TrueTomHarley

Uh oh. ”Hey, you guys keep it down back there!” TTH hollered to A Nice Guy, Dr. Adhominem, Bill Ding, Tom Foolery, Dr. Max “Ace” Inhibitor, and a host of others.

“Now TTH had been saying: “It was for nothing that I kissed up to this cantankerous old fellow in the wilderness. Not a single thing bad thing about him did I say [lately], and yet he repays me evil for good. May God do the same and more to the enemies of TTH if I allow a single sentence of his to survive until the morning!” He already told you he has a copy. I didn’t know he had a son. I can honestly say I have never read an apostate book. A few online articles here and there, but mostly not even that. So many others have that I find it easy to glean whatever I need from them. You are far more versed in their bile than I

Look, I use the pages as toilet paper, okay? Please tell me what you have against my books. You were making sour remarks long before you ever knew I had a BWShultz book. And I’ve only read a few scattered portions. I find it a bit tedious. It’s a expose of religious trivia of 100+ years ago and I find myself saying, “Why would anyone care about that?”

For the life of me I do not understand why you are so harsh with regard to my books. They are 100% loyal, entirely devoted to defending the faith from attacks. I am not that bad Shultz who teams up with a non-believer. I am not that bad JWI who signals nonalignment with several current beliefs. I honestly don’t understand it. You have at least Tom Irregardless and Me. I know you do because I gave you a copy and at the time you were very gracious over it. What changed?

The Who just may be my favorite group of all time. Lots of memorable tunes. Like I went back to my motherI said, "I'm crazy, Ma, help me"She said, "I know how it feels, son'Cause it runs in the family" Just taking bout my g-g-generation. I can see for miles and miles an miles.

I can think of a solution to that little problem.

It may have served to counter another trend as well. Just that time in greater world began to speak of ‘careers’ whereas in the past it had always been about ‘jobs.’ ‘If they’re going to put on airs, then so will we’ I can imagine the subliminal thought process of those who went on reframe a stint at Bethel, as a job, but only as one aspect of a ‘career’ in Jehovah’s full time service.

But then along came the Who and they all got fooled again.

Actually I contacted your parents long ago. “As soon as that kid is out of our hair…..” they told me. His parents told me the same thing.

as though that doesn’t happen anywhere else. as though everyone else celebrates when their wife dies. Whatever her influence once was, she’s been dead for several years. Her death preceded the release of Volume II. As to parameters, I’m not versed enough in the history to know what they might be. In the 70s some touring Bethel brother presented a few clips from the PhotoDrama of creation at the Blue Cross Arena [then the Rochester War Memorial]. I was struck by how it appeared to be his own project and that otherwise Bethel would have let the film disintegrate through neglect. Not that anyone was ashamed of it. It was just that they were forward looking and didn’t do much to preserve history. The tone of his remarks was that he had to sort through the basement, or the attic, to assemble what he had, which was not in good shape and soon would have vanished. The release of the Proclaimers book seemed to signal a shift from neglect of the past to cherishing ‘our spiritual heritage.’ Nothing wrong with that, in my view. It was as though, after assembling the yearbook material for 74 and 75 (Germany and US) it occurred to the brothers, seemingly for the first time, that if they didn’t start preserving records of the past it would soon be lost forever. Maybe that’s why Rud can find an audience for his expensive book (I should take lessons from him in commanding a price); there’s a relative dearth of official historical material. It’s not my field of interest, but I recognize everyone wants to tell their own story and relate their own ‘expertise.’ As for me, I say, ‘If you have to go back 100 years to dig up dirt, there can’t be too much dirt to dig.’ Alas, they have modern-day allies, who endeavor to dig it up —some would say ‘concoct’—in the present too.

They have their own standards. It’s not so much humility as it is meeting their standards. Their club consists of published authors and/or scholars with advanced degrees.. I can spin a good story, self publish with typos, shift the gem to see things from a different perspective, but am not really in their league. There has been someone saying he will try to gain me admittance but I’m not holding my breath. If I did gain admittance I am not sure I would participate much. I’m not sure my advocate has the stature to recommend a new member anyway. He talks a good game. I’m not overly impressed with ‘scholars’ anyway. It’s not the ‘greater gift.’ It’s a fine addition if you have the greater gift down pat but comes across as a little pretentious if you don’t. The twelve were not scholars. Paul (who was) said a Christian should be “a workman [not a professional] with nothing to be ashamed of,” thus choosing his words to favor the non-scholars. God arranged that his son should be born in the Bethehem Manger, not the Jerusalem Hyatt. He could have chosen the latter; he knows a lot of people. But he didn’t. I don’t think these humble roots are embarrassing shortcomings to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps from, which is how they are usually presented. I think they are permanent indications of the ones who God chooses. As soon as people fancy themselves ‘scholars’ they are inclined to get too big for their pants. They start to think, as did Rud, “The Branch wouldn’t dare mess with me!” In time they bluster around like Alan F, calling anyone who disagrees a ignoramus. Have the greater gifts down pat and scholarship is fine. You need scholarship. I get that. But the guys that are topheavy with it wear me out. I have one of his too. So far as I am aware he does have the greater gifts down pat. He writes Bethel in connection to his research and to a reasonable degree they cooperate. As he is reaching advanced years with poor health he donates rare literature to them. I’m glad he does the work he does. Somebody has to. I’m glad it is him. But I would never have the patience to put something like that together. They sent a copy of their work to Bethel, to no comment, and his non-Witness niece speculated that Bethel “is incurious as to its own beginnings.” By and large I think that is true. They don’t look behind too much. They look forward.

He doesn’t like Shultz? Who could not like Shultz? Shultz recently told me that in his ‘scholar group’ he pointedly told off Rolf and it was apparently heated enough that he thought one or the other of them might be kicked off, and that he didn’t care if it was him, even though Rolf was a one-person minority. He had previously tweeted of a certain “moron” in his group. I observed that every group was a moron and inquired if it was in connection to a certain dastardly deed where Rolf had played his hand. It was. I have floated the possibility with another of that group that it might be a fine thing to add me to it, even allowing that I am so not much a scholar as a seedpicker—peck a seed here and poop it out there, just like they said of Paul. So far no one has taken the bait.

That’s just it. I didn’t keep track of who. Nobody I knew personally. He expressed nothing toward me but good will. It was some form of media communication, the exact form I forget.

I don’t see any mention of him there. Yeah, I suppose you could get worked up over certain things. But to the point of missing the big picture? When he was baptized “into Christ” did he thereafter become brother to the 95% of Christians who equate Jesus with God? This statement is telling to me: “I myself was sure that the Branch would not dare to do anything.” Isn’t there such a thing as overestimating your own importance? Recently Elon Musk proposed to buy Twitter. “I’m sure the left wouldn’t dare do anything,” he said.

I wish I had kept track of who is was, but I didn’t. Someone responded, by email, post, comment, I forget which, to say he used to edit Wikipedia for Witness-related things and he had to be on it all the time. He would say things from the Witness point of view and 24 hours later the apostates [his word] would have changed it back to something derogatory. P.S.L. Johnson would probably be too obscure for anyone to bother with. What I can’t remember is if this was on his own initiative or if it was some freelance theocratic assignment, or a bit of both. He liked some of the stuff I was doing, but cautioned my with a line from Nietzsche [so he was just your typical brother. ]: “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” I have let that moderate my behavior, even if not so far as calling a truce. If only all of Walter’s writings were of this caliber. I would unblock him in an instant.

“No, no, Rude Person is actually a very nice guy!” Sorry, it is just such low-hanging fruit. Why should this character be so named? It’s almost like Nabal—the ‘senseless one.’ All of this is a bit at odds with the “shrewd and scheming legal mind” he is said to have had in the book’s promo.

Yeah, well what about that time you banned ME for saying that your dress was tacky?

Somehow it reminds me of that Bible talk of Ehud, who delivered to fat Eglon a ‘pointed message,’ causing you-know-what to spill all over.

Why do I want to attach a laughing emoji to this but somehow feel I shouldn’t?

Maybe I’ll get back to you after I finish Children, picked up a few weeks ago at a ….. um……eclectic book store out in the boondocks where you suspect the owner doesn’t really care if he ever sells a book or not—he just likes to hoard them. Cats roam freely and I’d be a little leery of books on the bottom row. Many aisles are completely impassable. You can only explore the far end by going down an adjacent aisle and doubling back.

Barely a word about it here in the States unless you go to a place like GETTR, in which case there is plenty. I didn’t want to start a new social media account, but certain views are reliably suppressed or ‘fact-checked’ away on the main platforms that I felt driven to it. I follow only two people in my GETTR account, Malone and Dowd, and I have the same profile there as I do here and everywhere else. I’ve only commented once, nothing substantial, and don’t plan (as of yet) to make a habit of it. Last I checked I already had 20 followers.

At the Convention of Magnificent Internet Moguls Mr. Admin casually boasts to his neighbor, “Seen the latest off-the-chart stats of the Wordwide News Media Forum?” ”Big deal, they’re all religious nuts,” comes the answer. Talk to me when you have people who don’t think the earth is flat.” That old hen.

I’m going to get a spoof IP address and make him think I’m posting from Putin’s palace.

He was a good guy. I’m sorry he’s gone.

For a long time this carried the day with me as well, but in time I grew tired with the quality and predictability of the challenges.