TrueTomHarley

I think we can take Geo Jackson’s words as a template. ‘You don’t want to take sides,’ he says, and to show the challenge of keeping neutral, he uses the example of contesting politicians in Australia, one of whom wanted to draft people of Jackson’s age into the military and one of whom did not. Now that would test your resolve to stay neutral, he said, nonetheless you must do it.
If he was as ignorant of politics as some seem to think is the gold standard, he would not have even known which politician’s views would be to his benefit and which one would not. Of course, I leaned into him on this point, informing him that:
I’m sure he gave my words all the consideration they deserved before instantly turning his attention to other matters.

Well, whose fault is that? Next thing, you will be calling me a cult leader for having manipulated you into spilling it.
It is not shocking to be informed, though neither is it a sin to opt out. One firebrand brother on X stated emphatically, straight out of the blue, “Jehovah’s Witness are NOT INTERESTED in politics!” Well, actually some of them are, I told him. ‘I think what you are looking to say is that they do not take sides. 
‘They are NOT INTERESTED IN POLITICS!’ he roared back and then blocked me.

You might be right, but I have a feeling it was more of a carryover from the 1940's. This was a rough era for the Watchtower, and opposition could get crazy in some areas of the US. I don't know that they ever had much of a problem with intruders. The guards did their rounds at night, and couldn't turn on any lights, with just a flashlight through dark hallways and corridors. 
At Brooklyn Bethel, every four to six months, all single brothers (under 30, I think) would get an assignment for either night-time dish duty (to help out the overnight kitchen crew) or guard duty. I always traded my dish duty for night-time guard duty because it gave me the morning off the next day, and I hate doing dishes. But we had no weapons and were told never to approach an intruder, just call the police. In fact, it was just a matter of walking around with a key and turning it into a "time-clock" at a location on two ends of each floor, and making that round two or three times during the night. If we found windows open we were to close them, and if we found any lights left on we were to turn them off, of if we smelled an excess of 'flammables' we could turn on a light and investigate. I was told that making these rounds reduced our insurance rates considerably. The closest thing to an intruder I ever found was a Bethelite who had stayed in the Squibb factory building overnight to hide away in a dark place with someone I assumed was his girlfriend. 

For a moment, I thought you were about to say something outrageous, like they were collecting donations through a plate passing, lol! Tens of thousands have visited Bethel. Many of us have sat with GB members, and some of us have even been backstage with them at assemblies. There have also been instances when some of us have shared meals with the GB during assemblies when hot meals were being prepared in the past.
I also bear a knife wound on my left shoulder, a grim souvenir from the gangs of New York. Not everyone has lived a sheltered life or been perceived as harmless based on appearance alone. There's no need for me to narrate my entire life story, but I must emphasize that many of us here have not truly experienced life's harsh realities. There is a profound significance to enduring genuine life struggles.

He even says he drives a Subaru:

I’ve never heard a Tucker excerpt I didn’t like. That said, I haven’t heard too many. None of those other people do I know. In the early days of Covid, however, I forwarded a Joe Rogan interview with Dr. McCullough to HQ, hoping that if they found it as informative as I did, they would overlook Joe’s explosion of profanity towards the end. Probably, I put myself on their radar screen as much as you during your recent visit, during which they said to themselves,  “What is it this politician would like to tell?” Others: “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities.”

Okay, so I know this post is not addressed to me, having never been a Bethel member, but I did visit there once, as a young man, and dined with them. I quickly got the sense of the food-plate flow, that after prayer, everyone picked up the serving dish nearest him or her, helped themselves, then passes it around till all ten people had been served. So, when dessert came, strawberries, I saw the plate start with the person on my immediate left and head clockwise. When it finally makes its way to me, I knew everyone had had their shot, so what remained was mine. Alas—I did not realize that some postpone their desserts and have it later!
So here I am, munching away, when someone says, ‘Hey! Who took all the strawberries?!’ Whereupon, I looked up, strawberries hanging from my mouth, and made like Chuck Berry: 
“It wasn't me, Sarge. Uhm-uhm, Sarge, it wasn't me. It must have been some other body, Uh, uh, Sarge, it wasn't me.”
 

At the mid-week meeting we had the Bible reading that included Psalm 26. We also sang song #34.
It's a very beautiful melody, even though I have other favorites. What I like most about the song is that it follows the Psalm very closely. It's a good reminder that the words of the original Psalm 26 were also sung, even though we don't know the original melody. But the tune and music we use seem very appropriate for the tone of the Psalm itself. 
Last week, of course, we had this for the 23rd Psalm, too. And I think the same about that melody and how appropriate it is to the words of the Psalm. 

I think we can take Geo Jackson’s words as a template. ‘You don’t want to take sides,’ he says, and to show the challenge of keeping neutral, he uses the example of contesting politicians in Australia, one of whom wanted to draft people of Jackson’s age into the military and one of whom did not. Now that would test your resolve to stay neutral, he said, nonetheless you must do it.
If he was as ignorant of politics as some seem to think is the gold standard, he would not have even known which politician’s views would be to his benefit and which one would not. Of course, I leaned into him on this point, informing him that:
I’m sure he gave my words all the consideration they deserved before instantly turning his attention to other matters.

Waiting for the attack from those IBMers across the Deep Blue lake, no doubt, led by Watson himself.

He even says he drives a Subaru:

I’ve never heard a Tucker excerpt I didn’t like. That said, I haven’t heard too many. None of those other people do I know. In the early days of Covid, however, I forwarded a Joe Rogan interview with Dr. McCullough to HQ, hoping that if they found it as informative as I did, they would overlook Joe’s explosion of profanity towards the end. Probably, I put myself on their radar screen as much as you during your recent visit, during which they said to themselves,  “What is it this politician would like to tell?” Others: “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities.”

Just once I’d like to see a Pharma ad in which the actors, rather than acting out the touted benefits of the drug, instead act out the side effects of the voiceover—gasping, clutching their throats, turning blue, hair falling out, doubling over, dropping dead, straining on the toilet to ‘go’, swiveling about in dizziness.

Well, whose fault is that? Next thing, you will be calling me a cult leader for having manipulated you into spilling it.
It is not shocking to be informed, though neither is it a sin to opt out. One firebrand brother on X stated emphatically, straight out of the blue, “Jehovah’s Witness are NOT INTERESTED in politics!” Well, actually some of them are, I told him. ‘I think what you are looking to say is that they do not take sides. 
‘They are NOT INTERESTED IN POLITICS!’ he roared back and then blocked me.

I think these guys have some astronomical legal bills—even their licenses are under constant attack & some have lost theirs—and for that reason I cut them slack.

Nothing but sales scams for me. Just recently I had the CO in my car. He saw the ‘Messages’ app onscreen and could not stop talking about the number I hadn’t acknowledged. (693) ‘Yeah, I get so many spam calls, I don’t always go through my messages,’ I told him. ‘Clearly!’ was his reply. He kept carrying on, even said he wanted to get a picture, so I swiped the screen to show another set of apps and distract him. Unfortunately, he there saw Viber with 43. 

You don’t want to know. They’re holding a ice cream social for the candidates in that wicked place.

He even says he drives a Subaru:

I’ve never heard a Tucker excerpt I didn’t like. That said, I haven’t heard too many. None of those other people do I know. In the early days of Covid, however, I forwarded a Joe Rogan interview with Dr. McCullough to HQ, hoping that if they found it as informative as I did, they would overlook Joe’s explosion of profanity towards the end. Probably, I put myself on their radar screen as much as you during your recent visit, during which they said to themselves,  “What is it this politician would like to tell?” Others: “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities.”

Well, whose fault is that? Next thing, you will be calling me a cult leader for having manipulated you into spilling it.
It is not shocking to be informed, though neither is it a sin to opt out. One firebrand brother on X stated emphatically, straight out of the blue, “Jehovah’s Witness are NOT INTERESTED in politics!” Well, actually some of them are, I told him. ‘I think what you are looking to say is that they do not take sides. 
‘They are NOT INTERESTED IN POLITICS!’ he roared back and then blocked me.

I always get confused when a Subaru comes up behind me because in my rear view mirror it says U R A BUS. 

He even says he drives a Subaru:

I’ve never heard a Tucker excerpt I didn’t like. That said, I haven’t heard too many. None of those other people do I know. In the early days of Covid, however, I forwarded a Joe Rogan interview with Dr. McCullough to HQ, hoping that if they found it as informative as I did, they would overlook Joe’s explosion of profanity towards the end. Probably, I put myself on their radar screen as much as you during your recent visit, during which they said to themselves,  “What is it this politician would like to tell?” Others: “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities.”

Journalists who go rogue often do it for me.
https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust
RFKjr is turning out a fine source as well. Look how he says 60 years ago most people (80%) trusted government and now 90% do not:
https://x.com/vigilantfox/status/1777710201937732085?s=61&t=fM8K_zHB-Zw9l_mM_4QHqg

Just once I’d like to see a Pharma ad in which the actors, rather than acting out the touted benefits of the drug, instead act out the side effects of the voiceover—gasping, clutching their throats, turning blue, hair falling out, doubling over, dropping dead, straining on the toilet to ‘go’, swiveling about in dizziness.

I’ll say! Those jerks who stoned Stephen turned their firepower on me! I barely made it back to the car in one piece.

I’ll say! Those jerks who stoned Stephen turned their firepower on me! I barely made it back to the car in one piece.

Tom just pulls out his hair and screams, like the guy from Planet of the Apes, ‘It’s a madhouse! A madhouse!’’
Then he retreats to the sanctity of the closed club, its atmosphere as restful as an undiscovered tomb.

All you must do is knock it off with the incessant holier-than-thou jabs at them, oozing with self-righteousness, and they will leave you alone. It’s not as though anyone there has anything against you.