TrueTomHarley

Here is a 14 year-old girl who sexted an explicit picture of herself to her boyfriend via Snapchat - and he spread it about widely. Guys will do things like that and girls should not be dumb. https://www.rt.com/usa/414031-aclu-girl-selfie-child-porn/ She is looking at 10 years felony jail time for violation of Minnesota's child-porn law. The ACLU spokesperson defending her says this is a "teachable moment" for parents to inform the girl that her actions have consequences. Tell me about it. It is also a "cautionary tale," the ACLU adds. Yes. It IS cautionary for a 14 year old trying to live in an insane world supplied her by adults that pushes powerful social media tools, a sexually promiscuous culture, and then ten years for making use of them. Only RT.com picks this story up (besides local media), probably in a quest to embarrass the West, but that is hard to do because the West routinely embarrasses itself yet feels no embarrassment. To the contrary, it parades around in its wisdom. Meanwhile – ‘wisdom from the mouth of babes’ – the girl says “Sexting is common among teens at my school, and we shouldn’t face charges for doing it. I don’t want anyone else to go through what I’m going through.” Of course. It is a no-brainer. It is not that what she did wasn’t wrong – it is that the entire adult world should be prosecuted ahead of her. That way, there will be no room left in jail for the child. In a greater context, the story highlights the absolute failure of the world to vanquish pedophilia, which it has declared public enemy #1 - with its frothing take-no-prisoners, pulling-their-hair out frustration over making no dent in the pandemic, and so wildly overswinging to compensate. It is the frenzied carpenter who misses the nail and then furiously hammers ten times more, again missing each time. This is how it is with zealots who see their cause and nothing else – and the world is full of such people. It mirrors the Arizona law of 2015 criminalizing contact with the private areas of any child under 15 REGARDLESS OF INTENT. Prosecutors did not back down even when it was pointed out that the law criminalizes parents changing diapers. No “sane or reasonable prosecutor” is going to misuse the law that way, they said. That is reassuring, but what about the insane and unreasonable ones? Will the law be repealed? Not easily. Just try repealing it and political enemies will scream you are being soft of pedophiles – no politician dares risk that. Meanwhile, Jehovah’s Witnesses, of all people, get caught in the cross-fire of pedophilia for doing what no other religion attempts to do. Where there are reports of wrongdoing in their midst, they investigate, so as to keep the congregation morally clean – an obligation they feel before God. There is the unfortunate by-product that their name is always attached to pedophiles within their ranks, something that happens nowhere else. No other faith dreams their members should actually apply Christian conduct in their lives. No other faith looks into such things – preach Sunday and be done with it - and thus rarely learn of them. Thus pedophiles, who appear to be every third person on the planet, especially when the statute of limitations is forever, and the 14-year old and folks changing diapers are included, are never ever identified with any religion (unless they are clergy), with but a single exception. The book I am almost finished with about Witness persecution in Russia will contain individual chapters on all charges made against Witnesses. ‘Pedophilia’ will be one of them, even though the subject did not arise there, strangely. It has arisen most everywhere else and it is only a matter of time there. The Russian embassy to the U.S. recently did mention the topic in a tweet, attempting to justify its ban – the first such mention I have ever seen, despite years of flinging dirt in that country to see what will stick. Even my shoving match with @Ann O'Maly over who has the best child-protective video is in the pedophile chapter.

I am ashamed to be one.

Thank you, Suzi. I'm afraid the raucous crowd here were not able to help much. You came through with just the right word at the right time. Best wishes to Shirley However, I have found a major flaw in your comment What makes you think that the ones taken are any good?

He never said that!! He was hooked on the internet. He believed every word. It's well known. I suspect the following is closer to SJ's last coherent words: And now, the end is near And so I face the final curtain My friend, I'll say it clear I'll state my case, of which I'm certain I've lived a life that's full I've traveled each and every highway But more, much more than this I did it my way Regrets, I've had a few But then again, too few to mention I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption I planned each charted course Each careful step along the byway And more, much more than this I did it my way Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew When I bit off more than I could chew But through it all, when there was doubt I ate it up and spit it out I faced it all and I stood tall And did it my way I've loved, I've laughed and cried I've had my fill my share of losing And now, as tears subside I find it all so amusing To think I did all that And may I say - not in a shy way Oh no, oh no, not me I did it my way For what is a man, what has he got If not himself, then he has naught To say the things he truly feels And not the words of one who kneels The record shows I took the blows And did it my way Yes, it was my way

Oops. I take it back. It is not JTR. It is newbie @Nathan Russell who is the true prophet. My bad. GASP! You don't think he is related to you-know-who? I think even @admin was taken in, and he is one smart cookie! Ah well - I fell for the fake story last week about Ringo finally admitting that Paul had really died and that a look-alike contest winner was recruited as replacement meant to be temporary at first but retained when everyone fell for it. How could I have been so dumb? Ah, but I remember how the initial reports absolutely mesmerized the college crowd back then and my roommate urged me (unsuccessfully) to install a reverse gear in my turntable to play all Beatles songs backwards in search of clues - 'Turn me on, dead man.' Is 'the news' another one of those hills and mountains' that used to be dependable but is now quicksand?

Yes. It stinks to high heaven. It is a church speech inserted by churchy people. Were we an underhanded people, we might have done it ourselves. The sentiments are true - I have no problem with them. But it is inconceivable that he would ever have said it, methinks. The 'Oh Wow! Oh Wow!' comes across as more accurate, and for once, JTR is a true prophet.

Hmm. Did he really say this? And how do we know he is not draining our smartphones from the beyond?

My Skinny Minnie is a crazy chick. Â

Ah well. The smoking gun began smoking two or three concurrent generations before my time. Should I make it into the new system, then I will be living forever and if they try it again I will catch them in the act!

Hecko, Trom. Nice hearing from you.

Yes. If you are going to go hogwild over critical thinking, then go all the way. Turn it upon the Bible itself. The reason we can look at the Bible the way we do is because we have 'tasted and seen that Jehovah is good.' It is experience that determines how we look upon things. But if you hail from the world of criticism, you cannot conceive of unity. You have never seen it. Leave these people to their own devices and there is no Bible book written as presented. Every one of them is a hash of conflicting authors with warring agendas. It is the only reality these scholars have ever observed and it colors all of their scholarship. Bethel will never let go of 607, I don't think, because it enabled them to hit the nail on the head. The entire world only goes to war for the first time ever once in all millenia and they hit the year. Other years are known for various world leaders losing their library cards. Nothing packs the punch of 1914. If the entire world going to war concurrently for the first time ever isn't peace being taken from the world, what is? Even if the overlapping generations threaten to separate - and I wouldn't hold my breath on that - they could simply say that a generation is a loose term of a certain time period - say, like the 'industrial age.' In 1974 a brief snippet in the Watchtower quoted some source with that outlook, and I recall thinking that that view might surface again some day. @JW Insider can find it, no doubt. It was in the Watchtower's equivalent of 'watching the world' - a series that ran for awhile of 3 items to a page. A few weeks ago there appeared in the meeting the Kingdom Rules book on Isaiah 11. Discussing the return of the Jews from Babylonian exile and how they would be encouraged by Isaiah's prophesy about the animals, it said: "The lion would eat straw in the sense that it would not devour the Jews' cattle." They didn't have to do it. They could have said "God will supply them with bales of hay in order to feed the lions." Okay? They are not hung up on whether words are literal or figurative. 'Generation' will go more unconventional yet if it has to. I am handicapped in the 607 discussion by not knowing anything about it. But it is less of a handicap then one might think. @Ann O'Maly trots out the 100 year old quote that profane history cannot be trusted because it is written by men of conflicting motives in a Satan-controlled world. She hopes anyone reading the quote with think the GB stupid. The quote differs hardly at all with 'history is written by the victors,' which she probably quotes with an air of superiority in other discussions. @Arauna pointed out before what anyone with discernment knows already - that the land of scholarship is one of big egos (she was speaking Egyptology, I think, but it is across the board) where the 'victors' to all they can do discredit whoever they have temporarily out-argued - defunding them, even banning them from access to materials. You don't go slobbering over critical thinking as the be-all and end-all. It is too easily outmaneuvered by other interests.

This sounds ignorant. "History is written by the victors." This sounds learned and it is accepted wisdom today. How are the two statements fundamentally different?

Fortunately for her the old boy is married at the moment, hopefully for good.

Obviously the two women needed to have their heads examined. An old-timer told me of when he was fiddling with his slide rule at McDonalds. A young employee asked him what it was and how it worked. He showed him. The kid's eyes grew big: "Wow! You should patent that! You'd make a fortune!" But we are running away with the thread of @Shirley Ann Lowery and I feel guilty about that. Especially as she is a newcomer and hers is a concern that many have had.

Any man who loves dogs cannot quite be the character he sometimes appears to beÂ

The apocryphal Gospel of Howard tells that the Lord asked Matthew to join him, but he had to go bowling. Andrew had a date at the horse races. John, Peter, and Nathaniel were off to the tavern. Both Judas' commended him for his fine work but said they were busy. The remaining ones of the twelve all said that their wives handled the religion in their households - not they. So the Lord roamed far and wide with the wives of the twelve. James approved of the arrangement. He confided to a friend that "a man can only stand so much religion anyway." He was happy to have his wife out of the house, where she could nag him less. He afforded her great freedom, so long as she returned at the end of the day to fix his dinner while he watched the game. The religion of the female twelve spread like wildfire. Simply put, the women were just not the jerks their husbands were and they actually listened to what the householders said.

If they had kept their insurance premiums up to date they wouldn't have been destroyed at all.

There is excellent competition for categories of 'shocking' and many involve large scale killings, torture and rape. The ban on Witness activity in Russia does not yet rate on this scale and likely will not - though one never knows. It is head-and-shoulders the most important story as regards freedom of worship, but this is only one of many human rights. The list is compiled according to stories most publicized. To that extent, the Governing Body must be given much credit, for they did not allow this thing to be done in a corner. Still, there is another list on the HRW website of ten videos - of shocking blood and guts violence - the the Witness ban does not even appear on this one. There has to be gore galore to make a dent today in the world's greater consciousness. The Witness ban, while it is the most spiritually shocking event, is not the most physically shocking, or even close.

There are no rules of any sort. Except for a family head who is authorized to set rules for his family. And since Bethel is a 'family' - many persons living in voluntary close quarters for a specific reason - there are quite a few rules there. But they do not carry over into the general congregation (though there are always some who would have it otherwise). There is counsel and peer pressure. It will be (relevant to this thread) based on the concept many have noticed that men and women are attracted to each other, yet cannot enjoy the intimate closeness of sex relations unless married so it is best not to allow themselves to get all pumped up. The counsel varies from place to place and culture will have something to do with it. If you enjoy privileges in the congregation - servant, pioneer - you will find that you are expected to be an example and you can lose privileges by flying in the face of such counsel as to what is locally acceptable or has been published. Otherwise, no. Jehovah's people are not belligerent or headstrong and are not inclined to blow off counsel as nothing. Elders are not control freaks or micro-managers, though some are - in about the same proportion as the general population, I would guess. Efforts are made through training so as to get those ones to be less that way. There is such a thing as 'brazen conduct' - it used to be translated 'loose conduct.' It has the air of contempt & outrageous disregard of customary standards & an in-your-face attitude. That can get a person in trouble. Since it is more vague than outright immorality, it will not always be applied consistently. But always it is associated with persistent defiance of accepted conduct - just look up the word 'brazen' to get a sense for it. But it is never a matter of petty rules enforced by people who just like to meddle. Anyone like that jeopardizes his reputation as a reasonable person - one of the criteria for serving as an older man.

It's Bolivia.

Who are the world's seven greatest librarians? What qualities make them such? A thread for each one, if you please.

On Facebook, one of my countless friends said: "Hussein's rebuilt Babylon was smashed to bits in the first gulf war. A Syrian brother told me the local Iranian word on the street was basically "Why did they bomb Disneyland?"

Homeschooling the kids, we used to color in on a world map each year the various countries - with colors corresponding to penetration of the good news, as in 'publisher to general population' ratio. It was a fine way to teach both theocracy and geography We used the rainbow. Red was the greatest concentration. Violet was stone cold. Alas, today it might all be misconstrued as the advancement of gay rights.

What do you do when you spy the woman of wickedness trying to climb out of the ephah jar? (Zech 5:7) You grab the brazen hussy by the scruff the neck and boot her back down into the jar from where she came. (taking care in these volatile times that you do not get accused of harassment) Then you summon the two with wings to ship her back to Babylon. Maybe it was a reminder to the Jews who had just come from there to check their own ephah jars - or even their shoes, lest they had tracked something in. Incidentally, present at our meeting was an Iraqi man who has responded to the Arabic group. The actual Babylon means something to him, unlike to anyone else. He says it is the site of a festival each year, with music and food. Also that there is the slogan everyone knows: 'Babylon will rise again.'

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