James Thomas Rook Jr.

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This continuous, never-ending global controversy has been going on since the 1960's, that I am aware of personally, and even before, when Judge Rutherford PERSONALLY forbade beards among Jehovah's witnesses, with the possible exception of post-menopausel Sisters .... and the Society has never definitively stated ANYTHING. 

With my usual lack of humor I present the Draft Copy of the December 2016 issue of the Watchtower which showed a Brother shaving on the cover ... it was changed before being distributed, because the Brothers responsible for the VERY GOOD and accurate article ... disappeared mysteriously.

After you save the file to your hard drive, from the TOOL BAR, be sure to set your ADOBE PDF reader under VIEW to "Reading Mode" and under ZOOM,  "Fit Page" to read it.

Dec 2016 Watchtower draft article .pdf

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This continuous, never-ending global controversy has been going on since the 1960's, that I am aware of personally, and even before, when Judge Rutherford PERSONALLY forbade beards among Jehovah's witnesses, with the possible exception of post-menopausel Sisters .... and the Society has never definitively stated ANYTHING. 

With my usual lack of humor I present the Draft Copy of the December 2016 issue of the Watchtower which showed a Brother shaving on the cover ... it was changed before being distributed, because the Brothers responsible for the VERY GOOD and accurate article ... disappeared mysteriously.

After you save the file to your hard drive, from the TOOL BAR, be sure to set your ADOBE PDF reader under VIEW to "Reading Mode" and under ZOOM,  "Fit Page" to read it.

Dec 2016 Watchtower draft article .pdf

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With my usual lack of humor I present the Draft Copy of the December 2016 issue of the Watchtower which showed a Brother shaving on the cover ... it was changed before being distributed, because the Brothers responsible for the VERY GOOD and accurate article ... disappeared mysteriously.

Dec 2016 Watchtower draft article .pdf

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I have the advantage ... I am 70 years old and, to the best of my knowledge ... cannot be insulted (If it's True, it's true ..if it's not I really don't care .  It the reality based TRUTH reputations can be forever destroyed in SECONDS!).

it's a waste of my painfully few hours left on this Earth to educate the deliberately clueless  .

Civil debate among men of good character can ONLY result in GOOD things.

Civil debate among men of bad character is always malignant, even if spoken in soft tomes, and typed with velvet gloves, and supported by many scriptural buzz words.

Please know that you cannot hurt my feelings, insult me, or make me angry ...

To paraphrase David Banner, "The Incredible Hulk",

"People in a 60 foot radius would not like me if I was angry.!"

We are both rational adults ... gimme yer best shots ... The TRUTH WILL WIN OUT in the Arena of Ideas ... though the sands figuratively run with rivers of blood, and there be mountains of stinking bodies in the hot mid-day sun for all to see.

REAL TRUTH is worth the sacrifice, be it instant death, or enduring a lifetime of isolation and never ending hardship.

You also have a VERY distinct advantage ... you can follow my 6,400 or so Archive postings back  for five years, and get my opinions on every imaginable subject, simply by typing my full name into Google.

Please feel free to challenge me on any subject, anytime. I may ignore it.

James Thomas Rook, Jr.

On IRC I also go by the nickname "Greylenseman"

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The Ford didn't budge at all,  so the rope was his radius.

It is well known . The Archive goes back 5 years and more, and a LOT can be learned from it's histories, and stories by people that were there.

From Wikipedia:

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.

Groupthink requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the "ingroup" produces an "illusion of invulnerability" (an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made). Thus the "ingroup" significantly overrates its own abilities in decision-making and significantly underrates the abilities of its opponents (the "outgroup"). Furthermore, groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the "outgroup".

Antecedent factors such as group cohesiveness, faulty group structure, and situational context (e.g., community panic) play into the likelihood of whether or not groupthink will impact the decision-making process.

Groupthink is a construct of social psychology but has an extensive reach and influences literature in the fields of communication studies, political science, management, and organizational theory,^[1] as well as important aspects of deviant religious cult behaviour.^[2][3]

Groupthink is sometimes stated to occur (more broadly) within natural groups within the community, for example to explain the lifelong different mindsets of conservatives versus liberals,^[4] or the solitary nature of introverts.^[5] However, this conformity of viewpoints within a group does not mainly involve deliberate group decision-making, and might be better explained by the collective confirmation bias of the individual members of the group.

Most of the initial research on groupthink was conducted by Irving Janis, a research psychologist from Yale University.^[6] Janis published an influential book in 1972, which was revised in 1982.^[7][8] Janis used the Bay of Pigs disaster (the failed invasion of Castro's Cuba in 1961) and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 as his two prime case studies. Later studies have evaluated and reformulated his groupthink model.^[9][10]

I just checked, the blue links worked when I tried them ....

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I also had ( and still have) a stamp collection that my cousin stole from, so I sympathize with you.

Visualize three brothers with two cars ... a pale green 1957 Chevy, with an automatic transmission, which we will call the "TOW" car,  and another car, possibly mine, (I forget ..this was the mid 60's) with a dead battery) which we shall call the "FORD". I think this happened about 1966.

It was My best friends, Tom Orrick, and Bob Pollard on Quioccasin Road in Henrico County, Virginia, and the three decided we would PULL the FORD with a big, long rope we had by tying the two bumpers together to get (my?) car up to 35 MPH, pop the clutch, and that would start the towed car..

I looked at it and decided that the lurch would bend one or both bumpers, so Tom suggested somebody get in the trunk of the Chevy, sit turned around backwards and wrap the rope around their body, have some slack, and as the TOW car increased speed, play out the slack for the bumper not to be damaged.

It sounded good UNTIL he suggested I do it.

I balked, he volunteered so Bob is driving the Chevy, Tom is in the trunk facing backwards, and I am driving the Ford. There is about 30 feet of loose rope on the ground, one end wrapped around Tom, and the other end tied to the Ford's bumper.

Bob gets to about 15 MPH, the rope gets tight and I have a perfect view of Tom popping out of the trunk like a champagne cork from a shaken bottle, launched almost straight up, and he crashes to the ground, wrapped in rope.

...and this dear Bros. and Sisters ...is why women live longer than men..

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Somehow the phrase "Who dares disturb my slumber .." comes to mind with that giant Land Shark.

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If there is two things I have learned in life .... NEVER trust a man who does not drink Whiskey of some sort, or have a dog who loves him.

I don't think Rutherford had a dog, but who am I to ... uh... Judge?.

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I agree that disfellowshipping is a necessary component of Congregational discipline ... and a straight reading of the Bible makes that very, very clear .... but THE WAY it's done makes all the difference.

Currently it is petulant, overreaching, cruel, and ONLY serves the purpose of creating fear and a foreboding ... so much so that The Russian Federation, used to the tyrannies of the old Soviet Union, are very close to EXPELLING the Jehovah's Witnesses Organizations from their country for "Extremism", because the way disfellowshipping is DONE, we are destroying whole families.... not just the ones disfellowshipped!,

.... not because the Russian Government is  persecuting anybody ... but because we DESERVE it.

If there is ANY civilization on this Earth that fully understands what political "purging" in a "worker's paradise" is ... it's the Russians.

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TrueTom:

You really, Really,  REALLY!  (or as Elmer Fudd woud say "weawwy, Weawwy, WEAWWY!) NEED TO IMPROVE YOUR READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS!

You have "successfully" managed 100% of the time to misunderstand EVERYTHING I have ever stated. EVER.

ALWAYS

100% OF THE TIME!

I mention that I was run through the mill (paraphrased) by an Elder for not providing my wife a phone, when I was too poor to have a phone ( by the way, this was in 1972 or thereabouts, when the only thing that existed was rotary dial phones ... later as things improved, I got a car mobile phone, as big as a suitcase in the trunk, and a console in front of the front seat, but it too was a dial phone with a rotary dial...) and this is what you got out of it ....

"  ... If JTR conducted himself as bombastically in person as he does online, the elders were probably on him repeatedly. They might have counseled him about something quite serious and a cell phone was mentioned in passing or as an example, and he chooses to remember getting chewed out over a cell phone." .

I was struggling to keep a woman with Cystic Fibrosis alive, and until she ran off with my best friend that we both grew up with, an ex-Bethelite, and a Pioneer, I did a pretty good job at it.   He was "Brother Watchtower" and I was the worn out schlub with the bills, and no patience for idiocy.

You have no IDEA, not the slightest clue who I really am ... but what I post here IS who I really am.  Why not?  I have never begged for my life, been close to death several dozen times ... and my tone should ... SHOULD have indicated to you that I don't give a rat's ass what ANYBODY, except Jehovah God, and my wife thinks of me.  And yeas, the Elders are on my case CONTINUALLY ...the ones I have not scared off.

If they want to ask me anything .. I am as helpful as I can be .. IF .. they put it in writing, and it is signed by the Body of Elders.  I learned THAT one the hard, Hard, HARD way, (... in such matters I was a VERY slow learner ...) .

I do have a moral obligation to tell the Truth to the Brotherhood.

I have no moral obligation to teach them reading comprehension skills, logic and reasoning ability ... they can get it the HARD way, like I did in over 50 years experience ,.. by getting the tests first ... and the lessons, afterwards.

Nothing sharpens a person's perceptions like getting beat up.

IRON SHARPENS IRON

SOFT SOAP SHARPENS NOTHING.

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Years ago, I was sick, and broke, and my three children went to an Assembly for three days ... about three hours travel, each way, hotel rooms, restaurants, etc., and when they came back I asked them to share with me what they had learned for three days of their lives, and about $600 in expenses .... and with a great deal of excitement they told me they had learned the TOES of Nebuchadnezzar's image no longer meant what we used to think they meant ... but that but there was "new light", and they NOW meant something completely different.

I am a retired engineer, and it is POSSIBLE for me to care less, but even with my sense of humor and imagination ... I am having trouble visualizing HOW I could care less.  The same with the 24 Elders. And a MILLION other things that we cannot see, cannot prove, and NO MATTER WHAT IT IS ... It has absolutely no effect whatsoever on our daily work-a-day lives.

WE HAVE REAL PROBLEMS TO CONTEND WITH.

I had three Elders surround me at the Kingdom Hall to ask me what I thought of the ( most holy and sacred) Governing Body ... and I blurted out "I do not think of them AT ALL!"

There were no follow up questions.

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A million words spoken a million times will not change the fact that True Religion is ALWAYS in the best interests of the people God loves.  The Pharisees were ABANDONED by God for their never-ending grab to consolidate and reinforce THEIR political power. .... and TYRANNY ruled as the order of the day.

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There are GOOD Detectives ... and there are BAD Detectives ...  BAD Detectives do not detect much, because they assume things based on THEIR OWN PROJECTIONS ... things not in evidence.

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It almost sounds like an "Ad Hominum" attack, because it ALMOST was.

You got it wrong AGAIN ... at least you are 100% consistent.  Reread what I ACTUALLY posted earlier this week.

If you always, ALWAYS get it wrong ... as you do, that is VERY good advice.

Even better ... DO BOTH!

If that is true, I can only think of ONE reason you wanted to burn your house down ... ( and by the way, I specifically stated I was NOT qualified to do Bible Translation ... you have a predisposition for deliberately misunderstanding EVERYTHING I have ever stated...). But I have a sense of humor.

Oh, and ...uh ... being RIGHT covers a multitude of sins .....

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I was there when the "white shirts" were kept ... I was called off the platform because I had a moustache ... I was severely counseled for disrespect for showing up at the Kingdom Hall on a red Honda 350 motorcycle, I was castigated for not "letting" my wife have a phone, when I was too poor to afford one .... and the list is legion. 

I saw MANY Brothers treated worse than  myself, and if they had money and "in" relatives they became bullies never held to any accountability.  Every man has to decide for himself where he MUST draw the line, or he ceases being a MAN, and reverts to being a male sheep, led to the slaughterhouse, and eaten, by people never satisfied with ONE sheep, they want them ALL.

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...and how MANY lives were ruined by this little gem?

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Well... it took me two full hours to find the photo, I had to wade through about 4TB of "stuff.

I am the guy in the top left corner.

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.....sigh .....

... how much simpler life would be, and how many tens of millions of honest hearted, righteously inclined people would have NOT been chased away, if the JW leadership had NOT made stuff up with no basis whatsoever ... except a million irrelevant words repeated over and over, and over and over ... and simply said ,,,,

"The Bible does not say, and I DO NOT KNOW!"

IT IS NOT REPREHENSIBLE TO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING ...

It is to PRETEND you do, to gullible people looking for Truth.

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Remember in the Musical "The Sound of Music", with Julie Andrews .  Her Screen Husband had WILLINGLY served in the Armed forces of Germany during World War I, but 20 or so years later, when the Germany he loved was taken over by evil beyond description, he refused to serve in The German Navy as a submarine commander, and he and his musical family escaped by foot over the Swiss Alps into Switzerland.

I was baptized in 1964 in Richmond Virgina at an assembly in the name of "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" ...ONLY !

In 1985 The Society changed the baptism oath which alludes to the holy spirit with a DIRECT oath of allegiance to "God's Spirit Directed Organization ... BECAUSE ... if that change was not made ... the Society had NO LEGAL RIGHT to disfellowship you, any more than they would have had the right to disfellowship ANY Jehovah's Witness before we adopted the name. ... as was demonstrated by their treasury being harpooned by many lawsuits.

Today's Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is totally controlled by the Governing Body Helpers, the Accountants, and most importantly the Society's Lawyers, who fight a never ending and increasing battle against crushing lawsuits for EVERY sort of reason.

If you have been baptized since 1985, YOU ARE STUCK!

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... because petty tyranny, spoken in soft soothing words (sometimes MILLIONS of words, for the hypnotic effect, which always works ... people tire and go into a hypnotic trance quite naturally ... ) is not perceived as TYRANNY.

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Yeah .... I think my take on that particular photo was posted  on the Archive, somewhere around the end of 2015, after the Australian Royal Commission on Child Abuse Case No. 29, excoriated GB Bro, Geoffery Jackson under oath, and caught in in at least three lies, and the Australian Branch Coordinator and several Elders from the Australian Kingdom wre so flummoxed that they lied to unsuccessfully try and cover up the THOUSANDS of unreported cases of Child sexual abuse, even though the Commission ALREADY had the secret records subpoenaed from the Society all across Australia.

They keep better records than I do, and I think the complete video proceedings are still on line if anyone has an appetite for multi-level pathos. I found it embarrassing to watch, but I am retired, and I had time to watch the entire weeks proceedings live.

This made world news at the time for anyone who makes a point to keep up with global news.

If anyone can find my take-off of the above picture, please post it... sorta like Facebook giving a trip down memory lane.

MEANWHILE ... you will just have to live with  my meme' of the Society's laying off 6,000 Special Pioneers and Bethelites, which I discovered looking for the "Celebrity" meme'.

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