Anna

There actually was a Tom Irregardless and I fought for years with him not to say it. I thought my prayer had been answered when an older brother who also used to say it recalled how he had been approached by another who had asked him to look it up in the dictionary. "I never found it," he said - and he never used it again.
My heart soared when I heard this. I approached Tom and asked him to look up the word in the dictionary. But times had changed. He found it. True, it was labeled "irregular" but that was a distinction far too subtle for Tom Irregardless. As though he were Trump himself, he doubled down on it!

Thats what I was wondering....but you asked
I find this advice from Ms. Webster:  "......There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.  So irregardless what you say, Tom Irregardless, I am not going to use it regardless how strange a trip

He did indeed, (and so do we) but if they wanted to get saved they would have to become Christians wouldn't they? And if they were a prostitute they would have to stop that wouldn't they?
That is not a scriptural teaching if you put it in a scriptural context.
That happening has conditions attached to it, otherwise every single person on earth would have this happen to them, even Hitler. I had a Bible study once, a science teacher and a former atheist. Something she said that I had never really thought of in this way before, she said that we (JW) are kind of preparing people for living under God’s rule when it starts ruling over the earth.  I thought that was a very interesting observation from an outsider, and a practical aspect. But I would take it even further, how about God is preparing people to live under his government.  When you look around in the world, can you see why it is reasonable to conclude that God does have conditions for those who want to live under his rule, and that not just anyone will be invited? He gives humans the opportunity now to “apply for citizenship” in the new world and he also has a “program” going which helps them “meet the required standards” for entry.  After all “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of the heavens, but only the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will”. And you know the rest of that chapter....
 

Not paying you. My mum already gave me that advice. And she and you are right, reading quality books and classic literature educates you and broadens your mind like nothing else, not disregarding our Bible based publications which fill in the gaps that secular authors fail to fill. In saying that, college education does help train the mind to think analytically as well, which is useful.

Jehovah allows many testing situations to happen.  He will only intervene in this wicked world when the time is ready.  Satan is in control of this world and many bad things may still come to pass before Jehovah steps in. We can pray for our brothers and sisters to remain faithful and be wise so as to avoid problems which it is possible to sidestep.  If they are discreet (which we know they are), they will survive this oppressive regime.

Furthermore, while I am more well-read than many, college had nothing to do with it.
I once calculated I had read 55 of the 100 'most important books in history' on a list put out by the BBC. Nobody I encountered had read more.
I read almost all of them via 'Books on Tape' while working a humdrum job in which only my body had to be engaged, but my mind remained mine. Possibly I can credit college with stimulating an already existing appreciation of reading. But it's a rather expensive route just to take away that lesson. I'll share it for free: Read.
(that'll be $5.99, please)
And even with all that reading, I have found Bible-based literature to be the best framework for evaluating everything else, simple though that writing is.
 

I never have supported a false claim about the Watchtower's statements in 1989. And I don't plan on starting to support any such false claims now.

Hi JR. 
I am liking @JW Insider 's anecdote re the "Millenium bug" as it relates to my own experience. I was handsomely paid to be on call for Yr 2K problems in my workplace although I had demonstrated months earlier that the relevant systems were unaffected.
I provide no support whatsover to those who make false claims about the Watchtower of any year. I am quite happy to observe errors, ommissions, and anything else that the muck-rakers care to dredge up. Apart from historical interest, it provides for me evidence of the  active involvement of the Head of the congregation.
Oh, and while we are on false claims, neither do I claim to be a computer genius with a degree. I, (thankfully), am one of those under-educated, college dropout JWs highlighted in another thread. Funny, it made no difference to me financially on comparison with siblings and peers who availed themselves of "the king's shilling". On reflection, maybe it meant I didn't reach the top 1% income bracket.....but then, neither did they. 

This is strange. Everything else you said in the paragraph that this quote came from is very true. But this particular sentence quoted here is false. It would also be completely irrelevant to a printed document or an electronic version of a printed document. The Y2K problem (which the Society cared nothing about in 1989) would not have made a 2017 CD-ROM a 1917 CD-ROM any more than it would have made it a pre-Gutenberg 1317 CD-ROM. Your claim is meaningless. The CD-ROM programs from the Watchtower that came out in 1993 can still be made to work today. I think 1993 was the first one. 
There never was an impending disaster coming from Y2K. And there will not be one arising from the 2038 Unix Millennium Bug either. (An upgrade to the operating system can make over 99% of the 2038 bug go away immediately without changing software.) The original Y2K bug could cause problems in a whole range of areas, and most of us in IT had to waste several years of our careers becoming our own QA departments, certifying that all our programs were going to work without a glitch. My own department's programs were mostly in C during those years (and a little bit of dBase+Clipper, Turbo Pascal, Excel Macros) but relied on mainframe feeds mostly through SQL+DB2. But I was also surprised that so many of the COBOL programs we checked had already worked around the Y2K problem even without storing 4-character years. That even goes for solving financial range problems that crossed January 1, 2000 and/or February 29, 2000.

Here's an interesting article on what might become the 2038 problem, oh, and isn't that about the same time the overlapping generation is due to come to an end?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
 

Nice phrase. This sums up nearly the entire story of the world since nearly the beginning of the world.

I find it interesting the very ones making the calls for peace and security are the very ones making things 'shakey'... It's all a ruse that will backfire on them. I don't think many who believe the Bible realize just how this is orchestrated. Basically what I am saying is it is not the results of organic natural behaviors. It is about Elitists arranging chaos so they can present the 'solution' to something that just does not exist. They will be the aggressors against God's people as well. They will try to maneuver God's people and force them to react. These fake events involving JW's will be what will make witnesses make a public stand to deny the untruthfulness of the reality spoken about them. Otherwise the option is to stay silent which would make them complicit. The acts of deceptions in the name of the witnesses is what I believe the thing that will force the 'truth' to take a stand. Ultimately it will spur on Christs 'standing up'.. The nations will be the initiating force.  But they will be surprised when Jehovah disturbs them by 'reports'.

I'm trying to sell my obsolete neckties to the Society, who brought this all on.

Can't tell if you are trying to solve the Society's "generation" crisis, or trying to sell books, or just don't want to throw out your obsolete neckties.

That's even worse! You think that the real reason the correction was made was because they understood the potential that a software glitch would have made us revert back to the end of the 19th century, doomed to repeat the last 100 years like a "Groundhog Day" for centuries instead of days. All I can say is what you said . . .
 

They do this full time, so when would you expect them to go to work to earn money for a living?

Never know with you, are you actually being serious?

I can get my head around that without much effort.

Misled? What specifics do you have in mind?
 

Various histories seem to indicate so. Not sure what detail there is in the WT yet but the consensus appears to be that:
"Because of their intensive study of the Bible, the Russell family (Charles, Margaret, and Joseph) concluded that they had finally gained a new and clearer understanding of what a Christian is called to do in laying down their earthly life in sacrifice and service to God. All three renewed their consecration (vow of dedication) and decided to be re-baptized in 1874."

It has everything to do with it since we are talking about the generation that was anointed before 1914. (Jesus talking about the signs of the last days which began in 1914 and THAT generation not passing away). Therefor the person would have to have been baptised before 1914. So it's that generation.  .
Which is where we encounter the problem because THAT generation is all but dead now and it does not apply to M. Sanderson, since he was baptised and became one of the anointed well after 1914 BUT, and this is the whole point of the overlapping generation, his life OVERLAPPED (between approx 1977 when Sanderson was baptised and 1992 when Franz died) with the life of one of the anointed who was baptised before 1914 (Franz).

He is at the museum in London getting so smart and sucking up so much data I hate to think what he will do with it. 

First of all, that is nonsense. These are legal professionals with no personal stake and if they are in any danger of getting hurt financially, they quit. The world today is a lawyer's playground - we all know it - and lawyers seek out culprits with deep pockets, so that they may transfer some of the contents therein to their own pockets. Sure, it is possible that the aggrieved party got his barber who does lawyer work on the side to represent him. More likely though, he responded to overtures of lawyers with deep pockets, like the ones who advertise on TV to sue a myriad of causes. 
I'd also appreciate if you didn't slobber over the civil courts as the ultimate font of justice. The justice it delivers is as much a by-product as it is the main event. If there are no deep pockets, the system does not bother. I'm not saying it is wrong to use the existing system, or that I wouldn't do it myself if aggrieved, necessarily. I just don't like to herald it as the ultimate source of justice. It is the source of wealth transfer which sometimes parallels    justice.
Because we are about the same age and our religious background is the same and even in some other ways our inclinations are not dissimilar, I think you will agree with me that true justice demands such a person be put to death when his heinous crime is uncovered. The world has managed to persuade most that the transfer of money is the same as justice, and a rising star legal profession eagerly pushes that new truth. Even the criminal system - by the way, why isn't this fellow in jail? - cannot deliver 'justice,' sentencing a rapist to a not overlong prison term, the last years of which  are appearances before the parole board, and the victims kin, who should be left to heal - are dragged into pleading why he should not be released, a battle that they face repeatedly and eventually lose. 
Lay off on the praise for the human court system, will you?
*the movie is a John Grisham novel, probably. If you knew as much about Bible principles and the new personality as you do about pop culture, you'd be a lot easier to take.

There is such a thing as modesty and so I rarely spill. But for some time I have been the model for photos such as this.

Actually he has a pretty fit body, as I remarked to my husband, much to his amusement