TrueTomHarley

Okay, okay, it's laughs for some of you guys and I can laugh as well as anyone. But there is a serious side.

My study with Santa Claus is so 'yesterday's news' if this doesn't resolve in a certain way.

According to today’s (2/12/2017) Watchtower study, "trying different types of wine, decorating the home, finding new clothing styles, making investments, planning vacation trips, and the like" are works of the flesh. They are not wrong in themselves. Some are even necessary to a degree, but "setting the mind on the flesh means death." (Romans 8:6)

They are like kids in the car – fine to have along as passengers. They belong. You have to turn around and yell at them once in a while, but that’s unavoidable – an accepted cost of having them along. They are just fine as passengers.

But you don’t put them in the driver’s seat, for they will run you into a tree or off a precipice every time.

***************

Tom Irregardless and Me   No Fake News But Plenty of Hogwash 

Thank you for this. I posted the following on FB two days ago: 

The E-book 'No Fake News But Plenty of Hogwash' is up but I recommend no one download it just yet. Anyone who already did has the Collectors Edition with Bloopers. Having purchased it once, or redeeming a free coupon, they are able to download fresh copies indefinitely.

Invariably there is more involved in editing than I foresee. This was true of Tom Irregardless and Me. I thought the present book would be a cake-walk, for I had side-stepped the traps that I plowed into headlong with the first book. But there was still a lot. I rushed it some, trying to meet self-imposed release dates of Groundhog Day and later Super Bowl Sunday (we must not keep Lady Gaga waiting) 

I'm not adding anything to No Fake News. But much of the writing is too clumsy. There are few paragraphs I don't tweek, and in a few cases, overhaul.

The revised book - I will announce it when ready - will also have pictures. It will be in the same vein as Tom Irregardless and Me - just as zany, just as biting to non-Theocratic targets, but more personal. If ever there is to be an auto-biography, this is it.

Sorry. I didn't think anyone knew of the book other than on FB. My bad. Download again in a week or so and it should be smooth.

Tom

Futzing along at a meeting, paying rapt attention as always, a tab descends from the top of my iPad and withdraws. 'Georgie likes your photo.'  Amused, I slowly turn around. The lad is sitting three rows behind me in the center section.

It's not so different from the old days, when John Dean would peruse Mad Magazine, disguised as a Watchtower magazine.

Photo: Per Olof ForsbergTom Irregardless and Me   No Fake News But Plenty of Hogwash

In the midst of Sunday’s study article on how we might batten down the hatches yet further on wrong conduct, was this frank statement:  ‘We will not be able to do that perfectly.’

No. We will not. Too many beat themselves up trying to do things perfectly. They ought not. Dust yourself off and jump back in the fray anew.

Also from that same study article, considered February 5:

‘For instance, a man tells his boss or fellow workers that he cannot be at work the next day or that he must leave early because he has a “medical” appointment. In fact, his “medical” appointment is merely a brief stop at a pharmacy or a quick visit to the doctor’s office to pay a bill. His real reason for not being at work is so that he can get a head start on a trip or so that he can take his family to the beach. There may have been a grain of truth in his mentioning a “medical” appointment, but would you say that he was being honest? Or was he being deceptive?’

The friends were intrigued over this point and many discussed it at the special Bible study meetings held at individual homes that  night.  Some were distracted, however,  by a football game playing in the background.

Photo: Vic

Tom Irregardless and Me  ***   No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash

35! 17! 82! Hut! Hut!

Groundhog takes the snap and fades back. Looking for a receiver open. Center is covered. Tight end is a no-go. Groundhog getting good coverage so far. He looks downfield. He's trying to find a receiver for his new E-book 'No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash.'

About to throw - no. That wide center is covered. He looks some more. WHOA! What a hit! There's E-books and rat fur everywhere! Charlie, it's not very often you see a hit like that!

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!!

If the rat can see his shadow when he emerges from his lair, (he's having coffee, now, and he sometimes enjoys 60+ cups) he releases his promised e-book 'No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash.' If he doesn't see it, he tries to pawn off his old book, which everybody is getting pretty sick of by now, 'Tom Irregardless and Me. bit.ly/2hjSMHE

It's too soon to tell. The day is cloudy, not a fair test.

I know it is probably my bad, but I don't care about these things. What's the present understanding? I'll spin it that way out of loyalty. Should the understanding change someday, I'll spin it the new way. It doesn't affect my basic relationship with Jehovah or his Son.

I don't recommend that attitude, or hold it out as some example. But I just can't get too worked up over such things. They are 'cool' but not essential.

On Groundhog Days Eve around the world, the Great Hog appears to little children everywhere, bringing them much joy and leaving chocolate cookies. Or are they turds? I just sweep them up without looking.  Sometimes he picks up tics and lice beforehand, and he is responsible for major outbreaks among children.

He visits while dogs are asleep, just like he visits tiny children while they are asleep, though not for the same reason. Even so, he must be very careful. Last year, my German Shepherd was up for a midnight snack when he came and tore the little thing to shreds.

This year he has a new gig. Somehow Tom Harley has talked him into promoting his new book 'Tom Irregardless and Me' He's getting desperate. I mean, the book's really not very good. One person even said it's 'a bit preachy!!!'' But Smashwords.com has a few great reviews of it, so it must be just different tastes. He is an academic, used to academic ways, and the book makes no pretense of being written that way. But it has garnered several fine reviews at Smashwords.com and they're not boiler-plate crap, either. They're obviously written by people who think.

"Most of the field service presentations she learned growing up will not work in their new territory, Brittany told me. They are considered rude. You can’t just launch into what you’ve come to talk about. First you must inquire about their family, and tell about yours. You have to tell about your children, for family is very important. When she tells them she doesn’t have children, they are concerned. Of course, part of hospitality is to find out why. They smile. ‘You married late in life;’ that is the reason. When they find that it is not, they realize you are on your second marriage. When that conclusion, too, proves false, they are very saddened: you lost your children in some tragic accident. Then they grow very still when you tell them you did not. They have finally discerned the true reason, but it is almost too delicate to bring up, though they do anyway - something is wrong with your equipment. Brittany’s student has drawn her a chart to help her understand how many children she should have at her age."

From chapter 18 of Tom Irregardless and Me. 30% Free Preview

My daughter and son-in-law were in Thailand recently, having first visited Myanmar. #KarenGroup

Ted Putsch remarked that we really ought to be going. He’d been saying this off and on, but I didn’t want to leave Mr. Strawman in the lurch. I overlooked Ted’s impatience because I knew he was concerned about the car group waiting in the driveway. After all, as teacher, I had taught him to be considerate. As he was making to leave, Bernard Strawman asked: “Tell me, because I really want to understand. Why do you want to think that everything is getting worse? What does that view do for you?”

“It helps me to explain why the doomsday clock says five minutes to midnight and not ten-thirty AM!” he said. “I’ll be in the car, Tom,” and he left! Ted Putsch can be so rude. I’ll have to help him overcome that. I hope he didn’t stumble Mr. Strawman.

.......................From 'Tom Irregardless and Me'  30% free download

I used to hear Boric Acid a lot. They drag their rear ends through it and take it back to the nest, where it's sayanora.

I never could get my head around our previous take on the Babylonian exile. Or care. I mean, a one-year period representing such an event?

But the new package revealed Sunday makes so much more sense.

'That new point the Governing Body wrote about?' said Mike Tussen's years ago. 'You may have already noticed that point in your studying. And if this were Christendom, you'd run out and start your own religion over it.'

The uppity people take no interest in that new religion of Jesus because it is carpenters, fishermen and shoemakers. But then they figure out how to monetize it. All the highbrow people jump in, bringing all the highbrow ideas they love so, ideas from Aristotle and Plato.

photo: Carla216

Tom Irregardless and Me    30% free preview. After that, we'll talk, your people and mine.

Russia's a nation of laws, just like here, and there's no legal barrier now for those who hate us to shut down the Branch. The brothers lost a critical legal appeal at Moscow City Court.

Putin may not even know about it. He's had a lot on his plate lately.

Places like Russia favor the 'house' church. They don't necessarily believe it, they likely don't, but they favor it because it's a force for national unity. 'What can we do for you?' they ask. 'Take out the competition,' is the reply from the Church.

How could any brother in Russia not think it a remarkable coincidence? The enemies of Jehovah's Witnesses are fully empowered to close Bethel. And at Witness meetings worldwide this week was played the movie about how the Assyrian army was poised to destroy Jerusalem, and in one night a single angel destroyed them all. Yet the movie was made two years ago, and the Bible reading schedule that determines when to play it is many years old!

 Hezekiah, the Israelite King, wasn't overconfident. He didn't assume God was going to bail him out - for maybe he wouldn't. He just knew that he was to trust fully in God and remain faithful. But I hate to see the brothers go through more harassment, if not total shut-down. They've been through so much already.

'Hey, remember that angel we dispatched to Jerusalem? I'm impressed with his portfolio. Check on his availability, won't you?' Is there that sort of discussion somewhere?

Will it work that way? Or will world opinion prevail upon leaders there to carry on as every other nation does, Russia being the only nation on earth to ban JW.org. It's laughable. The house church makes them look like utter fools before the world. (not to mention it kills us) Nobody can watch JW.org and think it is, even to the tiniest degree, extremist.

Our brothers bear up under persecution when they must, and it often brings honest-hearted (and courageous) people into the fold. People say 'why are they making trouble for the Jehovah's? They're nice people.'

............

Tom Irregardless and Me.

It's enough to make a guy want to learn how to read.

Each year on Ground Hog's day eve, the Great Hog kicks down your front door and pays a visit. Of course, you must have the little children in bed by then, as the vermin has been known to gnaw on children left unattended. Nonetheless, all rejoice at this wonderful event.

The Great Hog, if you are good, will leave chocolates on the floor. Or are they turds? I just sweep them up without checking.

Proving he is indeed magical and mystical, my security system has never detected him. If it had, I would meet him at the door with a shotgun. But he evades me every year.

Photo: Archer10

Look for the Groundhog's Day release of my 2nd e-book 'No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash' at Smashwords.com.

'Tom Irregardless and Me' available at Smashwords.com  Search: Tom Harley. 30% preview is free. Then we'll talk, your people and mine. Should someone want a free coupon b/c budget's tight, email me at truetomharley@gmail.com

This post replaced by a better one.

I mean in the sense of a united Kingdom message & ministry, obviously.

Oh, for crying out loud!

Who would quibble over stuff like this?

Go to the other organization that covers the globe with a united Christian message, that keeps its members no part of a decaying world, that builds a website of 850 languages to facilitate preaching, that hosts conventions for the entire membership annually, that gets persecuted without valid cause.

Go to them and tell me who they are. I'll join you.

Go find a church where they let all the above examples of Christian worship go right to seed while they quibble about words.

If it wasn't spirit directed, it would have fallen apart long ago.

Embrace 80 years and die, if anyone thinks that's so wonderful. On your grave marker quote Frank Sinatra: 'I Did it My Way.'

Putin responded in the Wall Street journal to the sordid charges brought against Trump. “It is hard for me to imagine that he went off to meet with our ladies of diminished social responsibility” Mr. Putin said. Sounds like a bunch of churches, doesn’t it: ‘Our Ladies of Diminished Social Responsibility.’ Not too far afield from Garrison Keillor’s Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility in Lake Wobegone.

Russian prostitutes, Mr. Putin said “are undoubtedly the best in the world, but I doubt that Trump jumped at this bait,” since he has had regular opportunities to meet with gorgeous woman at the beauty pageants he organizes.

Well, oh yeah?! Oh yeah?! OH YEAH?! Your prostitutes are better?

Even me, who is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, politically neutral and thus divorced from nationalism – even me, who was for neither Trump nor Clinton – even me, who doesn’t even root for the home Olympic team – even me has to say ‘enough!’ ‘Our’ prostitutes will clean the clocks of your prostitutes any day!

Say that your tanks are better – okay. Say that your bombs are better – okay. But say that your prostitutes are better? Those are fighting words!!

This is not the Beatles ‘Back in the U.S.S.R. we’re talking about:

'Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out,
They leave the West behind.
And Moscow girls make me sing and shout.
And Georgia’s always on mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind!’

As interim chairman of the American Philanderers Association – a post for which I am singularly unqualified, but you know how some people just can’t say no – I throw down the gauntlet and mount a challenge: AN ORGY!! Our prostitutes against yours! We’ll see who the better ladies of diminished social responsibility are! We wrote the book on diminishing social responsibility!
…………………………………….

The new ebook ‘Tom Irregardless and Me’ recognizes when Mr. Putin has been astute, like in 2008 financial crisis:

“The failure of human rule could not have been shown in more stark relief as in that article, with consequences so directly traceable to the human wisdom running the show. Russian President Vladimir Putin was both blunt and harsh:

"Everything happening now in the economic and financial sphere began in the United States. This is not the irresponsibility of specific individuals but the irresponsibility of the system that claims leadership."

In 2016 America, all that remained was to Photoshop Putin with horns, gleefully pecking at his keyboard, doing his level best to hack the American election, but it was he who nailed it about unrestrained greed. The 2011 film ‘Inside Job’ expressed dismay that no “specific individuals” were brought to justice:

Charles Ferguson (film director): “Why do you think there isn’t a more systematic investigation being undertaken?”

Nouriel Roubini (professor, NYU Business School): “Because then you will find the culprits.”

Culprits and regulators alike belonged to the same social set and were members of the same country clubs; they had no desire to turn on one another.”
‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
Download ‘Tom Irregardless and Me’ 30% free preview. Afterwards we can talk, your people and mine. bit.ly/2hjSMHE

I probably do without knowing it. Just how does one celebrate Father's Day anyway?

Remember: There are only 12 shopping days left till #GroundHogDay! Don't face last minute rush and have to learn the hard way.

Tom Harley loves this day.