TrueTomHarley

If just cracks me up when someone downvotes a comment that undermines whatever they harp on—as though without a downvote, nobody would have any idea they might disapprove. 
It’s even more so when people downvote insults to themselves. Duh.
I think I’m going to collect a few insults and upvote them all as a subtle means of ridicule.

If just cracks me up when someone downvotes a comment that undermines whatever they harp on—as though without a downvote, nobody would have any idea they might disapprove. 
It’s even more so when people downvote insults to themselves. Duh.
I think I’m going to collect a few insults and upvote them all as a subtle means of ridicule.

Alas, this fine thread has devolved into a cat fight. But I’ll bring it back on topic, thus redeeming myself in CC’s eyes. I’m not entirely sure how I fell from his good graces.
This is pretty much the standard in the land in which they live. They by no means are out of place. I think one reason no one gets too serious about clamping down on “fatties” is that the causes are difficult to quantify. 
I have known people to eat like hogs. It’s no surprise when they get fat. But I’ve also known people to eat sparingly and still put on weight. Moreover, cutting food does not necessarily make them lose weight. You would think it would but it doesn’t.
There is an acronym of SAD, “Standard American Diet,” which is sad in that it virtually assures packing on the pounds. Look at any TV show of 50+ years ago and note how rail thin the backdrop characters are as opposed to today. The processed foods, meat and potatoes, high carb, high sugar diet is conducive to overweight even without overeating, even with moderate exercise. Add a sedentary lifestyle, which comes with the job for some of these guys, and the waistlines start to swell. 
Alas, there is chicanery in the food industry. Fast food will make you bigger than a house. But even regular sold food will point one that way... Google and you can find how that campaign to go low-fat was actually started by the sugar industry in order to deflect damage from their own offerings onto someone else and sell more stuff. Starchy, sugary food is very addicting yet is not on the list of what anyone would call gluttonous. Everything is high sugar, even things you would not suspect, such as ketchup.
I think some weight campaigners cease being such when they reach a certain age and find that, even though they eat no more, even though they were once thin, they start to pack on the pounds with the same diet as before. 
 

This might help:
“Out of nowhere a scholar has appeared who talks dispassionate sense on the subject of child sexual abuse as it relates to Jehovah’s Witnesses and is unswayed by secular jingoism. Are/were you a Jehovah’s Witness who was abused as a child? That is very bad, Holly Folk agrees, but she cautions such ones that they must be on guard not to be abused a second time. It may happen at the hands of those who mostly feign interest in their trauma so as to enlist them in their greater goal of taking down a religion they hate. “All I ask is that you consider, for a moment, that you might be being used again, by people who care little about achieving justice for victims,” she says.”
More... https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2021/02/holly-folk-speaks-to-child-sexual-abuse-among-jehovahs-witnesses.html

This might help:
“Out of nowhere a scholar has appeared who talks dispassionate sense on the subject of child sexual abuse as it relates to Jehovah’s Witnesses and is unswayed by secular jingoism. Are/were you a Jehovah’s Witness who was abused as a child? That is very bad, Holly Folk agrees, but she cautions such ones that they must be on guard not to be abused a second time. It may happen at the hands of those who mostly feign interest in their trauma so as to enlist them in their greater goal of taking down a religion they hate. “All I ask is that you consider, for a moment, that you might be being used again, by people who care little about achieving justice for victims,” she says.”
More... https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2021/02/holly-folk-speaks-to-child-sexual-abuse-among-jehovahs-witnesses.html

Here is one in which Trump is the greater Moses:
https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2020/03/moses-addressing-the-israelites-trump-style.html

Why did he not notice it himself, so that “eventually” you had to do it? Did you not say he, too, was good?
Did he? How?
Look, if you come on with bitter tirades, and Lord knows you do, you should offer a few specifics.
If this is the case, then why is there a problem?
For whatever it’s worth, when I served as an elder, I would not work with other elders when there were other unattended publishers around. I do know that situation of some who “team up” and I don’t particularly like it. Still, I don’t take a flamethrower to the Christian organization because of it. It is a very challenging situation should sisters show up with small children that they hope others will help with. Practically speaking, it is a great challenge to integrate them—separate some kids and you’ve got 4Jah breathing down your neck—and beyond complaining, you did not offer a better way.
Okay okay, maybe I could reword that.
Of which YOU have appointed yourself spokesperson, constantly bringing up the subject (and little else). It is one of those “let the reader use discernment” situations.

Yes. This is why I am nothing but hugs and kisses for Alan, Witness, and even that insufferable 4Jah.
Exactly. This is why you do not pay undo attention to the individuals. They are as actors in a play. Take one out and another who knows all the lines immediately steps into his place.
This is true even with the good guys, though they are more pleasant to dwell upon and might be dwelt upon for just that reason. It is the play we are watching. One need not know the names of the actors to follow the play. It can even be a distraction if we do 

Ah—now we are on to something. Did he suggest like any old person floating a possibility? Or did he SUGGEST like Trump, that all was not well in Congress?
Gasp! That’s why Trump was impeached! @The Librarianwas running the House! It was off with Butler’s head one day, Trump’s the next!

Experience of a full day in 1920's Berlin. AI enhanced with deep learning techniques. From dawn until dusk in three minutes. Berlin of the Weimar Republic was a multi-cultural city. Teeming with flappers,bobbed hair,cloche hats, and the dancing girls of Berlin's infamous Cabaret scene.
By 1924, post WW1 Germany's economy had stabilized and crime began to decline. This era was known as the "Golden Years" of Weimar. Berlin in particular saw a cultural explosion. The 1929 Crash and Great Depression which followed it, saw an end to democracy and the rise of fascism.
This is a short AI enhanced edit of the Walther Ruttmann classic silent documentary film. Berlin : Symphony of a Great City 1927.

Someone really anointed or really Invited  would not promote or make it known on line ...it’s as simple as that..a really humble one ..would allow them selves  be wronged..as Jesus did and as the apostles did..
PRIDE makes them have the need to be known.....

Yes. This is why I am nothing but hugs and kisses for Alan, Witness, and even that insufferable 4Jah.
Exactly. This is why you do not pay undo attention to the individuals. They are as actors in a play. Take one out and another who knows all the lines immediately steps into his place.
This is true even with the good guys, though they are more pleasant to dwell upon and might be dwelt upon for just that reason. It is the play we are watching. One need not know the names of the actors to follow the play. It can even be a distraction if we do 

Yes. This is why I am nothing but hugs and kisses for Alan, Witness, and even that insufferable 4Jah.
Exactly. This is why you do not pay undo attention to the individuals. They are as actors in a play. Take one out and another who knows all the lines immediately steps into his place.
This is true even with the good guys, though they are more pleasant to dwell upon and might be dwelt upon for just that reason. It is the play we are watching. One need not know the names of the actors to follow the play. It can even be a distraction if we do 

Ah—now we are on to something. Did he suggest like any old person floating a possibility? Or did he SUGGEST like Trump, that all was not well in Congress?
Gasp! That’s why Trump was impeached! @The Librarianwas running the House! It was off with Butler’s head one day, Trump’s the next!

He was not removed for that reason.
Look, nothing has changed with this new identification of the GB with the faithful slave. Before that was made the situation was the same. Headship came from a small group of under a dozen who, for practical reasons, physically gather together. Should they need a replacement, they look into the ranks of anointed worldwide, and select one. It was that way before. It is that way now. 
Who do you think they are going to select? Someone who just recently began to partake, or one who has done so for a long time? Someone with relatively little experience in the Christian preaching work, or one who has specialized in it full-time for decades?
This is not hard to answer. Even before this arrangement, anointed within the congregations knew, were content with, and deported themselves, that their assignment was to rule in the new system, not now. But it has apparently become the thing that there are now some anointed, whether for real or “self-promoted”  I know not, whether associated with a congregation or on the outside I know not, who want to be NOW seen as having authority. It has never been that way. 
As far as I am concerned, Witness’s non-response to my request that she arrange the car group says it all. She bitterly complains on how sisters with many children are “ignored.” When I ask how would she handle the situation she herself presented she is silent. Yet she is not silent on everything. She continues to chime in about her being “cheated” out of her anointed status.
Someone really anointed, someone really concerned with the sheep, would not ignore the scenario she presented herself as a complaint. She would tell how it is solved. She may have been like that at one time. But she appears far too interested in self-promotion” these days for her to be so now.

He was not removed for that reason.
Look, nothing has changed with this new identification of the GB with the faithful slave. Before that was made the situation was the same. Headship came from a small group of under a dozen who, for practical reasons, physically gather together. Should they need a replacement, they look into the ranks of anointed worldwide, and select one. It was that way before. It is that way now. 
Who do you think they are going to select? Someone who just recently began to partake, or one who has done so for a long time? Someone with relatively little experience in the Christian preaching work, or one who has specialized in it full-time for decades?
This is not hard to answer. Even before this arrangement, anointed within the congregations knew, were content with, and deported themselves, that their assignment was to rule in the new system, not now. But it has apparently become the thing that there are now some anointed, whether for real or “self-promoted”  I know not, whether associated with a congregation or on the outside I know not, who want to be NOW seen as having authority. It has never been that way. 
As far as I am concerned, Witness’s non-response to my request that she arrange the car group says it all. She bitterly complains on how sisters with many children are “ignored.” When I ask how would she handle the situation she herself presented she is silent. Yet she is not silent on everything. She continues to chime in about her being “cheated” out of her anointed status.
Someone really anointed, someone really concerned with the sheep, would not ignore the scenario she presented herself as a complaint. She would tell how it is solved. She may have been like that at one time. But she appears far too interested in self-promotion” these days for her to be so now.

He was not removed for that reason.
Look, nothing has changed with this new identification of the GB with the faithful slave. Before that was made the situation was the same. Headship came from a small group of under a dozen who, for practical reasons, physically gather together. Should they need a replacement, they look into the ranks of anointed worldwide, and select one. It was that way before. It is that way now. 
Who do you think they are going to select? Someone who just recently began to partake, or one who has done so for a long time? Someone with relatively little experience in the Christian preaching work, or one who has specialized in it full-time for decades?
This is not hard to answer. Even before this arrangement, anointed within the congregations knew, were content with, and deported themselves, that their assignment was to rule in the new system, not now. But it has apparently become the thing that there are now some anointed, whether for real or “self-promoted”  I know not, whether associated with a congregation or on the outside I know not, who want to be NOW seen as having authority. It has never been that way. 
As far as I am concerned, Witness’s non-response to my request that she arrange the car group says it all. She bitterly complains on how sisters with many children are “ignored.” When I ask how would she handle the situation she herself presented she is silent. Yet she is not silent on everything. She continues to chime in about her being “cheated” out of her anointed status.
Someone really anointed, someone really concerned with the sheep, would not ignore the scenario she presented herself as a complaint. She would tell how it is solved. She may have been like that at one time. But she appears far too interested in self-promotion” these days for her to be so now.

He was not removed for that reason.
Look, nothing has changed with this new identification of the GB with the faithful slave. Before that was made the situation was the same. Headship came from a small group of under a dozen who, for practical reasons, physically gather together. Should they need a replacement, they look into the ranks of anointed worldwide, and select one. It was that way before. It is that way now. 
Who do you think they are going to select? Someone who just recently began to partake, or one who has done so for a long time? Someone with relatively little experience in the Christian preaching work, or one who has specialized in it full-time for decades?
This is not hard to answer. Even before this arrangement, anointed within the congregations knew, were content with, and deported themselves, that their assignment was to rule in the new system, not now. But it has apparently become the thing that there are now some anointed, whether for real or “self-promoted”  I know not, whether associated with a congregation or on the outside I know not, who want to be NOW seen as having authority. It has never been that way. 
As far as I am concerned, Witness’s non-response to my request that she arrange the car group says it all. She bitterly complains on how sisters with many children are “ignored.” When I ask how would she handle the situation she herself presented she is silent. Yet she is not silent on everything. She continues to chime in about her being “cheated” out of her anointed status.
Someone really anointed, someone really concerned with the sheep, would not ignore the scenario she presented herself as a complaint. She would tell how it is solved. She may have been like that at one time. But she appears far too interested in self-promotion” these days for her to be so now.

You help your mom and those few other sisters, or you and those few other sisters help your mom? The wording is not clear. 
It does remind me, though, of a local situation of an elderly sister who moved in with family that built an in-law apartment for her. She has never fully integrated with the congregation and I’m not sure why. Somewhere there is a disconnect with her unbelieving family who say, in the person of a daughter-in-law that they want to help spiritually (there is no question that physically she is cared for) and yet somehow there is no follow through. How hard can it be to physically get her connected with Zoom meetings, and yet somehow it doesn’t happen. Believe me, I personally have tried, and I am not the only one.
Complaints filter down through that daughter-in-law that the congregation does not do enough. That daughter in law tells me she studied with Witnesses in another country for several years but the friends here are not loving like they were there. While that may (or may not) be true, I told her, that is not why someone pursues a relationship with God. It didn’t help when a local elder went to visit and got bit by one of several yappy dogs on the premises. 
The elderly sister has the beginnings of Alzheimer’s. Even when she did not, she was very reserved and not easy to get to know. A local couple would pick her up for meetings. Something about the situation eventually wore them out, particularly as they began to cope with the ill health of their own parents. 
I’ve visited this sister. The house is massive and new, with as many as six cars in the driveway. When the sister took a fall and broke an arm, the congregation provided meals for several months, at the suggestion of the daughter-in-law. It may not have occurred to them otherwise because plainly she lives among relatives that physically care for her. My wife coordinated that campaign. It seems like it might have run on forever, far longer than with anyone else, until my wife said ‘okay, glad that we have been able to relieve pressure, give the family a break, etc, and no doubt you can take over again as before.’ It is possible that we were being “used,”—it is not nothing to provide meals every day, particularly when it is not clear why family can’t do it themselves—but that’s not the important thing. I can even picture unbelieving family muttering about “cults” and so forth, but it has never been to our face, so it is just a possibility.
She gets some phone calls, some cards, she is connected on Roku, I’ve been there to see that, but somehow things do not gel. I don’t know the answer. We do what we can do, but cannot do everything. Whatever family interplay there is was established long ago in another area, and there is only so far you can go in unraveling the oddities. There is a believing daughter that visits from time to time and hopefully alleviates matters.
This is the only situation I know of, but it is reasonable to think every congregation has one or two parallels. On the other hand, there are also several old ones not tech savvy who have come up to speed with Zoom, usually with help, but it has happened. One who was never much in the physical ministry has blossomed in the virtual one. In short, I don’t think anyone has been “left behind” any more so than what would have happened prior to Covid.
If you have @Araunaoffering to call all the way from Albania, Matthew, sounds to me like you should take her up on it. You, too, have some dysfunctional background, I recall. Didn’t you say your folks fought like cats and dogs and shouldn’t have had children? It’s to your credit that you provide for her, that being the case. Not all children do.
This may be so, or it may be your interpretation of what is so. You say you don’t read the current material. If you did, you would notice at the latest midweek meetings how such a fuss was made over “there at Chebar a vision came to me,” with application that even if far removed from the physical organization, one is not removed from God.
I’m not sure we do know this. I’ve heard several old-timers say they don’t care if we ever go back to physical meetings. It saves massive amounts of time and energy, which is not boundless at their age, and you can do nearly as much on Zoom as in person. I think pandemic is harder on young people than on old. As for me, I have unchained my inner hermit and he is doing just fine.
You act as though the organization forsakes physical meetings because they care not about anyone’s concerns than theirs. Forgive me for saying it, but this smacks to me of the complaining victimization spirit of the day. When circumstances change, you have to adapt. The reason KHs are closed is, not as a personal affront to you or your mom, but because it is thought, and authorities continually advance the view, that it saves lives. Forgive me again for saying it, but if the KHs were open I can picture you complaining  how the organization doesn’t care if members die. It is kind of what you do, and I would be happier if you didn’t.

It has become the thing. I would love to see a national breakdown of it. Is it evenly spread among all of Jehovah’s people or is it focused in a few nations of similar attributes.? I’d bet a fairly large sum that it is the latter.
Though i would not bet in the presence of “cowboy” elders. We all know some of them have existed, and in their wake there is a certain amount of damage? What if you knew another in that same congregation?
 
In fact I am. When you have a gift, you bring it to the altar. You don’t diss everyone else for not having it. You see if (hopefully) they may have another gift.
This is all starting to come together. The music is rising to heart-bending finale.
I have not noticed this with my mutt but I am keeping a close eye on him. He is known to do anything he can to get extra treats. You should see how it wolfs down peanut butter on carrot.

It has become the thing. I would love to see a national breakdown of it. Is it evenly spread among all of Jehovah’s people or is it focused in a few nations of similar attributes.? I’d bet a fairly large sum that it is the latter.
Though i would not bet in the presence of “cowboy” elders. We all know some of them have existed, and in their wake there is a certain amount of damage? What if you knew another in that same congregation?
 
In fact I am. When you have a gift, you bring it to the altar. You don’t diss everyone else for not having it. You see if (hopefully) they may have another gift.
This is all starting to come together. The music is rising to heart-bending finale.
I have not noticed this with my mutt but I am keeping a close eye on him. He is known to do anything he can to get extra treats. You should see how it wolfs down peanut butter on carrot.

We are waiting only for the fat lady to sing.
Of course, she is probably afraid to, after reading @xero

It has become the thing. I would love to see a national breakdown of it. Is it evenly spread among all of Jehovah’s people or is it focused in a few nations of similar attributes.? I’d bet a fairly large sum that it is the latter.
Though i would not bet in the presence of “cowboy” elders. We all know some of them have existed, and in their wake there is a certain amount of damage? What if you knew another in that same congregation?
 
In fact I am. When you have a gift, you bring it to the altar. You don’t diss everyone else for not having it. You see if (hopefully) they may have another gift.
This is all starting to come together. The music is rising to heart-bending finale.
I have not noticed this with my mutt but I am keeping a close eye on him. He is known to do anything he can to get extra treats. You should see how it wolfs down peanut butter on carrot.

I wonder about your logic sometimes.... I just leave it at that.  Maybe you have a compulsiveness to accuse or a compulsive trolling bug or some other disease...... lol