James Thomas Rook Jr.

A writer who reads his work in public may have OTHER nasty habits.

The entire context of my posting was in reference to the three previous allusions that President Trumps current missile barrage of Syria was illegitimate, and that he was somehow a fool ( Duck comment ).

Everything that lives has the NATURAL right of self-defense, if they choose to exercise it .. and IF they can manage it.

They ALSO have the NATURAL right to protect the innocent from slaughter, if they choose to exercise it .. and IF they can manage it.

...and True TomHarley ... your 15 postings on the apostate web site AVOID-JW.ORG are as petulant and disjointed there as they are here.

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Caleb and Sophia?

If only it were that ..... ONLY!

Pyramid scale construction projects?
83,000 Bethelites and Special Pioneers being severed?
A hundred page and more response to the Australian Royal Commission on Child Sexual Abuse, but not one word to the Brotherhood?
being elbowed in the ribs in print and video how to give money to the Society?
Tight Pants Tony?
Million dollar Caleb and Sophia buses with $30.000 paint jobs?
Governing Body Members with $20,000 Rolex watches?
Blood Transfusions OK now ... if you have the parts come in on 13 different IV tubes?
The Society "Nationalizing" all Kingdom Halls in the World?
Regional Translation Centers using barely literate people?
Real Estate purchases of many millions of dollars for "meditation?
Allowing Chilean National Flags to fly at Kingdom Halls?
Massive systems of JW retirement homes for those in the "in crowd"?

Caleb and Sophia Merchandise, purses, briefcases, pins, buttons, slacks, suspenders and bow ties, and pictures, back car window decals, book covers, wall posters, 3d dolls like GB Bro. Anthony Morris III has in his Bethel Office, Videos, DVDs, coloring books, decorated birthd...er... baptism cakes, stand up displays, literature bags, greeting cards, Sophia colorful tote bags for girls, and Sophia cloth shopping bags for Wal-Mart, etc., book markers, key chains, 3d Printer statues of Caleb, ball point pens, and penlights, pins and brooches for older Sisters, and cartoon wall hangings for the inside of Caleb and Sophia dioramas, or JW.ORG men's ties, lapel pins, wristwatches, aluminum military style dog tags, rings, aluminum pendants for neck chains and charm bracelets, car bumper stickers, car window decals, women's pocket mirrors, flags to tie to radio aerials, put on flagpoles outside Chilean Kingdom Halls ( ... what's a Chilean Kingdom Hall doing with a flagpole, anyway ...?)Swiss Assembly Grounds, and OTHER places where a pale blue flag would look spiffy, and in the absence of a breeze, look like a U.N. Flag hanging limp. Then there is the JW.ORG blue oversized umbrellas, Unisex Hoodie Jackets, neck lanyards, hand lunch boxes with Paradise scenes, and of course Caleb and Sophia., and to contrast, from Peru, a BRIGHT Pink Caleb and Sophia Bible cover entitled New World Translation of the HOLY SCRIPTURES ... over a large picture of guess whom? Of course the refrigerator magnets and motivational jewelry are big sellers, not so much for the Caleb crochetable doll ?

The Society heavily investing in the Stock Market, and we get DFd for buying a one dollar lottery ticket?

The fact that the entire Assembly of Brothers fears what secret stuff goes on in the dreaded "little back room"?

The Society handling BILLIUONS of dollars, with absolutely ZERO disclosure or accountability?

Naw ..... it's those damn apostates who lie about there being a global JW pedophile problem, three weeks before the Austrailian Government exposes it all.

It's almost as if Caleb and Sophia had ALREADY taken control of supervision and leadership of the Society!

The problem with Caleb and Sophia is that their influence on young minds, and on the minds of many adults, is INSIDIOUS ... as warned against by Exodus 20:45.

The following REAL LIFE example proves this, if you had any doubt !

When the two year old daughter is 20 years old .... she will remember the love she had for Caleb and Sophia, who she COULD see, more than Jehovah, who she could NOT see.

That is WHY Jehovah gave the counsel in Exodus 20:4-5.

.Here are some adult Witnesses confirming my reality based supposition .....

...check out the photos on the construction hard hats .... the rough equivalent of tattoos that people used to have, to show what gods they worshiped, or belonged to......

I am looking for a REAL TRANSCRIPT ... not a summary. 

..every word spoken, literally translated by COMPETENT translators.

... all else is hearsay and fluff .... which a "Thessalonian" would swallow, but a "Berean" would not.

Like a noble "Berean", our standards of PROOF should be higher,

21 minutes ago, Bible Speaks said:

@James Thomas Rook Jr. Do you see anything in my picture of concern? Thank you

No.

It is the scriptures and reality that caught my attention ... not an artist's graphic.

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44 minutes ago, Bible Speaks said:

God's word says: "You must not have any other gods besides me.You must not make.. a carved image.. not bow down to them nor be enticed to serve them." (Exodus 20:3-5) While Jesus Christ said, "God is a Spirit, and those worshipping him must worship in spirit and truth."-John 4:23,24

Symbols are very, very important to the human mind ... people are inspired by them, and in following their own self-inspiration, whether it be a simple red circle on a white background, a rotating black scythe on a field of white and red, or a field of white stars on a blue background, flanked by thirteen red and white stripes, or an array of  simple JW.ORG flags all around, and inside an Assembly grounds in Fribourg, Switzerland, they are always used to seduce humans, many times by people with the very BEST of intentions, as well as evil men.

Thank You, Melinda .... !

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There is a difference between INDIVIDUALS practicing these things, and the INSTITUTIONS that they belong to, whether it be the United States Marines, the Boy Scouts, the Vatican governed Roman Catholic Church, or the Governing Body led Jehovah's Witnesses as an institutional PRACTICE covering it up, and punishing the ones who threaten their "HOLY" reputation with scandal, based on real Truth, with excommunication, or disfellowshipping.

Administrative "due process" then becomes institutionalized evil, in contempt of God, his Christ, and the Soldiers, Scouts, Parishioners, or the Brotherhood that has faith in their reasonable expectations of righteous judgements, and to keep them alive, whole, and safe from predators.

The word for such things is TREACHERY!

... and what it always produces is always EVIL.

... and a million words repeated a thousand times in consoling, soothing ways will not change that.

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You need to sit down, clear your minds, and CAREFULLY consider the next statement, which is ALWAYS true, whether one of Jehovah's Witnesses ... or in the world at large:

... People who do not believe in any god have sacrificed their lives for JUSTICE, as best they could manage it, knowing that when they died, they would be gone ... FOREVER.

NEVER criticize men who have that kind of sense of honor, and self-directed obligation !

The reason YOU live in peace, is that such men have "stood on the wall", and "fought in the mud", and endured unspeakable horror, ... so that you can sleep warm in your beds at night.

In the ways that we can ... how can we do any less?

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59 Cruise Missiles coming through the windows of a Syrian Air Base, fired from a thousand miles away, each with a rated 1,000 pound warhead, make a much more emphatic  point than giving an empty speech  speech about drawing a "red line in the sand", and doing nothing, that using Sarin gas on civilians in a civil war will not be tolerated by decent men.

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Why doesn't the Society translate and provide the Russian Court Transcripts for us?

Since somewhere around 5.5 million Brothers spent somewhere around 20 million hours writing letters to the officials of the Russian Federation mailing an average of somewhere around 4 letters each at an international postage rate of perhaps 80 MILLION DOLLARS, total ... why has the WTB&TS not translated FOR THE BROTHERHOOD, translations of the Russian REAL transcripts, so we will know exactly what is going on?

You would think that for 80 or so MILLION DOLLARS, some usable hard data would be forthcoming, from people that reportedly are the world's best translators !!

This affects the Brotherhood worldwide, as well as being banned in the Russian Federation .... I sure hope this is not a repeat of the Haiti Relief Fiasco, where the news was so onerous, the WTB&TS Relief efforts intertwined with the United Nations, and the Red Cross that the news of what really happened throughout the relief effort could not be published on the Society's "News" portion of the web site.

Why doesn't the Society translate and provide the Russian Court Transcripts for us?.

... and the WORLD at large!

.That is hard news EVERYBODY can use!

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It's not a moot point , but what has been presented above is a SUMMARY of a transcript, this one is pretty good, but some I have seen have  probably translated with a software program, such as "Google Translate".

The BIG QUESTION that begs to be answered for me is this: 

Since somewhere around 5.5 million Brothers spent somewhere around 20 million hours writing letters to the officials of the Russian Federation mailing an average of somewhere around 4 letters each at an international postage rate of perhaps 80 MILLION DOLLARS, total ... why has the WTB&TS not translated FOR THE BROTHERHOOD, translations of the Russian REAL transcripts, so we will know exactly what is going on?

You would think that for 80 or so MILLION DOLLARS, some usable hard data would be forthcoming, from people that reportedly are the world's best translators !!

Soon, an English translation WILL be available somewhere, possibly from several sources.

Why do we have to go elsewhere for hard news?

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... good thing Don Rickles didn't read that comedy bit ... he mighta popped a kidney laughing ...

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 ...  too soon?

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Sigh ...

TTH has once again ignored the context of my reply .. and commented about things not in evidence in my post.

I have to give you this ... you are 100% consistent.

Instead of addressing the idea and concept of context, and the issues involved, you wander off to how you have been treated, and apologize for something that did not happen.

Perhaps you could work on those critical thinking skills, as well as reading comprehension skills. 

At the United States Naval Academy, they have a class that is divided in half, and one half tries to write instructions to the other half that absolutely cannot be misinterpreted. The other half of the class deliberately tries to misinterpret the instructions.   It is graded.

Then they switch sides and do the same thing, over and over..  That too is graded.  This is how they learn critical thinking skills.

Information, and a lot of it .. is NOT wisdom.

Information is knowing a tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is knowing you don't want to put it in a fruit salad.

The Universe grades all of our thinking skills, and it is impartial, and without mercy.

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Sigh ...

TTH has once again ignored the context of my reply .. and commented about things not in evidence in my post.

It's like trying to find the end of a bare roll of transparent tape with your fingernail.

"... there are three apples in the basket ..."

Reply: " ... wrong!, because baskets are used by evil people to store greasy auto parts ..."

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The institutional credibility gap of such things is ALWAYS more than offset by the institutional gullibility fill.

When education is openly and continuously disparaged, as it has been in the Truth for over 50 years, the Brothers and Sisters lose their critical thinking skills, and every year get more and more ignorant ... and this is the result.

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...too often that is true in every judicial system ... remember ... even the Nazis had a fully staffed "Department of Justice", but there was no Justice. ... Justice we get from Jehovah God ... everything else is more often than not only "due process".

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So far I have a really good memory, which is a blessing for me, and a curse for those who have to endure my rants down memory lane ...

In 1968 there was an outrageous satire movie called "The Presidents Analyst" with James Coburn as a shrink who was recruited by the CIA to be the top-secret analyst for the lonely and disturbed President Johnson.

The opening scenes are the setup for his recruitment to the White House, and show ONE way to combat depression explained by CIA operative played by comedian Godfrey Cambridge.

By the way ... a Brother, Martin Horsey, who I met in 1969 at the Hollywood, California Congregation, was an actor who played the Canadian Secret Service Agent in the movie, who Kidnapped The President's Analyst before the commies could get him.

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INTREPID TRAVELLER:

We seem to have no shortage of SRPAs.

I watched the ARC, live, and SAW him say this.

We USED to call lying for political correctness craven cowardice .. . but that was my first and foremost stunned reaction .. that he was lying.

Now we have TWO choices .... one sworn under oath before Almighty God, as you quoted ....

1 hour ago, INTREPID TRAVELLER said:

Question: And do you see yourselves as Jehovah God’s spokespeople on earth?

Answer: That I think would seem to be quite presumptuous to say that we are the only spokesperson that God is using ....

Funny how the story changes when put under oath, by reasonable, rational, thinking  people who have the power to throw your SRPA butt in jail.

As Karl Childers in the movie Sling Blade put it ....

" .... Not funny 'ha-ha', funny queer. "

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.... commenting on the Lego Brother, and the Lego Trolly Cart photo .... my tolerance for children often reached its limits when I got up in the middle of the night, barefooted and in the dark, stepped on  some Lego contraption.

When I went to restaurants, I would often ask the waitresses, "Do you serve children?"

When I got a "yes" answer, I would say " I would like two, please, with ketchup!"

21 minutes ago, AllenSmith said:

And how is that any different from Non-fallacious reasoning ad hominem attacks, that many here are only interested in disparaging the WTS by misinterpreting and perverse what the society is about. It’s quite “clear” the Administrator has taken an interest to admonish me while playing favoritism NOT to admonish others. So, if the “truth” is what you seek, this is a perfect example of a double standard. TRUE STATEMENT!

Is that OK! Administrator, and Queen Esther? Since you are going to start to "mark" my post as "dislike" while posting "like this" to those other forms of ad hominem attacks.

Thank you Allen, for providing an EXACT example of what I was talking about ... WoooOOoooEEEEEEoooooo !

TrueTomHarley:

In any REAL  civil debate the TRUTH will always win out.

IT IS EVERY SEEKER OF REAL TRUTH'S RESPONSIBILITY TO PRESENT ACCURATE FACTS, AND TO KNOW WHAT IS TRUE ... if for no other reason that YOU PERSONALLY can win an argument on any topic, Antarctica to Zepplins ... based on facts, reason, logic and common sense.

Calling people names and trying to disparage their character, or appealing ( read: WHINING) to "overlords" only sends up a red flare into the night sky, that you cannot defend what is true, based on what is actually true, and need a "Big Brother" to shut the opposition down .. because you cannot defend your position, facts, philosophy, perspective of Theology in the REAL world, outside of pretzel shaped sentences and words.

The TRUE test of ANY philosophy, perspective or God supported religion is this ;

1.) It must make plain 'ol common sense outside of a convoluted million word semantics trap, where ANYTHING can be rationalized, and explained with applied stupidity.

2. It has to be based on free will, without coercion in any way, shape or form.

3. It has to be defendable against ALL COMERS ... in every circumstance ... in every case ... and the Arena Of Ideas by necessity must run red with rivers of blood from bad ideas exposed, and piled high with the bodies of the deluded, to stink in the hot midday sun.

The reason people inside, and outside of the Brotherhood fail at this is that they are afraid of philosophical combat, and TRYING to find out what is true.

THEY FEAR BEING PUNISHED SEVERELY FOR RATIONAL THOUGHT AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH.  This is why in in a judicial system based on FEAR, in 50 years, with 1,006 criminal child molesters, in over 5,000 incidents ... ONLY ONE was reported to the Australian police.

The word the entire Planet uses for this  ... is TYRANNY.

Without rational thought being encouraged, and Freedom of Speech, with EVERYBODY encouraged ... we become draft animals for anyone who, even though they may have the highest goals and the very BEST motives as rulers, and shepherds ... THEY INTEND TO RULE.

The effect  ALWAYS is an almost imperceptible slide from fear, to accepting tyranny as "the way things should be",

Instead of debating and abandoning what is false ... they debate and defend their untenable and wrong positions, ideas, and totems, and lose the simplest arguments about what is True and what is not, resorting to "Theocratic Warfare", where lying is an acceptable tactic.

It's a TRAP.

5 hours ago, Eoin Joyce said:

Do you need two witnesses to report a missing person in your neck of the woods (or swamp)?

Better example please!

A better example is not necessary ... you have confused two different issues.

Anybody can report a missing person .... even "Bro. Bobby", who in this example SAW me kill "Bro. Jack".

But if he talks to the Elders first .. he most likely won't go to the Police ... they will talk him out of it so as to not "sully Jehovah's name".

Keep it hidden, keep it quiet ... that is why as of this date March, 18, 2017 ... the website JW.Org's World News has mentioned nothing, Nothing, NOTHING, NOTHING!, about the Australian Royal commissions investigations  ... NEWS .... Real news.

Zero, zip, nada, goose eggs ....

Bro. Bobby is completely free to call the Police and have THEM investigate ANY crime, but because of the Pharisaic APPLICATION of rules that existed thousands of years ago, in a completely different structured civilization and culture, where trials were held in the city gates for all those inside the city and outside the city to be able to see with their own eyes how Justice was administered... we have institutionalized craven cowardice in the REAL application of Justice.

Justice has become a billion words ... but has also BECOME an extreme rarity in real life, because doing what is RIGHT is never, ever considered .... only what one is FORCED to do. (...PLEASE make us do what is right - GB Geoffery Jackson ....).

This is not new.

The Bible records three three Elders that counseled Job in his misery for three days ... but had NOTHING worth recording to say.

Words, word, and more words ... and Justice is aborted.

A child molester in the Congregation today with only ONE witness is, and denies it, can retain his congregational standing ... and because the accusations cannot be acted upon, he or she cannot be reported to the police ... by the Elders.

The instructions are to "Leave it in Jehovah's hands ...".

This is a CRIMINAL activity ... but in 50 years in over 5,000 cases involving 1,006 alleged perpetrators ... in one country alone, at the "bottom of the world",  the solution was to keep the details hidden in envelopes  in congregational and branch files, and mail copies in special blue envelopes to Bethel in New York.

Like Nixon's Watergate ... the cover-up is what became global news.

In the old Soviet Union, the major newspaper was named "PRAVDA" which means "TRUTH".

All news extolled the wisdom and competence of the Communist leadership, and allegiance and respect for  the good job they were doing.

Then their administration collapsed of it's own arrogance, and incompetence.

15 minutes ago, Anna said:

Why should they take Bobby's word for it? What if Bobby is not the sharpest tool in the box? Or what if Bobby has raised false alarms in the past? But they should definitely encourage Bobby to go to the police and the police can start their investigative process.

It does not matter if they take Bobby's word for it or not ... OUR responsibility is to DO WHAT WE CAN ... all that we can .. for basic JUSTICE!

ESPECIALLY for those in our extended family of the Brotherhood!

FOR EVERYBODY!

.Otherwise, like those men who refuse to take care of their families ...  we are worse than those who are without the Truth.

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One thing to consider ... If you have been to 50 or more Memorials of Jesus Death, as I have ... you have NEVER heard the most technically accurate details ... as recorded completely in the Book of Luke..

Parts of the Apostle Luke's account is sometimes mentioned .... but not all of it.

.... and NOT the account that he gives that the other writers do not mention ....

Go ahead ... be a sport ... look it up. Make some notes off to the side ....

Why, is another thread ... it has to do with an AGENDA .