TrueTomHarley

Believe me, she doesn’t listen to me any more than to you.

He is still being puppy-trained, I’m afraid. Getting a little long in the tooth, I admit, but you know how it is with exuberant mutts that jump up on people and will not behave. On the other hand, he is of an aggressive breed. He hears someone outside making snide remarks about his owners in the closed club, even calling them out by name, who he knows as perfectly fine people who feed him and comb his coat for fleas (always finding many), and he just goes into attack-dog mode, snarling and making the whole house shake. I think if you just wouldn’t ring the open club doorbell so often, he might remain sleeping peacefully on his bed. Though, at this point there is bad blood, his back is up, and it might not make a difference. He is a little like my own mutt of former days taking umbrage at workmen being on his street. They have no right! Later, while walking him, we approached those workmen. Without turf to protect, the dog was fine. ‘Hey, this is the dog that goes bonkers every time we pull up!’ one workman said to his fellows when he realized who we were. Biscuits. Maybe you can bring biscuits. Maybe that will help. He is hard to control, there’s no denying that, and he does raise his leg where he should not.

It is about maintaining the honor and reputation of the unfairly impugned closed club. The closed club rocks! At our next meeting, leather jackets to be awarded presently to all 5-year and up members.

You may be on to something. Impressed with the credentials he presented, we appointed him chief engineer of the closed club, just like Scotty. Now, there is not a toilet in the place that flushes.

Well, sure, but it’s not really apples to apples, is it? Nobody in the closed club thinks, even combined, that he or she is going to approach the maturity of Jesus, save for one or two insufferable ones.

I’m not familiar with this one. Should I throw it on the reading stack?

It is always possible—I’d rate it at least a 50/50 chance—that George is himself disfellowshipped—he knows Witness history very well—and is taking his revenge with a made-up, nasty almost beyond belief, persona that he would have everyone believe is that of a typical, faithful Witness. I mean, I know hundreds of JWs, and I have never met one anything like him. It is inconceivable that such a personality could be in huge social demand, unless he is living one fantastic double life, and even then it would be hard to keep it hidden. It’s inconceivable that someone who presents himself as so loyal can so utterly disregard repeated counsel not to argue with ‘apostates.’ Somewhere there is a sham. Something does not compute. That he himself is a disfellowshipped person taking revenge is a possible explanation.

I’ve noticed that, too. Nonetheless, we have his application on file and at the next meeting of the closed club top brass we expect to admit him, at least on a trial basis.

It’s because he is in a snit that we let Pudg in the closed club whereas he wouldn’t be able to get in for all the tea in China. It is truly sad and indeed troubling, reflecting poor scholarship and intellectual deterioration, typical of those who frequent the closed club, that you did not possess this knowledge as your own possession and were thus reduced to enquiring as regards to this knowledge that you so sadly lack in the midst of the spiritual delinquency of the open club.

Eureka! A breakthrough! One small step for Pudg. One gaint leap for Pudgkind. Mr Watson, come here. I need you.

I don’t excuse it. I am outraged by it. But . . . people are complicated. “You can’t always get what you want.” You don’t keep up with new light, do you? These days we can say hello to him. So, we here in the closed club acted almost like prophets, anticipating the change, saying hello in advance. We accepted his ‘repentance’ as genuine, which it is (especially if you are not too fussy). We accepted that unless we extended a hand of invitation, he would be stranded here in the open club, where men weep and gnash their teeth and froth at the mouth, unless he got offline altogether, and you know that is as unlikely as the Pope converting to Presbyterianism. We accepted his DFing as more or less a technicality, completely brought on at his own insistence, and had he not acted in such a ‘throw oneself on the pyre’ manner,, as most anyone else would not have, it wouldn’t have happened. We took his circumstances at face value: I mean, for crying out loud, what kind of a character does this—insists on being DFed three times, is refused three times, and then when he seeks a 4th, he is DFed, whereupon he blames it on his refusal to meet with them? Sheesh. Plainly, they gave up on telling him they weren’t going to and granted him his wish. Oh, well. Blessed be the honor-bound, even if unnecessarily honor bound. It works for us, we said. We invited him on board. @JW Insider wanted to throw him off the forum, of course, but every time you turn around he wants to throw someone off the forum—even Admin and the Librarian are not safe—and no one pays any attention to him these days. My Lord, you know how to chew up a guy’s time!

I assure you, we were all flabbergasted to discover it. It’s sort of like JFK saying to his advisors, ‘I don’t know what all the fuss is about with my being Catholic. It is not as though I am a good one.’ Ah, well. Maybe more than you think.

No. I removed it because the local elders were uncomfortable with it, judging from its cover an invitation to brawl with apostates—whereas the Witness organization encourages just the opposite—you know, along the lines of ‘a slave of the Lord does not need to fight.’ It was only the local brothers, so far as I know, not anyone else. It was not even brought up specifically; removing it was just my response to a shepherding call. I could have stuck to my guns without consequence other than to continue to be viewed by them as not exemplary. But I have voluntarily signed on to a program that involves submission to Christian headship, and to consider the interests of others, not just my own. Removing the book put to rest any notion that I favor seeking out apostates and fighting with them, which I do not. So I took it down. I explained it a little more in the next book, ‘In the Last of the Last Days: Faith in the Age of Dysfunction.’ Parts of it that I really like I have incorporated elsewhere.

We are not ‘aware’ of anything online, where truthful speech is punished, where liars proliferate, and where, unless you know someone personally, you haven’t a clue. You can get a feel for someone over time, but nothing more. Frankly, the biggest mystery here (by far) is you, who dials up the judgment 10-fold and dials back the fellow-feeling by as much. ‘All men online are liars’ says the apostle Paul, adjusted for the present digital age.

Oh, yeah! Is he obnoxious? Send him right over! We thrive on people like that! Just doing our bit so the open club can stay pristine. I hear next on the 10-year list is that blogging’s okay, provided you avoid those ne’er-do-wells in the closed club

JWI was on the verge of doing so but couldn’t find your card in the card catalogue—none of which would have happened had he heeded my urging to modernize.

“Bad dog, bad! No biscuit!”

…says the guy who will take anyone’s head off if he detects an interest in politics, thus revealing it is not so much an interest in politics he abhors but an interest in politics that is not his. Okay, got it. Transgender Visibility Day already existed, even though no one had ever heard of it. But it is sort of like the country in mourning over September 11th, (9/11) or December 7th (Pearl Harbor) and some twerp says, ‘Don’t forget, it’s also National Tic Tac Toe Day! We made it that just a few years ago.”

The link was excellent. I remember my parents going to pbs and npr but only after Walter Cronkite was no longer THE source. In those days I trusted the NYT the way my doctors still trust the Lancet or the BMJ. Rogue reporters have explained a lot about how we were fooled for so long. Tucker They fired him:

What in the world are you talking about? I have no idea who those two fellows are. As for the downvote, it’s because Vic Vomodog and I used to pull shoulder to shoulder in the work until he went over to the dark side. Believe me, he hated the book TrueTom vs the Apostates! and rejoiced when I took it down for a few misspellings.

Thank you, Dr. Adhominem. Coming from such a learned source as you, it means a lot. I pledge to always do my best.

No. We grill him mercilessly there and make him squirm mightily, let me tell you.

It doesn’t matter. No matter what the topic is or where it is, it always boils down to a squabble with George.

He’s me. too.

He’s me. Can’t slip anything past you, I see.