James Thomas Rook Jr.

..and HOW do you know this? It seems to me if they are ALREADY married, per WTB&TS policy ... and the State has granted them a divorce .... (remember ... in the eyes of the "Congregation" they are always married unless one commits adultery, and the other does NOT forgive the adultery ...) they have satisfied the requirements of the Society... AND .. the state, and any interference is just busybody meddling. Ok... lets say that in the middle of the Amazon Jungle, I meat ... er .. meet a tribe of cannibals, and in order not to be the guest of honor at dinner, I agree to marry the pigmy chief's daughter, he chants, dances, and makes a marriage certificate on the side of a coconut, and according to that tribe, I AM MARRIED. Guards stand outside the grass hut to make sure the marriage is consummated, The only way to get divorced is to feed the coconut to an alligator, which I do. I guess then that according to current WTB&TS policy ... I have to wrestle the alligator and have IT ... after a reasonable time, of course ... barf up the coconut, and hang it around my neck on a chain. I have no doubt that is true, THAT IS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN ... BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS? AND MORE TO THE POINT ... WHAT IS THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS FOR THIS? It is ABSURD that people married in the sight of God ( disregarding the Amazonian specifics ..) need approval and registration from the State... WHEN THE STATE DOES NOT CARE AT ALL ... AND HAS GIVEN THEM PERMISSION FOR A CIVIL DIVORCE. 1. God considers the couple still married. 2. The "State" could care less or not at all, and even GRANTS legal divorce. If I was a cynical person ... I might think the ONLY thing the WTB&TS cares about is controlling EVERY aspect of human behavior, and that EVERYTHING not specifically allowed ..... is forbidden.

... round up the "Usual Suspects" .....

If you see this ... you will remember it for the REST OF YOUR LIFE! THIS is the definitive site to do your research .. please spend several HOURS reading it ... you will thank yourself over, and over. http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/path_through_the_US.htm Susan and I will be going to Cross Hill, South Carolina early Monday morning to see it .. weather permitting ... it's only about 120 miles from where we live, and it's in the exact center of the path of totality impossible not to be able to find ( a small town) ... Because the moon is traveling in the same direction as the Earth's rotation, there will be a full 2 minutes of TOTAL solar eclipse, and more. The lead in partial eclipse will start about an hour before, and last about an hour after the local times listed on the maps. Order your viewing glasses RIGHT NOW, for obvious reasons. They are about $3.00 a pair. DO NOT take photos without a 16.5 stop rated neutral density filter in FRONT of your camera lens, as it will burn out your camera sensor. This is the EVENT OF THE CENTURY, ... AND MORE! FOR THOSE LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES.

I have not been keeping count ... but continue on ... it's not even CLOSE to a million words yet about how many angels can dance on the head of a sewing pin. If you keep asking the wrong questions ... all you will ever get is wrong answers. This is normal.

Actually, it's 53 MILES of interlocking tunnels ..... 1500 or so feet down ... big enough to store loaded rail cars with high level radioactive waste for 10,000 years, WITHOUT TUNNEL MAINTENANCE.. Spend perhaps 20 million dollars lobbying to have it declared surplus, and have it auctioned off as surplus ... and an imaginative engineer could become a multi- billionaire in about six years, if he had the capital. It's really QUITE Simple ... FIRST... Get 50 million dollars .....

I worked off and on for 20 years on the Yucca Mountain high level radioactive waste storage project in Nevada, from the beginning until Obama cancelled it to pander to the ignorant for votes. These boring machines are INCREDIBLE. And the Engineering truly MAGNIFICENT!. Youtube has many videos of these GIGANTIC machines digging through solid rock ... worth the hunt!

THIS is the single paragraph I had in mind ...... BOOM!

I have often given thought as the MOST PROBABLE way to calculate time ... and it is ONLY my BEST EDUCATED GUESS, at the present time ... is first realize that the PERSPECTIVE of the narrator in Genesis is of one standing on the surface of the Earth watching it's formation. It is NOT a "view from Space". Then ... we know from MOUNTAINS of very hard evidence ( no pun intended) that the Earth went from formless and void about Three and one-half BILLION years ago to a ball of molten rock from collisions with impacting and accretion materials, became an oblate spheroid (generally a ball...) and it took that long to become the Lovely Blue-Green-Tan Planet we have today., with the Moon in EXACTLY the right place, for the first time in the history of the Solar System, so that Earth observers can use it as a tool to wrestle the secrets from the Universe, as Einstein waited 18 or so years for a Solar Eclipse to verify his theory of relativity as being TRUE. So ... if you take 3-1/2 billion years divided by six creative days, (and a day of rest ...), that is 3, 500,000,000 years divided by 7, which gives you each of the seven "days" is about a half-billion years long. Time to have the entire Earth go through many changes, from a ball of super-heated steam covered incandescent rock in total darkness, to a lush jungle and ecosphere with hundreds of millions of frolicking dinosaurs and other critters swarming over the Earth. My current BEST GUESS ... based on VERY hard evidence ... is that we are living in God's rest day now .... but where we are in that half-billion year long rest day would be wild guessing without any hard evidence. (That means delusional fantasy, for those in Rio Linda...) The entire Universe SCREAMS! ... screams .... SCREAMS! ... of the existing time scale of all things .... stars, planetary formation, geological epocs, climate variations , life .. extinctions ... life ... extinctions, etc., and of vast and widespread civilizations of proto-men, precursors to "Homo Erectus" , eventually leading to the direct creation of "Homo Theocraticus" ... the first sanctioned humans ...by God. By the way ... this "theory" SOLVES the problem of evolution's billions of tons of hard evidence across all sciences being irrefutably true, and the Bible account of the first "Humans" being the direct creation of Jehovah God. IT FITS ALL KNOWN FACTS FROM BOTH SIDES .... WITHOUT ANY COMPROMISES OR OBFUSCATIONS OR COGNITIVE DISSONANCE. If it takes more than one paragraph to explain ANY concept ... it probably is NOT true. I am 70, now, and these things are for younger and smarter people to work out the details. As Kenny Rogers sang in his song "The Gambler" .... "You gotta know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em Know when to walk away, Know when to run. You can't count your money, while you're sittin' at the table .. The'ill be time enough for countin' ... when the dealings done."

yes, but in this last days seems that we all need a forum to discuss somethings. otherwise, how do you explain all these fb pages, groups and e-pages that exist all over the internet? You are "preaching to the choir" here on that one ... an American English expression that means I am ALREADY a believer that what you say about this is true. Unfettered human communication is SO IMPORTANT that atheists ( as the classical extreme example) will go into mortal combat against those who try to restrict the free exchange of ideas, and are willing to die FOREVER to defend free speech and expression ... they knowing that without it the human race will always be in bondage to those who want to maintain THEIR power ... by restricting what WE are allowed to know. A GREAT movie about this is the 1997 "THE POSTMAN", starring Kevin Costner ... about children who know that there is NOTHING more important than family communication ...and other similar themes.

I personally do not think there is ANYTHING erotic about that photograph ... and have seen more "stuff" at a commercial swimming pool / water park near Mason Ohio. Let's assume FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT that she really is a JW ... it certainly is NOT modest ... but then again ... when a woman becomes pregnant she gives up ALL, repeat ALL claim to modesty, unless she has her babie(s) in a closet .... sometimes there is a whole room full of people staring at her "girlie parts". Think of it this way ..... let's say you worked your way through medical school, paying your own tuition by working in a slaughterhouse in Chicago, and decided to become a urologist or gynecologist. Your sensibilities about sex and violence would be COMPLETELY different than Bro. Casper Milquetoast, who still lives in his mother's basement, and washes windows for a living. We each stand or fall .... according to the sensibilities of our Master, Jesus Christ about such things ... and although I would not want my daughter doing such a thing ... she is over 18, and does NOT ANSWER TO ME, It's called FREEDOM, folks .... and always entails risk. Does Jehovah God, or Jesus care if she does this ? I think not ... we have a world full of REAL problems .... without inventing irrelevant ones. I would give her the Jabba-The-Hut swimsuit award, though ... .

. ..... I dunno, but I remember when the ex-JW Janet Jackson, sister of Michael Jackson, had that "wardrobe malfunction" during a half-time performance at the Superbowl years ago, I was so horrified that I can no longer drink chocolate milk !

. . ...and on a related subject ...... .

What I find curious is how one of Jehovah's Witnesses gets mixed up with such a nutcase, in the first place ... ESPECIALLY someone who eventually chops off her (his?) HEAD! Something about this does not pass the "smell test".

RATS! ... and I had two surplus North Korean middle range ballistic missiles ... READY TO GO!

It depends on whether you want to become a member of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society or not .... since 1985, the oath of dedication has NOT been to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ... but has been to the Father, the Son, and " ... God's spirit anointed organization". (paraphrased ... it has varied greatly...). The requirement from the Bible is that you must be baptized to symbolize PUBLICLY your dedication to God , but as a letter from Judge Rutherford to someone who wrote into him about that stated ( and I have a copy here, somewhere...), ANYBODY can baptize you into Christianity, which MAKES you one of Jehovah's Witnesses in a functional way, just as it made Jesus a Jehovah's Witness in a functional way, and all the early Christians, Christians in a functional way. I was baptized in 1964, so I have no oath of allegiance to the WTB&TS, and was not baptized into the Corporation that only in the past year has been forced to admit they are not inspired by God, or infallible, and are slowly prepping us in the meetings for the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT next year or so which everyone can see coming, like a glacier. So, to directly answer your question ... yes you do have to dedicate your life to God, and PUBLICLY be baptized to have the approval of God and his Christ ... BUT... (see cartoon below...)

I have had to dig trenches across my yard for underground wiring with a 8 pound sledgehammer and a chisel, sitting on the ground. When you have no help ... you do what you can. ".. Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition...".

Don't blame JTR for this thread. This is JWI hijacking one of JTR's posts that was just moved over here. I'm only stealing the top half of this post as an explanation for the the rest of this thread. JTR only gets top billing here because his was the earliest post chosen for this new thread. I was asked to try my hand at splitting off some of the diversionary topics from the thread called: Perhaps you heard of it. Well, as you can tell from the image attached to the link, above, it quickly turned into thread about buzzards and elephants and Rolex watches and even took a detour down sewers and down Broadway, too. So I did a quick review of the thread and decided that it might be good to just see if I can split off only several of the side topics, so that this new thread, becomes a place for the obvious side topics that always come up in a 1914 discussion, such as: You have no right to discuss this because it's apostasy even to bring it up! You must be a follower of Carl Olof Jonsson You must be a follower of Raymond Franz You are not being loyal and faithful to the Governing Body You must have bad motives, ego issues, etc. etc. In addition since that other thread is at least 14 pages too long, this new one will likely have a lot of free space, comparatively. So we might also just move over a few of the posts that weren't directly responding to the subject, although they might make interesting side topics, which could even be broken off of this thread someday. By diversionary topics, I don't mean they were unwelcome diversions (OK, some of them were) but some were excellent, informative posts responding to diversions, and some tied back to the original topic so well that they remained in place. Feel free to make suggestions. I wouldn't worry about this too much. In a few days, probably both of these threads could move to the back of the line. For anyone who worries about such things I won't move posts if I find out that it loses any reactions it had. Wouldn't want to change that. But I'm also worried about the chronological order of the posts and continuity of comments. So if it's not working out, then most things will just stay where they were. AND NOW WE RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED POST FROM JTR: . . I remember many years ago, in Mechanicsville, Virginia, an Engineering firm wanted to build an office complex on land they had bought ... BUT ... there was a historic building on the site that by law could not be torn down without government approval .... so the Company applied to build a museum around it .... which was approved. After the larger building was constructed around the smaller building, that changed the status FROM historical site to museum exhibit, and the Owners decided that their PERSONAL PROPERTY (no longer considered "Real Estate"), had to go ... and they demolished the smaller building, and built their necessary offices inside, on their own land. This is EXACTLY what Jesus did (figuratively speaking) when establishing the Christian Congregation. THE OLD BUILDING WAS "HISTORICAL", BUT PEOPLE'S REAL NEEDS ARE MORE IMPORTANT! When you find a dead elephant in your bath tub, a lot of analysis is not necessary ... you just fire up the Ol' chain saw .. and HANDLE IT.

As an incurable romantic, that brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my face ....

If you kiss while gargling with mouthwash, it comes out your nose ....

If you can make it ... it will be something you will remember with awe the REST OF YOUR LIFE ... in great DETAIL ... WITH AWE AND REVERENCE. Susan and I and my Sister's family are planning to go to Cross Hill, South Carolina, arriving in the early morning of Monday, August 21st, 2017. This is the exact center of the path of the total eclipse that is impossible not to be able to find. We have already bought solar viewing glasses, ( about $3.00 each), and I am going to buy a solar filter for my camera. We are taking a lunch and supper, as everywhere in a 70 mile wide path of the eclipse will be PACKED with people from all over America to see it.

Since the Society does NOT recognize Civil Divorces if there is no adultery, and considers a couple to STILL BE MARRIED ... if a man and wife get divorced civilly ONLY ( perhaps for some economic reason, like bankruptcy, or estate management .... or they cannot stand each other more than a few hours a week .. (health reasons (?)) ... and they still shack up (friends, with benefits..) does the Society sanction these ones in any way? ( For those in Rio Linda ... "friends with benefits" means friends that have sex ...) ....

I don't know why people don't just GET IT! JESUS MADE IT SO SIMPLE TO THE PEOPLE HE SPOKE TO! yI yI yI yI yiyiyi !

I had already posted the following on the Archive "thumbnails by date" (what is the official name for that, anyway?): " Yeah ... and here in the United States, they ban Primatene Mist Asthma Rescue Inhalers because THE MUST-ERIOUS "they" believe (Belief is a strange and convoluted animal...) is that after the medicine is delivered to the lungs, the propellant is dangerous for the atmosphere, AND IS CONTRIBUTING TO DESTROYING EARTH'S CLIMATE. ...take a LOOK at this picture of the Japanese Eruption, and here the Mt. Pinatubo Explosion!! The U.S. Geological Survey said this about the Cataclysmic 1991 Eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippine Islands ... which before they stopped measuring, put more pollution and claimed "Greenhouse Gasses" (greenhouse gasses ... the only REAL one is water vapor...) than the human race has collectively done in its entire history ... COMBINED ... by a factor of 870. ( ... that's 870 times MORE than EVERYTHING mankind has ever produced, altogether, for those in Rio Linda ....). " Impacts of the Eruptions Fortunately, scientists from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and the U.S. Geological Survey had forecast Pinatubo's 1991 climactic eruption, resulting in the saving of at least 5,000 lives and at least $250 million in property. Commercial aircraft were warned about the hazard of the ash cloud from the June 15 eruption, and most avoided it, but a number of jets flying far to the west of the Philippines encountered ash and sustained about $100 million in damage. Although much equipment was successfully protected, structures on the two largest U.S. military bases in the Philippines--Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station--were heavily damaged by ash from the volcano's climactic eruption. Nearly 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide were injected into the stratosphere in Pinatubo's 1991 eruptions, and dispersal of this gas cloud around the world caused global temperatures to drop temporarily (1991 through 1993) by about 1°F (0.5°C). The eruptions have dramatically changed the face of central Luzon, home to about 3 million people." Note that putting 870 times, and MORE greenhouse gasses, and crud into the atmosphere LOWERED the Earth's temperature ... NOT raised it. We are being duped by Snowflakes. .

Wrong Question: Was this INSTITUTIONAL disfellowshipping against as it is practiced today ... destroying whole family relationships, up and down generational lines, and across extended families? NO! .... That would be as the Russians view it ... an EXTREME view ... on a slippery slope to societal ruin. There may be mitigating circumstances that Elders cannot even comprehend ... or wrap their minds around. If I unrepentedly shot my mother to death , I should be disfellowshipped forever .. but by WHO? If I unrepentedly shot her because she was burning to death in a car fire, and there was no way to get her out ... all sane people would exonerate me ... except Pharisee types divorced from reality. The world is full of INFINITE VARIETY, and NO ONE can evaluate it all correctly. Justice we get from Jehovah God ... all else is due process .... ONLY! Institutionally, we should get out of the judge, jury, and "execution" business, leaving punishment to Jehovah, and the properly trained consciences of those professing True Christianity, as individuals. OR WHY HAVE A TRAINED CONSCIENCE AT ALL! ? Institutional disfellowishipping only has one REAL purpose ... the way it is handled today ... to inspire fear of rebellion against the authority that has self-appointed themselves into as much ultimate power as the State will allow ... for NOW.

. Yeah, when raising my three children I never had to beat them with a literal rod ... except for number 4, Amos (The Evil One), who we had to chain to the rafters in the attic, and occasionally discipline him by throwing a bucket of fish heads up the stairs at him. Boy!, that kid could wail and moan and rattle chains like you wouldn't BELIEVE! He was 32 years old before he died, and he turned out nicely before the end. We finally did train him to do useful, productive work, got him longer chains, and he ran all during the nighttime on a giant hamster wheel hooked up to a generator for all our electricity, except the clothes dryer, which takes 240 volts. I was there the night he died on the Hamster Wheel, while I was repairing a smoking hot bad wheel bearing, when he uttered his last words ... "WATER!" "Water! .... water ....