TrueTomHarley

26 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

Unfortunately, that's pretty much one of three opening assumptions that I keep in mind too, even outside the Internet, even when I know someone personally, too. That's why I'm also doubtful of claims from anyone that someone's claims had to be swept under the rug, as it were.

As they say, there really are only two decent people in the world - me and you. And sometimes I have my doubts about you.

20 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

... normally I get by with air holes cut in the shipping container.

 

Actually, I did not take my first commercial flight until I was in my 50's. It was very exciting. Successive flights increasingly become a pain, mostly for things having nothing to do with the plane but for the hassles boarding it. In the old days, you could pull up with 15 minutes to spare, and nobody at all wanted to strip-search you. 

Occassionally, some witnessing helps pass the time, and I don't always do it  but sometimes I do. Like one flight where I laid the contact card down on the armrest midflight and said to the man traveling next to me: "Look, everyone has a cause, and this is mine. We don't have to talk about it, or anything else. On the other hand, there is time to kill, we will never meet again, and it may suggest some conversation if you want it."

It was a while before he said anything. Presently he opened up on the purpose of his trip and his background. He was a microbiologist at some university. He said he liked the power of faith, but of course, he was a scientist. We exchanged some boiler-plate remarks, and somewhere along the line I mentioned telemeres. He took up the topic but pronounced the word differently. "You mean I've been making a donkey of myself all these years, saying it wrong?" was my response.

It was just idle conversation, not particularly going anywhere. Out of the blue he brings up that his trip had another purpose. He is traveling to get his daughter out of her latest jam. He doesn't know what happened to her. He did his best to bring her up right, but she takes up with one lowlife scoundrel after another and has made a hopeless hash of her life. 

I didn't say: "Too bad she is not a Jehovah's Witness. Then all of her troubles would be over." I mostly just listened, and asked a few questions to draw him out. Who doesn't like to be reminded what can happen to kids in the absence of Bible prinicples, and sometimes even with  Bible principles they veer off the track. I was blown away that, not knowing me from a bag of beans, he would so quickly turn to me as Father Confessor. It was likely because he had NO spiritual componant to his life, and when he came across one, the dam burst.

The time flew with the plane and landed in no time at all. I'll never see him again, most likely. But you never know. Perhaps he will be like the man who accepted a few magazines, but eventually told me he would do so no more because his wife was allergic to newsprint. 'Look, just tell me if you don't like them,' I said to myself. 'What a stupid excuse!'

Years later I met them at a convention, both baptized.

 

 

16 minutes ago, Space Merchant said:

@TrueTomHarley He, Mr. Sostar (not to be confused with the Japanese character by a similar name) is heavily misguided to the point he will use vague and or his own opinions and interpretations to make a point, some of which he has no proof of and or valid information, and at times even the Bible itself defeats his own words, and to this day his December 2017 claim will forever be immortalized on this forum prior to him sweeping his claims under the rug or him trying to use a Registry and Census as proof of owning a business, the irony here it is nothing to do with information from sources that is murky, the information he posed was of his own design. Other than that he reminds me of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, but far more cryptic, flawed and giggles spontaneously. One thing for certain, when proven wrong, the giggles stop in a following response, therefore, he is running on E when it comes to giggles at that point.

That being said, it is the time of year again, and we know how these things are. If I am not mistaken this group has reached a high number before for these assemblies, this includes all languages, for even their other services they hit the 20,175,477 mark.

The only concern is Gangstalking being a possibility, who target people of race, sex, nationality, color, religion, faith, background or even perhaps the state they live in, or perhaps the color of their eyes even or the way they dress/groom, etc. so it would not be a surprise if such ones somehow enter into or end up near these assemblies this faith group, so vigilance is key in such situations as well as awareness.

Thank you for this. I am somewhat protected by my opening motto, which I think should be the motto of every brother who uses the internet: "Everyone online is a liar."

Of course, they are not. But if you open with that assumption, and never entirely discard it for anyone you do not know personally, you are golden.

9 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I can turn my eyes heavenward and at 37,000 feet, watch as a Boeing 767 takes a GB member to a European Assembly in Business Class seating at about $11,000 a ticket.

 

Come come. Don't be so petty. 

Assuming you haven't exagerated the price (since I take my private jet on fancypants European vacations at the drop of a pin, I have forgotten commercial rates), would you expect him to travel rowboat? 

Or even airline passenger seating, arriving at his age to give some talks, having flown hours with his knees in his mouth? Travel is not so easy for people on in years and yet they routinely skirt around the globe come convention time. And what if he took passenger seating and got stuck riding next to someone like you? (sorry, JWI)

Isn't there some TV preacher somewhere who had a vision that he should dunn his followers for yet another personal jet?

9 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I suppose I will have to forgo my lavish lifestyle  and European Vacations to buy catfood for my wife and I, and cardboard for the holes in my shoes.

I am not one of those on the list for spreading misinformation and hate, so I will not suffer this fate.

I will wave to you down below eating catfood as I fly over in my luxury jet en route to still another fancypants European vacation.

28 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

"hehehe )))))))))"

 

It is almost like a scene from Terminator. Or Contagion. Or whatever.

As much as I disagree with almost everything @Srecko Sostar says, and admittedly do not usually read all of his comments end-to-end, I will concede that he has markedly improved his presence. I once wrote that he "deliberatedly chooses to represent himself on this forum as a moron," due to his incessant: "hehehe )))))))))"

He doesn't do that anymore. English is obviously not his primary language, yet he has succeeded in employing it with more power.

None of this is personal. It is a fight over ideas, and only to a lesser extent over those who embrace them.

10 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

TTH:

I concede? that you can worr?y the horns off of a Billy Goat .... so as a concession to your admirable persistence ....??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take note that I anticipated from the start that the Terminator would take out the attendants.

WhoÂ’s da true prophet, heh?

Thanks.

I am looking forward to viewing those snippets you sent me, @James Thomas Rook Jr. re Sarah and the Terminator, but I have to wait until my wife leaves the house, maybe to go shopping. "Honey, we have no wine!" perhaps I will holler, and she will rush off to find some. 

Seriously, those really are way cool movies, and I have seen only one complete one and snippets of others. For reasons I don't recall, I think Sarah came to ally herself with the Terminator, who she at one time had valid reason to fear.

Though it was overall a terrible movie, parts of The Last Action Hero were very appealing, because Schwartzenegger was not afraid to poke (abundant) fun at himself. 

I'll put it aside and get to it soon. But you have secured from me what you may never have thought possible, and don't necessarily care about one way or another: a genuine 'like'

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I am at the bottom of the list, where all chainsaw theologists are .... by choice.

YES!!!! That means I rank higher! I WIN!!!

All I need to make my joy complete is to find out what happened to Sarah and the Terminator. James will not tell me. Nobody here saw it and can tell me? Nobody here cares about ‘contemporary culture’? Surely Allen the house Terminator saw it. He knows the genre and each time he gets tossed on his ear, I hear an unmistakable “I’ll Be Back.” 

(Incidentally, do you see how he has reformed and put fits of anger behind him? He thus is unleashing his true gifts, which are always needed in fighting off the scoundrels)

What must @admin think? “What a bunch of nuts that old biddy brought along with her! I had high hopes for that TrueTom but he may be among the worst idiots! Ah, well, they do swell the traffic. If I can keep hiding the profiles of my participants, I may yet win top prize at the Conference of Internet Magnificents.”

2 minutes ago, Space Merchant said:

It is their Church Structure, it is similar and or nearly as identical to the Early Church, furthermore, Jehovah's Witnesses are Restorationist, not only do they stick to he Bible, verse for verse, but that of the church itself, be it they have the truth or very close to it, the very reason why Restorationism (Restorationist Christians) be it a group or a sole individual, are known to primarily practice Primitive Christianity.

 

Quote: Restorationism, also described as Christian Primitivism, is the belief that Christianity has been or should be restored along the lines of what is known about the apostolic early church, which restorationists see as the search for a more pure and more ancient form of the religion. Fundamentally, "this vision seeks to correct faults or deficiencies (in the church) by appealing to the primitive church as a normative model.

They are among the list of those who stuck to their Restorationist routes, even to this day:

In the 1870s, a Bible study group led by Charles Taze Russell formed into what was eventually called the Bible Student movement. Russell's congregations did not consider him to be the founder of a new religion, but that he helped in restoring true Christianity from the apostasy that Jesus and the Apostle Paul foretold. They believed that other Churches departed in a Great Apostasy from the original faith on major points, and that the original faith could be restored through a generally literal interpretation of the Bible and a sincere commitment to follow its teachings. They focused on several key doctrinal points that they considered a return to "primitive Christianity", derived from their interpretation of the Bible, including a rejection of trinitarianism, the immortality of the soul, and the definition of Hell as a place of eternal torment; active proselytization; strict neutrality in political affairs; abstinence from warfare; and a belief in the imminent manifestation of the Kingdom of God (or World to Come) on Earth.

Jehovah's Witnesses emerged as a distinct religious organization, maintaining control of Russell's Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society and other corporations. They continued to develop doctrines that they considered to be an improved restoration of first century Christianity, including increased emphasis on the use of Jehovah as God's personal name.

It would most definitely be a problem if they had left such a root, but this seems not to be the case.

What is the source of this quote? I like it, and may use it myself elsewhere.

2 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

What is this? There's a hierarchy here, too, that I didn't know about? I thought this was a joke. Parts of it were funny.

it doesn't interest me in the slightest. Once I see myself on the list, and compare where I place with @James Thomas Rook Jr., then maybe we can talk.

11 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

For about $12 a month, you can have Netflix deliver to your door the entire Terminator Series, The Notebook, Hacksaw Ridge, and other answers .  These things are part of contemporary culture, like Star Trek, James Bond, Jack Reacher, Asimov, Heinlein, and  more.

 

Still holding out, huh? This is becoming an obsession for me. I wish you had never brought it up. What happened to Sarah and the Terminator?

Look, I cannot see all those macho movies. I want to, desperately, and I do feel a responsibilty to illuminate my writing with the wisdom of contemporary culture, but my wife does not enjoy those movies, so if I am going to watch them, I must watch them myself. 

Now, I am already in hot water with my wife due to my time spent in writing, another solo sport. She accuses me sometimes of not turning around from my bad habits, like that of "not listening," which is exacerbated at such times. She misunderstands completely. The problem is that I turn around so instantaneously  that I cannot stop my rotation and I do another 180, but just try telling her that. 

We do jointly fulfill our obligation to keep abreast of contemporary culture in that we have fallen into the habit of one TV show per night, at present alternating between episodes of Monk and Psych. shows I never heard of all during their run but was alerted to afterwards by my 9-year-old nephew who has seen them all. I tried to tell the kid that he should watch the Terminator movies so as to pull his weight in society but his mother intervened. I like these two shows submitted by a nine-year-old. In last night's Psych, for example, Juliet was outraged that the circus weight guesser guessed her weight wrong and she obsessed about it during the remainder of the show. Now, I think it is very important not to obsess over things, but she says later on: "Shawn, I've got it!" and Shawn thinks she has uncovered a break in the case, but she goes on to explain that her particular pants are not 'slimming.' At shows end, when the circus guesser is revealed as a villain and is about to shoot the good guys, robbing them of any further contribution to contemporary culture, she decks him from behind with a single blow of unusual force, that she accentuates by saying "145 pounds, my ass!"

Prior to this, my wife and watched episodes of Chuck, suggested by my kids. Prior to that, some time ago, it was episodes of Office, also suggested by my kids. In fact, I used the Office show as a template to straighten out an atheist's love-life, taking a pesky detour from my work of writing about God, a detour that I didn't want to take but you know how some people just cannot turn down a privilege, in a post entitled 'Jim and Pam and Ray Goth' which I would love to link to but I don't dare because the Librarian will get mad, though she should'nt because I have disabled my comment section so as to leave no doubt that I do not wish to compete with her. 

So don't chide me for failings in keeping abreast of contemporary culture. I feel that I am pulling my weight, and I am keeping my marriage with the lovely Mrs Harley in good shape as well. Make no mistake, the woman is a looker. You do not want to mess with something so good. 

Now, for the umpteenth time, what happened to Sarah and the Terminator? Look, if James is reverting to orneryness, becoming stubborn just for the sake of becoming stubborn, one of you other participants tell me. This is not like confession, that only the priest can answer. Unless you do not want to embarrass yourself by admitting to the secret sin of not having watched it yourself.

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

These things are part of contemporary culture, like Star Trek, James Bond, Jack Reacher, Asimov, Heinlein,...today it is general knowledge of movies. You need to catch up, even if only to understand contemporary references and sub-references in context.

I have read more books than you, if only because while you are watching movies you cannot read books.

To the extent that Paul is correct when he counts 'contemporary culture' a lot of refuse, hopefully I can be forgiven for having missed a few fliks.

And I did see some of the Terminator series, like that one where the modern alien takes the cop's body and can reform itself from just a puddle of molten metal, and the 'cop' therefore becomes the bad guy, while Arnold as a biker is the good guy. That's why I thought he may have taken on the attendants, because he was certainly the kid's protector, and I think his mama's as well.

Nobody can do everything. I have to write about God and keep my promise before the moon and stars and JWI that I will be nicer to you, and even now i can feel the devil on my left shoulder making faces at the angel on my right.

Now, once and for all, what happened with Sarah and the Terminator? A man can only stand so much religion. What about Sarah? You brought her up.

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Thank you for correcting me,. where I was wrong about the 10,000.

I sincerely wish someone COULD correct me about the rest of my post.

That is three posts in a row, and as usual, you are evading the issue, an issue that you brought up in the first place.

How did it turn out with Sarah and the Terminator?

On 7/10/2018 at 4:14 PM, Jack Ryan said:

Watchtower Attorneys (Brothers who are Attorneys or Doctors) (They get invited to live at Bethel at the expense of "the flock")

 

Oh, for crying out loud.

So do the brothers who clean the toilets and sweep the floors

6 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Sarah Conner trying to get away from the Terminator(s), when she was in the nut house ... THAT was some good fear acting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

How did it turn out? Did Arnold take out the guys that were chasing her?

3 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

My second thought was ... why are all the soldiers wearing "masks", if they are going to shoot everyone?

They do in Russia.

That was a good Heinlein quote. For a while he and Asimov were all the rage as sci-fi writers. Which did you prefer and why? (Not a trap, honest)

36 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Why, is a whole different story of gross  incompetence, lies, and more lies.

 

Yes, but are any of them 'Pants-on-Fire' lies?

4 hours ago, JW Insider said:

And of course, the exaggeration through a form of reductio ad absurdum is just another form of minimization

If I catch anyone doing that, I’ll let them have it with both barrels, believe you me!

I said I'd be nice to him, and I will.

I will, I wlll, I will, I will, I will, I will I will, I will, I will....starting tomorrow.

Run the 10 Benghazis past @James Thomas Rook Jr.

Having said that, the trick is to ensure that the fact-checkers are honest. I had a very hard time with the Politfact fellow when I saw him on TV or somewhere., especially as he was unveiling his gimmicy 'Pants-on-Fire' lie rating, which I thought was juvenile. Moreover, obvious uses of hyperbole on Trump's part were all rated lies.

I would hate to see what would happen if he decided to rate Jesus, who did hyperbole all the time.

Still, I don't know how that would qualify the Benghazis. Let James explain it. I believe he makes quite the big deal about HILLARY'S Benghazi. Is it really but 10% of the total?

On 8/23/2018 at 1:49 PM, JW Insider said:

I have personally spoken to the embarrassed and penitent brother initially behind the fiasco, along with a couple of his friends, and I think I know something about this situation which should also mitigate some of the embarrassment, but can also honestly admit what happened.

I don't know the story of this. Of course, many have thrust it at me, but I have accepted someone's take that it amounted to little more than taking out a library card so as to get access to some writings. 'Oh, no, it's far MORE than that!' I have been told, as though they sat at Kofi Onnans right hand, shoving aside even the Vatican, but the prospect of secretly calling shots with the wild beast seemed so ridiculous that my interest tanked. I figured either it was a valid move that was misunderstood, or it was the clumsy move of some brother who is peeling potatoes in the Bethel kitchen for penance and will be for the thousand years. If you like, in the spirit of telling all that has been told innacurately everywhere else, I'd like to know of it, either here or through DM or through a link to where you probably wrote of it long ago.

1 hour ago, JW Insider said:

I think this is the kind of "violence" that JTR is sometimes referring to, and it's something about which we should have more sympathy and empathy.

I'll be nicer to him.

2 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Helpfull Hint:  If you get tired at being sniped at by me, don't snipe at me. 

I don't recall having complained of that. Besides, I didn't even tag you.

Perhaps I shouldn't do it. I'll think about it. But you routinely say the most vile things about those who I feel deserve the deepest respect, and you do it in the most juvenile manner, that it is almost a knee-jerk reaction for me.

Rise, for I too am a man, having feelings like those of many here.