Anna

Why do I want to attach a laughing emoji to this but somehow feel I shouldn’t?

Just be like a beroean and you should be good to go.

Maybe I’ll get back to you after I finish Children, picked up a few weeks ago at a ….. um……eclectic book store out in the boondocks where you suspect the owner doesn’t really care if he ever sells a book or not—he just likes to hoard them. Cats roam freely and I’d be a little leery of books on the bottom row. Many aisles are completely impassable. You can only explore the far end by going down an adjacent aisle and doubling back.

I have never heard or read the GB likened to Jesus….and I dont know anyone who even thinks that?

Oh no not Carl Olaf Jonsson….that just wrecked it for me…

No Walter, (am I really taking time out to reply to this nonsense?) you are a troll with ADHD and a persecution complex. Please believe me when I say NO ONE can be bothered to delete content or ban anyone. You are not that important, this site is not that important, no one here is that important.
Once in a blue moon when the Librarian takes a look in here he may have banned someone for breaking forum rules....but I don't even know that. I am just taking your word for it when you say you've been banned. I know for a fact that neither JWI nor me have banned you or deleted any of your content....or anyone else's content.
But you won't believe me of course because you evidently have delusional views of your own importance and grandeur. 
(wasted minute I will never get back)
 
 

Yeah, well what about that time you banned ME for saying that your dress was tacky?

No Walter, (am I really taking time out to reply to this nonsense?) you are a troll with ADHD and a persecution complex. Please believe me when I say NO ONE can be bothered to delete content or ban anyone. You are not that important, this site is not that important, no one here is that important.
Once in a blue moon when the Librarian takes a look in here he may have banned someone for breaking forum rules....but I don't even know that. I am just taking your word for it when you say you've been banned. I know for a fact that neither JWI nor me have banned you or deleted any of your content....or anyone else's content.
But you won't believe me of course because you evidently have delusional views of your own importance and grandeur. 
(wasted minute I will never get back)
 
 

I am sure you have the ability to also delete other people's comments. I have been tempted a few times, but then I think nah....and I retire to the closed club 😁

I haven't checked for sure, but I think the actual owner of the site is not a Witness and doesn't really get involved in any discussions unless those discussions get flagged by someone. If no one complains (by "Reporting" a post) the owner will never know what anyone is writing. I think that The Librarian is a Witness, but I'm sure he is in the same situation of not having time to monitor thousands of posts in hundreds of threads, some going on for a hundred pages. The Librarian has offered moderator functions to a couple people here, including me, and maybe we are supposed to try to keep order. But I personally just don't see the point in trying to remove posts or try to get people banned. They will just come back under a different name, and act worse than before. NoisySrecko/Dmitar/WalterPrescott has been clearly been itching to try to embarrass Pudgy about his arrest and, as we've all seen, Walter will just get bolder and more brazen under a new name if anyone tries to call him out on his unchristian behavior.
If you tell Walter he has slandered, he will just say that it's everyone else doing the slandering.

Anybody can accuse anybody of anything.
There is an aphorism that “A Grand Jury will refer a ham sandwich.” Here, locally, they referred 537 people in one day, and the defendant is not allowed to be there!
…. There are many people that have spent 20 or more years in prison, for first degree murder,  convicted in a court of law, and were awaiting their executions.
THEN … something happens and they are totally exonerated!
Sometimes before they are executed … sometimes after.
Anybody can accuse anybody of anything …. and at trial (more often than not) the truth will come out  during a trial, and they will be convicted or exonerated and set free.
As one judge said to a defendant …. “Just because the jury found you not guilty, if I was you I would not go around telling everybody I was innocent.”
Sometimes the innocent are severely punished, even onto death … and sometimes the guilty are set free
My lawyer advised me not to discuss my case with anyone, so I will not, but here is what I can say:
1.) I was arrested and spent three days in jail, and I instructed my wife NOT to bail me out, as I considered it just “one of those things” You folks saw my booking mug shot. I used to be a Private Investigator, and such things are an occupational hazard.
2.) Our 18 year old blind diabetic chihuahua Chippy got lost in the woods behind our house, so my wife bailed me out ($15,000 to the Bail Bondsman) and we went looking for her. We found her screaming for help in a creek, rescued her and took her to the vet ($2,100), which saved her life.
I am retired, so this is all a new experience for me ….  like riding a motorcycle at 65 mph in the rain. Very painful ($15,000), but “just one of those things.”
This coming Monday I am going to the courthouse as a citizen observer just to  see what goes on during felony trials. Free parking.
However, Wally has accused me, made up out of thin, malignant air that:
1.) I am a convict.
Not true, except for traffic citations approximately one every 22 years, my involvement with “the law” has been zero, except for various weapon permitting and fingerprinting and photos for professional licenses.
Lie and slander No. 1
2.)  I am an ex-convict. ( see No. 1 )
Lie and Slander No. 2
3.) I am on probation ( see No. 1 )
Lie and slander No. 3
4.) I am on parole  ( see No. 1 )
Lie and slander No. 4
 
 
……. (More later on this post)

I’m going to get a spoof IP address and make him think I’m posting from Putin’s palace.

I'm convinced. Any of my own comments on the book will be in the Closed section. But not until I've read the whole book, which is taking even more time because I am trying to look up so many of the references. There are usually several on each of the 650 pages.

Let us know what you find out that you already didn't know....in the closed club if you can 😊
Oh and thanks for this expression: "not creating  negative "drama" out of guesswork". I will try and remember that phrase because people tend to do this 99% of the time and it's very annoying! Now I will just respond with: "stop creating drama out if guesswork" instead of going into long explanations... that without facts you can't really judge....and you were not a fly on the wall....etc.
 

Let us know what you find out that you already didn't know....in the closed club if you can 😊
Oh and thanks for this expression: "not creating  negative "drama" out of guesswork". I will try and remember that phrase because people tend to do this 99% of the time and it's very annoying! Now I will just respond with: "stop creating drama out if guesswork" instead of going into long explanations... that without facts you can't really judge....and you were not a fly on the wall....etc.
 

Let us know what you find out that you already didn't know....in the closed club if you can 😊
Oh and thanks for this expression: "not creating  negative "drama" out of guesswork". I will try and remember that phrase because people tend to do this 99% of the time and it's very annoying! Now I will just respond with: "stop creating drama out if guesswork" instead of going into long explanations... that without facts you can't really judge....and you were not a fly on the wall....etc.
 

I just paid over $39 for a book. And even though it's well over 600 pages, I don't know what the author was thinking. It's $55 in softcover and $65 in hardback. It's the kind of price you'd pay for a book of academic research.
Anyway I'd have to say that, after about 60 pages that I read this morning, it is clearly the most comprehensive, thorough, well-referenced, and seemingly accurate account I have ever read. It is very balanced, so far, and doesn't try to create negative "drama" out of guesswork. I've seen other authors, even Witnesses, do this sometimes.
Even recently, I've tried to get hold of many of the resources he uses and was unable for many of them. I do have a few pages of resources, that Persson doesn't seem to know about (or doesn't use), but they would only confirm his own research, as far as I can tell. He mentions getting some research from collectors of Bible Student history, and a person named Mike Castro in Rhode Island. I don't know if anyone knows whether Mike Castro is a Witness, but someone pointed him out to me when I was looking for a rare document (special Wt supplement not in the bound volumes because it only went to some subscribers), and he sent it to me in PDF format immediately, no questions asked. I'm afraid to find out that he might be an apostate, so I didn't ask 😮.
Anyway, the whole book title is: Rutherford's Coup: The Watchtower Succession Crisis of 1917 and Its Aftermath
https://www.amazon.com/Rutherfords-Coup-Watchtower-Succession-Aftermath/dp/1778143016/ref=sr_1_1?crid=10XAMD6TVT7N3&keywords=rud+persson&qid=1652964472&sprefix=%2Caps%2C53&sr=8-1
So far, I'm impressed. But one should be warned that the author, Rud Persson (pronounced Rude Person 😁) is a former Witness. Don't know whether he was DF'd, but he does say that he worked with Carl Olof Jonsson on research in the past.

Believe it or not we did that in Europe too! It was great. I started on the shelf of the rear window in Calais, and next time I woke up we were in Zurich, embracing my grandparents. That's how I remember it anyway....we probably did stop on the way to empty our bladders....and for my step dad to rest...but those are just minor details, lol.

Believe it or not we did that in Europe too! It was great. I started on the shelf of the rear window in Calais, and next time I woke up we were in Zurich, embracing my grandparents. That's how I remember it anyway....we probably did stop on the way to empty our bladders....and for my step dad to rest...but those are just minor details, lol.

I think we still have about 30 minutes left. We kind of got distracted and later started watching something else. We need to watch the end. I'll let you know when we're done...

On long trips, when I told my Dad “… I gotta pee! I gotta pee!”, he said “Just cover your eyes and stick your butt out the window … yeah, they will see your butt, but hey won’t know WHOSE butt.”

If we are “little children” in the New System, on long trips at night do we get to lay down and ride on the car’s rear window deck?

“If you kids don’t stop whining back there I’m going to stop this car and give you something to whine about!” my dad would holler on long trips. At the time I thought he was mean. But as time goes by I’ve come to appreciate that sometimes that’s exactly the right answer to give.

...that reminds me...if we're supposed to accept the kingdom like little children, does that also follow that every five minutes we can whine "how many more miles is it?"...and "are we there yet? I'm hungry!"...."I have to pee!"

This is why one pub wisely said something to the effect that the reason we don't know how it's going to be or even how any of it is possible is because if we knew we might be put off by it in our messed up state. Better to just know who's doing the inviting and let it go at that.