TrueTomHarley

5 hours ago, Arauna said:

People latched onto the words of Jesus and condemned him

Jesus sometimes spoke in hyperbole and so does Lett. You could almost say that the man himself is an hyperbole.

5 hours ago, BroRando said:

If people knew that Brother Lett's Parents were deaf, they could see why he speaks the way he does. 

A brother in our congregation who works with the deaf, who himself has deaf ones in his family, casts doubt on this. Rather, he says it is from long habit of battling Bell’s palsy, which paralyzes the face and which you overcome by deliberate working of face muscles. In response to my questioning, he said he had it “on good authority,” so I rate it probably 90% as being true.

9 hours ago, Pudgy said:

How is this different from beer? 
I mean… you buy a case of beer, it’s yours, but when you drink it, it becomes a rental!

It’s the same as when you want to buy a house only to find all houses have been taken off the market. They are only available for rent, big business having figured out they can make far more money over the long haul than had they just sold it to you. 

On 7/15/2022 at 5:34 PM, Mic Drop said:

BMW is selling heated car seats on a subscription basis.

Everyone wants subscription these days. Recurring income, and they don’t have to do a thing for it. Lawsuits over tractor-makers for not allowing farmers to fix their own tractors,

On 7/11/2022 at 10:03 AM, TrueTomHarley said:

I’ve spiffed it up, renamed you [Arauna], and have put some of it on my own blog, as the first of a multi-part series. The succeeding parts I’ll put here first, however.

I know my word is my bond, just like James Bond says before hurls a villain into a piranha pit*, but I didn’t. I put it on my own blog first as ‘Part 2.’ It’s mostly just a rehash of points made first here anyway.

Update Pete Carroll’s pic one comment above to show piranhas at the bottom of the abyss and Bond doing the hurling, and you’re golden.

11 hours ago, Witness said:

None of the JWs here have even dared comment on what GB Stephen Lett said during your convention. 

Lett: - "You hear people say of a little baby, ‘look at that little angel’, but more accurate would be to say, ‘look at that little enemy of God’”.

“Then Truetom, also called TTH, becoming fed up, looked at her intently  and said: “O woman full of every sort of fraud and every sort of villainy, you daughter of the Devil, you enemy of everything righteous, will you not quit distorting the right ways of Jehovah?  (Acts 13:9-10)

What he said was: 

“Now, if we think about it, we're not born as friends of God because we're born as sinful offspring of Adam. Actually, when we think about it, we're born as enemies of God. Sometimes you'll hear people say of a little baby, ‘Look at that little angel,’ but more accurate would be to say, ‘Look at that little enemy of God.’ Now, of course we love that little baby and it's now not hopeless because our loving creator has made reconciliation with him within the reach of everyone. We can become a good friend of God and that close relationship with Jehovah will become our most valuable possession.”

Notice how he twice said, ‘when [if] we think about it?’ You have to do that: think about things and not just parrot sound bites to make people you hate look bad. Oh, you spiteful woman, who quotes scripture by the bushel basket but never lays hold on the one that applies, besides the reference to Adam in Genesis, the place to focus is here:

“…through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned—.” Romans 5:12

“when we were enemies we became reconciled to God through the death of his Son,” by exercising faith in him, which a baby cannot yet do, and thus is temporarily ‘grandfathered’ via the faith of it’s parents. (vs 10)

Now, as for Bro Lett, for a guy who will quote Job 12:11, “Does not the ear test out words As the tongue tastes food?” you’d almost think he’d test them out a little more before letting loose with a phrase that every evil cherry picker will use against him to “distort the right ways of Jehovah.”

Still, I hate to think what you would have done to Jesus, after his, ‘Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I will resurrect him on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.’ John 6:54-55

11 hours ago, Witness said:

Please tell me if the GB is truly adhering to and following Christ as a model:

Taking into consideration that passage in John, I would say Lett is supremely adhering to and following Christ as a model, more so than any of the other GB members.

Imagine: what sort of vile person would comb through a convention in which every talk explores the verse ‘seek peace and pursue it’ to find and exploit a faux pas?

Now—THERE’S an image:

“The waves of death broke all around me; Flash floods of worthless men terrified me.” (2 Samuel 22:5)

Flash floods of worthless men.

Not all translations so personalize it but enough do to make it clear that the former are being overly prissy, the latter adding a necessary specification that the former avoid.

“A deadly flood was carrying me away,” says English Revised Version. Oh yeah? A deadly flood of WHAT?

“the floods of ungodly men made me afraid,” says King James Version

Thank you.

“while torrents of abuse from the ungodly overwhelmed me” International Standard Version

Yes.

“devil waters rushed over me. Hell’s ropes cinched me tight; death traps barred every exit.” Message 

Oh for crying out loud. Deviate too much into paraphrase and you bring on charges of ‘What have THEY been smoking?’ 

“the floods of scoundrels overwhelm me” Orthodox Jewish Version

Yeah! That’s what I’M talking about!

It’s too much bother to check what renderings come from which manuscripts, though I suppose it would be a good thing if someone did so.

45 minutes ago, xero said:

https://babylonbee.com/news/password-bot-admits-it-sometimes-says-incorrect-password-on-your-first-try-just-for-fun

 

And to build character. Any club that would quickly admit me isn’t worth being admitted to—according to a certain grouchoism.

My wife stumbles from the bedroom one morning, into the kitchen, and the cat is right there to meet her.

"He didn't feed me," it cries. "I've been so hungry for so long, and he doesn't care! He wants me to st-starve! He doesn't care if I d-d-die!"

What a liar! I fed that cat thirty minutes ago! Delicious chicken feast. So delicious that my wife will probably be furious because she planned to use it for our dinner this evening.

I throw the cat outside where the plants are. But I forget the Bible principle, ‘Bad associations spoil useful habits.’

When I walk outside later, those flowers lite right into me, complaining about God.

"He hasn't watered me! I've been so thirsty for so long! He doesn't c-care if I d-die!"

What a bunch of liars! We had a downpour two hours ago!

3 hours ago, xero said:

Man, I wish all this whining about the organization would quit.

Don’t want no ‘1984’ references either. George Orwell wrote 1984 at a time when totalitarianism was sweeping the globe, Nazism, Stalinism, crushing even the sturdy and powerful good guys like Winston Smith. (Churchill—how many ‘Winstons’ do you know?)

These governments would not just lean on people with a certain amount of peer pressure. They would literally take command of ever part of your life, literally assign you a role that you’d better not reject, literally punish you for neglecting propaganda channels, literally torture you for deviation, and then literally kill you after rehabilitation as a lesson to others.

If George Orwell could see how is work has been trivialized today to settle religious scores he would say, ‘Thank God I’m dead.’

1 hour ago, Pudgy said:

The Police can’t seem to find him….

I remember a newspaper article many years ago to the effect that police could nab the petty thieves fairly easily. The style was to wear their pants below their rear ends and they’d instantly trip themselves making their getaway.

2 hours ago, JW Insider said:

I moved those posts

Like this?

4 hours ago, Pudgy said:

and it is GHREAT fun to use the word “morsel” in a sentence ….

‘I got me enough shoe horns, he said. I don’t want no mor. Sel me something else.”

1 hour ago, Chioke Lin said:

Just answer this question, why do others that are new get that same respect from you older posters?

Privilege of seniority. (It’s possible I’m digging a hole for myself before @The Librarian(that old hen) who would be within her rights to accuse me of gaslighting.)

54 minutes ago, Mankeptforunnaturalporpoises said:

Isn’t that the point most posters made back when this was the George Benson thread. Someone was more interested in expressing disapproval of a brothers actions. 

Greetings friend.

You will now be submitted to a series of intense and nosy questions to ensure that you are not an incarnation of a certain bad penny that has bounced from oblivion so many times, always with a different handle, that you’d think he was made of rubber. I’ve not known him to use two aliases at once, but there is a first for all things.

Not to worry. Nothing will happen. An inside joke which you may not get. Glad to have you around. Keep up your blameless conduct and you’re fine. As Randy Newman famously said: “Don’t want to back-biting, no ass-grabbing—you know exactly what I mean.”

Not to worry. In

51 minutes ago, Chioke Lin said:

I think, only a few here can post, and you find people disagreeable to you removed. How is that fair?

No fair at all, but neither is life. Down they go. It’s possible to establish such a cantankerous reputation, even resurrecting oneself from preview banishments to do so, to earn frequent flyer miles on the ‘In&Out’ Airline. Behave, tone down rancor, compare yourself with yourself only, not with other people (isn’t there a verse on that somewhere?) and you will yet live long and prosper.

3 hours ago, Arauna said:

But I have learnt one lesson here. If you do not agree,  people can be very vicious and turn around and take the moral high ground..... and blame you for it! 

I even went down in flames when someone mistakenly thought your opinion was mine!

Not to worry. You’re good in my book. I see all and know all and may just one fine day bounce someone for misbehavior.

16 minutes ago, The Librarian said:

Interesting conundrum here.

Yes

1 hour ago, Arauna said:

He is receiving his reward in this world. Millions of fans and some of them JWs.... 

31 minutes ago, Chioke Lin said:

Now you're just being rude, dear. I believe the one setting a bad example, now, and here is you. But, I won't be drawn into an argument since it appears that's what you're best at, especially when you're wrong with so many things.

Isn’t there a pursue peace convention going on somewhere?

13 minutes ago, Chioke Lin said:

As that sister told Tom, Satan is loving this kind of division

Bogeying with glee he is, right here on the World News Media Forum.

21 minutes ago, Arauna said:

He is setting a bad example and I stand by my point!

For whatever it’s worth, the organization I highly regard would view some here, myself included (if not foremost), as setting a bad example for past exchanges with apostates.

1 hour ago, Mankeptforunnaturalporpoises said:

And yet he’s 79 and still here. So proof of the opposite. 

We have a thing for celebrity.

The speaker last night said he unexpectedly met Nancy Yuen and was tongue-tied as though with one of them! He had been determined to spiff up his Chinese by greeting any Chinese person he saw. She was surrounded by “an entourage” at Bethel, “but I’m oblivious to those things.” The woman once imprisoned years in China was humble, gracious, and almost crushed his hand with her firm handshake.

2 hours ago, Arauna said:

We all know that it is only the British who speak real English - Americans speak American.... lol

“Well, in America, they haven't used it for years.”

Your other mistake is taking English lessons from a dog.

His English isn’t too bad, really. It’s just that you never know when he is throwing you a bone.

1 hour ago, Chioke Lin said:

Okay, thanks. I was thinking there was something new to, English wording.

Your mistake is thinking that English-speaking people know how to speak English.  

50 minutes ago, Pudgy said:

Have you considered how and for what purposes a Lion’s Teeth were specifically designed?

Why do you think they call them strawman?

1 hour ago, Chioke Lin said:

is the word "then" supposed to be then or than

It is supposed to be ‘than.’ Good catch.

1 hour ago, Chioke Lin said:

Prince needed to take subscribed pain medication, but having to go outside the medical profession to seek additional pain medication that actually caused his death.

The company that made the drug that hooked Prince has been fined and criminalized to the point of filing for bankruptcy—chapter 11 bankruptcy, which potentially allows it a fresh start. The family behind it remain billionaires. Few victims feel the punishment adequate. Some people think they’re up to their old tricks again, not Purdue specifically, but bigger players, with the Covid-19 ‘cures.’

I laid out the story insofar as it relates to Prince in the first chapter of the Tom Irregardless book, not naming the company but describing their M.O. that led to Prince’s downfall. They aggressively pushed the drug for superior pain relief, ignoring clear evidence it was fantastically addictive. It also turned out to wear off in just a few hours, not 24 as advertised. This led practicioners to either increase the dose, increasing the addiction, or refuse to increase, leading pain-stricken patients like Prince to resort to the black market, where inevitably they’d come across something contaminated or potency mislabeled. I have it down in Tom Irregardless. 

I didn’t name the company because I didn’t want trouble from Pharma. Call it testimony to my paranoia or my healthy respect for the damage they can unpredictably do when poked. Either way, it wasn’t the purpose of my book. I’m not a whistleblower. I was just writing about the spiritual life of Prince.

I see they’ve made the story (probably without the Prince connection) into a movie:

https://thecinemaholic.com/what-happened-to-purdue-pharma/

1 hour ago, Chioke Lin said:

I do agree with that sister, any negativity is a joy for Satan, no matter where it's coming from.

I feel the same way. Thing is, she agrees with me on Benson, but she didn’t read far enough to find out. You can’t really go online, where none of us are recommended to be, find a bro with whom you disagree with, and give a tongue lashing as though a ‘heavy’ in the congregation. That’s what makes the truth look ridiculous before unbelievers, and that’s what makes Satan jump for joy, if anything does. The internet is not the congregation and cannot be make to behave as though it were.

My books can’t cause division in the congregation because they are not it the congregation. Few there have any idea I have written books unless they know it through hearsay. I never speak of them there. 

She did unfriend me. It’s okay. It’s all good. I have even recommend some bros to unfriend me. I go where we don’t typically go. I use humor, and sometimes the butt of that humor is us. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It doesn’t mean we’re not real friends. In the Kingdom Hall we’d get along fine. I’d see to it, and probably her. But there’s only so much you can do online.

(Repeated the same comment accidentally. I wish the software would allow you to delete, as it once did.)

Probably the old hen wants a paper trail in case Billy the Kid or someone starts going off the rails again.

1 hour ago, Witness said:

So the man makes a lot of money, which he most likely donates buckets full to the organization

You dim and bitter bulb that sucks away light, if money was the object, the org would not continually advise young ones to tone it down, stay low-key, put Jehovah first over riches, and so forth! I mean, it’s the whole theme of this thread, which you ignore just to hurl an insult-bomb when you sense an opening..

On another day, you’ll be lambasting them for encouraging young people to be window cleaners whereas they should be chasing career and making money!