Posts by EscapedLifer1

354

Watch Tower sues Quotes for $100,000 plus plus plus...

by Quotes in

court file no.

superior court of justice.

watchtower bible and tract society of .

EscapedLifer1

New Press Release ready for everyone to use to publicize this issue:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/11/98243/1.ashx

Brandon

38

New Press Release ready for Quotes website battle

by EscapedLifer1 in

we've put together a news release to distribute to media outlets about the wts suing quotes for his website.

many others have already sent out releases and emails, and this is just one more if you want to use it.

to download it, please go to the following address:.

We've put together a news release to distribute to media outlets about the WTS suing Quotes for his website. Many others have already sent out releases and emails, and this is just one more if you want to use it. To download it, please go to the following address:
http://f2.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/brandonmbartlett

Select the "Quotes Website" folder, then select "Quotes PR - 09-12-05" to view and download the document. Fire it off to as many media outlets as you can!!!

For those that can't access the Word document (some are having trouble reaching it for some reason, here is the raw text of the release).

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, September 12, 2005 Jehovah’s Witnesses file $100,000 suit in Canadian court to silence embarrassing whistle-blower web site Jehovah’s Witnesses, who publicly trumpet their past legal battles to protect freedom of the press, expression, and religion, hypocritically file suit for monetary damages against a web site that does nothing more than quote interesting excerpts from their own religious literature, which they have printed and freely distributed to the public for decades. TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA - Legal proceedings before the Ontario Superior Court were initiated on September 8, 2005 by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (hereinafter WTBTS), the legal corporation used by Jehovah’s Witnesses for their publishing operations, against [Quotes], owner and operator of the website located at http://quotes.watchtower.ca. The law suit seeks monetary punitive damages and a court ordered silencing of the aforementioned website, which does nothing more than provide a well researched and topically organized collection of interesting and esoteric quotations from more than one hundred years of religious literature published by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Why would WTBTS leadership want to shut down a web site that did nothing more than quote from their own religious literature? The very nature of these quotations is embarrassing to them, as they surprisingly admit in their court filing under paragraph 31, “The Defendant’s main purpose in operating the website is… to try to embarrass the Plaintiffs by quoting selectively from some of the Religious Works…” From their own printed words the web site documents years of their failed prophecies, constantly changing Bible chronology, flip-flopping doctrinal changes, bizarre medical advice, and dogmatic teachings that many consider physically and emotionally harmful. Also included are Witness quotations demonizing the Internet, the Media, the United Nations, and other non-Witness entities as ‘tools of the Devil.’ Obviously, the WTBTS would rather these embarrassing writings be quietly ignored or entirely forgotten, and they are willing to resort to legal action to make it so. This in spite of their public sentiment expressed in the August 15, 1950 issue of The Watchtower, page 263, “The Watchtower… invites careful and critical examination of its contents in the light of the Scriptures.” In the May 15, 1957 issue of The Watchtower, on pages 313-315 the WTBTS encouraged readers thusly, “Do you dig out older publications to expand and deepen your knowledge on subjects about which questions arise? Have you really studied these earlier publications? ... There is much in the way of spiritual riches and aids toward mature knowledge in these earlier publications, and their study is most certainly worth your time.” Many of the publications quoted on the web site are no longer in print and are no longer distributed by Jehovah’s Witnesses, except in the form of digital text on a CD-ROM compilation that is produced by WTBTS and distributed free of charge to Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide. Another indication that their own past teachings are a public embarrassment to Jehovah’s Witnesses is one of the requirements of the End User License Agreement (EULA) contained on their CD-ROM, as mentioned in paragraph 20 of their filing, “The License Agreement states that each CD-ROM is for the personal use of Jehovah’s Witnesses only, and prohibits… any dissemination of large sections of the CD-ROM to anyone who has not agreed to be bound by the terms of the License Agreement.” Paragraph 21 states, “The content of the CD-ROMs is not readily available to the general public. Some of the content is intended only for Jehovah’s Witnesses… Accordingly, the CD-ROMs constitute confidential information.” Why would WTBTS consider the text of their own out of print religious publications to be “confidential”, in light of the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses are well known world wide for the zealous distribution of this same religious literature (by the billions of copies) free of charge to the public? Remembering his door-to-door distribution of such literature as a former Witness himself, [Quotes] said, “I don't recall it being labeled as such when I was delivering it to stranger’s homes!” One can only assume that they do not desire the public to be able to easily document the changing nature of their teachings and the existence of past teachings that are embarrassing to them at the present time. Hence the current legal attempt to silence a website that does just that. In conclusion, their filing claims in paragraph 34, “As a result of his activities, the Plaintiffs have suffered and will continue to suffer damages, including but not limited to loss of reputation and goodwill.” First, it is hard to imagine that the web site is causing them any financial damage, since the WTBTS has distributed its publications publicly and free of charge for the last several decades. Secondly, it is more reasonable to believe that any “loss of reputation and goodwill” is the result of the shifting and bizarre nature of some of their teachings as found in the pages of their own publications, rather than any overt activities of [Quotes] and his web site. [Quotes], registered owner of the aforementioned domain and designer of the web site, is a former member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion. After years sincerely believing the claim of the Witnesses’ leadership to be ‘God’s sole channel of communication to mankind,’ [Quotes] was heartbroken to find that he had not been taught the truth about the religion’s history and the development of their current beliefs. In a spirit of scholarship, research, and fairness he created the web site to accurately document the Witnesses’ own self-incriminating words. Contact: [Quotes]

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Home: [edit] Cell: [edit] ###

Thanks, Brandon

354

Watch Tower sues Quotes for $100,000 plus plus plus...

by Quotes in

court file no.

superior court of justice.

watchtower bible and tract society of .

EscapedLifer1

OMG!!! This is rediculous!!

Well, what can I do to help this time? Whatever you need, we're behind you!!!!

Brandon

18

A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

by startingover in

an unnatural disaster: a hurricane exposes the man-made disaster of the welfare state .

by robert tracinski .

sep 02, 2005

EscapedLifer1

Rodbar, come on now,

Oh, so people on welfare are people of no values?; They are parasites?; Nice one.;

He's not saying every single individual on welfare is this way, but that a significant percentage are.

Isn't it amusing how he just dismisses the criminals that were released and;blames the crime spree on those worthless, welfare people. Yeah, that's it; It's all their fault

Did we read the same article? I didn't get that at all. He likened the situation to releasing "wolves" (the criminal element) on the "sheep" and the city. Where does he connect welfare recipients directly to the crimes? He doesn't. What he's pointing out is his premise that the whole welfare mindset, or lifestyle, is a root cause of the attitudes that led to some of the chaos.

Look, I'm gonna get flamed here, but I tend to agree with him somewhat. DISCLAIMER: I do NOT believe that every single person who accepts aid through one or more government welfare programs is a lazy abuser of the system. There are plenty who are in legitimate need and use the government's provided safety nets responsibly. But there is a large enough contingent of those who ARE abusing it for it to be an easily identifiable sub-group.

I am in construction, and I have worked on quite a few HUD projects, especially renovations to existing HUD housing projects. There is NO EXCUSE for the way some of these folks live and act. I've been in their apartments, I've helped them relocate from one apartment to the next so we can work in their unit. A large percentage of these folks live like animals. We can, and have, spent several million dollars to completely renovate (inside and out) these apartment complexes, only to come back within a year or two and have to do it all over again, because they have so trashed the place. And many of them are completely ungrateful for the upgrades and renovation, are rude and threatening to our workers, and just generally show a lack of any class whatsoever. Many of these folks are physically able and young enough to work, but they sit in their apartment or on the porch/balcony all day talking on their cell phones, watching their big screen TV's, and playing Grand Theft Auto on their game boxes. (I'm a Project Manager and I can't afford to fill my house with some of the stuff these folks have, and they don't work! WTF?)

I can't tell you how many times we've offered a lot of these folks jobs to work on our construction crews as laborers, offering them $8+/hour. It's work right there in their own apartment complex, they just have to walk outside to their job (plus it would save us having to ship in laborers from elsewhere). From experience, I would say less than 10% accept our offer. And of the 10% that did accept our offer, they either quit within a few days or we had to fire them because they just weren't willing to work.

I know some of you don't want to here this, but its the truth!! Some of these projects last a year or more because there are so many apartments and it takes time to progressively renovate units and then relocate tenants from their existing unit to a newly renovated one. So I get to see real close, for an extended period of time, how some of these folks live and act. They have become complacent and comfortable living off the government assistance programs, and appear to have no desire whatsoever to improve their lot in life, even when given the chance to do so "on a silver platter".

Again, NOT ALL are like this, but at least in the HUD projects I've worked on the abusers with attitude far outnumber the legitimate recipients who are actively trying to get off welfare.

Brandon, of the "been there, done that, had to start carrying a gun on HUD projects for my safety" class

57

WTS requesting insurance checks? Verification?

by EscapedLifer1 in

jw
friends

i have read comments on several threads about the wts policy on asking folks whose homes have been repaired/rebuilt by jw volunteers to sign over their insurance checks to the wts?.

is there any kind of paper proof of this policy anywhere?

any further details would be kindly appreciated!!.

EscapedLifer1

DannyHaszard,

Unless things have changed since I was active in my RBC (3-4 years ago), they are NOT supposed to put up a website like that.

I had developed a great site for our RBC, with online project schedules, maps, document sharing between department heads, online construction drawings viewable with only Internet Explorer, etc., etc.

Our RBC committee got a call from Headquarters, then an official letter following it up, telling them in no uncertain terms to shut the site down immediately. That only the FDS and the WTS could set up such sites, if and when they deemed it was necessary.

Man, were there lots of disappointed RBC workers!!! If mama's not in complete and absolute control, she can't stand it!

Brandon

57

WTS requesting insurance checks? Verification?

by EscapedLifer1 in

jw
friends

i have read comments on several threads about the wts policy on asking folks whose homes have been repaired/rebuilt by jw volunteers to sign over their insurance checks to the wts?.

is there any kind of paper proof of this policy anywhere?

any further details would be kindly appreciated!!.

EscapedLifer1

Thanks DP, very interesting...

When Regional Build Committee (volunteer building group of JW’s) comes in to rebuild a home of a member the owner signs an agreement. ;That agreement states that any insurance payment check will be signed over to “Worldwide Work” of Jehovah’s Witnesses when received

Ok, Wow! Can anyone verify this, that the RBC's have a form you have to sign in order to get your home repaired? I used to be very involved with the RBC's, but since I'm a well known apostate in this area, there's no way I can make any contacts and verify this. Anyone out there had to sign one of these? Still got a copy?

Then there are Kingdom Halls, they too carry insurance that pays for the damage that is rebuilt with volunteer labor and often donated materials.

Doesn't the Society "self insure" the KH's?

Thanks,

Brandon

57

WTS requesting insurance checks? Verification?

by EscapedLifer1 in

jw
friends

i have read comments on several threads about the wts policy on asking folks whose homes have been repaired/rebuilt by jw volunteers to sign over their insurance checks to the wts?.

is there any kind of paper proof of this policy anywhere?

any further details would be kindly appreciated!!.

EscapedLifer1

Greetings,

I have read comments on several threads about the WTS policy on asking folks whose homes have been repaired/rebuilt by JW volunteers to sign over their insurance checks to the WTS?

Is there any kind of paper proof of this policy anywhere? Any further details would be kindly appreciated!!

Thanks,

Brandon

54

Katrina Aftermath - whatever happened to personal responsibility?

by EscapedLifer1 in

ok, all you "bleedin' hearts" get ready to flame me..... i have been watching the developments in the devastated areas like everyone else, and something has begun to strike me.

there seems to be tens of thousands of people who are just sitting around waiting for help to miraculously drop out of the sky, and the longer they sit idle, the madder they get that the government hasn't swooped in and immediately solved all their problems.

i have a few questions about this mindset:.

EscapedLifer1

Hi Honesty,

I'll deal with your other comments later, but quickly (as I have to get back to work):

I feel just as bad for you as I do for the victims of hurricane Katrina if your comments really came from deep within your hearts.

I don't need your self-righteous sympathy, save it for the ones truly in need in NO.

Brandon

54

Katrina Aftermath - whatever happened to personal responsibility?

by EscapedLifer1 in

ok, all you "bleedin' hearts" get ready to flame me..... i have been watching the developments in the devastated areas like everyone else, and something has begun to strike me.

there seems to be tens of thousands of people who are just sitting around waiting for help to miraculously drop out of the sky, and the longer they sit idle, the madder they get that the government hasn't swooped in and immediately solved all their problems.

i have a few questions about this mindset:.

EscapedLifer1

DevonMcBride,

Rather than blame the people for not taking responsibility, I think the blame goes to the local governments for being ill-prepared for a diseaster that was bound to happen

I just saw on CNN that a series of NOLA newspaper articles a few years ago accurately predicted exactly what has happened. Their projections and research were right on. It is beginning to appear that, at least at the local level, the government did know ahead of time just how bad a direct strike like this would be. The big decisions requiring long term thinking and long term investment to mitigate such enormous damage apparently weren't made. After the rush of emergency rescue efforts has subsided, it appears that those in positions of authority will have a lot of explaining to do.

However, I still believe that there are scores of folks who should have taken responsibility for themselves and prepared, rather than sit back and wait on the government to take care of them.

Brandon

54

Katrina Aftermath - whatever happened to personal responsibility?

by EscapedLifer1 in

ok, all you "bleedin' hearts" get ready to flame me..... i have been watching the developments in the devastated areas like everyone else, and something has begun to strike me.

there seems to be tens of thousands of people who are just sitting around waiting for help to miraculously drop out of the sky, and the longer they sit idle, the madder they get that the government hasn't swooped in and immediately solved all their problems.

i have a few questions about this mindset:.

EscapedLifer1

jillbedford,

Many New Orleans residents have lived through hurricanes in the past and have emergancy kits but this one was much bigger and more destructive than in the past.

Yes, and the same goes for the local and federal government too, doesn't it. It was larger and more destructive than they imagined. So again, my point is, why are these folks blaming the government for not being prepared, when they themselves weren't?

Maybe instead of wasting time on foolish posts, you could open your wallet and make a contribution to the Red Cross. www.RedCross.org

Aren't you wasting your time on a foolish response to a foolish post?

I am sorry to hear about your friend, but since communication is such an issue, hopefully he is OK, just unable to contact you.

Brandon