TrueTomHarley

Thank you for this. I posted the following on FB two days ago: 
The E-book 'No Fake News But Plenty of Hogwash' is up but I recommend no one download it just yet. Anyone who already did has the Collectors Edition with Bloopers. Having purchased it once, or redeeming a free coupon, they are able to download fresh copies indefinitely.
Invariably there is more involved in editing than I foresee. This was true of Tom Irregardless and Me. I thought the present book would be a cake-walk, for I had side-stepped the traps that I plowed into headlong with the first book. But there was still a lot. I rushed it some, trying to meet self-imposed release dates of Groundhog Day and later Super Bowl Sunday (we must not keep Lady Gaga waiting) 
I'm not adding anything to No Fake News. But much of the writing is too clumsy. There are few paragraphs I don't tweek, and in a few cases, overhaul.
The revised book - I will announce it when ready - will also have pictures. It will be in the same vein as Tom Irregardless and Me - just as zany, just as biting to non-Theocratic targets, but more personal. If ever there is to be an auto-biography, this is it.
 
 
 
Sorry. I didn't think anyone knew of the book other than on FB. My bad. Download again in a week or so and it should be smooth.
 
Tom
 

In the midst of Sunday’s study article on how we might batten down the hatches yet further on wrong conduct, was this frank statement:  ‘We will not be able to do that perfectly.’
No. We will not. Too many beat themselves up trying to do things perfectly. They ought not. Dust yourself off and jump back in the fray anew.
Also from that same study article, considered February 5:
‘For instance, a man tells his boss or fellow workers that he cannot be at work the next day or that he must leave early because he has a “medical” appointment. In fact, his “medical” appointment is merely a brief stop at a pharmacy or a quick visit to the doctor’s office to pay a bill. His real reason for not being at work is so that he can get a head start on a trip or so that he can take his family to the beach. There may have been a grain of truth in his mentioning a “medical” appointment, but would you say that he was being honest? Or was he being deceptive?’
The friends were intrigued over this point and many discussed it at the special Bible study meetings held at individual homes that  night.  Some were distracted, however,  by a football game playing in the background.
Photo: Vic
Tom Irregardless and Me  ***   No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash

In the midst of Sunday’s study article on how we might batten down the hatches yet further on wrong conduct, was this frank statement:  ‘We will not be able to do that perfectly.’
No. We will not. Too many beat themselves up trying to do things perfectly. They ought not. Dust yourself off and jump back in the fray anew.
Also from that same study article, considered February 5:
‘For instance, a man tells his boss or fellow workers that he cannot be at work the next day or that he must leave early because he has a “medical” appointment. In fact, his “medical” appointment is merely a brief stop at a pharmacy or a quick visit to the doctor’s office to pay a bill. His real reason for not being at work is so that he can get a head start on a trip or so that he can take his family to the beach. There may have been a grain of truth in his mentioning a “medical” appointment, but would you say that he was being honest? Or was he being deceptive?’
The friends were intrigued over this point and many discussed it at the special Bible study meetings held at individual homes that  night.  Some were distracted, however,  by a football game playing in the background.
Photo: Vic
Tom Irregardless and Me  ***   No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash

I know it is probably my bad, but I don't care about these things. What's the present understanding? I'll spin it that way out of loyalty. Should the understanding change someday, I'll spin it the new way. It doesn't affect my basic relationship with Jehovah or his Son.
I don't recommend that attitude, or hold it out as some example. But I just can't get too worked up over such things. They are 'cool' but not essential.

Russia's a nation of laws, just like here, and there's no legal barrier now for those who hate us to shut down the Branch. The brothers lost a critical legal appeal at Moscow City Court.
Putin may not even know about it. He's had a lot on his plate lately.
Places like Russia favor the 'house' church. They don't necessarily believe it, they likely don't, but they favor it because it's a force for national unity. 'What can we do for you?' they ask. 'Take out the competition,' is the reply from the Church.
How could any brother in Russia not think it a remarkable coincidence? The enemies of Jehovah's Witnesses are fully empowered to close Bethel. And at Witness meetings worldwide this week was played the movie about how the Assyrian army was poised to destroy Jerusalem, and in one night a single angel destroyed them all. Yet the movie was made two years ago, and the Bible reading schedule that determines when to play it is many years old!
 Hezekiah, the Israelite King, wasn't overconfident. He didn't assume God was going to bail him out - for maybe he wouldn't. He just knew that he was to trust fully in God and remain faithful. But I hate to see the brothers go through more harassment, if not total shut-down. They've been through so much already.
'Hey, remember that angel we dispatched to Jerusalem? I'm impressed with his portfolio. Check on his availability, won't you?' Is there that sort of discussion somewhere?
Will it work that way? Or will world opinion prevail upon leaders there to carry on as every other nation does, Russia being the only nation on earth to ban JW.org. It's laughable. The house church makes them look like utter fools before the world. (not to mention it kills us) Nobody can watch JW.org and think it is, even to the tiniest degree, extremist.
Our brothers bear up under persecution when they must, and it often brings honest-hearted (and courageous) people into the fold. People say 'why are they making trouble for the Jehovah's? They're nice people.'
............
Tom Irregardless and Me.

Note the 'Russia Legal Update' at JW.org. Note the restraint and respect our people show toward government, even when treated abominably. No one is called a thug. A good example to imitate in lands where people are routinely abusive over less provocation.
Note the resolve of our people to be poured out in full, if need be, as first-century Christians were, as Paul was, as Jesus was. Pray for them and for us, that we may be so firm should our time come.
Some, hearing of Russian #persecution, are exuberant, others supportive. It's a good example of dividing into sheep or goats, foretold at Matthew 25.
 
 
Tom Irregardless and Me.  30% free preview 
 
 
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I never could get my head around our previous take on the Babylonian exile. Or care. I mean, a one-year period representing such an event?
But the new package revealed Sunday makes so much more sense.
'That new point the Governing Body wrote about?' said Mike Tussen's years ago. 'You may have already noticed that point in your studying. And if this were Christendom, you'd run out and start your own religion over it.'
The uppity people take no interest in that new religion of Jesus because it is carpenters, fishermen and shoemakers. But then they figure out how to monetize it. All the highbrow people jump in, bringing all the highbrow ideas they love so, ideas from Aristotle and Plato.
photo: Carla216
Tom Irregardless and Me    30% free preview. After that, we'll talk, your people and mine.

President Putin Calls Report That Russia Has Compromising Intel On Donald Trump "RUBBISH!"

Poor  America...  poor  whole  world    We  shall  see  what  will  happen  after  Friday !

It's sounds like  "A Perfect Storm"! As it was referred to. May God's "perfect timing" coming and destroy everything in its way that opposes His Government by Christ!  The days are short, propaganda will come and go and people will continue to be mislead. May all the righteous hearts be found before the day of Jehovah's fury! 

All that we hope for is that we may preach the good news without hindrance. (Colossians 4:3, 4)

"..............interesting, very interesting, but stupid" - Quote from Rowan and Martin's Laugh In!!!!

This is so true. Remember Ray Koch? With McDonald's? He did not sell burgers at all, right? He did franchisee, or as we say duplication. That is what I sell. The process. And doing quite well.

Putin responded in the Wall Street journal to the sordid charges brought against Trump. “It is hard for me to imagine that he went off to meet with our ladies of diminished social responsibility” Mr. Putin said. Sounds like a bunch of churches, doesn’t it: ‘Our Ladies of Diminished Social Responsibility.’ Not too far afield from Garrison Keillor’s Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility in Lake Wobegone.
Russian prostitutes, Mr. Putin said “are undoubtedly the best in the world, but I doubt that Trump jumped at this bait,” since he has had regular opportunities to meet with gorgeous woman at the beauty pageants he organizes.
Well, oh yeah?! Oh yeah?! OH YEAH?! Your prostitutes are better?
Even me, who is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, politically neutral and thus divorced from nationalism – even me, who was for neither Trump nor Clinton – even me, who doesn’t even root for the home Olympic team – even me has to say ‘enough!’ ‘Our’ prostitutes will clean the clocks of your prostitutes any day!
Say that your tanks are better – okay. Say that your bombs are better – okay. But say that your prostitutes are better? Those are fighting words!!
This is not the Beatles ‘Back in the U.S.S.R. we’re talking about:
'Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out,
They leave the West behind.
And Moscow girls make me sing and shout.
And Georgia’s always on mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind!’
As interim chairman of the American Philanderers Association – a post for which I am singularly unqualified, but you know how some people just can’t say no – I throw down the gauntlet and mount a challenge: AN ORGY!! Our prostitutes against yours! We’ll see who the better ladies of diminished social responsibility are! We wrote the book on diminishing social responsibility!
…………………………………….
The new ebook ‘Tom Irregardless and Me’ recognizes when Mr. Putin has been astute, like in 2008 financial crisis:
“The failure of human rule could not have been shown in more stark relief as in that article, with consequences so directly traceable to the human wisdom running the show. Russian President Vladimir Putin was both blunt and harsh:
"Everything happening now in the economic and financial sphere began in the United States. This is not the irresponsibility of specific individuals but the irresponsibility of the system that claims leadership."
In 2016 America, all that remained was to Photoshop Putin with horns, gleefully pecking at his keyboard, doing his level best to hack the American election, but it was he who nailed it about unrestrained greed. The 2011 film ‘Inside Job’ expressed dismay that no “specific individuals” were brought to justice:
Charles Ferguson (film director): “Why do you think there isn’t a more systematic investigation being undertaken?”
Nouriel Roubini (professor, NYU Business School): “Because then you will find the culprits.”
Culprits and regulators alike belonged to the same social set and were members of the same country clubs; they had no desire to turn on one another.”
‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
Download ‘Tom Irregardless and Me’ 30% free preview. Afterwards we can talk, your people and mine. bit.ly/2hjSMHE
 

Putin responded in the Wall Street journal to the sordid charges brought against Trump. “It is hard for me to imagine that he went off to meet with our ladies of diminished social responsibility” Mr. Putin said. Sounds like a bunch of churches, doesn’t it: ‘Our Ladies of Diminished Social Responsibility.’ Not too far afield from Garrison Keillor’s Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility in Lake Wobegone.
Russian prostitutes, Mr. Putin said “are undoubtedly the best in the world, but I doubt that Trump jumped at this bait,” since he has had regular opportunities to meet with gorgeous woman at the beauty pageants he organizes.
Well, oh yeah?! Oh yeah?! OH YEAH?! Your prostitutes are better?
Even me, who is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, politically neutral and thus divorced from nationalism – even me, who was for neither Trump nor Clinton – even me, who doesn’t even root for the home Olympic team – even me has to say ‘enough!’ ‘Our’ prostitutes will clean the clocks of your prostitutes any day!
Say that your tanks are better – okay. Say that your bombs are better – okay. But say that your prostitutes are better? Those are fighting words!!
This is not the Beatles ‘Back in the U.S.S.R. we’re talking about:
'Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out,
They leave the West behind.
And Moscow girls make me sing and shout.
And Georgia’s always on mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind!’
As interim chairman of the American Philanderers Association – a post for which I am singularly unqualified, but you know how some people just can’t say no – I throw down the gauntlet and mount a challenge: AN ORGY!! Our prostitutes against yours! We’ll see who the better ladies of diminished social responsibility are! We wrote the book on diminishing social responsibility!
…………………………………….
The new ebook ‘Tom Irregardless and Me’ recognizes when Mr. Putin has been astute, like in 2008 financial crisis:
“The failure of human rule could not have been shown in more stark relief as in that article, with consequences so directly traceable to the human wisdom running the show. Russian President Vladimir Putin was both blunt and harsh:
"Everything happening now in the economic and financial sphere began in the United States. This is not the irresponsibility of specific individuals but the irresponsibility of the system that claims leadership."
In 2016 America, all that remained was to Photoshop Putin with horns, gleefully pecking at his keyboard, doing his level best to hack the American election, but it was he who nailed it about unrestrained greed. The 2011 film ‘Inside Job’ expressed dismay that no “specific individuals” were brought to justice:
Charles Ferguson (film director): “Why do you think there isn’t a more systematic investigation being undertaken?”
Nouriel Roubini (professor, NYU Business School): “Because then you will find the culprits.”
Culprits and regulators alike belonged to the same social set and were members of the same country clubs; they had no desire to turn on one another.”
‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
Download ‘Tom Irregardless and Me’ 30% free preview. Afterwards we can talk, your people and mine. bit.ly/2hjSMHE
 

I haven't completely rounded the learning curve here. Trying to delete a duplicated post, but all I can do is to edit it.

JW Insider, it is from the family's collection. It is from Ithaca, Cornell University 

Sometimes I think it is pointless to wait for an explanation. It is the TV ad: if you're a murderer, you murder people - it's what you do.

Perhaps he will continue jogging.
It's hard to fight a megaphone. But sometimes it works against them. People say 'why is he making trouble for the Jehovah's? They're nice people.'

Perhaps he will continue jogging.
It's hard to fight a megaphone. But sometimes it works against them. People say 'why is he making trouble for the Jehovah's? They're nice people.'

Perhaps he will continue jogging.
It's hard to fight a megaphone. But sometimes it works against them. People say 'why is he making trouble for the Jehovah's? They're nice people.'

Whenever my wife tells me to jump, I do it immediately, though not always with joy.

She was a big, disheveled, super-friendly and warm, black woman sitting on her wheeled walker outside Wegmans who said Hi! as I walked by. I stopped.

Can I ask you a question? she said. You see, she had to catch her bus – that one across the parking lot - she’d missed one and she was freezing, but the dog had ate her money or something and she needed $3.

How do I know you’re on the up and up? I asked. She replied she guessed I didn’t but grab her hand and just see feel cold she is. ‘Well, I can spare $3,’ I thought and handed it over.

I also gave her a card. ‘Just so you know,’ I said. ‘Do with it what you will on your own time.’

On seeing the card, she lit up. Do I know so-and-so? What about what’s-his-face? How is this one doing and that one and a third one. She was raised a Witness and went to the Hall (the same Hall I had gone to, though not at the same time) But she had not took hold.

I went to prison for a few years then I got hit by a car and then I went into a coma. They were going to pull the plug on me but someone said ‘no.’ She related all this in the most happy tone you can imagine, as though describing her day at the amusement park. Her appearance suggested that everything she said was true. She had every ‘right’ to be bitter and sullen but she wasn’t – a huge plus in my book. I’ve seen white people (and black) carry on and on with far less hardship.

‘I’m surprised that Wegmans didn’t chase her away,’ my daughter said. But had they tried it on my watch, I would have chased them away. As we chatted, a woman left the store and handed her three more dollars. ‘I said I would once I got change.’ ‘See? Now you can go home and come again tomorrow,’ I told her brightly.

I picked up some items inside and met her again just outside the door. A man was giving her money. ‘Yeah, they get awfully good at that,’ my daughter said, who does her ministry in the city and isn’t put out by such goings on at all. After all, it must be put in the context of a worldwide financial system which is itself a scam. ‘That’s why I love you, Dad,’ she said. ‘You never judge.’

Without the slightest encouragement on my part, she had brightly said: “Maybe you could stop by my place and take me to meetings again!” And maybe I can! Or maybe I’ll pass her story along to the aunt she mentioned, who would know the story better than anyone.

My daughter told me of an elder (an old one) who had run across a homeless man who said he was disfellowshipped. The brother went farther than most and cupped the back of the guy’s head – you never know for sure how clean they are and where they’ve been sleeping.  ‘Why don’t you come home? We’re waiting for you.’ The fellow did come home, got his act together, and is active with a congregation today.

Look, don’t try to con us. Jehovah’s Witnesses are more street-savvy than most. We work in all areas door-to-door, after all. We weren’t born yesterday. But we will make eye contact, and in the event we do give money, we will not insist upon letting go of it before you  touch it.


 

 

 

 

She was a big, disheveled, super-friendly and warm, black woman sitting on her wheeled walker outside Wegmans who said Hi! as I walked by. I stopped.

Can I ask you a question? she said. You see, she had to catch her bus – that one across the parking lot - she’d missed one and she was freezing, but the dog had ate her money or something and she needed $3.

How do I know you’re on the up and up? I asked. She replied she guessed I didn’t but grab her hand and just see feel cold she is. ‘Well, I can spare $3,’ I thought and handed it over.

I also gave her a card. ‘Just so you know,’ I said. ‘Do with it what you will on your own time.’

On seeing the card, she lit up. Do I know so-and-so? What about what’s-his-face? How is this one doing and that one and a third one. She was raised a Witness and went to the Hall (the same Hall I had gone to, though not at the same time) But she had not took hold.

I went to prison for a few years then I got hit by a car and then I went into a coma. They were going to pull the plug on me but someone said ‘no.’ She related all this in the most happy tone you can imagine, as though describing her day at the amusement park. Her appearance suggested that everything she said was true. She had every ‘right’ to be bitter and sullen but she wasn’t – a huge plus in my book. I’ve seen white people (and black) carry on and on with far less hardship.

‘I’m surprised that Wegmans didn’t chase her away,’ my daughter said. But had they tried it on my watch, I would have chased them away. As we chatted, a woman left the store and handed her three more dollars. ‘I said I would once I got change.’ ‘See? Now you can go home and come again tomorrow,’ I told her brightly.

I picked up some items inside and met her again just outside the door. A man was giving her money. ‘Yeah, they get awfully good at that,’ my daughter said, who does her ministry in the city and isn’t put out by such goings on at all. After all, it must be put in the context of a worldwide financial system which is itself a scam. ‘That’s why I love you, Dad,’ she said. ‘You never judge.’

Without the slightest encouragement on my part, she had brightly said: “Maybe you could stop by my place and take me to meetings again!” And maybe I can! Or maybe I’ll pass her story along to the aunt she mentioned, who would know the story better than anyone.

My daughter told me of an elder (an old one) who had run across a homeless man who said he was disfellowshipped. The brother went farther than most and cupped the back of the guy’s head – you never know for sure how clean they are and where they’ve been sleeping.  ‘Why don’t you come home? We’re waiting for you.’ The fellow did come home, got his act together, and is active with a congregation today.

Look, don’t try to con us. Jehovah’s Witnesses are more street-savvy than most. We work in all areas door-to-door, after all. We weren’t born yesterday. But we will make eye contact, and in the event we do give money, we will not insist upon letting go of it before you  touch it.


 

 

 

 

‘A pack of lies! I hate it!’ - Victor Vomidog

‘I knew you when you were small in your own eyes. Now you are small in everyone’s eyes.’ - Bill Ding

‘Thoroughly Tolerable!’ - Brittany Brexit

‘I loved it! All chapters, irregardless!’ - Tom Irregardless

‘I couldn’t put it down – he’d left some sort of ‘sticky tape’ or something on it.’ - Wayne Whitepebble

Download it here.