James Thomas Rook Jr.

I haven’t seen that one (that I can recall—actually, I probably have but cannot recall it, for I have seen many. There is a certain ‘hoakiness’ to Star Trek that I can at times overlook and at times not. In general, the latter episodes of ‘Next’ were better than the former, and infinitely better than the Shatner ones. 
They have a way of being ‘preachy’—showcasing modern concerns in an outer space setting. When I read up on history of the genre, I learned that this was by design. Guys like Roddenberry (and Serling before him) knew certain themes did not play well to everyday audiences, who were not ‘ready’ for them. But put them in a sci-fi setting, and they went down just fine. 
I haven’t seen any of the new Picard series either. Have you? Are they any good? One person said of a certain episode that it was almost too ‘intense’ for him. I think we can see it free if we like—we have CBS streaming, which we presently make use of to watch Perry Mason shows. It costs a little bit per month, but since otherwise our television has always been entirely what comes from antenna, overall, it is pretty affordable. 
In last night’s exiting Perry Mason, Perry backed into the villain and impaled him on the tail fin of his Cadillac.

You are so funny James.  Your 'test' is not important to me. 
If you are blind enough or lazy enough to remain with CCJW then why should i be concerned about your opinion ?  I gave you an option, which you obviously do not like. 
Stay safe, America seems to be suffering badly. 

Probably not ...just too inexperienced to know what is really important, and what is realistically possible.
I used to be like that.
In a way, I am jealous.
I know too much.

4J:
You failed the test I use.
You have different criteria than I use.

Wann have some fun?
Plug in an X-Box Game controller !

You take my often expressed sentiments out of context ...
In context, Jehovah's Witnesses are the "Best Game In Town", because all the others are so much worse.
It is clear from the Bible that God works THROUGH the Congregations.
What do you suggest is BETTER than what I have now?
Please tell me, and I will transfer in an instant (upon verification, of course ...)
Without that ... your arguments are specious and useless.
Because that, and that alone .. is where the "rubber meets the road".
Humans...ALL humans are seriously flawed.
You expect diamond hardness from sticks of chalk.

...by the way... listen to everybody.
TRUST NOBODY!

You take my often expressed sentiments out of context ...
In context, Jehovah's Witnesses are the "Best Game In Town", because all the others are so much worse.
It is clear from the Bible that God works THROUGH the Congregations.
What do you suggest is BETTER than what I have now?
Please tell me, and I will transfer in an instant (upon verification, of course ...)
Without that ... your arguments are specious and useless.
Because that, and that alone .. is where the "rubber meets the road".
Humans...ALL humans are seriously flawed.
You expect diamond hardness from sticks of chalk.

I am 301 pounds of spring steel, and rawhide ... albeit with some rust and scuff marks.
Think of a more handsome blend of the Incredible Hulk, Jack Reacher, and Sean Connery.

I used to be able to leap tall buildings with a single bound, but now it takes a good running start, several bounds, and a nap.

And just as an aside, I put the new post about Jacob and Esau in the JW only club. It is what I will be doing from now on, most likely, at least posts of a spiritual nature.  I’m a little tired of seeing 4Jah piss all over everything.

I'm not at all suggesting that this is the true meaning of those final verses of Daniel, but they do rather eerily correspond to the experience of almost everyone who feels the frustration of pinning their hopes on chronology.
Here is a quote from the actual verses again, followed by a paraphrase of what might be written between the lines. Let the reader use discernment, while keeping their tongue in cheek:
([ACTUAL] Daniel 12:6-13) . . .“How long will it be to the end of these marvelous things?” 7 Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was up above the waters of the stream, as he raised his right hand and his left hand to the heavens and swore by the One who is alive forever: “It will be for an appointed time, appointed times, and half a time. . . . 8 Now as for me, I heard, but I could not understand; so I said: “O my lord, what will be the outcome of these things?” 9 Then he said: “Go, Daniel, because the words are to be kept secret and sealed up until the time of the end. 10 Many will cleanse themselves and whiten themselves and will be refined. And the wicked ones will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand; but those having insight will understand. 11 . . . there will be 1,290 days. 12 “Happy is the one who keeps in expectation and who arrives at the 1,335 days! 13 “But as for you, go on to the end. You will rest, but you will stand up for your lot at the end of the days.”
([FAKE] Daniel 12:6-13) . . .“How long will it be to the end of these marvelous things?” 7 Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was up above the waters of the stream, as he raised his right hand and his left hand to the heavens and swore by the One who is alive forever: [“IT'S GOING TO BE 1,260 DAYS"] . . .  8 Now as for me, I heard, but I could not understand; so I said: “O my lord, what will be the outcome of these things?” 9 Then he said: “Go, Daniel, because the words are to be kept secret and sealed up until the time of the end. 10 Many will cleanse themselves and whiten themselves and will be refined. And the wicked ones will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand; but those having insight will understand. . . . [YOU WILL PROBABLY WONDER WHY NOTHING SEEMED TO HAPPEN AT THE END OF 1,260 DAYS AND RECALCULATE TO ANNOUNCE]. . . .there will be 1,290 days. [AND WHEN THAT DOESN'T WORK OUT YOU WILL PROBABLY THINK YOU CAN RECALCULATE AGAIN AND ANNOUNCE:] 12 “Happy is the one who keeps in expectation and who arrives at the 1,335 days! 13 “But as for you, go on to the end. [IN FACT, YOU MAY CONTINUE TO GO ON FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AND WONDER WHY YOU NEVER COULD FIGURE OUT WHY YOUR OWN EXPECTATION PROVED WRONG FOR 1,260, then 1290, THEN 1,335 DAYS. BUT DON'T WORRY AT ALL. THESE TIME PERIODS ARE GOD'S, NOT YOURS. YOU MAY LIVE OUT YOUR LIFE AND REST IN THE GROUND, BUT REST ASSURED] . . . You will rest, but you will stand up for your lot at the end of the days.”
Although this FAKE ending of Daniel probably seems ludicrous to you, it has been the exact experience of thousands of persons who thought they could figure out just what is the meaning of the 1,260 days. Several times in the 1800's, for example, men tried to pinpoint the end. Some started announcing in 1840 that the end was about 3.5 years away, but when it didn't happen in 1843, they recalculated and picked new dates in 1844, and then when it didn't happen in October 1844, they waited right up to nearly the last cold day of 1844. Then again it happened in the 1860's, and then it happened again in the 1870's. (Barbour said it would be 1873, then changed it to 1874, then his group recalculated possible dates in 1874. Then, when 1874 failed, they decided it was 1874 all along but invisible.) Then it happened again around 1914, when the "END" of this system had been predicted, and then when it didn't happen, the end "of the Gentile Times" was moved to 1915. A few months after it didn't happen then, the Finished Mystery book, predicted the end of this system for 1918. When it didn't happen then, it was predicted again for 1925.**
I think we should stop trying to go where angels should fear to tread, and trust that the end can come at any time. It is our lot to live our lives in expectation that it can happen at any time, yet, for all of us it will happen unexpectedly, in an instant, at the very end of our current lives, if not sooner.
**Ironically, the expression in Daniel 12:12: "Happy is the one who keeps in expectation and who arrives at the 1,335 days" is interpreted in the Watchtower to mean the year 1925. This was probably the saddest and most embarrassing year in the history of the Watch Tower Society. Does this sound happy?
*** yb75 p. 146 Part 2—United States of America ***
So, as Anna MacDonald recalls: “1925 was a sad year for many brothers. Some of them were stumbled; their hopes were dashed. They had hoped to see some of the ‘ancient worthies’ [men of old like Abraham] resurrected. Instead of its being considered a ‘probability,’ they read into it that it was a ‘certainty,’ and some prepared for their own loved ones with expectancy of their resurrection.
Imagine, being told that 1925 was a sure thing, even surer than 1914, with even more assurances than Noah had for believing God when God told him there would be a flood. The Watchtower said it was not just a probability but a certainty. Based on that certainty, some brothers even built houses and extra rooms for their resurrected loved ones. Imagine them thinking of Noah explaining to passersby why he was building an ark, when brothers in 1924 and 1925 were explaining to passersby why they were building additions onto their homes. Then imagine being told that it was their own fault for believing the Watchtower which had indicated that it was a certainty, and not just a probability. In fact, they should have never even considered 1925 to be any stronger of a probability than 1850 or 1935 or 1975 or 2034!
Those who pin their hopes on any specific signs or dates will probably have those hopes dashed.

I am 301 pounds of spring steel, and rawhide ... albeit with some rust and scuff marks.
Think of a more handsome blend of the Incredible Hulk, Jack Reacher, and Sean Connery.

I used to be able to leap tall buildings with a single bound, but now it takes a good running start, several bounds, and a nap.

I took a great many notes with the intent to write up a post or two that never happened, crowded out by too many other things to do. It was in between days that I, for the first time ever, blocked several apostates at once as they had, for the first time ever, ganged up on me. They had pierced my up-to-then successful armor of always linking to a post with my replies, effectively answering their 50 words with my 1000. Like charging a hill, caring not if they got mowed down, they came at me anyway. I would return to the hotel from a day at the convention and find a score or more of nastigrams from them, eager to call attention to the ARC or something—all this with a wife who wanted to go out to supper or walk or unwind, and who is not terribly enthused about my online activity in the first place. So I blasted them all away, and for reasons I no longer recall—I must have been watching Star Trek reruns, I drew heavily on that show for symbolism:
https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2019/08/blocking-trolls-the-star-trek-way-i-didnt-want-to-do-it.html
There you go. Your first comment. Happy?

We are all playing the roles that we think we must and there is no sense in taking anything personally. Fortunately, that is in my bag of strengths—a bag that doesn’t have as many of them as I might like, but it does have that one. Once again I take note with some approval that Kos does not return evil for evil—an undeniably good quality. I will continue to indirectly slam him, no doubt, because I think his ‘theology’ is downright loopy, but it is nothing personal. I would hope he would get his Act together and work in harmony with his wife’s spirituality, but I concede that seems most unlikely. Even the bellicose Captain with the head of Cement—all mixed up and firmly set—seems very unlikely to ever change in the slightest degree.

You are wise, Grasshopper, but the only problem with that is I do not want to run anything.
One day an ex-wife was watching me clean my firearms, covering the dining room table, and looking down, disapprovingly asked "What would you do if nobody ELSE had guns?"
I turned and looked up at her and said "Rule wisely."
... but I was just kidding.
... too much work.

Everything is a matter of personal opinion ONLY ... unless it can be backed up by hard facts that can be independently verified.
All else is "fluff"
 
 

... perhaps they had economists and environmental non-governmental organizations  who worked against fossil fuels and advocated for green technology :))

I think If I had been in that great crowd of people with Moses, wandering around in the desert for 40 years .... and after passing the same landscape every 2-1/2 years, over and over and over ...and burying my grandparents, and then parents, and possibly some children in the desert sands,  I would have seriously considered taking my family and heading North.
....especially if I understood that once we reached the promised land, my sons would have to fight and probably die to seize it from the people already there.
....just sayin' .
.... and then, in the quiet of the night, I wonder why all the lands around Israel have abundant oil .... except Israel.

The reason they want to keep banks afloat, rife with ‘moral hazard’ though that course is, is that all employment depends on them, and no one wants to throw most people in the world out of work. 
It is sort of like how Abraham Lincoln said that he is not smart enough to lie. Once you tell one, you will be telling them till the end of your days in an attempt to shore up that first one.

I thought as you do, and rented a house for eight years, and the rent was $56,000 for the eight years. Then I realized that instead of recouping those expenses when I moved , and more because of Real Estate appreciation over time, ... all I had was receipts and cancelled checks.
It is much better to be able to move, with $70,000 in your pocket ... worth educating yourself on the many creative ways to buy a house with little or no money down.
 

He did ... he owns a huge piece of wooded property where the road that serves Warwick HQ Tees into the main State road .... PERFECT for motels, gas stations, or a strip mall.  This can be researched through county courthouse records on line.

I like the greeting each member of a society gave each other. in a Science Fiction story I read about a half century ago.
They would, say, meet on the street, wave ...smile, and one would say say "MYOB!"
The other would wave, smile and say "MYOB!".
Toward the end of the story it turned out "MYOB" meant "Mind Your Own Business"
I think I also remember the Bible saying something about not being a "busybody", concerning other peoples' activities.

Did Tom Henry pass off the scene so that we now see the Ghost of Tom Henry?

He did ... he owns a huge piece of wooded property where the road that serves Warwick HQ Tees into the main State road .... PERFECT for motels, gas stations, or a strip mall.  This can be researched through county courthouse records on line.