TrueTomHarley

I came across the GIF recently in yet another context and I delight in how many areas it applies. Give me a break. When a man discovers GIFs it is “like a mighty man emerging from the bridal chamber.” (Ps 19:5)

A few years ago it was hashtags. “They’re call hashtags, Dad, not crosstags,” my daughter told me.

5 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Perhaps that is why all three of my children turned out so well ....they had my example of what they did not want to turn out like.

Tell those younguns to stop by my home for a visit. The stories they must have to tell.....

There are plenty of guys who, if they could say of their three children what you have said of yours, would have long-ago buried the hatchet and forgiven any wrongs.

You are a strange bird.

If it helps, tell them that, with considerable effort, I have come to see redeemable things in you—it has taken me years—and that one of the best tonics to counter your rants is to think of you as an ol pork chop. Tell them I no longer feel obliged to blast away at you with a double-barreled shot gun, and have found that a single barrel generally suffices.

2 hours ago, JW Insider said:

But I get contacted now and then about whether someone can quote or use what I've said here on someone's website, with or without attribution. My answer is always, go ahead! ....Perhaps others here get similar requests.

$2.00 per word to quote me. Book sales have hit a lull.

When I am captain of the dodge ball team, choosing up players, my first choice will be Joseph. Just look at his stats:

“From the time [Potiphar] appointed him over his house and in charge of all that was his, Jehovah kept blessing the house of the Egyptian because of Joseph, and Jehovah’s blessing came to be on all that he had in the house and in the field. He eventually left everything that was his in Joseph’s care, and he gave no thought to anything except the food he was eating.” (Genesis 39:5-6)

“So the chief officer of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners in the prison, and everything that they were doing there, he was the one having it done. The chief officer of the prison was looking after absolutely nothing that was in Joseph’s care, for Jehovah was with Joseph and Jehovah made whatever he did successful.” (Genesis 39:22-23) 

“Pharaoh further said to Joseph: “I am Pharaoh, but without your authorization, no man may do a single thing in all the land of Egypt.” ...The people began to cry to Pharaoh for bread. Then Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians: “Go to Joseph, and do whatever he tells you.” ...People of all the earth came to Egypt to buy from Joseph, because the famine had a strong grip on all the earth.” (Genesis 41:44, 55-57)

The bolded words say it all. He was a really good player. Were he on my team, he would soon be doing it all. We wouldn’t have to suffer being smashed with a ball and tagged out—that hurts!—we would voluntarily tag ourselves out and sit on the sidelines drinking Gatorade while he singlehandedly won the game.

He had dreams, too. Cool dreams. Not the type of dreams that I have, like how I  am sitting in the stands and suddenly remember that I have the next talk, only I have forgotten to wear my pants this day, and—come to think of it—the talk itself had slipped my mind so I haven’t prepared, but I might possibly be able to ad lib my way through—still, it would have been better had I remembered my pants...

No. Joseph’s dreams were about the rise and fall of peoples. At first, they got him into trouble, but later in life they got him out of trouble and landed him in some hotshot jobs, like being savior of the earth. (41:57)

He wasn’t full of himself, though. After interpreting Pharoah’s dream about how seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of want, he says: “So now let Pharaoh look for a man who is discreet and wise and place him over the land of Egypt.” He doesn’t add—after he had just interpreted the dream that no one else could!—“Ahem...and I’m your man.” But it goes that way anyhow because he just interpreted the dream that no one else could. Isn’t there some verse somewhere about how it is better for other people to praise you than it is to jump the gun and do it yourself? 

“Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; Others, and not your own lips.” (Proverbs 27:2)

I like too how he always showed interest in others. Here he is in a prison hole greeting his mates with: “Why are your faces gloomy today?” (40:7) Turns out that they were gloomy because they’d each had a dream that they couldn’t figure out, and so Joseph did it for them. It ended up springing him from the hoosegow—so it couldn’t have been too much a waste of time for him to show fellow-feeling. 

Genesis 41:46 is relevant, too: “Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt” [to be granted his new role as administrator]. 30—same as was David when he began to rule and Jesus when he began his ministry.

Now, as it turns out, I was married on my thirtieth birthday. When elders sneak up the way they do trying to make it hot for me with my birthday cake, I always turn the table on them and send them away frustrated by pointing out that it is an anniversary cake. However, this fact of a significant phase of my life starting at 30 like with other worthies—it indicates that I am a hotshot. I am someone to be listened to and it distresses me that nobody is.

I throw in this personal revelation on account of a recent comment from Kos, upset that the GB should be “discouraging the ‘other sheep’ to ask the anointed about anything that conserns their anointing or if they could have any ‘new light.’”

To me, this says it all, not only for him, but for others in his spot. The longing to instruct and to be recognized as an instructor is palpable. And when they are NOT so recognized—since all you would have to do to be so recognized is to partake of the emblems, and there is no way to separate the crazies from the real anointed, and so I can’t imagine any real anointed making a fuss over it, since it is mostly a token of a future assignment—whoa! you should hear them carry on!

Well, me too! I want to be listened to, but nobody is. With all the blogging I have done for 15 years, I ought to be an in-house theologian by now. Not just me, but also @JW Insider. He should be in-house theologian for all his posts—and even (God help us) @James Thomas Rook Jr.. None of us are recognized. We all want to be. The organization isn’t enthralled with bloggers and maybe this post serves to remind why. Sure, I’m loyal now—but what if I park on the lawn and the elders tell me not to and I point out that I live in America so I can do anything I want and I decide to settle the score with them on my own blog—well, what then? If a brother goes bad at Bethel, they simply yank him and throw in another, but what will they do when I go bad? No wonder blogging doesn’t do it for them.

Now—whereas Kos and his contemporaries complain non-stop that their enlightenment is not recognized, do I? (much?) No. Does JWI? Not at all. Does JTR? Even though he lodges more complaints than most people take breaths, he does not complain about that! So I offer our excellent example to these frustrated anointed who want so badly for the flock to listen to them. You would think they would go out and find their own flock, but no! they want to filch sheep from the present Witness congregation.

5 hours ago, Arauna said:

No matter what the subject is, (the subject may be unrelated to the GB and immorality..). but the subject is twisted so the same hate for  the GB and JWs comes up...

William Arauna was posting an upbuilding observation about the earthly organization. Suddenly a giant lizard with tiny brain appeared out of nowhere to taunt him about things that were not relevant. He shoved back, of course, but the niggling little taunts never ceased. 

14 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

How even the best of intentions can quickly send us to "Hades in a hand-basket." 

My Dad stood ever apart from religion, including mine, but he used this expression frequently to describe world conditions. And he didn’t say “hades.”

1 hour ago, JW Insider said:

What's worse is that increased activity and urgency leading up to 2034 could result in relieving some of the Society's financial difficulties, and therefore be seen as having Jehovah's blessing, creating another vicious cycle of "boom and bust."

Maybe the end will not come for 500 years. Maybe the unprecedented chaos that we see should be dismissed as just one of those things.

i have no problem with brothers going with the overlapping generations. I take it as a rough rule of thumb. Most likely the end will come before the generations snap apart in 2034. Even 4Jah thinks his ‘true anointed’ can shake a leg before that.

I sort of like how reading the Drudge Report has been likened to reading the Book of Revelation. Signs accumulate. Maybe more importantly, response to the signs get more life-disruptive. I wrote a post recently of H3N2 and COVID19 being roughly the same. The first took it’s toll of 1-4 million worldwide and life went on. The second has ground all life to a halt in panic over it, and yet still may claim an equal number. Here in NY, the governor forced nursing homes to take in COVID patients, even though they said they weren’t equipped, and the death rate of seniors went through the roof. It is entirely possible that ‘human wisdom’ is taking a bad situation and making it twenty times worse, thus providing ample testimony of how capable humans are to rule the earth.

https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/topic/87327-woodstock-was-held-during-a-pandemic—were-we-crazy-then-or-are-we-crazy-now/

These are shocking things. Unfortunately, they are in a land in which shocking things have become routine. It becomes no different than the persecutions of Christians in the first century. Those one who have died have become martyrs.

Nobody wants to be a martyr. Nobody wants to die. It is inconvenient and it makes people feel bad. Still, our friends stay strong under persecution—they are doing us proud and we pray that we shall be so steadfast should the time come. 

What keeps them strong is their confidence in the resurrection hope to “the real life” of 1 Timothy 6:19. It is a confidence that few of their persecutors have. By reason of their hope, they cannot be manipulated into violating conscience, as history demonstrates most people can.

The day the Twitter graphic representation of all accumulated data resembles a COVID virus, I’m closing out my account.

I water my upvotes each day to make them grow. I weed out those sucker downvotes and toss them in the burning fiery furnace. 

As much as some here have criticized ‘counting time,’ they count upvotes as though life itself depended upon them.

5 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

.... Finding the correct balance of words, tone, and emphasis is often very difficult when your wife asks "Do you think I look fat?'

Tell me about it. My wife texted that to me: “Do you think I look fat?” Of course, I texted back “Noo!” extra ‘o’ for emphasis.

AI changed it to ‘Moo!”

Any room for me with your chickens?

On 5/9/2020 at 8:58 PM, TrueTomHarley said:

Trolls have got to be among the most odious things on the planet, necessitating layers of security in many organizations because they simply will not behave.

Jim began an online Bible study with #Jehovahs Witnesses, intrigued by answers to

Why is there suffering
What happens when we die
What is the purpose of life
How to cope with adversity

A troll appeared from nowhere to harass him, with lizard-like demeanor and tiny brain to match. Of course, Jim was not intimidated, but what a pest that troll was.

14 minutes ago, Space Merchant said:

people make such assumptions because they are well rooted in the belief also that God is Omnipresent, which is false. With this idea in mind, they conjure up the notion of God being

Yes. Simply quote one of those verses in which God says he is going to go down and check something out so as to see if it is so—such as the complaint made about Sodom.

“Then Jehovah said: “The outcry against Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah is indeed great, and their sin is very heavy.  I will go down to see whether they are acting according to the outcry that has reached me. And if not, I can get to know it.” (Genesis 18:20-21) 

He wasn’t there. He didn’t know. So he is not omnipresent. And he is not omniscient. 

The third member of this normal ‘trinity’ is omnipotent. Note how the chart has dropped ‘omnipresent’ to substitute ‘all-loving.’ This way they can harp on anything that isn’t going well and blame it on God—as though God’s role is to bless the doings of a society founded in rebellion against him, or prevent the inevitable bad consequences of such rebellion from occurring. 

Thus, every assumption skeptics make about God is wrong. No wonder their conclusions are so cock-eyed. Now, to be sure, those cock-eyed conclusions might remain even if they had begun with accurate knowledge—the pull away from God is far more rooted in emotion than in reason. The emotion pull is the urge to kick over the traces—to break free from anyone who would tell you what to do. In their insistence upon pursuing the petty freedoms that this world has to offer, chafing at anyone who would seem to restrict them, they end up overlooking the substantial freedoms that God supplies.

What can you do with people like that? In the case of those who once believed in God and abandoned it for atheism, you could liken it to the fellow who loses millions in the stock market. Undeterred, he celebrates the $10K that he still has left, reasoning about the rest: “They were just paper gains, anyway.”

27 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

I'll probably regret it later, though, because no attempt to diagnose someone should be attempted by non-professionals (me) or from things written online. 

Maybe that is why I have passed over the mental health angle a time or two to simply say, “Am I on Candid Camera?”  But it is an old show. Youngsters will have no idea what I am talking about.

31 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

And what we say on the www, will stay on the www.

Right. Mum’s the word.

8 hours ago, JW Insider said:

So, I'll ask you more directly: Do you think that you might have mental health issues?

My old  Bethel friend told me long ago that about 10% of the letters received would appear to be from persons who are mentally ill.

8 hours ago, JW Insider said:

but I do feel badly that he doesn't attempt to get the mental health care that he desperately needs. I am not sure if you have sought mental health

Homeopaths have much to offer in areas of mental health.

2 hours ago, Arauna said:

I revel in downvotes - especially from OCD-trio.  I must be doing something right then. 

I also can’t imagine why anyone would do downvotes—these strike me as even more pointless than upvotes. I mean, it goes without saying that when some blowhard posts something ridiculous or villainous, I am not going to like it.

6 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

I understand that when I get 10,000 "upvotes", I get an all expense paid trip to Hawaii !

Make it Pluto, and I’ll throw in 90,000.

seriously, I cannot imagine why anyone would care about upvotes. (Not saying that you do)

2 hours ago, 4Jah2me said:

James you seem to have the same thought that Tom has about the GB. 'They cannot be fired' 

I don’t think that i ever said that. If I did, the context has been so altered as to make it meaningless

5 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Some of his points were very good, and very important.

Perhaps they were, but there is such a thing as being clueless as to human relations. You don’t just show up on someone’s doorstep and start demanding things, taking for granted that your authority and wisdom is recognized by all, when you are in reality a complete stranger and nobody knows you from Adam. Any time an actual brother tries that on an actual doorstep he gets his head handed to him, as he should, for being so self-important.

I wrote my previous comment last night, and I would have taken it down this morning had it not been replied to. I began to think that he is unwell and, that being the case, it was not very sporting of me to retort as I did.

Look up from your egg breakfast, James, courtesy of you multitudinous chickens. My limo has just pulled up and I am on your doorstep to tell you everything that is wrong with you and how you must shape up if you would hope for God’s tolerance. It goes without saying that I know everything and you know nothing. Black is how I like my coffee.

6 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Whether your points are valid, or not,

It is just the most absurd thing, the way it is phrased: “I have tried to inform you of the necessary adjustments you ought to take in order to truly be in the truth.”

It is just so pretentious. It is almost as bad as getting an ultimatum from the womanfromthehills of Facebook.

Will they read a letter like that at Bethel? Dunno, but I never would. I might read one or two, but I gather that they receive a steady stream of these from ones who indicate from their very first words that they are unhinged.

I can deal with loopy. And I can deal with self-important.  But someone who is loopy AND self-important....well, I don’t know how to deal with that. Pity the brother they’ve assigned to plow through stuff like this, but it just may be that nobody is assigned.

I mean, can’t you just see this fellow rebuking Peter in the first century for blaming everything on that roaring lion the Devil, and telling him how if he doesn’t get his act together, there will be even further persecution?

38 minutes ago, Matthew9969 said:

My jw mom downloaded jw.org, and since then she has had nothing but problems.  Her password changes all the time, even though she never changed her password, but jw.org tells her she needs to change her password just to get into her computer. My brother and I are jumping through hoops to get her reconnected via loop. Has the governing body  found a way to hijack people...they do after all pay millions to lawyers, why not IT techs. Is my jw mom a victim of WTBTS? And they are asking for donations. Or do you know if someone is using the jw website to con people?

It is very confusing, and I think it may be a work in progress. There would be no need for passwords were it not for people like on this forum, who will not behave and who will ‘zoombomb’ or otherwise cause chaos given the first opportunity. Trolls have got to be among the most odious things on the planet, necessitating layers of security in many organizations because they simply will not behave.

It drove me nuts, too, at first attempt. At present, so far as I know, you cannot stream the assemblies from the jw app that suggests you can. Again, I think it is a work in progress. Tell her to contact her elders. They will be able to get her in without fuss. Other online meetings are hosted and the host will not let in anyone unrecognized. Easy to set up in advance, however, to avoid problems. I am not sure whether you could do it for her or not. If you told the elders what jerks they were as you departed, and how you run them all down of the WNMF, they might not believe your good intentions now.

They have to guard against determined opposers, not all of whom are stupid. It is roughly the equivalent of how in times of ban, the brothers are very careful in screening people, since liars come around feigning interest when their real goal is to make it hot for the brothers. In the meantime, the jw.org website is freely open to all, with tons of videos and talks.

Passwords in general are a nightmare, triggering constant aggravation. It may be one of those situations where it is observed, “If everyone was a Witness, there would be no need for locks—theft would be so rare that most could do without.” Same with passwords, I suspect. They may not be completely unnecessary, because people are people, but probably a 4 digit one across all accounts would serve just fine.

2 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

You are forgiven, my son ... go in peace, and sin no more.

...don' forget to tip the waitresses, and genuflect.

Not only will I sin no more, I will walk it back a little to give you some credit.

55 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

This is why the State Governors and their minions....Their arbitrary use of power is exhilarating to them....confuses simple minded ones when they see it being used, and the conclusion they most often reach is that the State Governors are wiser and smarter than they are.

Cuomo in NY is declaring how in every crisis there is opportunity. He is carrying on about how we must ‘reimagine education’ ‘common-core’-style, with an end to classroom gathering. Remote is working so well, he claims, that it is the pattern for the future. What is he smoking?

My daughter teaches via remote learning overseas and declares it exhausting to both students & teacher. To hold their attention for hours is even more challenging than in the classroom setting.

I looked into teaching once as a change-of career. Subject mastery plays less a role in teacher qualifications than one might think (in NY, it may be different elsewhere), whereas classroom management & child psychology is huge. It all goes out the window with remote learning, or maybe it will now require 8 years to be duly certified, not the 6 that NYS now requires. (not immediately, but a teacher is expected to quickly progress to Masters after hire)

https://twitter.com/bobconfer/status/1257964172954001408?s=21

On Easter Sunday the Governor tweeted a photo of his family gathered around for dinner, all spaced out at 6 feet each. No photo of Trump matches the sumptuous luxury on display, and at the most insensitive time—when people are really hurting. Incredibly, most comments were those of well-wishers praising him.

47 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

You do not understand, TTH, ol' buddy, ol' pal, how the REAL world works.

Sigh....if it helps, I wrote Andrew to tell him that he was a jerk, that he didn’t have a clue about anything, and that he should have voted for Trump.

Columnist Andrew Sorokowski wrote at the time of the ban: Why would a country of 144 million trash its international reputation for the sake of harassing a harmless 175 thousand? 

Yet Russia has done so, painting itself before all as though a land of thugs