James Thomas Rook Jr.

OF COURSE IT MAKES SENSE ! I just need a Fifth of Scotch to kill the pain!

I like Ayn Rand ( "The Fountainhead", "Atlas Shrugged" ... etc.) not so much because I agree with her ... but that she agrees with me. *koff"

Life has ALWAYS been cheap ... Sounds like new contestants for the 2017 "Darwin Awards" if they were over the age of 16.

Bible Speaks: So far you have not shown me ANYTHING from the Bible that is wrong with taking calculated risks and gambling. By the way .. EVERYTIME YOU GET IN YOUR CAR TO GO ANYWHERE ... you are gambling your life, health, and fortune. ... and the lives of those riding with you. EVERYTHING in life is a gamble ... Oh, and by the way, the Society has perhaps a HALF BILLION dollars in Stock Market Investments and invested trust funds ... and have a whole DEPARTMENT to TRY and manage those ...(oh, what's the word I am lookng for ... oh yeah! ...) GAMBLE. And in a Lottery, EVERY participant is there by his OWN FREE will .... in any enterprise entered upon with free will, there are no losers ... only those who did not win the pool. And yes, YOU will be disfellowshipped for buying a one dollar Lottery ticket ... while the Society gambles with millions of dollars of OUR contributions... EVERY ... DAY! What's wrong with THAT picture?

When policy becomes more important than Justice ... Fairness ... and plain old common sense... this is what happens. Everything that is not specifically permitted ... is forbidden. How many times have we all seen Theologians of every Ilk enslave people with this philosophy? It is no encouragement that this ALSO occurs in the secular world.

Although I am relying on a strong but fragmentary memory over 50 years old, I remember studying that if a traveler or other person could not make it to Memorial for some very serious reason, that they could have a Memorial Celebration one Lunar Month later. We studied that in the KM at the KH, if memory serves. Does anybody remember this ... probably from the early 1960's?

I am relying on a memory set over 50 years old, but I remember studying that if a traveler or other person could not make it to Memorial for some very serious reason, that they could have a Memorial Celebration one Lunar Month later. We studied that in the KM at the KH, if memory serves. Does anybody remember this ... probably from the early 1960's?

Here is the REAL TEST! ...and all else is drivel, and irrelevancy ... Test Question 1.) What in life is NOT a gamble? Test Question 2.) What scripture in the Bible Prohibits taking known risks ? NONE of the above scriptures I saw HAVE ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with ANYONE willing to take a calculated risk on a voluntary basis, and in the case of, say, a Lottery, participate with others who WILLINGLY pool their money at odds of 1 in 295,000,000. NOTHING WHATSOEVER ! zero, zip, nada, goose eggs! If we prohibit taking known risks, among many other things, the human race will stagnate into the pit of starvation, death, and slavery, as Farmers will be PROHIBITED from doing their jobs and we will starve, there are a million ways to die, and when enslaved, we will accept with resignation the status quo, and not risk getting free. Oh, and by the way ... who today worships any God of Luck? Nobody I have ever met. I cannot even think of a name to associate with one. Test Question 1.) What in life is NOT a gamble? Test Question 2.) What scripture in the Bible Prohibits taking known risks ? ... all else is drivel, and irrelevancy ... .

Just as in the case of the United States of America, with its Constitution as its basis ... or the human administration of the Congregation of God with the Bible as its basis, relying on the fine words in the Constitution of the Russian Federation is ONLY AS GOOD as the sense of honor, awareness, and experience of those ENFORCING the controlling documents. When JUSTICE comes first ... all other things fall into place the way they should. When administrative POLICY comes first, it's "a slippery slope on the slide to hell". .

TTH sigh .... ..always trying to divert from any discussion of issues to try and disparage the character of someone .... ... and I believe you when you said you would walk away from such reasoning ... ... there were MANY people throughout History with the same opinions, and History is replete with horror of how it turned out for them. TRUTH does not cease to exist because it is ignored.

Has the Society ever ruled on what happens if a man or woman abandons their spouse forever ... is the one abandoned stuck forever ?

It's NOT REALLY about "beards" .... It's about how much garbage is acceptable in one's "spiritual food".

IT's not the petty FREEDOMS that you miss out on ...... it's the petty TYRANNIES that you have to endure ..... and they are like Camels ... once they get their heads into your tent .... soon, there will be no room for YOU. Only THEM!

Amen to that!

Nichole; THANK YOU! The descriptions in the link are incredibly valuable. Make sure you get your solar viewing glasses NOW!, for obvious reasons, suppliers will run out so as not to have to wait 350 years to sell any leftover solar viewing glasses. This is where I bought mine, about $3.00 a pair JTR

Yeah .... if he is drooling, stabbing the seat cushions with a knife, and brings a lunch to the 2017 Convention with fingers sticking out, they may need to reconsider the microphone thingy. There are PLENTY of examples of men in the Bible who slaughtered each other in wars, conflicts and assassinations ... AND THEY ALL HAD BEARDS!

If it was Leland Mississippi, perhaps you can find it at the Kermit the Frog Museum

In the movie "Zorba the Greek", Anthony Quinn plays Zorba. He and a friend are sitting around a table at night, lit with one candle, and they are both drunk. His friend haltingly asks "Zorba ... are you ...... married?" Zorba replies slowly .. "Am I not a man ... and is not a man .....stupid?"

NEWS ... is what is left over that fits in the empty spaces AFTER ALL THE ADVERTISEMENTS ARE SOLD. So ... how is news chosen? You have to SEDUCE people into BUYING a large roll of advertisements. " If it bleeds ... it leads!" Jehovah's Witness Protection Program .mp3

My thoughts on this was that a reporter surveying the damage, looking for a story, took his water stained (from when he left his car window open...) Bible out of the car, set it on a floor,, opened it to a passage that would appeal to man's better but gullible nature, and took the picture back to his Editor for a GREAT, but totally fake human interest story. When I was a newspaper photo lab technician as a teenager, I saw things like that several times. Or, as John Randolph Hurst, about which the movie "Citizen Kane" was about, said when MANUFACTURING news about Spanish Atrocities against the Cubans just before the Spanish-American War, because no news does NOT SELL NEWSPAPERS, to his reporters in Havana "You supply the pictures, I will supply the war!" His totally fake news generated enough public outrage to cause Congress to declare War against Spain.

AllenSmith: I bet you are a LOT of fun at parties! If there is ever a party game "LET'S MISUNDERSTAND EVERYTHING!", where you take a simple concept or idea, and totally screw it up, you will ALWAYS win the prize. You may even become World Champion ( ... it just occurred to me that you may demand that to be phrased "Planetary Champion", because the world "World" is ..uh... worldly, and "Champion" is ...uh.. oh, what's the word you will be looking for? .... ). As to my morbid and outrageous comments ... they are an acquired taste, like eating olives or sardines ... some people like gallows humor, some do not ..some people have enough of a frame of reference to SEE the humor ... and the point the outrageous comment is pounding home .... some do not. Infinite variety among Homo Sapiens, as well as "Homo Theocraticus." Uh-Oh ... I used the word "Homo". to refer to all of us ... and you ... and YOUR turn to be offended. To be 100% consistent it is now YOUR turn ... please try not to jump up and down on the box of puppies!

The things that should be confidential, is information involving INDIVIDUAL JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES. All else is petty tyranny ... because you CAN! It's a slippery slope, that ALWAYS leads to the same pit.

Death is the "Universal Democrat" Sometimes you can cheat death ... Sometimes death cheats you ... As Kenny Rogers once sang ... " .... The best you can hope for, is to die in your sleep ..."

Many necessary things are sad.

Queen Esther; I remember when my eldest son was 14 years old .. and we went to a Chevrolet car dealership to look at cars. ... he was well into wanting a driver's license and wanting a car of his own, at at the time I might have been able to get him one when he was 17 .... and he had a driver's license. We looked at Corvettes ... and he knew he MIGHT get one. He was very agreeable that day. He sat in the cars, we looked at the engines, read the window stickers for about an hour or so .. and then I looked at him and asked "Tommy, if you could get one of these cars .. which one would you choose?" His mouth fell open in anticipation and looked like I had just handed him a bare electrical wire. "Oh Daddy, I like... THIS ONE!", almost hugging a nearby car, which probably cost $50,000 or so. I looked at him with love in my heart, and asked him "And Tommy, ... what have you done to EARN such a magnificent machine?" I deliberately broke his heart ... but he makes enough money now to be able to afford any car he wants ( my best guess ), and he and his wife are serving Jehovah whole souled, far beyond my meager efforts. I am also well pleased with how he and my other two kids turned out. I know MANY Elders whose children have left the truth ... all of them ... and I sometimes think my children would love me had I used a gentler, soothing tone ... but it was my job to be a FATHER ... not their friend, and to drop-kick them into the future. I may be tone deaf ... but I get by.