Anna

Without even opening the Video posted, I can tell the speaker is wrong.
.... he has a beard.

If the guy agreed with Jehovah’s Witnesses in every aspect, he would be one. He isn’t, so manifestly he doesn’t. No one ever said he did.
A recognized expert writing a brief for the court is the most unremarkable thing in the legal world. You need not act as though it is something shocking.
As to Witness’s false-piety-on-steroids, and her ‘What need have Witnesses for a legal tool of the world?’ the same could be said for automobiles. Why should any Christian have one? Let God’s spirit take them wherever they want to go. Why use a machine manufactured by the world.?
His article that JWs are the most persecuted religion in the world is a reflection upon the U.S. government agency’s report, not his own. It is also separate for any brief he has written for any court case. He hasn’t opined similarly about the many other groups he has spoken in behalf of, he the author of some 70 books.
 

Some metallic debris crashed through the ceiling of my house, grazed the edge of my bed, bolting me upright, and set fire to the clothes locker. Furious, I got XI on the phone and was prepared to give him a piece of my mind when I saw USA on the crumpled wing.
”Anything for the homeland,” I said, and went back to sleep.
Few things are funnier than seeing the SNL libs go into conniptions at the thought of working with him.

I love a few things about China, but I hate other things, and there are plenty of good reasons to criticize it.
I have found that when people decide to attack a person or people they don't like or speak against a country they don't like, that facts don't always matter. For example, you said that SpaceX debris is usually controlled while Chinese debris is not. This misses the point completely about the Google query. It's about uncontrolled debris that might fall out of orbit. Reading some content from the very first returned link says this:
"It really isn't about this one rocket body … because every rocket body in Earth orbit is uncontrolled," explains T.S. Kelso of CelesTrak, an analytical group that keeps an eye on Earth-orbiting objects.
The true magnitude of the problem can be identified by a quick check on CelesTrak.
"It shows there are 2,033 rocket bodies in Earth orbit … at least those that we have orbital data for, as there may be more classified ones. Of course, every one of them is uncontrolled. Of the 2,033, 546 belong to the U.S. and only 169 belong to China. . . . But the U.S. isn't even the worst offender in terms of orbiting booster debris. That would be Russia, with 1,035 rocket bodies.
This is another common problem with a lot of "news." The title of that link is:
https://www.space.com/china-huge-rocket-falling-from-space-junk-problem
So you'd think the article will try to make the case that the biggest problem is in "out of control China." But as you can see above the article admitted (albeit far down near the end) that a bigger problem is the US (546) and an even bigger problem is Russia (1,035). This doesn't include many objects from the US which aren't included because the information is classified. I assume Russia has similar classified rocket objects.
At any rate, the question was about how easy it is to get information on the last SpaceX rocket body (booster) that actually was supposed to stay in orbit but "fell out of orbit" uncontrolled and unpredictably.
The article on the most recent bit of SpaceX debris says this:
"While we await further confirmation on the details, here's the unofficial information we have so far. The widely reported bright objects in the sky were the debris from a Falcon 9 rocket 2nd stage that did not successfully have a deorbit burn," https://www.space.com/spacex-falling-rocket-debris-light-show

What I noticed was that there were no negative articles about SpaceX. Instead of admitting "debris" about the rocket booster falling out of orbit, there is talk of a fantastic display, and a dazzling sky show.
But before Google would even put up anything (always positive) about SpaceX, it found space for 4 links to China's "problem" with falling debris, especially from the rocket booster falling out of orbit.
Also, the NYT just ran a huge story on how dangerous China's space program is.
When this type of thing happens on 95 out of 100 stories on different topics, one could get the impression it was done on purpose.😉

It may be that I should have posted this topic in an area closed off from enemies of the Witnesses. I thought about it, but in the end put it here to see what shots they would take, and from that, maybe tighten it up or rewrite portions. They’ve come up with very little. It is stated with such vitriol that it may seem more than it is, but there is nothing that hasn’t been dealt with innumerable times before. 
4Jah raises just one topic. It is the one he always raises. It seems like more than it is because he restates it again and again, but it is just one topic. (He does briefly flirt with JWs not serving in the military, but in the end concludes that it is proper for them to do as they do.) 
Witness corroborates the CSA allegations, then adds her additional normal fury that Christians should be organized so as to get things done, then adds her usual goobledigook incomprehensible to anyone but her, mostly having to do with how she, as a “actual anointed” (her only qualifications being that she claims the status) should be listened to, along with her co-actual-anointed. 
Introvigne is one of a group of scholars—all of them professors of religion—who wrote a brief for a Dutch court. It is a very lengthy brief (though not by the standards of a legal brief) but it addresses all complaints raised above.
Noting that CSA is the universal plague among humankind, it states:
“We have no doubt that serious cases of sexual abuse have occurred among Jehovah’s Witnesses, and that some have not been properly reported to the civil authorities. Given the size of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the contrary would be surprising.”
It then goes on to state that, by the Court’s own data, Witness compliance with reporting CSA to police is higher, not lower, than the general Dutch population who are not the subjects of investigation, and higher than a much larger American Catholic community. In short, the court zeroes in on Jehovah’s Witnesses based upon a highly suspect and largely unconfirmable recruitment survey, when their own data indicates others do far worse.
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/binaries/rijksoverheid/documenten/rapporten/2020/01/23/tk-bijlage-1-expert-opinion/tk-bijlage-1-expert-opinion.pdf
As to the self-reported victims of CSA who are dissatisfied with how their cases were handled:
Those of us who have studied sexual abuse know that “dissatisfaction with handling” is widespread, and also applies to how cases are handled by the police and secular courts. Sexual abuse is such a horribly traumatic experience that no “handling” is perceived by the victims as totally adequate. It is, again, unfair to single out Jehovah’s Witnesses as if the “dissatisfaction with handling” would concern only them, while it is a common phenomenon in cases of sexual abuse in general.
The brief finds “problematic” that JWs are singled out, when their record is better than that of most. Also that upon publication of the court’s report: Many if not most will only read titles in the media, and will be easily persuaded that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are “bad” citizens, more prone than other Dutch to sexual abuse and the protection of the abusers, while in fact even the figures of the Report suggest that the opposite is the case. 

Don’t persecute them! a certain foe with no use for Witnesses urged Russia. You’ll just feed into their “persecution complex.”
Well—sure. The best way to feed a “persecution complex” is to persecute whoever has it. On the other hand—which came first: the chicken or the egg?  If there really is persecution, who says it is a persecution complex? Isn’t reality the word he is searching for?
In December 2020, there came an United States Commission on International Religious Freedom report—it is a bipartisan commission, and thus not a product of any one political administration—entitled: “The Global Persecution of Jehovah’s Witness.” Religious scholar Massino Introvigne digests it and issues the obvious byline: “Jehovah’s Witnesses: The World’s Most Persecuted Religion.” 
The report serves to erase all doubt, even among Witnesses themselves, that theirs is the most persecuted religion today. It is not that other faiths do not suffer persecution from place to place—they certainly do—at times more brutal than that of the Witnesses. It is that no matter where you go, the Witnesses face it in one form or another. The USCIRF focuses on nine different nations—they are all assigned subheadings: Eritrea, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, and South Korea, but makes clear that these are just the tip of the iceberg, which does “not include the many other countries where the faith is banned or faces official harassment. The situation is ultimately even bleaker than our survey might indicate.”
Those many verses about persecution?
“You will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name.” (Matthew 24:9)
“All those desiring to live with godly devotion in association with Christ Jesus will also be persecuted.” (2 Tim 3:12)
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you..  If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own....Bear in mind the word I said to you, A slave is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:18-20)
and others? They are fulfilled upon the group whose members approach persons one-on-one to speak “about God and bearing witness to Jesus.” (Revelation 1:9) There were repercussions when John did it—exile to the island of Patmos. There are repercussions today. In Russia, it has been exile to Siberia.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are pacifists—why shouldn’t non-pacifists earn the ‘extremist’ label? They’re industrious. Why shouldn’t those who leach off society top the list? They’re obedient to government authority. Why shouldn’t the disobedient be ‘extremist?’ They live, work, and school in the community; they visit their neighbors with Bible thoughts. Why shouldn’t the reclusive and secretive hermits take top ‘extremist’ honors? Even those who dislike them will describe them individually as “very nice people.” Why shouldn’t those not nice win first ‘extremist’ prize? The easiest gig a cop will ever pull is to be assigned traffic control outside the Regional Convention. Everyone smiles at him or nods a greeting. No one calls him a pig. Why doesn’t a group where people do call him a pig take top ‘extremist’ honors?
It is crazy, so contrary to what anyone would expect, yet it is the way things are. So crazy is it, yet so exactly fulfilling Bible expectations, that it all but screams: Here they are! Here are the people hated for doing good—exactly as the Bible said would be the case! The top dishonor of ‘most persecuted’ becomes the top honor of ‘identifying the people taken from the nations for God’s name.’ (Acts 15:14) It is why I ended a chapter in I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses: Searching for the Why with: “When searching the field of religion, look for the group that is individually praised but collectively maligned.”
As for suffering under persecution, Jehovah’s Witnesses will be fortified with: “What merit is there in it if, when you are sinning and being slapped, you endure it? But if, when you are doing good and you suffer, you endure it, this is a thing agreeable with God.” (1 Peter 2:20-21) “Look! We pronounce happy those who have endured”—the James 5:11 verse is woven into the current circuit assembly program. As is Proverbs 27:11: “Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.” It is the Devil taunting God, as he did with Job, that a person will serve God only when the going is easy.
If you peer into the pants of this or that king to tell of his soiled underwear, you can expect him to get mad. But what if you treat him with respect while you simply go about your innocuous business? Won’t he leave you alone? You would certainly think so, is the gist of Introvigne’s parting remark, but—alas—it is not so:
“What the Jehovah’s Witnesses defend is the right to live differently, in this world, yet part of a kingdom ‘not of this world,’ as Jesus says in John 18:36. Are our societies prepared to tolerate those who live in a way different from the majority’s, as long as they are peaceful, honest, and law-abiding citizens? That the answer is ‘no’ in an increasing number of countries proves that our world is becoming a dangerous environment for religious liberty.”
(Original post here)
 
 

I understand from the Hamster and Gerbil Underground that they have a contract out on you.

Even though we're not supposed to be political, I've noticed that I can still detect leanings in the friends. But then again, it's not as if god's kingdom isn't a government with a history behind it's development and an agenda for the future, but I do see some who cherry pick ideas here and there to support their wankish condemnations of others, often while doing so betraying more of the issues they'll eventually have to deal with than those these look w/either an envious or jaundiced eye down upon.
 

What! 
So here we have a case of you literally "picking a bone" with me !
Shameful!
I shall report you to the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm!

I’m expecting to lose it all.....and it will be a final testing of sorts for many of us.....somehow I’m thinking..rightly or wrongly? ...when it does all go...the visible structures of Jehovah’s witnesses...it has to some how represent...the scattering of the apostles..when Jesus was taken into custody and trial...and killed...
The most favored and trusted ..fled and were confused after his death...they actually went back to work fishing...not knowing what to do.
They did not cope with out his visible presence..even tho he had explained it to them.
How will we cope without a visible bricks and mortar..or if zoom also goes down?
Even Jesus himself cried out ...My God My God why have you forsaken me!!...he FELT it had gone on too long........in moments of anguish..will we as a people feel we have been tricked...will our faith and trust be tested when it all goes...and if he allows it all to go?
I am thinking that it also corresponds with the Israelites on leaving Egypt in organized safe military style escape.
When they were bought up against the sea..against the mountains...and hearing the chariots and horses of Egypt bearing down on them...in fear..and lack of trust In Jehovah..they felt they had been deceived...and cried out to Moses and ready to stone him for tricking them...will he allow the same situation come upon his modern day people in the last days?
Why not?....if he allowed his own son for a very brief time to think he had been a abandoned...why not us his motley crew of people.
We cannot look back and yearn for the days of KHs and skin on skin stuff....we cannot yearn for the leeks and onions and pots of meat...
We have been trained as a people..and every time one of us here took a stand against a pagan holiday such as Xmas or Valentine’s Day or whatever.....which blatantly is a form of idol worship to a pretend demon God.......we were in training for what is coming...he was getting us ready to take a even stronger stand that seems to be about to happen.
We must not be like Hezekiah who proudly showed of all his riches of gold etc...who put his faith in such...only to be punished by losing the lot...
Even the good Kings had wrong attitudes about such things... and he learned from that.
Havings said this I ask myself would I have been one that went into panic mode when my back was up against the mountains and wall of sea and hearing the thundering of horses bearing down on me and my family.....probably ......would I have been one that moaned about forty years of manna.....more than likely ....
I like to think....or hope....that now I have the scriptures and read their examples....and had more training than those Israelites after 400 years of captivity ...Well..I hope I do a bit better.....time will tell shortly I guess.
 

I personally do not mind if you are here. or anywhere at all. I just come here, expecting you to stroke out in mid typed sentence.

...so did Quisling, former Prime Minister of Norway during the Nazi Occupation, EVEN when he was executed by firing squad by the Norwegian people.
...and to be fair ... if anyone attacks you. it's not really you that they are attackng ... its your goofball ideas. philosophy, and general hatefulness toward them.

If you are "wisdom personified" I will pass ......
Even dogs, disgusting as we are, know not to be hateful, insulting, vindictive and malicious.
Willy-Nilly, most people LIKE dogs, because we are naturally happy!
Your misery screams out ahead of you like a runaway locomotive approaching a bridge-out.

Reading through various histories, what seems to be absent is what was actually done to convince illiterate people that Christianity was true.  Lots of talk about conversions, but really light on the processes involved.
https://www.history.com/news/inside-the-conversion-tactics-of-the-early-christian-church
Found this. Interesting take. Of course Bart is an atheist.
Now in all this it strikes me that perhaps the reason the trinity garbage got promoted was because it was harder to argue w/the hoi polloi about not worshiping multiple deities when Christianity appeared to have two - namely Jehovah and Jesus though Jesus was a lesser deity (elohim) (325 had nothing to do w/the Holy Spirit). Then too, the bad practice of not using God's name Jehovah further confused these issues.
Of course, the Catholic Church also leveraged the gods of river, or corn or whatever by creating patron saints of this, that or the other thing. So then they could continue with the methadone of their polytheism weaning them off the real heroin of polytheism.
On the other hand, the Bible has always admitted that there ARE other gods. So some might say that to admit that there exist other gods is polytheistic, though that's not really the case, as we worship Jehovah (who is elohim, but not in the same sense at all as other elohim) Just that these are either impotent or unreal or shouldn't be obeyed. The word elohim applies to more than Jehovah in the Bible - it includes other beings. So "Elohim" is just a form of nonphysical life.

Well I didn't say you should block him, just not respond. But I guess you have no self control Tom, so if blocking is what it takes then that's the way to go 👍😀

That little girl is precious! Such talent, both of them!
(Not sure about the lyrics though, they seem a little muddled and confusing, talking about Bathsheba...and Delilah....? Something to do with faith? Maybe I'm misunderstanding what they are trying to say...)
P.s. I see the lyrics are by Leonard Cohen and it is a song about lost love...nothing to do with Jah).

I am glad you shared this. I had a very similar experience just this past week with a memorial for an older sister that died. I was so impressed with the experience that I was almost moved to want to share it on here but then I thought nobody would be interested. So I'm glad you brought it up. 
Our memorial had only half the attendance of yours, but we had people I had never met, from various  states as far as NY and California. It was very interesting meeting everyone. The memorial talk was one of the best I had heard. It was presented by a relative, who was not an elder (although he had been an elder at one time). The family chose him because they felt he knew the sister the best. Although there was the regular "witnessing" part of the talk, it only occupied about 10% of the total. The rest was all about the sister's life and how we are all looking forward to seeing her again. Both prayers were again, very personal. Afterwards we were put into "breakout" rooms, to meet and talk with the family, and with each other. It was really nice,  and I too felt the love and genuine friendship and brotherly connection.
The whole thing lasted much longer than normal, nobody seemed to want to leave. We were expecting to be on for an hour, but we stayed on for well over 2.

The same way you tip a cow?
(... sneak up on them at night and push them over.)

cEEZAR
Do you not realize that by not making specific objections to JWI's account of life at Bethel, that you have validated it?
ALL of it.
Thanks for the validating!
.... don't forget to tip your waitresses.
Note, Question to the great washed masses: What ASCII code produces this ...  r⃗  ?
 

Scandinavian countries have IKEAs, too?

It doesn't surprise me. I've been for years meditating on the kinds of personalities necessary to generate a new religious group vs those required to grow the religious group vs those who wish to maintain the status quo.
I realize that I don't have the kind of personality which would gather a group for any purpose. I've always had the attitude of "Go about your affairs. Pursue your interests. The ones whom you run into along the way who are motivated will join in the manner of their choosing." - Clearly we wouldn't have the Bible or any religious organizations if everyone were like me.
I used to irritate this one sister who was a control freak about everything. Our circuit overseer's wife (Bro Rainer) was talking with my wife and she (Bro Rainer's wife) mentioned this diet "blood type diet" by Dr. D'Adamo. Anyway we both sortof got into it for a while and of course since we're all about knowing about blood I did a bunch of research and found while researching that the Japanese and Korean cultures are really big on blood types and personalities associated with them. (In Korea they made a movie entitled "My Boyfriend is type B") and so a bunch of people began to get into it. She, of course because the word "blood" was in the name of the diet was highly suspicious of the whole thing even after she realized it wasn't about eating blood pudding or blood sausages.
Anyway when I mentioned the blood type and personality thing it sortof tickled me that she was so irritated by the whole thing (she said "There are more than four types of people in the world!"), I paused and asked her what blood type she was and she "Replied A" and I said "Ohhhhh! That makes sense now." and she says "What do you mean?" and I say "Well as it turns out, people with blood type A are more likely to get stressed out over perceived ambiguity or perceived disorder because their brains produce more cortisol in response to stress and the way this is manifested when they try to reduce these levels is by trying to control their environment as well as the people around them.....pause...you see"
That annoyed her even more.
I'll bet Klein was blood type A for sure.

In the 1970's it was common for Bethelites to order Bible commentaries like Matthew Henry's and Barnes' Notes on the NT and various Bible translations. Later, they also allowed orders for Jay Green's Hebrew Interlinear and William Whiston's Josephus. Bethelites paid for them, but the price was fairly low because all requests were ordered through a one of Dean Songer's assistants.
Then there was a meeting in 1979, and all such books became impossible to order, and anyone who already had them in their rooms (except for Bible translations) would be looked at suspiciously. In 1980, housekeepers would report to their overseers if these types of books were found, and many Bethelites who owned them would be questioned by an interrogation committee. Within a matter of months, they moved the entire Bethel Library out of reach of all Bethelites by moving the entire Writing Department --along with the library-- out of 124 CH and onto a locked floor down at 25 CH.
Also, even before it moved, no Bethel tours allowed visitors to see the Bethel Library beyond a quick peek from the doorway to the "facing" shelves which were almost all WT material along with a couple sets of encyclopedias and dictionaries. All commentaries and books from other religions were were kept in the rows of shelves behind the first "facing" shelves, and could not be seen. Even the tours at Patterson in the 2000's only allowed a doorway glimpse of a small corner of the Library from the main hallway, about 40 feet from the nearest book.
I remember once when Brother Klein railed against commentaries one morning at breakfast. And he was one of the GB members in the Writing Department. At another meeting he said that using them was "sucking at the teat of Christendom." Now, of course, there is a much more reasonable approach, and I think that most of the brothers are at least partially aware that this is where most of the information in the Insight book comes from. They might be less aware that this is also where we get many of the spiritual gems and treasures in the meeting workbooks, and of course the footnotes in the Study Bible, all those interesting comments about Hebrew and Greek words, etc.

Wow, hahaha! I wish I could understand what he is saying, but I don't speak Norwegian....
I wonder why him? Surely there are other maybe more suitable people like pop stars or actors? Perhaps though he is quite famous in Norway....

I suppose reasonableness and balance is the key 😀