TrueTomHarley

What next? Thumbtacks invented by a podiatrist?

Go figure.

Let no one ever say that Lady Gaga is not a showperson.

This is why I never jump into the arms of any of my fans here. Some of them look awfully clumsy.

I do appreciate your helping me hawk them.
As to “sloppy input” and “poor research,” I really have no idea what you are talking about. Specific points made are very well attested to, and are selected to make a thorough defense of the Witness organization before any inclined to criticize it. “Dear Mr. Putin” is heavily documented for sources—a rough guess is that it contains about 600 endnotes. A lot of work went into it, and there is nothing else like it.
There exists no comprehensive history of JW persecution in Russia with regard to the present ban other than my work. It is a huge international story, perhaps the story of the year with regard to freedom of worship, and yet it is nowhere completely covered (that i know of—I’d be happy to learn if there is any other) except for in my ebook. 
It is not primarily written for the friends, but for journalists, human rights and policy persons the world over. The fact that it is written by a Witness means that it is written from a Witness point of view, and that can hardly be a bad thing.
Other books are not “research” per se, but a relating of events. When you relate events, all you have to do is relate them. The books insult no one, threaten no one, and are not disrespectful even to those with whom we disagree and to those who are causing us substantial problems.
It may be simply the fact that they are written with a substantial light touch, even a sense of humor, that gets to you. Otherwise, I am not sure why you would keep harping on them.

I do appreciate your helping me hawk them.
As to “sloppy input” and “poor research,” I really have no idea what you are talking about. Specific points made are very well attested to, and are selected to make a thorough defense of the Witness organization before any inclined to criticize it. “Dear Mr. Putin” is heavily documented for sources—a rough guess is that it contains about 600 endnotes. A lot of work went into it, and there is nothing else like it.
There exists no comprehensive history of JW persecution in Russia with regard to the present ban other than my work. It is a huge international story, perhaps the story of the year with regard to freedom of worship, and yet it is nowhere completely covered (that i know of—I’d be happy to learn if there is any other) except for in my ebook. 
It is not primarily written for the friends, but for journalists, human rights and policy persons the world over. The fact that it is written by a Witness means that it is written from a Witness point of view, and that can hardly be a bad thing.
Other books are not “research” per se, but a relating of events. When you relate events, all you have to do is relate them. The books insult no one, threaten no one, and are not disrespectful even to those with whom we disagree and to those who are causing us substantial problems.
It may be simply the fact that they are written with a substantial light touch, even a sense of humor, that gets to you. Otherwise, I am not sure why you would keep harping on them.

No, don’t @Melinda Mills (are YOU the owner?)—not yet.  Let me answer Allen first.
I may not get to till it tomorrow, though. Perhaps I can bump it up. If my meetings with Vic Vomidog, Dr Max “Ace” Inhibitor, Professor Adhomenen, Arguis Maxus, and a few others go well, maybe I can get back here tonight. 

Not that I know of.
Besides, I don’t follow her. I said so.
It’s news to me.
I haven’t changed that much in two hours.

Arrgghhhh
I have not spoken harshly about the Watchtower, and I don’t think I ever commented on jw.net. At any rate, the parrot was selected specifically for an identity here. Vic Vomidog is an fictional apostate from my first book—a “perennial” apostate, George Chrysiddes  has called him—and he has not appeared on any other website than here.
Possibly you are thinking of some comment meant to be humorous and the humor missed the mark, at least in your instance.
You must understand that when I write of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I give away many a fault, but they are nearly always quirks and human foibles. This is deliberate and is not meant to convey any disrespect to the Watchtower. If we try to present ourselves as Rhodes scholars, people visit a Kingdom Hall and see through it in two seconds. No. We are ordinary people—with an emphasis on the ordinary, the same as was true of the early Christians. They did not “lift themselves up by their own bootstraps” later in life. They remained always “uneducated and ordinary” by the world’s standards, that description of the ones taking the lead in Jerusalem. Such is the nature of Christianity. Jehovah’s Witnesses have held on to that pattern. It is a working-class religion. It always has been. It draws disproportionally from that group. Ones more highly educated are welcome, but not to assume the takeover rights to which they are accustomed. 
My aim always is to present Jehovah’s Witnesses as earthen vessels, and they are more desirable on that account. Moreover, God is more to be praised on that account: “However, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the power beyond what is normal may be God’s and not from us.” - 2 Corinthians 4:7
I don’t even kick back anymore when some scoundrel tries to present it as though JWs have higher than elsewhere incidences of mental illness. I have no idea whether that is true or not, but I say that if it is, it is exactly what one would expect from Jesus’s remarks that he came to minister, not to those not who do not need a physician, but to those who do. He is speaking “spiritual sickness,” of course, but sickness tends to overflow its banks. Ones truly “sighing and groaning over all the detestable things” may well display signs of emotional stress. This does not make them undesirable. It is the ones that sail full speed ahead, untroubled by the atrocities so clearly visible on all sides that you have to wonder about. With admittedly some exaggeration, I have stated: “When Jehovah’s Witnesses go nuts, they are still well-meaning persons who wouldn’t hurt a fly. When those of the greater world go nuts, you’d better call the SWAT team.
Humor can make “the medicine go down.” People like humor. But it does not translate well, and there are some people with no sense of humor at all. If it does not translate well, then snark and sarcasm translate even worse. I use them all. My intended audience is not primarily the friends. I hope they like it, but I am not mainly writing for them.
This is the reason that the Watchtower writes very plainly (some would say blandly). It is frustrating to those who love to read, but it is something that must be—they do not want their writing diluted when some take exception to what doesn’t have to be there in the first place, so they stick to strictly the spiritual aspects of things and touch on current news topic specifics to such a shallow degree that it is a turnoff to those imagining themselves better plugged in.  It has to be that way. Just look at how JWI and Arauna are going at it over something that both concede is a sidepoint. It is perfectly okay for such to play out here, but the WT organization would never even touch the topic.

No matter how many ebooks TTH has sold, it is not enough. Besides, the two most recent, one on the opposition to JWs in Russia, the other on their opposition in Western lands, are free—not sold at all.

Though it is not in a portion of the Bible known for prophesy, the most striking prophesy of all to me is Romans 1:26-28
“That is why God gave them over to uncontrolled sexual passion, for their females changed the natural use of themselves into one contrary to nature;  likewise also the males left the natural use of the female and became violently inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males”
Though the flavor of the verse is seems clearly “anti-gay,” for the purposes of this comment that need not be considered. When I became a Witness in the 1970s, I thought this verse was way way out there, not realistic at all. Of course, there had always been homosexuality, but to suggest that it would one day go viral seemed absurd. Yet it has happened. Even gays themselves, though they will be happy at the extent that they have been able to make progress, must be surprised at how quickly it has come about.
The pace accelerates and spreads to new frontiers. Whereas gays have taken decades to enter the mainstream, the embrace of the transgender movement have taken mere months. Gayle King (I heard her say this on CBS This Morning) did not know what the Q stood for when she obediently appended it to LGBT. Did it mean “questioning?” Or “queer?” She didn’t know. But she didn’t dare not include it.

Actually I have. And I don’t mean chasing them away by being unpleasant. I mean by specifically cautioning a few, who seemed too unaware of their surroundings, that they should think it through before they continue to engage. I didn’t say that they shouldn’t do it—that is up to them—but that they should know the score before they did. @Indiana is the last one I did this with. Ask him if you doubt it.
Yes, but I have taken it over, and it will now do what I want it to. You have helped me in this, by insisting time and again that I am the owner. No one else has done that. “If he gets people thinking that, then I might as well carry on as though it were so,” I have “reasoned.” It is amazing to me that this has happened, but there it is. Sometimes I even wish that @admin or @The Librarian (that old hen) will get fed up and ban me, for I sure do spend a lot of time here and maybe that time would be best spent elsewhere. Ah well...if Admin’s fears are realized, this site will not be around much longer anyway.
I also feel strongly about not stumbling others and about not spreading contentions among brothers. When Bruce G carried on as though he had been stumbled after I liked the comment of an “apostate,” I decided not to do that anymore. I held to that resolve for the longest time, and I still almost never do it. Of course, that concern is partly offset by the realization that anyone so concerned about stumbling ought not be here in the first place, but I stopped “liking” comments of certain ones nonetheless. It is understood that this site is a collection ranging from atypical and avant-garde Witnesses to those who can’t stand them. This must be understood going in. (It is those few who did not seem to understand this that I have cautioned.) You can’t charge into someone else’s home and accuse him of not playing by your rules.
You know very well that the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses would not recommend your engaging here any more than they would me. They would not say: “whole lotta liars on that site, but not to worry—we have our man Allen to straighten them all out.” 
While I doubt very much that you have done so, I have candidly written the WBTS as to what I am doing. While I am “rogue” I do not want to be “out of control.” I respect their lead. I do not think that I am above them. Were I to hear: “What are you doing, TTH, singing on the wall when Hezekiah has told the troops to zip it—you’re messing everything up!” I would desist. I have not received any reply. 
It is true about much of this site—that it pretends to be what it is not. I stumbled across it in just that way, through an advertisement on Twitter. I was quite put out about the deceptive advertising—many of my early posts reflect that. Whether it was wise for me to stay I still do not know, but stay I did and I used the site to hone my own writing and parlayed that into some books. It has been a lot of fun for me, but no way is it conventional. If one transforms the whole place into a comedy club, that is another way of discrediting the malcontents who frequent here, which I believe you have said is your goal.
And for crying out loud, Allen, it is not my site. Everyone else understands this but you—well, they probably do not all understand it at this point because I have played into it. But you made it all possible.
 

Invariably the ones who examine themselves closely over broadcasted reproof are the ones for whom it was not intended and do not need it. The blockheads for whom it was intended simply dig in their heels and press on afresh.

Actually I have. And I don’t mean chasing them away by being unpleasant. I mean by specifically cautioning a few, who seemed too unaware of their surroundings, that they should think it through before they continue to engage. I didn’t say that they shouldn’t do it—that is up to them—but that they should know the score before they did. @Indiana is the last one I did this with. Ask him if you doubt it.
Yes, but I have taken it over, and it will now do what I want it to. You have helped me in this, by insisting time and again that I am the owner. No one else has done that. “If he gets people thinking that, then I might as well carry on as though it were so,” I have “reasoned.” It is amazing to me that this has happened, but there it is. Sometimes I even wish that @admin or @The Librarian (that old hen) will get fed up and ban me, for I sure do spend a lot of time here and maybe that time would be best spent elsewhere. Ah well...if Admin’s fears are realized, this site will not be around much longer anyway.
I also feel strongly about not stumbling others and about not spreading contentions among brothers. When Bruce G carried on as though he had been stumbled after I liked the comment of an “apostate,” I decided not to do that anymore. I held to that resolve for the longest time, and I still almost never do it. Of course, that concern is partly offset by the realization that anyone so concerned about stumbling ought not be here in the first place, but I stopped “liking” comments of certain ones nonetheless. It is understood that this site is a collection ranging from atypical and avant-garde Witnesses to those who can’t stand them. This must be understood going in. (It is those few who did not seem to understand this that I have cautioned.) You can’t charge into someone else’s home and accuse him of not playing by your rules.
You know very well that the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses would not recommend your engaging here any more than they would me. They would not say: “whole lotta liars on that site, but not to worry—we have our man Allen to straighten them all out.” 
While I doubt very much that you have done so, I have candidly written the WBTS as to what I am doing. While I am “rogue” I do not want to be “out of control.” I respect their lead. I do not think that I am above them. Were I to hear: “What are you doing, TTH, singing on the wall when Hezekiah has told the troops to zip it—you’re messing everything up!” I would desist. I have not received any reply. 
It is true about much of this site—that it pretends to be what it is not. I stumbled across it in just that way, through an advertisement on Twitter. I was quite put out about the deceptive advertising—many of my early posts reflect that. Whether it was wise for me to stay I still do not know, but stay I did and I used the site to hone my own writing and parlayed that into some books. It has been a lot of fun for me, but no way is it conventional. If one transforms the whole place into a comedy club, that is another way of discrediting the malcontents who frequent here, which I believe you have said is your goal.
And for crying out loud, Allen, it is not my site. Everyone else understands this but you—well, they probably do not all understand it at this point because I have played into it. But you made it all possible.
 

Of course. I said that you “could easily be accused of running ahead.” I didn’t say that I would do it. I would not. Everyone here “runs ahead” to one degree or another. Moreover, the censure of anyone here doesn’t matter. It is understood that the site has nothing to do with the congregation and does not attract any Witness that is typical.
Yes. It was my answer that I never got around to making when CMP—or was it JWI?—presented his wish list of what the annual meeting might present. He wished for less emphasis on the nearness of the end, and even suggested that the last days should be understood to have commenced in Jesus’ time. “Angels are desiring to peer into these things” I almost said. “Are you going to tell them to straighten up and get back to work?”
It makes the Bible come alive when we do this.
One really can’t go wrong with this attitude. I do this myself—and all the more so since I am clearly “out there” for a brother.
Whole lotta bending going on here, that’s for sure.

Arrgghhhh
I have not spoken harshly about the Watchtower, and I don’t think I ever commented on jw.net. At any rate, the parrot was selected specifically for an identity here. Vic Vomidog is an fictional apostate from my first book—a “perennial” apostate, George Chrysiddes  has called him—and he has not appeared on any other website than here.
Possibly you are thinking of some comment meant to be humorous and the humor missed the mark, at least in your instance.
You must understand that when I write of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I give away many a fault, but they are nearly always quirks and human foibles. This is deliberate and is not meant to convey any disrespect to the Watchtower. If we try to present ourselves as Rhodes scholars, people visit a Kingdom Hall and see through it in two seconds. No. We are ordinary people—with an emphasis on the ordinary, the same as was true of the early Christians. They did not “lift themselves up by their own bootstraps” later in life. They remained always “uneducated and ordinary” by the world’s standards, that description of the ones taking the lead in Jerusalem. Such is the nature of Christianity. Jehovah’s Witnesses have held on to that pattern. It is a working-class religion. It always has been. It draws disproportionally from that group. Ones more highly educated are welcome, but not to assume the takeover rights to which they are accustomed. 
My aim always is to present Jehovah’s Witnesses as earthen vessels, and they are more desirable on that account. Moreover, God is more to be praised on that account: “However, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the power beyond what is normal may be God’s and not from us.” - 2 Corinthians 4:7
I don’t even kick back anymore when some scoundrel tries to present it as though JWs have higher than elsewhere incidences of mental illness. I have no idea whether that is true or not, but I say that if it is, it is exactly what one would expect from Jesus’s remarks that he came to minister, not to those not who do not need a physician, but to those who do. He is speaking “spiritual sickness,” of course, but sickness tends to overflow its banks. Ones truly “sighing and groaning over all the detestable things” may well display signs of emotional stress. This does not make them undesirable. It is the ones that sail full speed ahead, untroubled by the atrocities so clearly visible on all sides that you have to wonder about. With admittedly some exaggeration, I have stated: “When Jehovah’s Witnesses go nuts, they are still well-meaning persons who wouldn’t hurt a fly. When those of the greater world go nuts, you’d better call the SWAT team.
Humor can make “the medicine go down.” People like humor. But it does not translate well, and there are some people with no sense of humor at all. If it does not translate well, then snark and sarcasm translate even worse. I use them all. My intended audience is not primarily the friends. I hope they like it, but I am not mainly writing for them.
This is the reason that the Watchtower writes very plainly (some would say blandly). It is frustrating to those who love to read, but it is something that must be—they do not want their writing diluted when some take exception to what doesn’t have to be there in the first place, so they stick to strictly the spiritual aspects of things and touch on current news topic specifics to such a shallow degree that it is a turnoff to those imagining themselves better plugged in.  It has to be that way. Just look at how JWI and Arauna are going at it over something that both concede is a sidepoint. It is perfectly okay for such to play out here, but the WT organization would never even touch the topic.

Actually I have. And I don’t mean chasing them away by being unpleasant. I mean by specifically cautioning a few, who seemed too unaware of their surroundings, that they should think it through before they continue to engage. I didn’t say that they shouldn’t do it—that is up to them—but that they should know the score before they did. @Indiana is the last one I did this with. Ask him if you doubt it.
Yes, but I have taken it over, and it will now do what I want it to. You have helped me in this, by insisting time and again that I am the owner. No one else has done that. “If he gets people thinking that, then I might as well carry on as though it were so,” I have “reasoned.” It is amazing to me that this has happened, but there it is. Sometimes I even wish that @admin or @The Librarian (that old hen) will get fed up and ban me, for I sure do spend a lot of time here and maybe that time would be best spent elsewhere. Ah well...if Admin’s fears are realized, this site will not be around much longer anyway.
I also feel strongly about not stumbling others and about not spreading contentions among brothers. When Bruce G carried on as though he had been stumbled after I liked the comment of an “apostate,” I decided not to do that anymore. I held to that resolve for the longest time, and I still almost never do it. Of course, that concern is partly offset by the realization that anyone so concerned about stumbling ought not be here in the first place, but I stopped “liking” comments of certain ones nonetheless. It is understood that this site is a collection ranging from atypical and avant-garde Witnesses to those who can’t stand them. This must be understood going in. (It is those few who did not seem to understand this that I have cautioned.) You can’t charge into someone else’s home and accuse him of not playing by your rules.
You know very well that the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses would not recommend your engaging here any more than they would me. They would not say: “whole lotta liars on that site, but not to worry—we have our man Allen to straighten them all out.” 
While I doubt very much that you have done so, I have candidly written the WBTS as to what I am doing. While I am “rogue” I do not want to be “out of control.” I respect their lead. I do not think that I am above them. Were I to hear: “What are you doing, TTH, singing on the wall when Hezekiah has told the troops to zip it—you’re messing everything up!” I would desist. I have not received any reply. 
It is true about much of this site—that it pretends to be what it is not. I stumbled across it in just that way, through an advertisement on Twitter. I was quite put out about the deceptive advertising—many of my early posts reflect that. Whether it was wise for me to stay I still do not know, but stay I did and I used the site to hone my own writing and parlayed that into some books. It has been a lot of fun for me, but no way is it conventional. If one transforms the whole place into a comedy club, that is another way of discrediting the malcontents who frequent here, which I believe you have said is your goal.
And for crying out loud, Allen, it is not my site. Everyone else understands this but you—well, they probably do not all understand it at this point because I have played into it. But you made it all possible.
 

Of course. I said that you “could easily be accused of running ahead.” I didn’t say that I would do it. I would not. Everyone here “runs ahead” to one degree or another. Moreover, the censure of anyone here doesn’t matter. It is understood that the site has nothing to do with the congregation and does not attract any Witness that is typical.
Yes. It was my answer that I never got around to making when CMP—or was it JWI?—presented his wish list of what the annual meeting might present. He wished for less emphasis on the nearness of the end, and even suggested that the last days should be understood to have commenced in Jesus’ time. “Angels are desiring to peer into these things” I almost said. “Are you going to tell them to straighten up and get back to work?”
It makes the Bible come alive when we do this.
One really can’t go wrong with this attitude. I do this myself—and all the more so since I am clearly “out there” for a brother.
Whole lotta bending going on here, that’s for sure.

For all that I have heard about the Duck Duck Go web browser that stores NO information, I have never gotten around to trying it. Inertia is a powerful thing. I even follow the company on Twitter.

As twisted as the trinity is, it is still the most thoughtful item presented here.

Don’t tell me Vic Vomidog went down! If so, Anna will rejoice. She has said that she never liked him. And with good reason. Vic is a rotter through and through. He appears in my first book.
Ivor E. Tower, who is actually a published religious scholar specializing in “new religions,” was kind enough to review “Tom Irregardless and Me.” Vic (the skunk) is included in his paragraph:
“The book is about real people and issues, although the author has changed the names of rank-and-file members to preserve name anonymity. Tom Irregardless is an elder who uses the spurious word “irregardless” liberally in his Bible talks. Other characters include John Wheatnweeds, who hinders members from their house-to-house ministry by spending inordinate amounts of time expounding the text of the day before they set out. Then there is posh brandy-sipping Bernard Strawman, who receives frequent visits from the publishers, but continues to raise facile objections to their faith. Vic Vomidog, an apostate, repeatedly seeks to hamper their work. Other chapters are about real JW celebrities such as Prince, who is the subject of an entire chapter.”
Vic has gone down, has he? Sometimes when the squabbling here becomes intense, I would wish that everyone was banned and the entire WorldNewsMedia forum simply be devoted to coverage of my books. I’ll speak to Admin about it.

If you don’t stop it with this self-aggrandizing twaddle, I am going to ban you.
Have you learned nothing from Allen Smith? Many times he has grumbled (with some bitterness) about how I have banned various ones of his group. Vic Vomidog, that perennial apostate,  also went down.
What makes you think that you are above my law?

HEY! I THOUGHT I BANNED YOU!!!
Now you listen to me and you listen good, my fine mangy feathered “friend.” If you don’t stay banned once I ban you, I will wrap you around the end of a mop and swab the WorldNewsMedia studio floors with you!

Not that I know of.
Besides, I don’t follow her. I said so.
It’s news to me.
I haven’t changed that much in two hours.

For whatever it is worth, I find very enlightening your exchange with JWI on this topic. I gain much from both of your views. 
There are no “typical” Witnesses here, in my view, except for a few that occasionally stray here, sometimes naively offer comments, thinking persons will be readjusted, and then leave shocked when they discover that no way will it happen. On a few occasions, I have chased them away—it is fine for them to stay here if they wish, but they should know the score before they do. They should not think that Witness, for example,  is some misguided sister that they can help with but a kind word or two.
Even you (though I have not seen it) can be expected to come in for criticism from some of the friends, who will confuse being knowledgeable about world affairs with violating neutrality.
I’ll throw in a few teasers which vary in relevance—comment on them as you see fit. (Same goes for JWI) I value both.
The “terrible trade deals” with China that Trump carries on about (and most of the U.S. business community agrees that they are indeed terrible from the US point of view) were based on the assumption that if China became prosperous, its own citizens would demand government not Communist and would lean to a more democratic model. Instead, the very opposite is happening. True or no?
The reason that theft of intellectual property proves so intractable to negotiate is that the communist government and those molded by it really doesn’t understand the concept. True or no?
I know almost nothing about Falun Gong. The first time I heard of them it was in connection with a subway gas attack in Japan, and from that point on figured that it was some wacky cult. Was that story a plant?
The son of a local sister who recently died, and I was at her funeral, is the author of a book on Unit 731, a Japanese wartime atrocity roughly the equivalent of Hitler’s camps, from the same WWII era. The reports of organ harvesting mirror things documented there, though there it was more medical experiments than harvesting, like in some German Camps.
https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2019/06/i-dont-think-i-have-ever-been-distracted-in-a-prayer-by-rounds-of-poor-jud-is-dead.html