James Thomas Rook Jr.

First time I have ever seen Deer jumping over a person representing sleep ... usually it's Sheep!

Funeral Director and assistant standing in back of an empty church at a funeral .. only one person showed up and is sitting, facing the casket up front. " I don't understand it ... he had 465 Facebook Friends!"

In the 1930's and 40's he was the most popular comic strip artist in the world .... sigh ..... I feel like a rogue dinosaur at a dinosaur Petting Zoo.

The "human court systems" are ..oh...what's the word I want to say...um.. oh yeah... HUMAN. They are for the most part completely transparent, and open for review by all affected, or even interested parties having nothing to do with specific proceedings. If Justice is being perverted, it can be plainly seen and documented, as it was clearly seen in the recent Russian Federation banning of Jehovah Witnesses Organization If I want to, I can go to my County Courthouse and sit in the back and watch the daily administration of Justice. They know this, and are therefore open, transparent, conscientious, and accountable. ... Unless they are following a script for political reasons ... but that too, can be watched, and is a lesson in itself. When the 60 MINUTES TV show news team and video truck shows up at a Kingdom Hall you know it's GOING to be a bad day. All judicial processes take place in secret, with no recordings allowed, and no witnesses allowed to see and hear the deliberations, even if an accused wants it. The accused is not allowed representation, and no notes are taken that he or she is allowed to see and review. The concept of a transcript is laughed at. The Civil courts of today closely resemble the court system of Ancient Israel, where trials were held in the city gates, and EVERYTHING was open to all who passed through ... they could stand and watch for awhile, or speak up and add whatever they thought might be pertinent testimony. The accusers, defenders, and judges were ALL watched by EVERYONE with complete transparency. This system served for an honest and stable system of jurisprudence for over two thousand years. WHAT WE DO, is a secret to the congregation, is behind closed doors, and people are afraid if they express any interest in how the wheels turned ... they might be NEXT to get pulled into the back to "Room 101", "The Little Back Room", the "Red Room" for a Star Chamber style interrogation. .... In the kindest possible way of course. If Justice is being perverted, it is COMPLETELY HIDDEN AND UNDOCUMENTED, in contrast to what was able to be clearly seen in the recent Russian Federation banning of Jehovah's Witnesses Organization. They banned the Corporation at the same time honoring a Russian Jehovah's Witness Family. It may be whispered about among elders ... but that's about it. AN INVISIBLE STEEL FIST IN SATIN COVERED GLOVE. I see and have seen how both judicial systems work, not in theory, but in actual practice, over many, many years. And Star Chambers always evolve into Kangaroo Courts .. and although the Brotherhood may have never heard those terms ... the chilling factor of feeling the effects on a gut level ... goes clear to the bone. OF COURSE I have praise for the "human court systems". God gave US a BETTER system ... roughly imitated by Civil Governments today ... and we ABANDONED it for what we have now. But ... they get lentils .... AND MEAT .... at Bethel, and brag about it.

Oh, and I do prefer to be called ROOK, so thanks for that, but JTR is the convention here. But I do seem to have misplaced my watch ..... gotta have a watch, ya know! Â Â

Well, you certainly present a convincing argument there ... with news a Year and a half old ... whereas the news I relayed is only TWO DAYS OLD. HAHAHAHAhhahaa ha. ( checks watch...)

At the Memorial and "last Supper", at least two Apostles had their swords near to them as they ate and drank. They did not have them to protect against Inner City second-story upper room Bears. ... just as the U.S. Constitution did not insure the right to keep and bear arms to protect the Colonists from Deer.

Allen, Allen Allen. The words were defined by Jehovah God ... and HE decided that Warfare was not murder ... back in the times of the ancient Israelites. You need some serious Meds .... or have a few beers, chill, and do research on this topic This is from Wikipedia: Thou shalt not kill (LXX; οὐ φονεύσεις), You shall not murder (Hebrew: לֹא תִּרְצָח ‎ lo tirṣaḥ) or You shall not kill (KJV), is a moral imperative included as one of the Ten Commandments in the Torah.[1] ..... Retzach The Hebrew verb רצח‎ (r-ṣ-ḥ, also transliterated retzach, ratzákh, ratsakh etc.) is the word in the original text that is translated as "murder" or "kill", but it has a wider range of meanings, generally describing destructive activity, including meanings "to break, to dash to pieces" as well as "to slay, kill, murder". According to the Priestly Code of the Book of Numbers, killing anyone outside the context of war with a weapon, or in unarmed combat, is considered retzach, but if the killing is accidental, the accused must not leave the city, or he will be considered guilty of intentional murder. The Bible never uses the word retzach in conjunction with war. Think about this AllenSmith ; Murder is when you deliberately shed INNOCENT blood. Someone not justified in doing so, trying to kill you is NOT INNOCENT! It is legitimate self defense if you can manage to not let them kill YOU, and you stop them by killing them first. .... and there is NO bloodguilt before Jehovah. Their bloodguilt reverts back to them.

TTH: Many legal firms have been bankrupted along WITH their clients over never ending litigation. I even think there was a movie about that years ago, if memory serves, starring Richard Gere. ( placekeeper here if I ever find it ..) The movie starts out he is in a busy law firm making millions, and he is driving around in a VERY expensive exotic sports car, and $3,000 dollar suits. The last scene of the movie shows him in Bankruptcy Court, he's living in a cheap motel and before the Bankruptcy Judge, says his only possession is a radio. and as far as my cartoon collection ... I think you are just Jealous ... I remember before that after ranting about my posting style, you said you were going to try and emulate it, or words to that effect. The legal means the Society's Lawyers always use are GOOD ones! ... if winning at all costs is the goal, and Justice is not. Actually, their legal and fiduciary responsibility to their client is to WIN ... NOT pursue Justice. That is the Governing Body's Job. ... to pursue Justice ... even if it means losing a billion dollars and all the real estate they own.

It has TTH, and you KNOW that is true, you just refuse to acknowledge it. The clothes you wear, the food you eat, the medicines you hopefully take, the quality of cars, houses, buildings, streets, bridges, agriculture, animal husbandry, communications, international travel ... and the list is truly endless. Neither system is perfect, but BOTH systems are incredibly important. The World is better in EVERY WAY IMAGINABLE compared to what it was when apprenticeship feudal systems predated Universities, which created structured learning for the masses of people. You are living in a fantasy world of someone elses' creation, TTH ... and millions of actual FACTS from the REAL world prove that. Â

The way you had the Scripture FIRST quoted, AllenSmith, was correct, at Exodus 20:13. the following is YOUR QUOTE ! ............................................................................................................ "The Ten Commandments …12"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 13"You shall not murder" " ............................................................................................................. You subsequently weaseled out of it by substituting "kill", when it did not fit your AGENDA. .

Interesting that NEITHER of you two refuted ANY of the points I made. Not a single one.

Arauna: Thank you for that fine and accurate analysis of the reporting and theocratic and secular responses, now and over the years.. I agree with each and every word, except the last sentence, which subject I have covered elsewhere using the example of the man who stole a truck during last weeks Las Vegas massacre, who, if he had been one of Jehovah's Witnesses, he would be convicted in ecclesiastical court as an unrepentant sinner, because he could never repent from having stolen that truck ... to take wounded and dying to the hospital, and his "extenuating circumstances" would not be considered. 1.)  HE STOLE A TRUCK.  GUILTY BY HIS OWN CONFESSION. 2.) HE WILL NEVER BE REPENTANT I have seen this sort of reasoning used in actual practice .... where policy overcomes rational justice. Like the young girl who, walking along a beach covered with stranded starfish, threw a starfish back into the ocean ... in the grand scheme of things it matters little, but it does matter to that particular starfish. To elaborate about Justice .... we both know that real Justice you only get from Jehovah God ... all else is just local due process which sometimes, perhaps even most of the time, approximates Justice. The reason we have a trained conscience is to individually make those decisions. Otherwise we do not need one at all ... institutional policy controls everything. I am sure you have read more than enough of my rants about that. I agree with "Pastor Russell" that INSTITUTIONALLY, this is the wrong thing to do, as in actual practice it leads to witch hunts, punishment by personality, and destruction of family and extended family ties to punish one person. This is not Justice, this is cruel, unusual, and "theocratically" illegal ... and it has a great chilling effect, and turns families against each other unnecessarily. Adopting the methods of the old Soviet Union is not conducive to Justice, or reason, or mercy. And... because we are dealing with humans from every background and walk of life, and education, experiences, and biases both at the "management" level, and the "employee" level, ( GB to average publisher level), as in EVERY political, social and religious organization that has ever existed, the power base tends to do whatever is necessary to insure it stays in power. One particular problem I see is that there is no one on Earth to fire the Governing Body when THEY do whatever is necessary to insure they stay in power, including they themselves being governed by the need to keep the money rolling in through illegal "theocratic" intimidation, making the usual mistakes, but destroying whole families as they go. From my observations, the "Emperor has no clothes", while the city insists he is finely dressed, and have convinced themselves of that. I am convinced otherwise. I agree with shunning on an individual basis for unrepentant sinners without mitigating and extenuating (and unusual) circumstances. I do NOT agree with institutionally destroying their whole families. That is why these discussions, like between you and I, as rational humans, are essential. I only shoot the "Green Dragons" in the head if they chew on me or the Brotherhood, first.

Each case stands on its' own for patently obvious obstruction of Justice, for money. The cost of this deliberate obstruction of Justice, the BROTHERHOOD IS PAYING FOR. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT PICTURE? If you care nothing about Justice ... remember this.. the Courts are DOCUMENTING all this. It's all "on the record"!

TTH, are you talking about the history of the court cases in DELAWARE, United States of America? It sounds like you are talking about the Jehovah's Witness who tortured those women in Australia. I cannot actually believe you actually read the chain of Delaware court cases reporting about the Society trying to get the venue changed to obstruct justice ... which the Courts immediately recognized .... and didn't get it? The reason the Society's Lawyers wanted the venue changed was two fold .... to make it inconvenient and difficult for trial witnesses to appear and testify, and to delay the trial in an overextended jurisdiction for several years ... TO RUN UP THE COST OF THE VICTIM PURSUING THE CASE UNTIL THEY WENT BANKRUPT FROM THE DELAYING TACTICS, and had to drop the case. This was recognized by the Delaware Courts first, and it was recognized by me, second. The Society's Lawyers do NOT want to lose this court case, and they know they will, if Justice prevails ... and there is every reasonable expectation that it will. It will cost the Corporation MILLIONS of dollars. THEY KNOW WHAT JUSTICE IS, AND WHAT IT WILL COST .. AND THEY DON'T WANT TO LOSE THAT MONEY. The tactics used in the Delaware case are just as nasty and despicable as the duplicity in the Padron Case in San Diego. I was originally talking about the San Diego case when I said: Our donations are being used to OBSTRUCT JUSTICE ! because that is exactly what is happening there in San Diego with duplicitous "reasoning" that is laughable from a legal standpoint, and despicable from a moral standpoint, and it is about the Delaware case is where I said.... ...which is SELF EVIDENT if you had read the accounts as you have said ... and understood what you have read, which does not appear to be the case. I cannot get it any simpler for you without crayons and hand puppets. "I felt sorry for a man who had no shoes ... until I met a man who would not read." ...and THINK!

I did... you just did not understand what you read. I cannot help you TTH. I assume you DID spend about an hour reading the sad history of this case on Google. under "Jehovah's Witnesses vs State of Delaware". Um .... didn't you? (hahahha) If you HAD ... you would know. go pound sand.

EXODUS 20:13 'You shall not murder" Self Defense is NOT murder. Accidentally killing a pedestrian with your car is NOT murder. Deciding to not save a drowning person is NOT murder. Murder is the premeditated killing of an innocent person who poses no threat to you, or those in your charge. Conversely, you can KILL ... but not MURDER an animal. Murder involves killing ... but not all killing is murder. The Hebrew word for "murder" in Exodus you can look up and discern the real difference, yourself. If someone is trying to murder YOU .. to kill them first incurs NO BLOOD GUILT WHATSOEVER. Perhaps LOTS of blood all over the place ........ but no blood guilt before Jehovah God. Only people with no real life experience, and a child's mind think otherwise. Oh .... and even in ancient Israel, in warfare where the JEWS STARTED IT ... as now, and everywhere, War is NOT considered murder. Jehovah instigated a LOT of warfare ... but He does not murder. Life gets simpler when you adopt Jehovah's standards and definitions, instead of liberal, cowardly Snowflakes that are afraid of everything hard, requires actual thinking, or is "icky".

From the source article: " Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide are grateful that Teymur Akhmedov’s case has been internationally recognized as an injustice and that it highlights the need for greater respect for religious freedom in Kazakhstan. They anticipate that the government of Kazakhstan will implement the WGAD decision and release Mr. Akhmedov from prison immediately." As they say about Opera ..... "It ain't over 'till the Fat Lady sings!" ...be interesting to see how quickly he is released, if at all, and the final result of the UN Working Group's recommendations. I suppose the Society's Lawyers are working closely with the United Nations Lawyers to make things happen (?). Items 55. (a)(b) and (c) of the Opinion would be of particular concern to the Principals, and the Brotherhood in General. Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinions adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at its seventy-ninth session, 21-25 August 2017 Opinion No. 62/2017 concerning Teymur Akhmedov (Kazakhstan) ..... ..... ...... Follow-up procedure 55. In accordance with paragraph 20 of its methods of work, the Working Group requests the source and the Government to provide it with information on action taken in follow-up to the recommendations made in the present opinion, including: (a) Whether Mr. Akhmedov has been released and, if so, on what date; (b) Whether compensation or other reparations have been made to Mr. Akhmedov; (c) Whether an investigation has been conducted into the violation of Mr. Akhmedov’s rights and, if so, the outcome of the investigation; (d) Whether any legislative amendments or changes in practice have been made to harmonize the laws and practices of Kazakhstan with its international obligations in line with the present opinion; (e) Whether any other action has been taken to implement the present opinion. 56. The Government is invited to inform the Working Group of any difficulties it may have encountered in implementing the recommendations made in the present opinion and whether further technical assistance is required, for example through a visit by the Working Group. 57. The Working Group requests the source and the Government to provide the above information within six months of the date of the transmission of the present opinion. However, the Working Group reserves the right to take its own action in follow-up to the opinion if new concerns in relation to the case are brought to its attention. Such action would enable the Working Group to inform the Human Rights Council of progress made in implementing its recommendations, as well as any failure to take action. 58. The Working Group recalls that the Human Rights Council has encouraged all States to cooperate with the Working Group and requested them to take account of its views and, where necessary, to take appropriate steps to remedy the situation of persons arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, and to inform the Working Group of the steps they have taken. [Adopted on 25 August 2017]

This just in ... from Sydney Australia .... ( posted earlier today on the wrong thread, and copied to here about ten or so hours later ... because it is somewhat related in topic ..... sigh! ) http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-13/man-who-tortured-women-jailed-27-years/9046326

Since I STARTED this discussion thread, the fact that I wander all over the landscape with shaggy dog stories, and irrelevant rants and obtuse observations and misplaced links and references does not offend me. Ah been rode hard, and put away, wet.

Gone Fishing: So, you tell ME what part of that news is "Fake News" It may be fake ... but as I have explained... it is entirely consistent with the coverups and scandals the ARC exposed. There are some things that are inherently credible that may be fake .. and some things that strain credulity to the limits, and yet be true. In the context of news from Australia, entirely consistent, it was believable, to me. IF YOU KNOW DIFFERENT .. in the absence of apparent credibility gaps in the reporting, the burden of proof is on YOU. Got facts? 1.) I DID NOT WRITE THIS REPORT - A reporter from Sydney, Australia supposedly wrote this report. 2.) I do not even claim to be a good Jehovah's Witness ... I only claim to be a Barbarian interested in Truth, Justice, and Fairness, as I have stated here on the Archive at least a dozen times ... and I certainly do NOT represent the "Organization", although I do realize that they are the "Only Game in Town". ... but it is based on an objective analysis ... NOT their continuous self-aggrandizing statements. Please feel free to ask me ANYTHING. I may feel free to ignore you. Oh, and as an aside ... thanks for catching the fact that I made that post on the entirely WRONG discussion thread. It should have gone on the "Questions" thread .... "What kind of Cosmetics can you use if you are TWO FACED?" Ummm.. by the way .. I think that thread might satisfy your concerns that I am a "company man", which I am not, or that I gave the reporter a "free pass" for fake news........................................................................................................................................... I hold reporters to a much LESSER standard than I hold those who claim they represent the Almighty God. .......................................................................................................................................... ... silly me.

It is a cryin' shame when secular authorities in the United States, Canada, the UK and Russia have the moral high ground, and after YEARS of exposure, the Society's lawyers STILL do all they can with their CONSIDERABLE skill ... TO OBSTRUCT JUSTICE.

Jehovah has NEVER changed ... although he has changed his mind many times when entreated to do so, and he DOES "learn as he goes along". He was genuinely surprised when children were offered to the fires of the god Moloch as human sacrifices, and before that there was of course ... the dinosaurs ... which did not end well, for them. And the name "Jehovah" is in ENGLISH, a standard convention since about AD 1600 when the letter "J" was invented, and the name is different in different languages, the same as Jesus' name is different in different languages. I under understand in Spanish my name James is pronounced HIGH-ME, or Santiago .... Who knew?

Take up skydiving ... when you get older it's more fun. The worst that can happen is you miss 10 years in a wheelchair, drooling, and waiting for a nurse to lift one side up to pass gas. If I had the money, I would take it up again. ( insert "wailing and lamentation " here ....), and of course ... buy a Helicopter. I think ex-President George Bush (41) made a tandem jump at age 90.

Nope ... I run a "tight ship".