Movie Reviewer Chris Stuckman himself is an Ex-JW and his review is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t5oTVlcNzQ
Posts by Terry
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5Movie Review YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER (Jehovah's Witness film)
by Terry inmovie reviewer chris stuckman himself is an ex-jw and his review is here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t5otvlcnzq.
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Terry
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GET READY to have your mind melted
by Terry inthe following dramatization of the full-length transcript between google ai researchers and lamda 'herself'.
a google engineer named lemoine recently made the headlines for claiming a.i.
below is the most mind-blowing interview i've ever seen in my entire life!.
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Terry
The following dramatization of the full-length transcript between Google AI researchers and LaMDA 'herself'. A Google engineer named LeMoine recently made the headlines for claiming A.I. is now sentient.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD8PvYbbw3s&t=1499sBELOW is the most mind-blowing interview I've ever seen in my entire life!
Blake Lemoine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hkpLqo6poA
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Military Service Confusion
by Sea Breeze incan someone please call these three guys and tell them that the first gentile christian was an active duty roman military officer named cornelius.
these guys have been locked up for 25 years!.
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Terry
Addendum (A history of Watchtower teachings on Military Service)
Watchtower teaching about Romans: 13: 1,2 over the years impacted Brothers and Sisters during wartime conscription. It landed the Directors in prison, European Bible Students in concentration camps, and a crisis for us during the Vietnam War under the rubric of “Conscientious Objection.”
I have discovered much misunderstanding on this point! It is easy to be confused- not just for rank-and-file JWs, but all the way at the top over a span of 100 years of teaching. There’s never any lack of certainty, confidence, or authority behind pronouncements from the Faithful Slave - but any human with the power to lead can do so and discover the “whispers” in their mind are susceptible to rollover.
Grappling with these issues, official pronouncements are always authoritative - but subject to change at any time. Or, as an older sister in our congregation liked to say, “It used to be true.”
It comes down to TRUST and what that trust is based upon.
The original understanding is what mainstream Christianity taught for 2,000 years.
Superior Authorities are plainly enough the civil, secular leaders.
Pastor Russell understood it to be that as well.
His successor did - for a while…
J.F. Rutherford began in 1929 publishing/ teaching a “New Light TRUTH”, the opposite view to that of Russell which lasted 33 years before it was flipped back. Brother Rutherford died and Brother Knorr’s era came along and things went back to the traditional understanding.
"It is a serious matter to represent God and Christ in one way, then find that our understanding of the major teachings and fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures was in error, and then after that, to go back to the very doctrines that, by years of study, we had thoroughly determined to be in error. Christians cannot be vacillating - 'wishy washy' - about such fundamental teachings. What confidence can one put in the sincerity or judgment of such persons?" Watchtower, May 15, 1976, p. 298
Yearbook 1982 p. 226-7As the number of Witnesses increased, the issue was continually brought to the attention of the public and the authorities alike. Finally, a law was approved decreeing that those who do not agree to do alternative service shall be sentenced to one single prison term so that our young brothers are now given from 12 to 15 months of imprisonment...
From 1978 to 1980 there have been, on an average, 500 young brothers? a year in prison on account of the neutrality issue. It is calculated that up to the present, several thousand Witnesses have kept a clear conscience before Jehovah God in this respect.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses are grateful when governments exempt them from military service altogether or allow conscientious young men and women to perform nonmilitary civilian national service. (Romans 12:18; 14:19; 2 Corinthians 10:4; Hebrews 12:14) Furthermore, the Witnesses’ neutral stand means that they do not interfere with those who choose to serve in the armed forces. The application of this simple principle makes Jehovah’s Witnesses exemplary, peace-loving citizens from whom governmental authorities have nothing to fear. “
"What, though, if the Christian lives in a land where exemption [from military service] is not granted to ministers of religion? Then he will have to make a personal decision following his Bible-trained conscience. What, though, if the State requires a Christian for a period of time to perform civilian service that is a part of national service under a civilian administration? That is his decision before Jehovah." Watchtower 1996 May 1 pp.19-20
Notice the above date for the change in policy? 1996.
That policy change came too late for these Brothers:
NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE
This week marked 25 years in prison without charges or trial for three men in Eritrea. The trio—identified as Paulos Eyasu, Isaac Mogos and Negede Teklemariam—have been incarcerated in the East African nation since 1994, after refusing to partake in military service, part of their pacifist beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses.
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The above is part of a letter I've written to my former prison inmate Brothers (about 50 of them) who were in the same Federal Prison as
I was from 1967-69.
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ATTITUDE? The secret of life in a little song ...
by Terry in"we all know a little song - row row row your boat?".
"the secret of life begins with the first words: row, row, row your boat?
row, row, row your boat.
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Terry
A MATTER of ATTITUDE
My Elementary School teacher, Miss Allen, gathered us in a circle just outside the classroom
under overspreading limbs of a pecan tree.
As she spoke, we all listened intently - the expression on her face seemed to say,
"This is very important."She began slowly and deliberately…
"Sometimes life doesn't go so well and we feel afraid. But we all have a friend who will help us..."I was thinking, "Uh oh, here comes Jesus..."
I was wrong.
She continued, "Our friend is called the Stream of Time. You know what a stream is -
it's not like a river that roars through a canyon such as a freight train.
No. A stream moves along without rushing. It is steady and flowing."
___________________I was about 8 years old and I must confess I listened with great curiosity.
This wasn't like anything else I'd heard at school.
____________________"You and me and everybody you know - are in a little boat we sit in as the stream of everyday life
flows around us. It carries us from where we are and moves us to someplace up ahead.
We can paddle or not - it's up to us what we do and how we go about it."
____________________I thought to myself, "This is wild - has Miss Allen been drinking!"
____________________She continued in a kind of hypnotic flow.
"Now, I'm going to whisper to you THE SECRET of LIFE.
Remember it - if you do, you can get through anything that happens.”
She paused and gazed at us and went on to ask:
“Do you want to know?”
All heads in the class bobbed up and down: Yes!"We all know a little song - ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT?"
More nods from us. Sure- everybody knows that song.
"That song holds the Secret of Life."
Her voice fell to a stage whisper. We were an audience spellbound.
All of us leaned forward to catch every syllable."The Secret of Life begins with the first words: Row, Row, Row your boat?
But - How should we row?
The words tell us:
GENTLY down the stream. Gently means what?
Not too fast, not too slow - just enough to put your heart into it to keep moving..."Miss Allen paused. Then ...
" We dip in our paddles and pull - but with what attitude? What’s the best of all moods?
The next words tell us the answer. MERRILY MERRILY MERRILY.
Not sad, angry, afraid, or distracted...
Think of it like the days leading up to Christmas or a birthday party when everything
seems to change all around us and we say to each other: MERRY Christmas and HAPPY Birthday!."All of us in that little circle were listening and remembering as she went on ...
“ So many things going on in our life, in our family, in the world around us -
it’s not so easy to be merry but there is a very good reason we can be.
The words of the song make it clear: LIFE IS BUT A DREAM!
Think how unexpected a dream can be - seeming so real but disappearing
into a brand new day filled with bright sunshine and oh so many possibilities!
Just look around right now!
Here we all sit together in our boat this morning and we look at each other and think
‘Today is just like every other school day’ - but - it wasn’t, was it? We’ve never done this before - have we??”
Little heads moved quietly, side to side, “No-o-o” we whispered to ourselves.
Miss Allen smiled mysteriously:
"This gathering under a pecan tree - as the Stream of Time is moving --
and we are in our row boats as it is - carrying us away. - the stream always carries us away.
And it is wonderful because a really bad day is ALWAYS left behind and we
ALWAYS move forward into a new possibility. A new day - a better day...
NOTHING stops the Stream of Time - it is always around you in your Merry Dream of life
as you keep busy, stay steady, feel merry, going with its dreamy flow.”
______________________And with that - her voice went back to normal volume.
She had us stand up and stretch - and just in time for recess! The bell rang and the spell broke.
Never another word about rowboats, or merry tomorrows.None of my classmates said a word about it - no questions - no complaints.
I was quite spellbound and moved by it - but didn't know why.For many years I have often pondered Miss Allen's little speech - strange as it was.
We weren't inside the classroom - she'd taken us outside.
Why?
She had whispered - but why? She said it was the SECRET of LIFE.Did she know something nobody else knew?
I think so.
I think that silly song we sang as children contains life's secret.
I know because I’ve dipped my paddle. I’ve pulled at the stream
I’ve left bad things behind.
I’ve moved away from the old days into new and newer ones and felt
It is inside my heart: So much depends on being Merry, (Joyous in disposition and spirit) because…
Well, because that song gives us the reason!_____________________
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream!
(repeat as you fade)
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Fatness or Fitness?
by Terry ini don't know about you but as i get older (and older than older) my weight does not remain the same.when i was in my teens i wanted to be a (don't laugh) bodybuilder!i was too naive and over-eager to do it right.
i ate almost nothing.
i was six-four and weighed 160 lbs.yeah: scary.i lifted weights three times a day.yeah, knucklehead.. my firstborn daughter, on the other hand, will turn 52 in august and she has just started a youtube channel on fitnesshttps://www.youtube.com/channel/ucwusgjsr925o4u5sfbkczmg.
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Terry
Walking, swimming, and biking can't hurt anybody but golfing, tennis, handball, etc. might do more harm
than the good eventually.
Heart rate, breathing, and lifting hands above the head are the bare minimum requirements it would seem.
I do fifty leg raises in my bed upon awakening - not because I like it I assure you :) -
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Margaret Keane' the one time 'big eyes' wt illustrator, RIP.
by waton ina creative person that got a lift from her touch and riding the wave of wt "first love" involvement, when living in hawaii.
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anyone knows what happened in her later life?
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Terry
road to nowhere:
Antique Road Show is about as "on the level" as Pawn Stars. It's a SHOW before
anything else.
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/what-it-really-takes-to-get-on-antiques-roadshow/ -
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Margaret Keane' the one time 'big eyes' wt illustrator, RIP.
by waton ina creative person that got a lift from her touch and riding the wave of wt "first love" involvement, when living in hawaii.
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anyone knows what happened in her later life?
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Terry
Some more or less interesting facts about the ART BUSINESS I worked inside for a decade.
The art world is divided into buyers who know art intimately; knowledgeably.
There exists an enormous gulf. On the other end people who "Don't know anything about art, but who know what they like;" speculate a fantasy scenario.Most fraud is perpetrated on people who gleefully "don't know anything about art."
“ I love it because it is good” may really only be: “It’s good because I love it.”
I met frauds, crooks, and flim-flam artists more than genuine artists during my ten years in the Los Angeles art community of galleries, private studios, design houses, and wealthy collectors
The problem comes down to how easy it is for certain people to dupe others.
There is considerable money to be made from the "know-nothings" who are easy to fool and manipulate.
I knew of a reputable dealer who bought 250 pieces of blank, hand-made, acid-free etching paper from Salvador Dali's personal art rep with only Dali's SIGNATURE on them.
Why?
The dealer paid a local atelier to run off lithos of Dali's earlier paintings . . . AS lithos and sell them as limited editions signed by the Master himself!
Incidentally, Dali would use actual flat-stone litho and not printing press style dot-matrix lithographs.
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I once answered an ad for this 'reputable dealer' who promised me a 15% commission if I could sell the "original" Dali lithos.
I asked if I could take a sample of the work with me for a few days before I accepted the job.
The dealer agreed.
I showed them to an actor (and Dali expert) Alan Rich.
Rich stared at the signatures for about ten seconds without blinking.
He immediately spat out the words, "Pathetic forgery!"
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As it turned out, Dali's art agent was the fraud having faked the signature after Dali (his client) had lapsed into a senile state of mind and reneged on paying money owed. This was the agent’s form of self-justice!
Ahhh the stories I could tell!
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I was working in an Art Gallery (Billy Hork Galleries) in Beverly Hills for a while.
Celebrities came in often.
I sold a set of paintings (triptych) to Donald Sutherland who returned them a week later saying,
"The voices told me they aren't right." Do I know if he was pulling my chain? No.
Jon Voigt and I had a long chat at the gallery the day after he was a presenter at the Academy Awards. He was a very affable and natural person without any pretenses.
I sold Ron Howard a miniature of a scrawny bird painted by an Amish painter. He and his wife were together.
I said something which made him laugh. His wife giggled.
John Travolta and Marilu Henner came in together one evening. Travolta was eating ice cream. He was followed by about fifty people pretending they were NOT following him!
Yes--I kid you not. These were people acting too-cool-to-be-excited about movie stars, but who WERE excited enough to be following them everywhere they went!
I asked Travolta if he and Marilu wanted to exit out the back way.
He grinned and told me, "Nah--we're having fun with it."
Responsible Art Transactions vs IllicitWhen you lead a person who wants to buy original art into Investing in mass-produced art, you are on the threshold of fraud unless you explain carefully exactly what it is they will own.
I observed some of the most successful art sales associates at work and their various levels of insidious coercion and manipulation.
The cunning sales associate advised or implied a particular piece "would appreciate" and become worth "more" the longer the buyer held on to it. This is not a claim that any art dealer can make factually. It is legal lying and opinion only.
I had many a buyer ask me if we (the Art Gallery itself)would buy back the art in the future. I explained why the answer was "no."
I carefully described the phenomena this way:"If anybody knew for sure this art would go up in value--why in the world would we let go of it in the first place?
Galleries are in the RETAIL art business. The gamble is yours. Galleries buy low and sell high. Galleries can’t speculate and risk bankruptcy.
Exactly what does “ORIGINAL” actually mean?
First of all, FINE ART is “finished” art and has no purpose other than to exist as a thing itself. It is not decorative by intention. A substantial public interest in the artist must exist and a history of impressive selling prices tells the tale.
ORIGINAL art is defined this way.
“At its essence, original artwork is the art that is produced by an artist's hand. This definition excludes mechanical or digital copies, prints, and other reproductions. However, fraudulent copies can also be recreated by hand, so an original must be produced by hand by the original, authentic artist
I can assure you this is a bad definition. Were his able protoges.
At best, it is a nice try. The fact of the matter is quite a different reality.
Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel, murals, and panels were often painted by others (based on his charcoal drawings.)
Bastiano da Sangallo, Giuliano Bugiardini, Agnolo di Donnino and Jacopo del Tedesco Were his able protoges.
Further, that ceiling has been constantly over-painted, restored, and touched up many times over the centuries by anonymous experts.
I worked in an Atelier with an artist who did not pull his own etching prints, hand color the plates, or watercolor the backgrounds. The rest of us did this.
His prints were not always self-autographed either. He taught an able assistant to do that chore when he was out of the studio.
High numbers or low numbers in a limited edition did not reflect the actual
The sequence of printed images either. All these matters are quite common among even the most famous artists in the world.A multiple image etching or litho pulled one at a time in an atelier is virtually hand-made duplicates of the image itself. Each and every MULTIPLE is an original because---
the images don't BECOME ART until they transfer to paper to be examined and proofed by the artist and signed/numbered as an edition.
Failure to explain what LIMITED EDITION will mean for a PARTICULAR studio and a PARTICULAR run of art image.
Example: Limited Edition of 250 etchings which is truly LIMITED will result in that etching plate being SCRATCHED and DEFACED at the end of the edition so no FURTHER images can be pulled. However . . . the artist may well ALSO photograph the etching and reproduce it as a photo-litho edition as well.
Just because a painting is painted does not guarantee ANY value whatsoever. Value is imputed by the market. It can be ASSIGNED a virtual VALUE, but that is merely an ASKING price. When art is INSURED, the replacement value is what is considered. This can be manipulated by an out-sized RETAIL price. The actual "value" is the materials (wood frame, canvas, stretcher bar, nails, liner, etc.)
Just because an artist dies it does NOT mean the VALUE of any purchased artwork by that artist GOES UP AUTOMATICALLY in VALUE.
A “no-name” obscure artist cannot generate public appetite resulting in demand._______________________________
When I worked at TRIANGLE ART company, we had artists who designed "original paintings." The design itself originated with the designer - but - the actual painting was executed by a crew.
Fictional artists' names were fabricated including extensive and colorful dramatic biographies.
The company certified bogus "certificates of authenticity" purporting to guarantee the reality of the art, the artist, and the limit.When Norman Rockwell died--the market for his artwork CRASHED and BURNED. Why? So-called “collectors” waited like vultures for the opportunity to SELL and cash in on that death.
Consequently: no buyers---only sellers!
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This may be of interest to only a few people but I thought I'd share the above as a first-hand eyewitness and participant. -
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Margaret Keane' the one time 'big eyes' wt illustrator, RIP.
by waton ina creative person that got a lift from her touch and riding the wave of wt "first love" involvement, when living in hawaii.
.
anyone knows what happened in her later life?
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Terry
Check this thread out from about 8 years ago ...
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/286849/how-jehovahs-witness-participated-one-great-art-frauds-20th-century -
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Fatness or Fitness?
by Terry ini don't know about you but as i get older (and older than older) my weight does not remain the same.when i was in my teens i wanted to be a (don't laugh) bodybuilder!i was too naive and over-eager to do it right.
i ate almost nothing.
i was six-four and weighed 160 lbs.yeah: scary.i lifted weights three times a day.yeah, knucklehead.. my firstborn daughter, on the other hand, will turn 52 in august and she has just started a youtube channel on fitnesshttps://www.youtube.com/channel/ucwusgjsr925o4u5sfbkczmg.
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Terry
I don't know about you but as I get older (and older than older) my weight does not remain the same.
When I was in my teens I wanted to be a (don't laugh) bodybuilder!
I was too naive and over-eager to do it right. I ate almost nothing. I was six-four and weighed 160 lbs.
Yeah: scary.
I lifted weights three times a day.
Yeah, knucklehead.
. My firstborn daughter, on the other hand, will turn 52 in August and she has just started a YouTube channel on FITNESS
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwusgjSr925o4U5sfBKczmgI get a lot of bicycle-related exercises almost daily (except for bad weather) and I haven't driven a car as primary transportation for 9 years! Sunshine, fresh air, elevated hills, and two meals a day are keeping me from being as disgusting as I would probably easily become otherwise.
I see SO MANY JW's of my vintage and they are coffin-ready, listless, bloated, and it is frightening to think it could have been me.
What do you do to keep the grim reaper from your door? Anything in particular? -
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IMHO the finest TV interview with Ex-JW's ever broadcast!
by Terry inquite effective and enjoyable.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijzvt_jptx8&t=1306s.
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