and Christians (Christians feeling the bus came and the Jews didn't get on it)

The Mishnah, the earliest compilation of rabbinic oral law, states that roosters (chickens) may not be raised in Jerusalem due to purity concerns (m. Baba Kama 7.7; see also b. Baba Kama 82b). 
 
The Mishna was the "oral law" that only came into being AFTER the fall of Jerusalem. Rabbis wanted to keep control of the the masses (the people) and wrote the Misha - which eventually ballooned into the Talmud. So this interesting little titbit may not be accurate for life style BEFORE the destruction of Jerusalem.... and even if it were...... there was NO mention of cocks (prohibitions) in the Mosaic law.  We know that the Pharisees made their own laws - something which Jesus warned against when he was on earth as "leaven."
I found this in the insight book:  
An onyx seal bearing the figure of a cock was found near Mizpah and contains the inscription “belonging to Jaazaniah, servant of the king.” If, as some suggest, this Jaazaniah (Jezaniah) is the one mentioned at 2 Kings 25:23 and Jeremiah 40:8, this would indicate the keeping of cocks in Israel back in the seventh century B.C.E. The figure of a cock has also been found on a shard of a cooking pot excavated at ancient Gibeon.
Both the hen, with its chicks, and the egg are used by Jesus in his illustrations, indicating that the domestic fowl was well known to his listeners.—Mt 23:37; Lu 11:12; 13:34; see HEN, II.
Pigs were banned by law - and yet Jesus sent a whole lot of them over a cliff!  So a lone cock definitely crowed 3 times when Peter betrayed Jesus!
Under Hen2 I found this quote: "Certain rabbinic laws forbade the eating of eggs laid on the Sabbath day, since it was held that this constituted work on the part of the hen; some, however, allowed the eating of the eggs if the hen was one kept for eating and not for laying. (Babylonian Talmud, Bezah 2a, b) The Bible, however, contains no such rules.

I think I do so too!  But 1 Tess 5:3 speaks of them calling out peace and security and a little further down it becomes interesting.  It also talks about " do not neglect prophecy" - something a lot of witnesses are afraid to do for fear of criticism.... or they just do not bother to study prophecy. 
One has to be totally unbias if one wants to evaluate what is really going on.... and see where it is heading in the current world ....and highly critical in evaluating sources and just keep focused on prophecy - that helps to keep one focused on one purpose and not deviate and inadvertently take sides in local political disputes. After all - the prophecies for our time mostly refer to global phenomena..... 
I foresee that banks could go down electronically and they will blame it on hackers - but this is intentional.  We will wait and see if I am on the right track and whether this will be by the end of the year or much later.   I think the powerful 10 kings who are now ruling with the UN, are people who are inadvertently pushing the goals of Satan and are now capable of anything! They have made gaslighting of the masses an art!  Our realities are created for us in this world at present and just like WW2 - too many people are too willing to say " I will lose my job" or  I was only following orders!.  It is after all an "image" from the beast they are projecting in front of us...and most are buying into it... Revelation 16:14 - 16 indicates that that propaganda will lead to Armageddon.
I lift my head up every time I see something happening that seems to be leading toards the final showdown.  I have health issues - so I hope to be around long enough to see these greedy people (for power, control and money) who bluff themselves that they are doing what they are doing for the "greater good" and sustainability - lose their billions and see everything fall apart that they so arrogantly have built for themselves.
So many of these billionaires have benefited in the last 19 months by the government handouts of trillions and have bought up land and all resources which will be valuable during the "great reset"  Their plans to save the earth is a big ruse!  They will still be mining rare earth minerals and rape the land while the ordinary folk will pay taxes on their "carbon use". 
I mentioned yesterday that the situation they have pushed China into may lead to war after the fall of the major bank and contagion in China and the world (HSBC is apparently heavily involved in bank guarantees in China). China may face financial collapse like Hitler did before WW2 when no-one bought anything from the national socialistic state which at the time was a manufacturing power house!   They face collapse or war! 
Taiwan is the perfect target to start hostilities.  How far this will go I do not know but Daniel 11 gives good indication.  Is the "flooding" merely the financial flooding which already has taken place or a war?  We wait and see... 

Thanks.
 I thought that Reslight's YouTube page that @NoisySrecko provided also was a likely candidate to help identify where some of the claims about Russell had come from. I had already looked at ResLight's sites like this, figuring that it had to be a place like Twitter or YouTube where Google doesn't index every comment.
(ResLight also complained that Google is deleting a lot of posts where he claims that Russell was not a JW. He seems to think that someone (or organization?) with authority has been able to influence Google to treat ResLight's claims about Russell's NON-association with JWs as fake news. It's hard for him to keep up with maintaining disappearing links, etc.)
ResLight did get back to me after some private messaging (PMs) but didn't respond about the website question, and had no info on the Canadian minister. I figure that if B.W.Schultz ever gets up to the 1914 era in his research on Russell he will likely attempt to make the identification. If I thought it was important enough, I'd ask on Schultz' blog. I've asked other questions there before and received answers from participants who are avid commentators on "all things Russell." Also, since I don't count the "Black Nation of Islam" as having a nearly close enough affinity to the teaching of Bible Students and/or Rutherforrd, I don't include them in any groups who actually taught like the Bible Students about 1914. And since all the groups listed in your previous post were apparently Bible_Student/Second_Advent "spin-offs" they don't count as independent groups with a similar teaching about 1914. @NoisySrecko correctly pointed out a few other "Russellite" and/or Bible Student groups who became independent of Russell's writings. And of course, it's true that there were factions of independence all along among the Bible Students groups, even those who appreciated Russell's teachings and were welcomed by Russell despite a measure of independence. Much of Russell's writing is actually addressed in a non-dogmatic manner that acknowledges this varied level of independence that Russell accepted.
In my posts/messages to ResLight, ( https://reslight.boards.net/thread/1114/alleged-failure-misrepresented-historical-claim  ) I wondered if the person he was addressing in his post was thinking primarily of the idea that Russell had (once) dropped 1914 and temporarily changed it to 1915 as the end of the Gentile Times. ResLight seemed unaware of this very short-lived teaching. But as I read some of the YouTube comments more closely, it turns out that one commenter might have had this in mind. But in a confused manner. Note:
The comments below that video include some by Jerry Jones (7 years ago) who cherry picks the same low-hanging fruit that most anti-Russell and anti-JW folks gather. He does include reference to changes from 1914 to 1915 in one comment, but seems to miss the most important point about them. For that matter, ResLight misses it too, and blames changes made in 1911 and 1915 on Bible Students who made unauthorized changes to the text while Russell was still alive and was still printing under his own Watch Tower Society banner. I believe that ResLight thinks they were unauthorized only because they created contradictions (and they were not all "admitted" in WT lists of errata) but I think there are clearer ways to show how and why Russell was able to purposely contradict himself slightly to minimize the wording changes. 
ResLight still thinks that the Great Pyramid supports 1914, and just that one example helps me understand how he is quite satisfied even with some fairly shallow defenses of Russell's foibles in other areas. 

I'm LOL too at that one. But I try to temper what I hear from anywhere with actual visits to countries and I never stay only in the tourist areas. I've got plenty of stories where this has caused some close calls, but my wife and I love to travel. 5 continents so far and two to go, and almost always with someone who speaks the language. I almost always seek out the poorest congregations in any country we visit, too. 
When it comes to getting news, you and I are very much alike. One of the most interesting collections of "news" sources is actually one that I know you are very familiar with. It currently has 781 favorites, and 73 videos saved under docs [documentaries], and a music collection, too, of course.
I have a non-Witness cousin who has been a producer for 60 Minutes for several years, and who recently began producing for PBS Frontline. (He's been the primary producer of several Frontline shows already.) I have respect for him, but also know that both of these networks have fallen off tremendously in terms of credibility. At times they are only slightly better than CNN.
Finding credible news sources is very difficult. Finding ones that go into any depth is even harder. We have been in contact with some brothers we know who were terribly affected by the last earthquakes in Haiti (Les Cayes and Baraderes), but did you notice that CNN barely updated that story after a couple of days? Finding unbiased sources of news on Twitter is difficult, and the more honest they get, the more likely they are to lose their accounts. There are also radio station apps on the net (and my phone) that can easily provide literally thousands of local small stations from all over the world. My father was a ham radio operator and always encouraged us as kids to seek out far-away (DX) stations on short-wave and ham and ship-to-shore. We'd spend some Saturday nights as kids learning quite a bit about other places from actual local voices. A lot of care must be taken not to take any one voice too seriously. I always look for voices willing to criticize or even condemn local problems, not just praise them. Also look for more than just two sides to any issue. Look for contradictions. Look for what things persons who hold one view are willing to concede from those who hold varying views.
I probably take getting news a little too seriously, but no one else should take me that seriously. It's a tough, arduous process, and there is never enough time to do it right. So, another tactic is also to spout off one's most controversial opinions on an internet forum and see who has evidence that can push back or redirect them with additional evidence.

By blog I mean a forum a lot like this where many persons can respond. And they can correct one another too. It's not his own conclusions that matter so much. It's all the evidence that he has been able to gather. He does a ton of the legwork. You are free to come to your own conclusions about what the evidence can mean.

To be a little clearer, the fluffy document about hoping for peace between major religions had nothing to do with building any kind of facility in Abu Dhabi or anywhere else in the world.

I'm LOL too at that one. But I try to temper what I hear from anywhere with actual visits to countries and I never stay only in the tourist areas. I've got plenty of stories where this has caused some close calls, but my wife and I love to travel. 5 continents so far and two to go, and almost always with someone who speaks the language. I almost always seek out the poorest congregations in any country we visit, too. 
When it comes to getting news, you and I are very much alike. One of the most interesting collections of "news" sources is actually one that I know you are very familiar with. It currently has 781 favorites, and 73 videos saved under docs [documentaries], and a music collection, too, of course.
I have a non-Witness cousin who has been a producer for 60 Minutes for several years, and who recently began producing for PBS Frontline. (He's been the primary producer of several Frontline shows already.) I have respect for him, but also know that both of these networks have fallen off tremendously in terms of credibility. At times they are only slightly better than CNN.
Finding credible news sources is very difficult. Finding ones that go into any depth is even harder. We have been in contact with some brothers we know who were terribly affected by the last earthquakes in Haiti (Les Cayes and Baraderes), but did you notice that CNN barely updated that story after a couple of days? Finding unbiased sources of news on Twitter is difficult, and the more honest they get, the more likely they are to lose their accounts. There are also radio station apps on the net (and my phone) that can easily provide literally thousands of local small stations from all over the world. My father was a ham radio operator and always encouraged us as kids to seek out far-away (DX) stations on short-wave and ham and ship-to-shore. We'd spend some Saturday nights as kids learning quite a bit about other places from actual local voices. A lot of care must be taken not to take any one voice too seriously. I always look for voices willing to criticize or even condemn local problems, not just praise them. Also look for more than just two sides to any issue. Look for contradictions. Look for what things persons who hold one view are willing to concede from those who hold varying views.
I probably take getting news a little too seriously, but no one else should take me that seriously. It's a tough, arduous process, and there is never enough time to do it right. So, another tactic is also to spout off one's most controversial opinions on an internet forum and see who has evidence that can push back or redirect them with additional evidence.