TrueTomHarley

7 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Don't know Kurt Eichenwald, but his statement is very well put. It is absolutely correct based on all the evidence we have about US support of the Saudis against Yemen.  And it now fits several recent admissions by the US.

11 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Kurt is NYT's (I think he has been in Newsweek, too) version of CNN's Acosta. He is single-minded in his focus, and in certain interviews, can come off as unhinged.

That does NOT necessarily make him wrong in places where he goes; it just means he must be taken with a grain of salt. When persons like JWI give substantial evidence in responding to blowhard idealogues, (I told you he brings out the worst in me) I would say the proof is there, tempered only by the fact that in an obscene world where arms are the profitable exports of many countries, many such evil reports can be truthfully related.

Have you taken leave of your senses more than usual? It is a JOKE, for crying out loud. Everyone in the whole wide world can see it is a joke. Admin is a big boy. He’ll survive.

4 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

The reasonable conclusion is that your accusations were libelous, and ONLY a product of your paranoid agenda driven imagination.

“Libelous?” You’re joking!

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

TTH:

How do you know this to be a fact?



Come on, James! There is such a thing as discernment. He spoke of not being interested in anyone's "corporate agenda" once. And recently he declared on another post that he was interested in anyone's "non-religious" viewpoint. 

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

 I think you are just projecting again, as is your custom.

 

There is no possible way he is not exactly as I say in every respect.

I follow some malcontents on Twitter because they reliably inform me of developments I may want to address. If they wise up, I simply follow others, as there are many. But they don't wise up. In fact, many of them live to herald their "good news," almost as though they are JWs themselves

I don't do it for the purpose of engaging with them (though it has happened) and I don't consider myself above general counsel to not go there. I am chastened by such counsel and would be much worse without it.

I don't (somewhat) follow such counsel not to go there because I am afraid of men. I do it because I think it is good counsel. If you are determined to lose weight, you do not spend inordinate amounts of time with people who stuff their fridge with candy, cake and ice cream

Ever since inception, Christians have accepted, even embraced, the idea that theirs is a course of self-sacrifice and setting aside immediate desires in temporary pursuit of more urgent concerns. Along come some malcontents in a world that has cast off discipline (and suffered for it, imo)  who say: “Yikes! This involves self-sacrifice and setting aside immediate desires! Who wants that?”

I say, “bring it on.” It is a new front in the age-old war. It is no more than Paul saying in Philippians: “True, some are preaching the Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter are proclaiming the Christ out of love, for they know that I have been appointed to defend the good news; but the former do it out of contentiousness, not with a pure motive, for they are intending to create trouble for me in my prison bonds. With what result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and I rejoice over this.”

I will concede that our people are behind the curve on this. Moreover, perhaps 'behind the curve' is exactly the place to be. The general counsel is to be like Jesus in Matthew 11, who noted that people lambasted him no matter what he did and responded by saying: Full speed ahead! ‘Wisdom is proved righteous by its works.’ I worry about being seen as a bad example, for looking back on the furrows. However, if the headship of Jehovah’s Witnesses ever puts their efforts into it, they will do what they have done with the Internet and what I wrote about in Tom Irregardless and Me:

“In recent years, the Watchtower organization even offers its own programming through a JW Broadcasting streaming channel, a refreshing and most unusual alternative to mainstream TV. Members of the Governing Body thus repeat the pattern they are known for with any new technology: They eye it with suspicion. They advise caution. They know that when the thief switches getaway cars, it is the thief you have to watch, not the dazzling features of the new car. They follow the thief for a time. Convinced at last that they still have a bead on him, they examine the car. They circle it warily, kicking the tires. At last satisfied, they jump in with both feet and put it to good uses its inventors could only have dreamed of.” 

At present, they don't go there with opposers and they certainly will not ever go there in the main. There are too many verses to advise them to keep doing just what they are doing. When the elders said that they would like to use me once more, but - did I argue with apostates? I told them that I did not. However, what I do is close enough that it could easily be misconstrued that way, and so I advised that they really ought not use me in any actual privilege. Look, this is a no-brainer. If you would represent any organization in an appointed capacity, you must adhere to its standards more closely than if you do not represent them in an appointed capacity.

In fact, I may be just kidding myself. If the counsel to teenagers at the circuit assembly is applied to adults, then I am indeed 'arguing' with them. Now, counsel to teenagers is not obligatory for adults. In fact, it is not even obligatory for teenagers, or to their parents who exercise headship. Disobey it flagrantly and you will be thought not a fine example, but it is not obligatory. Disobey it flagrantly and it may head you into ruin, which is the point of the counsel to begin with, but it is not obligatory. The counsel addresses just one more form of porn to stay away from.

Once in a while, though, you spot three malcontents mugging your friend Job, and you try to be like Elihu and take them out - in one grand speech, not through give and take chitchat. Ideally, the heavens will roar approval and some angelic creature will descend to kick them in their behinds. But other times, they glance down from their newspapers, rustle the pages to change the picture, and resume. You don't know until you know. You don't get smart-alecky with the king and say: "Your fire won't singe us." You say: "If it to be our God can deliver us out of your hand, you big jerk." [last three words mine] Time will tell.

And every once in a while David comes along and says: "Look, I took out the bear. I did serious damage to the lion. I'm pretty sure I can take out this big lout taunting the battle lines of the living God."

Christianity is among the greatest themes of all time. Battling 'apostates' is one of the greatest themes within Christianity. There is not a New Testament writer who does not deal with it, even devoting entire chapters to it, and in Jude's case, a whole book. He was just be-bopping along, writing another dull letter that would have settled into the dustbin of Christian history, when:

"although I was making every effort to write you about the salvation we hold in common, I found it necessary to write you to urge you to put up a hard fight for the faithe that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones. My reason is that certain men have slipped in among you who were long ago appointed to this judgment by the Scriptures; they are ungodly men who turn the undeserved kindness of our God into an excuse for brazen conduct."

Admin is embarrassed that there are so many religious nuts on his forum. He wants them to remain, of course, because traffic means recognition and, ultimately, money, but if only they could just post on more learned things so that he can hold his head high among the Internet titans that he wants to hang out with. In fact, he should tell the Internet titans to go jump in the lake. By looking down upon the corporate agendas of faithful Christians, which they will invariably have the moment they move out from their parents' basement, he is missing out on the greatest drama of all time.

From time to time in the future, I will be posting something or other and also link to my own blog, where I am trying to accumulate writings I consider loyal under one roof. this post is one of them. If I am called on it once for 'spamming,' I will discontinue all participation on this forum. This is not to be contentious and is certainly not a dare. It's been a good run here, but nothing lasts forever. It may be time to move on. I am grateful to the Librarian for hosting a raucous forum in which I could write a book that I never could have written elsewhere. Even should she give me the boot, i will never forget her, the old hen, but as Sherlock says: "It's Game On!"

(sorry) Posted and removed by me because I put in in the wrong place.

I shouldn't like this, James. I have gotten into trouble with people I respect when I have liked your stuff.

But as Patton said: "I love it. God help me, I do love it."

I just had to quote Patton. Change the 'love' to 'like' and it is spot on.

“I Martin Van Buren, of the town of Kinderhook, county of Columbia, state of New York, once governor of the state, more recently president of the United States, but for the last and happiest years, farmer of my native town…” Thus begins the will of Martin Van Buren and I thought well of the man for having his priorities straight.

I confess I didn’t know much about Martin Van Buren till a recent tour of his home in upstate New York, near the Hudson. More or less, I had assigned him to the list of ‘duds’ who were presidents from Andrew Jackson up to Abraham Lincoln. Upon my excepting Van Buren, the guide let my observation about duds stand, with the observation that no president served more than one term during those years, since “the challenges leading up to Civil War were thought to be unaddressed by those presidents.” It is not for a National Historical Society tour guide to suggests that former chiefs-in-state were turkeys, and I was content to not be dismissed altogether. As it was, Van Buren lost his run for a second term to a turkey, because a depression allowed his enemies to characterize him, a tavern owner’s son educated in a one-room schoolhouse, as the aristocratic high-rolling “Martin Van Ruin,” but the turkey lived only 30 days before succumbing to pneumonia, which is, in fairness, a little too soon to definitively label him a turkey,  but his Vice President successor (whose identity escapes me—someone else will have to get on it) was a fellow who was never imagined for the Presidency and is more aptly considered a genuine turkey. Even @James Thomas Rook Jr., who never tires of heralding the MEN who made the country GREAT, restrains his enthusiam of these ones.

The opening film they show you at the visitor center of the Van Buren home is among the most compact language-wise that I have seen, with every line conveying a solid and interesting fact. He was the eighth president of the United States, and the first to be actually born in the country. He was the founder of the first political party, which in time became the Democratic Party. Until then, it was until then expected that men would come and go as independent gentlemen and would settle their differences unbuttressed by political ‘party.’ In fact, some of them settled their differences through duel, a favorite technique of Andrew Jackson, whom Van Buren served as Vice President before running for the chief office himself. Aaron Burr famously plugged Alexander Hamilton in a duel, and the guide confirmed as probably true what I had heard—that Hamilton loathed the idea of taking a man’s life and so fired into the air, a strategy not employed by his rival.

The house has a curiously cobbled feel to it, notwithstanding what my cousin (the one who restores original Mustangs) matter-of-factly observed, that there are only so many ways in which you can add rooms to a house. The house did indeed undergo major expansion under the direction of a Van Buren son, and the by-that-time former president writes that he is amused to see what his heir will do with it. Perhaps the feature most ‘clunky’ is the major dining room, which accommodates 18 chairs, and more closely resembles a widened hallway, with no windows, with exterior lighting only on one end and sometimes on the other if the door is opened. There is a chandelier overhead and the guide explained that she would normally have activated it, but an employee had accidentally taken the remote home recently and it had not yet come returned. This led me to do my bit for history and suggest that Van Buren likely never used the remote to prevent just that catastrophe. The cobbled look dissipates once you go to the top floor, where massive bedrooms surround a spacious common area. One room had strewn on the floor toys of the era, which added to the impression that Van Buren did indeed most enjoy his latter days in his large home, surrounded with children and grandchildren.

There was some sort of a survey form one could fill out at tours’ end, supposedly for some special occasion, but possibly routine. I don’t bother with that sort of nonsense when it is business, since most often they are trying to ascertain just how little service they can get away with until customers scream or, worse, bolt. This one I filled out gladly, however, and dropped it in the mail.

7 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Why not just review the movie here ... through cut and paste ... rather than referring to your commercial blog?

You have it backwards as usual. This is the commercial blog. I have never accepted advertising 

20 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Perhaps you would like to give some real life examples ... rather than MORE WORDS !

Accusations about shunning are the new frontier. The movie Apostasy is a hit in England and it will likely travel around the world, causing huge pressure upon our young ones.

I posted a review of the movie under the heading 'As Sherlock Says, It's GAME ON!' but because it linked to my blog where the bulk of the lengthy review remained, it was rejected for spamming. I am feuding with the Librarian, and feuding rather seriously, as my offer of compromise goes unanswered. I am this close to packing it in here, and would almost welcome the fate of Allen the Terrible, so that the decision might be made for me. I would not thereafter prove the resurrection, as he has many times.

At a time when Jehovah's people are under vicious attack on many fronts, even banned & physically assaulted in the largest country by area on earth, it is not reassuring that brothers in position to make a difference instead choose to be impartial journalists, hosting gigantic forums where petulant morons have equal say with genuinely spiritual people. One almost wonders if during the final Battle other journalists will show up wanting to make sure that each side's point of view is fairly represented.

I understand that all blogs are, by nature, competitive. However, a significant reason that Jehovah's organization works and those of the overall world do not is that members are willing to cooperate, and do not let such matters as turf wars interfere.

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

The problem is ... that Elders have in actual fact become administrators of Central Policy, and know that if they exercise compassion and mercy and common sense in their adjudications, it will go against Watchtower public policy. 

 

Putting this as delicately as I can, it is hard to imagine a response more stupid than this. It follows a report of mitigating Watchtower articles, which thereby become 'public policy.'

I suspect that the new frontiers for "defending the good news" are going to change soon, and that many of the friends are not yet up to speed, preferring to exchange tips on how to disprove the Trinity. It is why I accumulate writing in selected topics.

17 hours ago, Jack Ryan said:

Sharon Tyson’s experience is perhaps an extreme example of religion-based shunning, but Gayle Jordan, executive director of the Kansas City, Missouri-based nonprofit Recovering From Religion, said stories are plentiful from individuals who see their social circles devastated after a split with a faith community.

 

As I recall, articles have been published to encourage friends to use human kindness and common sense in applying counsel on how to deal with DFed ones.

Close the book, throw it on the shelf. There I spent most of my childhood 

No wonder I have so many insecurities. My own father used me as a bookmark!

Now that’s what I call child abuse!   #PoorMe 

6 minutes ago, The Librarian said:

@TrueTomHarley Aren't you taking the spamming to the extreme lately?   Once in A WHILE is ok... but it seems I see you doing it every week on here lately. 

I do note that @Jack Ryan has been known to post ten provocative items in a day.

17 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I read the letter ... neither does it disprove any statement.

It also says nothing about the composition of the moon. Yes James, I think you’ve found the smoking gun

2 hours ago, Matthew9969 said:

They can see the names of the devices connected to the WiFi, but there is a specific process and your permission in order to see your browsing history. Its a lot harder to do with tablets.

I have figured out how to do it and I’ve taught them all.

All Bible translations say that Christians are a spectacle to the world. But the New World Translation better captures the flavor of the Greek word and renders the term ‘theatrical spectacle.’ Is it because its translators are better acquainted with the concept of acting on a stage? They have acted in millions of plays on every front porch. Sometimes they have received rave reviews. Sometimes they have received horrid reviews. Sometimes they have been run out of town.

In the spiritual paradise, actors exchange field service experiences. They talk about new approaches. They kibbutz on how to better expose the Trinity doctrine. If they go online, they send paradise pictures to each other. It is all fine to do this. It is as it should be. It is a paradise, after all, and in a paradise, you do not take out the trash. You know that housekeeping will do that.

Occasionally, however, some guest notices that the trash is piling up. “I’d better attend to that,” he says, and having done so, resumes his place at the play, just like you would pick up a paper on the Kingdom Hall floor. Or even turds at the dog park, because you appreciate a clean dog park. http://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2018/07/picking-up-women-at-the-dog-park.html

It is not to be expected that the coordinators of the play will personally take out the trash. This is again as it should be. They will continue to provide the food and drink and focus on efforts to invite more to the play. Since the paradise is proving popular, they work to extend it into other areas, even taking into account the fact that people ‘talk funny’ over there. Some of them do not even notice the trash, and the ones that do reassure themselves with the knowledge that housekeeping will take care of it.

They know that no one who is plowing and screws up the furrows by looking behind is well-suited for the Kingdom of God. They know that when the children are criticizing you no matter what you do, the answer is to let ‘wisdom prove itself righteous by its works.’ They think of David, who noted (or did he?) that people kept muttering about him all day long and chose to respond by keeping his mouth shut. All this is as it should be.

Will they thank the one who is attending to the overflowing trash? Most likely not. Who is to say that he should be thanked? Taking out trash can backfire sometimes. Maybe he will spill some. The coordinators keep themselves so busy that they may not even notice him doing it. If they do, possibly they will not be happy about it. “Doesn’t he know that housekeeping is coming?” they may say. Or they may note he didn’t do it right this or that time. ‘Don’t you have faith to see the big picture?’ they may ask. ‘Here: consider another way you could reason with someone about hellfire,’ the other stage actors might add.

1 hour ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

The reason these guys are not being shut down, is that there are 1500 FBI agents down at the edge of the "Sea of Trump", very very busy fishing for dirt.

 

On Twitter, I follow a certain journalist who wrote about us. It was a very favorable article, so I do not pick fights with her on other matters. Still, I'm sure you will find a recent tweet from her interesting. 

She laments that during her college days she had such high hopes for - she listed a few - certain socialist leaders primarily in South or Central America. Then she complains that all of them had let her down.

Will that overly affect her writing? I doubt it will. She has been conditioned to think in a certain way. It is part of the perils of being so young and having such limited experience. She looks like she could be my granddaughter. (of course, almost everyone does)

Though it is neither here nor there, I have become amazed that i can predict with almost total accuracy, from just knowing two or three circumstances, whether a person will root for Trump or Obama. This is a very predictably divided world we live in.

35 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I actually went to an FBI field office here in Charlotte with a complaint, and interviewed with an agent, explained a case of Internet fraud, and was told if it wasn't $5,000 they were not even interested.

This particular scam probably hauls in millions, though not (I hope) from any one person.

I think the utility you mean is called system restore. I have used it too.

If you do a hard reboot, as I think you must, you will lose any unsaved data. And if you are not savvy enough to know what’s going on, as no one is at first, you will panic when the screen returns even after reboot, not realizing that it comes via a browser session that may be restored.

I doubt chasing Trump has anything to do with it. This scam has been around longer than he has.

1 hour ago, admin said:

@Microsoft has been improving in the last couple of years. I’m suprised they even responded albeit automatically though.  

I will forward off your complaint to someone I know over there.  

 

I am assuming that the @officesupport Twitter account is fraudlent, and that they just monitor social media for any mention of Microsoft.

6 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

For the record (perhaps even one of Guiness' records) I personally caught about 300 snakes from the time I was about 8 to the time I was about 12. When I was 8 I even brought one to the Kingdom Hall, sort of. I actually had to bring it only to the parking lot to show one of my friends, and then I let it go. (The Hall was on city property, but there was an old abandoned sawmill behind it, and no houses for a couple miles in that direction.) I still got in a lot of trouble.

I was only bitten a very few times unexpectedly, once by a fox snake and once or twice by a northern water snake. In catching snakes I expected to be bitten so that doesn't count. Never even tried to catch a venomous one, although water moccasins and copperheads were fairly common. I never saw a rattlesnake except from a good distance. My goal was to catch and release about one of every major species from my "Golden Nature Book" checklist. A really big snake is grabbed with a special stick, but most snakes could be grabbed by hand just behind the head/neck. Such great memories!

I visited my sister a couple months ago out at my parents' house in California and we found a 9 to 10 foot gopher snake on the property. He was just out getting a tan so we even got a nice picture of him. My sister remembered that I once (in Missouri) brought home a medium sized green snake (called a "rough green") that I caught and wanted to bring up to the roof of our house where I had a little terrarium for small snakes. She remembers our mother calling out "Don't you bring that snake to the roof!!" while we were still quite a ways from the house. There was no way that our mother could hear us or see us, or know that we had a snake. For years, my sister thought that mothers were psychic.

You must have cried when they told you that those Mark verses are phony.

24 minutes ago, Gone Away said:

Valid point. They might also find the following hard to defend:

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Hey, did anyone here borrow my book "Great Meanie Snakes of the World"? I am missing it, and you never know when the topic may come up.