TrueTomHarley

You will feel less bold besmirching a woman simply because she represents something you detest should Mr. Reddit come calling.

Don’t be too sure about that and its going up.

I worried that I had screwed up the Dickens quote as well. I checked on it and found that I had (in a minor way) I made corrections.

this is not the first Mark Twain quote that turns out to be phony. I have also had to toss out the irresistable "When I was 16, my father was so ignorant I could barely stand to have him around. Five years later I was amazed at how much the old man had picked up in such a short time." It is like David Splane regretfully tossing in the trash: "When you and I get together over the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, we will have solved not just our problems, but those of the entire world. Actually, I don't toss out nothin. I just qualify them. If he didn't say it, he should have. It is not my fault if he gets tongue-tied.

I am glad I am not in Bethel's shoes. It is enormously hard counseling a diverse group of people. One brother says 'Hey, thanks for the new rule!" and another says 'Huh? Did you say something?'

Screwballs do us a lot of damage. Isn't there some Watchtower article counseling not straining the gnat? Somewhere there is an example of if a DF person was stranded with a flat tire that comes to mind. There may be others. Can anyone dig that one out?

Few things cause more distress in the world of celebrities than a neglected birthday celebration. Yet Serena Williams presented them exactly that scenario with regard to her baby daughter, soon to turn one. “Serena and husband Alexis Ohanian wonÂ’t be throwing an over-the-top birthday bash for their baby girlÂ…In fact, they wonÂ’t be throwing a party at all,” reported Caitlyn Hitt for the DailyMail. Why? Serena says: ‘WeÂ’re JehovahÂ’s Witnesses, so we donÂ’t do that.Â’ She repeats the tactic that she took with President Obama, [Let it stay, Miss Librarian, you old hen. It does no harm to you. It may even help you, for I have disabled my comment section. If anyone goes there and gets chatty, they will have to come back here to chat about it.] back when she was “excited to see Obama out there doing his thingÂ….[but] I'm a Jehovah's Witness, so I don't get involved in politics. We stay neutral. We don't vote...so I'm not going to necessarily go out and vote for him. I would if it wasn't for my religion.'' Let me tell you that she took heat for it from people immersed in civic affairs, not to mention those who dislike Witnesses. Notwithstanding that the parent organization of JehovahÂ’s Witnesses encourages members to give reasons for their stands and not just say “I do it because IÂ’m a JehovahÂ’s Witness,” there are times when the latter response is exactly the thing to say. The actual reason takes a while to explain and people donÂ’t necessarily want to hear it. You have to know your audience. I begin to like Serena Williams more and more. She doesnÂ’t buckle under pressure, mumbling something incomprehensible. No. She says "We donÂ’t do that.” She reminds me very much of a sister named Jackie who was ribbed at school for her modest way of dress. She threw it right back at them. “I set the style,” she told the would-be bullies. “If you want to be cool, you dress like me.” Speaking of modest dress, Serena hasnÂ’t exactly done that over the years on the tennis court. Even given that you want freedom of movement, every so often you will hear her criticized for that, primarily from people who think they can embarrass JehovahÂ’s Witnesses on that account. Outspokenly she has thanked Jehovah for her tennis victories, yet how does that work with the flag at the Olympics? JehovahÂ’s Witnesses are circumspect about the flag of any nation, declining to salute, not for any reason of protest, but because of the second of the Ten Commandments. And didnÂ’t she cuss out that official at a certain match? Ah, well, athletes have been known to do that and people cut them slack. After all, if she was mild-mannered Clark Kent, she would find transition into Superwoman difficult. So she has sent mixed signals over the years. Why would that be? Ah, here it is in the Caitlyn Hitt article: Last year she told Vogue, “Being a JehovahÂ’s Witness is important to me, but IÂ’ve never really practiced it and have been wanting to get into it.” Okay. She was brought up in the faith and has made part of it her own but not entirely. Apparently, she is not baptized, a big deal for Witnesses. Now, with the birth of a child, she means to change some things. The birth of a child will frequently trigger a shift in priorities. Likely, she is conscious of a spiritual need not completely attended to in her own case and she does not want the same for her daughter. Since JehovahÂ’s Witnesses call each other brother and sister and I am old enough to be her dad, I tweeted: ‘Knock it out of the park! You go, my daughter.' IÂ’m sure she saw it out of the gazillion tweets she receives each day, many from JW detractors telling her that she is nuts. Her outspokenness served her well in another instance. When the man she was dating wished her a ‘Happy BirthdayÂ’ and she responded as she now does for her daughter, the man admired the courage. He “saw this gesture as Serena stepping outside her comfort zone for him and decided immediately that he wanted to marry her.” It only gets more interesting. He is Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian. He is not a JehovahÂ’s Witness, and was not raised with any religion at all, but is reportedly okay with SerenaÂ’s faith. Now, it turns out that Reddit is a huge online discussion forum in which topics are hosted for everything under the sun. One of those groups, with thousands of participants, is dedicated to bringing down the organization of JehovahÂ’s Witnesses. When Philadelphia Inquirer reporter David Gambacorta wrote (so far) four incendiary articles about JehovahÂ’s Witnesses, he used this group as his source of information and between articles checked in with them, as though Trump playing to his base. It therefore reminds – I mean, it is not a type/antitype kind of thing, but it sure does remind one of Jewish Queen Esther of long ago, married to the wealthy Persian King who had been maneuvered by enemies into decreeing that her people be destroyed, and the sentence surely would have been carried out but for EstherÂ’s (putting her life at risk to do it) bold intervention. Yeah, why don't you go in there to Mr. Ohanian, you Reddit Witness haters, and tell him that his wife is crazy? That sounds like a brilliant plan to me. Tell him that Mr. Gambacorta is on your side. Just make sure that you read up on Haman before you do it. (See the entire short Book of Esther) Look, it is not parallel in all respects. Nobody is literally threatening to kill anyone, but they are threatening to kill the Christian organization that supports and coordinates the worldwide work that JehovahÂ’s Witnesses do, just as like-minded ones are now doing in Russia. Moreover, Mr. Ohanian cannot be expected to pull the groupÂ’s Reddit credentials; he runs a website dedicated to free speech. There is also a pro-JW group on the site, as well as a squirrelly in-between one, supposedly supportive of Witness teachings but unsupportive of the human leadership. Such will always be the sticking point in the divine/human interface. It was even true with Judas. He and God were tight. There were no problems there. But that yoyo claiming to represent him was just too much, not at all what Judas wanted to see. And those bumpkins he was attracting! DonÂ’t even go there. No, it is possibly not history repeating itself. Mark Twain said that does not happen. History does not repeat, he said, but it does rhyme a little. "I am stronger than you. I bless Heaven for it," said Miss Pross to the wicked foreign woman trying to destroy her Loved One, resisting her "with the vigorous tenacity of love, always so much stronger than hate." Â

We all know that there are instances in which persons feign 'repentance' so as to become reinstated. The ruse succeeds. They are reinstated, and seemingly their banishment is over. It seldom works that way. Their 'shunning' soon continues. It is not draconian shunning, but it was not draconian shunning in the first place. Necessary family business was never forsaken. The pattern resumes, not because there is or is not a sanction, but because the faithful one limits association with one not showing appreciation for spiritual things when it is thought he/she should know better. Opposers have noted this and they are furious with the mindset that determines this, when the disfellowshipping arrangement itself becomes a non-issue due to reinstatement. At root, it is a matter of Christians loving God more than man, and wanting to stay separate from the world, the only position from which it feels it can lend it a helping hand. Opposers don't want to see that separation. They read an unspoken judgement into it.

The enemies of Jehovah’s Witnesses have succeeded in doing what they could never have done alone, putting the Cause before the world. Russia persecution triggers international sympathy. Shunning and child abuse cover-up allegations trigger international frowning. All three are diluted by the fact that there are endless atrocities today to compete for people’s limited attention. Cover-up allegations and shunning complaints are bad. Invariably they are exaggerated, such as people are wont to do, but they are seldom manufactured. Countering the bad press will be the good things that Jehovah’s Witnesses have to offer, never mentioned by opposers. A recent development of the Witness organization is self-guided, online Bible study lessons at their website, addressing such age-old questions as ‘Why does God permit suffering?’ ‘What happens when we die?’ and ‘Is there realistic hope for the future?’ Is it only opponents that can use the web? People want such answers. Someone says (pityingly) in a video that Witnesses ‘crave certainty.’ Isn’t that a big ‘Duh’? Anyone here enjoy playing Russian Roulette with their finances or health? The more certainty we can lay hold of the better. Bible answers are Jehovah’s Witnesses’ strong suit. Christians are directed in the Bible to stay separate from the greater world, as they offer it a helping hand. Anything with an upside will have a downside. The downside zeroed in on exclusively in some venues is real, but it does not negate the upside. Therefore it depends upon where is your focus. ‘Bible education’ is the overall goal of the Witness organization, ‘preaching the good news,’ As the online study sessions demonstrate, with only some exaggeration, if push comes to shove, the essential components of the Witnesses’ work can be run out a server in someone’s dorm room. Meanwhile, going atheist holds some attraction, mostly escaping anyone who would tell you what to do, as though one does not simply put themselves under the ‘control’ of other deep-pocketed parties telling you what to do, be it Trump, Soros, the Russians, Big Defense, Big Pharma, pro or anti climate change with the enormous economic and lifestyle consequences both bring. Atheism will appeal to some, but never all. The yeartext presumably atheists agree upon is: “Sh*t happens. Get used to it. Maybe we can elect the right politicians to fix it.” How’s that project going, anyway? No, that yeartext will just not cut it for everyone. Better to run something like "Be Courageous"

These are ordinary enough expressions that it is hardly to be expected that they are original. Still, the only one not (to me) when I posted it was: sometimes I have my doubts about you.

Look, Miss Librarian!!! He’s doing it again! Make him stop!

hehehe ))))))

As they say, there really are only two decent people in the world - me and you. And sometimes I have my doubts about you.

Actually, I did not take my first commercial flight until I was in my 50's. It was very exciting. Successive flights increasingly become a pain, mostly for things having nothing to do with the plane but for the hassles boarding it. In the old days, you could pull up with 15 minutes to spare, and nobody at all wanted to strip-search you. Occassionally, some witnessing helps pass the time, and I don't always do it but sometimes I do. Like one flight where I laid the contact card down on the armrest midflight and said to the man traveling next to me: "Look, everyone has a cause, and this is mine. We don't have to talk about it, or anything else. On the other hand, there is time to kill, we will never meet again, and it may suggest some conversation if you want it." It was a while before he said anything. Presently he opened up on the purpose of his trip and his background. He was a microbiologist at some university. He said he liked the power of faith, but of course, he was a scientist. We exchanged some boiler-plate remarks, and somewhere along the line I mentioned telemeres. He took up the topic but pronounced the word differently. "You mean I've been making a donkey of myself all these years, saying it wrong?" was my response. It was just idle conversation, not particularly going anywhere. Out of the blue he brings up that his trip had another purpose. He is traveling to get his daughter out of her latest jam. He doesn't know what happened to her. He did his best to bring her up right, but she takes up with one lowlife scoundrel after another and has made a hopeless hash of her life. I didn't say: "Too bad she is not a Jehovah's Witness. Then all of her troubles would be over." I mostly just listened, and asked a few questions to draw him out. Who doesn't like to be reminded what can happen to kids in the absence of Bible prinicples, and sometimes even with Bible principles they veer off the track. I was blown away that, not knowing me from a bag of beans, he would so quickly turn to me as Father Confessor. It was likely because he had NO spiritual componant to his life, and when he came across one, the dam burst. The time flew with the plane and landed in no time at all. I'll never see him again, most likely. But you never know. Perhaps he will be like the man who accepted a few magazines, but eventually told me he would do so no more because his wife was allergic to newsprint. 'Look, just tell me if you don't like them,' I said to myself. 'What a stupid excuse!' Years later I met them at a convention, both baptized.  Â

Thank you for this. I am somewhat protected by my opening motto, which I think should be the motto of every brother who uses the internet: "Everyone online is a liar." Of course, they are not. But if you open with that assumption, and never entirely discard it for anyone you do not know personally, you are golden.

Come come. Don't be so petty. Assuming you haven't exagerated the price (since I take my private jet on fancypants European vacations at the drop of a pin, I have forgotten commercial rates), would you expect him to travel rowboat? Or even airline passenger seating, arriving at his age to give some talks, having flown hours with his knees in his mouth? Travel is not so easy for people on in years and yet they routinely skirt around the globe come convention time. And what if he took passenger seating and got stuck riding next to someone like you? (sorry, JWI) Isn't there some TV preacher somewhere who had a vision that he should dunn his followers for yet another personal jet?

I am not one of those on the list for spreading misinformation and hate, so I will not suffer this fate. I will wave to you down below eating catfood as I fly over in my luxury jet en route to still another fancypants European vacation.

It is almost like a scene from Terminator. Or Contagion. Or whatever.

As much as I disagree with almost everything @Srecko Sostar says, and admittedly do not usually read all of his comments end-to-end, I will concede that he has markedly improved his presence. I once wrote that he "deliberatedly chooses to represent himself on this forum as a moron," due to his incessant: "hehehe )))))))))" He doesn't do that anymore. English is obviously not his primary language, yet he has succeeded in employing it with more power. None of this is personal. It is a fight over ideas, and only to a lesser extent over those who embrace them.

Take note that I anticipated from the start that the Terminator would take out the attendants. WhoÂ’s da true prophet, heh? Thanks.

I am looking forward to viewing those snippets you sent me, @James Thomas Rook Jr. re Sarah and the Terminator, but I have to wait until my wife leaves the house, maybe to go shopping. "Honey, we have no wine!" perhaps I will holler, and she will rush off to find some. Seriously, those really are way cool movies, and I have seen only one complete one and snippets of others. For reasons I don't recall, I think Sarah came to ally herself with the Terminator, who she at one time had valid reason to fear. Though it was overall a terrible movie, parts of The Last Action Hero were very appealing, because Schwartzenegger was not afraid to poke (abundant) fun at himself.

I'll put it aside and get to it soon. But you have secured from me what you may never have thought possible, and don't necessarily care about one way or another: a genuine 'like'

YES!!!! That means I rank higher! I WIN!!! All I need to make my joy complete is to find out what happened to Sarah and the Terminator. James will not tell me. Nobody here saw it and can tell me? Nobody here cares about ‘contemporary culture’? Surely Allen the house Terminator saw it. He knows the genre and each time he gets tossed on his ear, I hear an unmistakable “I’ll Be Back.” (Incidentally, do you see how he has reformed and put fits of anger behind him? He thus is unleashing his true gifts, which are always needed in fighting off the scoundrels) What must @admin think? “What a bunch of nuts that old biddy brought along with her! I had high hopes for that TrueTom but he may be among the worst idiots! Ah, well, they do swell the traffic. If I can keep hiding the profiles of my participants, I may yet win top prize at the Conference of Internet Magnificents.”

What is the source of this quote? I like it, and may use it myself elsewhere.

it doesn't interest me in the slightest. Once I see myself on the list, and compare where I place with @James Thomas Rook Jr., then maybe we can talk.