TrueTomHarley

It certainly can be indulged in as though gambling, but so can most things. Start a business, for example, and you are “gambling” with many unknowns. Far “safer” to walk into the factory and ask for a job. You are “gambling” every time you get behind the wheel of a car. But the basic idea of “investing” in the stock market is not gambling at all. Buying a stock is buying a very very tiny piece of a company. You benefit the company by supplying it with the funds it needs to expand. In turn, you are (a very tiny) part owner of that company, to thrive if it thrives. How “moral” it is is anyone’s guess. It depends upon where you are & what companies you invest in. In the case of huge companies, it becomes the case of the tail (the stockholders) wagging the dog (the company). If you, for example, own John’s Bomb Company [and I am not being snarky or suggestive here, I am just trying to illustrate a point] then you are content to wait for customers. When you get an order for a bomb, you go into the workshop to make one. But when you are a gigantic weapons company with many stockholders to “feed,” you have to keep feeding them. You cannot just wait for bomb orders to roll in—what if there is a period of peace? If you don’t make and sell a lot of bombs, then you don’t make money for your stockholders, and they go somewhere else where they can make money. So there is an irresistible temptation to make your market. That’s why the armaments companies have a huge presence in government circles as lobbyists. It is not merely to say, ‘Hey, if you need bombs, we are better than that other company.’ More significantly, it is to say, ‘The world is a very dangerous place, with many many enemies that must be kept in check. You cannot have too many bombs on hand, and as it turns out, we make them.’ For the longest time, Russia (or the Soviet Union) has been identified as the king of the north, who puts his trusts in fortresses. It is he who hosts public parades of weapons rolling through the streets—boasting in military might. Still, right now, the U.S. is bombing more countries than he. This is but the most blatant example. Parallels can be found in most industries—energy, food, chemical, pharmaceutical, banking, for instance. They can’t just wait around for people to order their product. They must, in order to “feed” the stockholders, go out and make markets, and expand ones already made. It is entirely separate from “gambling,” and might be seen as the bigger evil. After all, if you have some money, you are “gambling” far more by sticking it under your mattress. You are gambling that there is no fire or thief. And if you put your money in the bank, you know very well that they are not just sitting on it. They are putting it in the stock market in hopes of making a profit. Or they are loaning it out to other people, who may not pay it back. How’s that for gambling (with your funds)?

Do you think that is the “real” issue here? Do you think that God loses any sleep over it? Do you think that should he see the error of his ways and back down, there will not be 100 to take his place? Do you plan to take them all on? I mean, you haven’t really put out any fires here. You’ve even managed to get Mt. JWI to erupt again. He had been content to post pictures of kitty cats.

Attend any business school or talk to any banker or businessman. Go to any retirement seminar. Talk to any financial advisor. Contact the Human Resources department of your employer. See if the stock market is considered gambling.

W

The $100,000 dollar bill in the Game of Life has (or used to) G. I. Luvmoney’s picture.

I bought shares 100,000 shares of TWNM (The World News Media) just before you and Billy escalated your knock-down drag-out fights. I am now a gazillionaire who never needs to think about money again!

You don’t even know that the people you are arguing with are sane. You don’t even know for sure that they are people. Maybe they are bots like those the Russians supposedly employed on social media, so as to get people enraged at each other and then they could say “See how much better our form of government is? We don’t have these kinds of lunatics running around in the wild.” If you are going to engage with opposers on social media, there are a few points to keep in mind. 1.) you probably shouldn’t. 2.) you will ultimately lose. You must be prepared to yield the final word. This is because they do not give up and the only way you can match that record is to become petulant and argumentative yourself. 3.) you somewhat negate that if you have a huge body of relevant work that you can link to, effectively answering their 50 words with your 1000. It has a way of discouraging trolls. 4.) You cannot let yourself be goaded. It is your greatest weakness, imo. Sometimes you start out well, but when they talk back (which they will always do) you get madder and madder and MADDER until you leave a trail that, regardless of whether it is true or not, comes across as the very opposite of the way Jesus dealt with people. 5.) You must be like me, who never ever trolls and who merely confines himself to the dignified use of internet resources in search of fatheads to set straight. Do you find enraged elephants here and think that you have to slay them? Another way to handle enraged elephants is to bury them in an avalanche of other elephants. That is what this forum serves to do. Even regular participants like myself find it impossible to keep up. Even my own stuff penned here I also put on my own blog because that is the only way I can find it again. If the regulars can’t keep up, who else is going to? If someone says something substantial here or there, it is quickly buried amidst so much crap that it is impossible to find again—nobody but the most resolute nerd would have the patience, and should he find and spotlight it nobody pays any attention to him because he is a resolute nerd and everybody knows it and only other resolute nerds pay any attention to him. It calls to mind when that pompous scientist/philosopher/cheerleader/atheist Alan H wrote: “I call everyone to witness that TTH has not answered my question.” “It’s just you and me, you idiot,” I retorted. “What! Do you think that you are Clarence Darrow in Inherit the Wind?” It is inherently easier to defend something you think noble than it is for others to attack it. The benefits of the Christian teachings serve to strengthen resolve and to unbuild one, but what are the benefits to one who would tear it down? “I gotta be MEEEEEE, I gotta be FREEEEEE!!!!” only goes so far. That said, if I thought that my words here were solely for here and only here, I would not be able to motivate myself to write them.

No, Billy, don’t go there. I don’t allow myself to get worked up enough to judge anyone online as despicable—as though it were my role. It’s not. As you say, I am mostly here to test out lines for future books. Frankly, I hate to see him go, for I test out many through him. But it is better for him if he leaves. Others will pick up the torch.

I have never thought of him as despicable. His hatred of some things is a bit unhinged, I would say, but that is partly accounted for by where he has been. He should leave for his own peace of mind. Others can take over. JTR is opening his second file cabinet right now. Srecko is sharpening his tongue. Shiwiiiiiiiiii can step into his shoes, if need be. Witness is readying tractor trailer loads of verse. And Jack is saying “Why doesn’t the old fart move on? People can barely focus on MY complaints, he is so active.. In fact, let him act as though Billy has chased him away. It will stand as his final altruistic deed. He can’t always think just of himself—he must think of others.

You’d better be older than 37. That’s all I can say. Get off this forum and spend some time with her, John. Seriously. There are better things for you to do than piss away your time here. It probably is getting on her nerves, Someone will arise to take your place, I am sure. You needn’t worry about that. Find some peace and enjoyment in your life. Mend fences with the faith if you can. But since that seems all but impossible, just drop back to the original advice: spend some time with her. You are more likely to find peace and enjoyment there than here.

No. @Srecko Sostaris the one who raised the subject. Take it up with him.

And it is how it always has been. And it is how it should be. The “uneducated and ordinary” governing men of Acts 4:13 always remained uneducated and ordinary. The “For you see his calling of you, brothers, that there are not many wise in a fleshly way” of 1 Corinthians 1:26 always remained the case. The “wise and intellectual ones” that do not think Jesus’ teaching worth their time never reassesse their view. Those identifying themselves as Christian are often embarrassed over this, and seek to present it as a distressing circumstance that they grew out of—“Yes, we may have started out lowly, but look at how we have pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps!” they say. They should not reason this way. If the education of this world was worth the paper it was printed on, it would have been reflected in better conditions today. Surely today’s education model must take responsibility for the world is has collectively created. Very seldom are national leaders poorly educated. Typically they have gone to the finest universities. Usually when something doesn’t work, it is discarded. In the case of “education,” however, the assumption is that more of it is needed—education is the way out, its advocates say. Generally speaking, those of the greater world are smarter than us. However, most of their schemes will come to nothing because they do not know how to get along; they do not know how to overcome greed; they do not know how to overcome class division or racial division. They sell what knowledge that they do have—you’d better have substantial funds on hand, or plan on going into deep debt—to benefit from their knowledge. One “educated” person in the Witness organization is worth 50 in the overall world because they do not put up pay walls, nor engage in turf wars. They discard the baggage of education that so plainly has not worked and cherry-pick the parts—subjects of pure practicality and applied science—that do work. A main subtheme that lies just below the surface of those who look down upon Witnesses is the latter’s sense of superiority due to having “higher” education—elitism is as strong as any force, and as misplaced, as any of the other ones that divide people and keep them from reaching but a fraction of their potential.

“THAT WAS MY DRINK I WANTED SHAKEN NOT STIRRED, YOU IDIOT, NOT MY CAR! MY BEAUTIFUL ASTON MARTIN—WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO IT?!”

Why is it, then, that tracts of the past were written with more substance? Is it because they were all smarter back then, having gone to college? Why don’t you ask JTR about that? (However, DON’T try to tap him for the next generation of tracts.) No. They are simplifying the tracts to reflect today’s reading level. No need to read anything more into it than that.

That sentence from yesterday’s Watchtower study called to mind an experience: From paragraph 17: “A brother recalls appreciatively: ‘I saw tears well up in the eyes of one elder as he contemplated my situation. That image will always remain in my mind.’” I was sure that the kid at the tire repair show had lost my specialty tool when I had my tires switched. The dopey mounted snowtires (that somebody talked me into buying) require a unique socket—it is not standard and it is not metric. I have two of them so it is not that big of a deal, but when it was not in its designated place after I picked up the car from the shop (it could only be there and nowhere else because I always put it there) I drove back to the shop and let them hear about it at the front counter. “He’s got it in his toolbox, somewhere,” I said, “just absentminded, not theft—he is just careless. Make him check for it.” When I returned home I found the socket. I know how companies bully their employees. I figured they must have leaned into him pretty heavily. I drove back to apologize—not to the front counter, but to him personally. Nah—they said it wasn’t necessary. I said it was. No, it was nothing, they said, don’t worry about it. Look, I know that “the customer is always right,” I responded—he probably was made to feel some heat. They said no—not a problem. (what’s the big deal? They just didn’t want to pull him out of the shop and interrupt his work flow.) Did I tell you that when I get something in my head I am not easily put off? I said that I could probably just walk right in there and say it quick—which bay is he in, anyway? and made for the door. When they saw that I would not be dissuaded—what were they going to do? toss me out on my ear with a showroom full of customers looking on? they fetched him for me. He looked defensive, as though I was going to yell at him. Instead, I apologized. I said that I was sure that he had lost the tool, but when I got home I found it. Very likely someone had made him sweat about it. He was a Spanish speaking kid and he looked like someone who doesn’t get apologized to that often. A little to my embarrassment, I felt some tears welling up, just like the elder in the paragraph. I mean, several were looking on. I probably made a fool of myself. And maybe it was completely unnecessary. Maybe they had all had a good laugh over the jerk who griped over his “lost” tool. Dunno. But it didn’t matter. It is not a bad thing to show empathy. The elder in that Watchtower paragraph not only benefited the congregation member by tears welling up—unless I am very mistaken, he benefited himself as well.

That is because you are a hillbilly. If you’d get your head out of your own still, you would see that such styles are widespread. The world is bigger than you. Tony sees that.

So. You don’t wear tight suit pants yourself. You probably agree with everyone else that they look ridiculous. You also probably agree that they are ‘manipulative’ — they are the product of a highly sexualized fashion industry that seeks always to highlight sensuality. When these ones turn their attention to children, they put them in clothes that suggest they are hookers. Mothers—and I do not mean just Christian mothers, I mean just protective ones—have to buy boy’s gym shorts for their daughters so as to make them not a target for pedophiles. And yet you giggle on like a adolescent about “tight pants Tony.” What’s with that?

You actually cut a pretty fine figure. Whatever happened? This pic suggests that you were with Moses, and that whereas he led all the other Israelites out through the Red Sea, you hightailed it in your fancy car.

You bring this up so frequently (and HOW old are you?) that I have become curious over something: Please post a full-length photo of yourself. If, as I suspect, it shows you wearing spray-on pants, that will explain a lot.

Brother Quackenbush spent the weekend in the area and gave a talk at our Kingdom Hall. His visit was billed ahead of time. I played it up to my kids, calling him, for my three-year-old daughter’s sake, “Brother Quackenduck.” (Surprisingly, she tired of it. She is more mature than me.) Before closing prayer, he mentioned that he had received a love letter. It was in crayon from my daughter and had “i love you” and hearts & flowers & so forth. Everyone let out a collective sentimental “Awwwwww.” ”And my wife wasn’t even jealous, because she got one, too” he added.

You know, it IS a remarkable coincidence. I can see why you might think it. However Billy takes digs at everyone—even me, sometimes, though at the moment there is an tenuous truce between us.

There is more than one person named John. Why would you think that I am speaking of you?

No. This remark just reflects your personal orneriness and incessant faultfinding. It is the humanity that they spring from that is the problem. They work mightily to apply the scripture in their own lives even as they recommend it to others. It is hard for them to make headway in the face of ones like you. Fortunately, you are in the minority (even if the majority here). John carries on that if something is not perfect, then it is filthy. He doesn’t like the GB. Nor do you. He apparently wants a person or persons whose credentials and calling are as uncontested as they were with Moses. He neglects the fact that his (and your) counterparts back then did nothing but whine about Moses, also.

So do you. If we accept that the Bible is God’s prime method of communication to humans (which I do), sooner or later we are struck by the fact that very little of it is lecture. In contrast, if you went to college, almost all of it is lecture. What to make of this? Much of the New Testament, not only is not lecture, but is ostensibly not even written for us. It largely consists of letters written to other parties, from which we glean things about God, his thinking, and his dealings. What to make of this, too? When I mentioned this before and how it had influenced me, Srecko tried to bait me, asking whether I considered myself inspired like the apostle Paul (who wrote the majority of the letters). The answer is no. However, I am inspired by his example. If it is good enough for him (and for God, apparently, because it is included in the Bible canon) why should it not be good enough for me? It inspired in my blog an entirely new category: Skirmishes. https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2019/05/skirmish-970621-vastly-simplified-tracts-.html They are not all from this board. Some are from boards that are private. When they are, I do not reveal anything specific of the writer, but only my reaction to it. John will pop a vein over this, but in all cases they merely come from people who do not want to have their 15 minutes of fame before the whole wide world. In no cases are they “the smoking gun” that he strives so mightily to locate. The true smoking popguns are to be found here. He should consider a Hercule Poirot observation from one of the Christie novels—that in the course of a murder investigation, everyone gets cagey and evasive. The initial conclusion is that they all are somehow complicit, if not guilty of the crime investigated, but really it is because they do not want to explain other things that they were doing that have nothing to do with the crime but they had no intention of going public with—things that they imagined (usually correctly) were none of anyone’s business.

Look Magazine....what was I smoking?