Thanks Terry :-))
I'm actually in a good mood today, and I made a post on Grace's thread that upset her but it was a joke to cheer her up, so I have to go fix it now qwith another post. :-))
Randy
today we are launching freeminds2.org.
this is stage 3 of a three part project spanning over 30 years since i left watchtower headquarters in 1980 and gave the 18 members of the then-governing body, including president nathan knorr and vice-president frederick w. franz.. the new site will be more blog/news oriented (and updated more often with articles, blogs and videos almost daily).. all of our previous sites, such as armageddonokies.com and watchtowerworld.org, randytv.com, exjws.net, and others will be incorporated into the previous freeminds site, which is currently being revised and converted from its joomla-based format to this wordpress format.
i am sure you will find it much easier to search for words, people, articles, and subject very easy.
Thanks Terry :-))
I'm actually in a good mood today, and I made a post on Grace's thread that upset her but it was a joke to cheer her up, so I have to go fix it now qwith another post. :-))
Randy
in another thread, mouthy said she was "not well" and mentioned "kicking the bucket.
i believe she needs some encouragement and well wishes.. mouthy, you don't need to respond to this thread if you don't feel up to it.
just consider it an exceptionally long get-well card..
Love you Grace!! quit whinging and pay up on the $12.95 you owe me! LOL
LOVE YOU MUMZ!!
Randy
today we are launching freeminds2.org.
this is stage 3 of a three part project spanning over 30 years since i left watchtower headquarters in 1980 and gave the 18 members of the then-governing body, including president nathan knorr and vice-president frederick w. franz.. the new site will be more blog/news oriented (and updated more often with articles, blogs and videos almost daily).. all of our previous sites, such as armageddonokies.com and watchtowerworld.org, randytv.com, exjws.net, and others will be incorporated into the previous freeminds site, which is currently being revised and converted from its joomla-based format to this wordpress format.
i am sure you will find it much easier to search for words, people, articles, and subject very easy.
Hi Diest,
I bought that setup years ago, but standing makes it much worse.
I just need to get out and quit computing, and working with people hands on, and let my Secretary do the paperwork. He owes me $500 anyway. :-))
Randy
I hate computer work
I can't type worth a damn (hunt and peck)
I hate computer work
I can't type worth a damn (hunt and peck)
I hate computer work
I can't type worth a damn (hunt and peck)
I hate computer work
I can't type worth a damn (hunt and peck)
I hate computer work
I can't type worth a damn (hunt and peck)
I hate computer work
I can't type worth a damn (hunt and peck)
I hate computer work
I can't type worth a damn (hunt and peck)
I hate computer work
I can't type worth a damn (hunt and peck)
I hate computer work
I can't type worth a damn (hunt and peck)
I don't even like my cell phone.
Give me a horse and a motorcycle and a Boss 429 Mustang
Randy
today we are launching freeminds2.org.
this is stage 3 of a three part project spanning over 30 years since i left watchtower headquarters in 1980 and gave the 18 members of the then-governing body, including president nathan knorr and vice-president frederick w. franz.. the new site will be more blog/news oriented (and updated more often with articles, blogs and videos almost daily).. all of our previous sites, such as armageddonokies.com and watchtowerworld.org, randytv.com, exjws.net, and others will be incorporated into the previous freeminds site, which is currently being revised and converted from its joomla-based format to this wordpress format.
i am sure you will find it much easier to search for words, people, articles, and subject very easy.
Besty, what misery we would have saved each other if we got to it first. :-))
and poor Sam! :-))
Tell her I love her and the kids.
Randy
today we are launching freeminds2.org.
this is stage 3 of a three part project spanning over 30 years since i left watchtower headquarters in 1980 and gave the 18 members of the then-governing body, including president nathan knorr and vice-president frederick w. franz.. the new site will be more blog/news oriented (and updated more often with articles, blogs and videos almost daily).. all of our previous sites, such as armageddonokies.com and watchtowerworld.org, randytv.com, exjws.net, and others will be incorporated into the previous freeminds site, which is currently being revised and converted from its joomla-based format to this wordpress format.
i am sure you will find it much easier to search for words, people, articles, and subject very easy.
I'm doing much better, going all natural as the doctors just mess me up. It's all hereditary stuff (I never get sick) except my back, which got messed up when two drunk kids in a Firebird flew threw a red light with a police car chasing them and hit me and totalled my car about 15 years ago. I walked away without a scratch (good old Ford Probes!). They hit me in the left side trunk area... if I was going 38mph instead of 40 mph they would have hit me in the driver's door and killed me instantly.
They were going 90mph according to the cops and a cabbie that both witnessed it as they went through a red light that had BEEN red for a minute already and hit me in the tail, spun me around and completely crushed my front end. You couldn't hardly tell it was a car. The two 18 year old rich kids then hit a light pole, knocked it down and then hit a tree and the Firebird burst into flames. There were two firetrucks and 5 cop cars there within 5 minutes.
That was circa 1995. My back has just deteriorated slowly since then, a lot from spending 12 hours a day 6 days a week on the computer.
I haven't been posting much - not because I am still messed up, but because I had so much work to do and get the new site up because the old was just too buggy. But now I have both sites, and the new one will be more of a talk show and candid articles and interesting guests on video and Youtube. No scripts, all impromptu. I am going to move the old site to another server so it will go down in a couple of days for about a week, but the new Blog site at freeminds2.org will stay up fine. Free blogs! I apologize that I had set up $2000 in prize money for the best writers and vloggers, but that is gone, but it will still be a lot of fun.
The irony is, my HMO has done nothing but make me worse, and I have been adding money ($2000) into Free Minds from my retirement funds the last three months. I think it will pick up again... I have to be working all the time to stay afloat. :-)) Without pay. First time that's happened in 31 years.
Got to get some sleep now, been up all night working.
love y'all,
Randy
today we are launching freeminds2.org.
this is stage 3 of a three part project spanning over 30 years since i left watchtower headquarters in 1980 and gave the 18 members of the then-governing body, including president nathan knorr and vice-president frederick w. franz.. the new site will be more blog/news oriented (and updated more often with articles, blogs and videos almost daily).. all of our previous sites, such as armageddonokies.com and watchtowerworld.org, randytv.com, exjws.net, and others will be incorporated into the previous freeminds site, which is currently being revised and converted from its joomla-based format to this wordpress format.
i am sure you will find it much easier to search for words, people, articles, and subject very easy.
Today we are launching Freeminds2.org. This is stage 3 of a three part project spanning over 30 years since I left Watchtower headquarters in 1980 and gave the 18 members of the then-Governing Body, including President Nathan Knorr and Vice-President Frederick W. Franz.
The new site will be more blog/news oriented (and updated more often with articles, blogs and videos almost daily).
All of our previous sites, such as Armageddonokies.com and WatchtowerWorld.org, randytv.com, exjws.net, and others will be incorporated into the previous Freeminds site, which is currently being revised and converted from it’s Joomla-based format to this WordPress format. I am sure you will find it much easier to search for words, people, articles, and subject very easy. Gone will be the excessively long URLs as well.
You can read my story of pre-Bethel life, adventures during my six years as a press operator, a floor overseer in charge of printing their millions of Bibles, being a press mechanic, new technology testing, and finally the operator of the $1.6m Wood-Hoe press that was intended to print 100,000 small 192-page books in one 8 hour shift, starting out fully automated with an elevator that went upstairs to the 7th floor and trimmed, glued, and the paper cover attached, (supposedly) without human intervention. The “minor side effect” was that the sheer centrifugal force of three HUGE cylinders spinning in the same rotational direction, run by a 100 HP motor, was enough to sway the entire concrete building and shut down the machine shop lathes on the floor right below because it was like a continual mild earthquake!
This press had never before been built by the Wood-Hoe company, but President Knorr ordered it during the 1975 end-of-the-world expectation, as the final shipload of trash to push onto the public. You can see more pictures and most of the story behind this albatross at: http://www.randallwatters.org/randypt2.htm. Especially comical is the MAD Magazine version at: http://www.randallwatters.org/Bethel/toons/cabeen.htm.
Start visiting freeminds2.org from now on, as it will be updated more often than freeminds.org. This final stage of my ministry is to train and equip those who either grew up in the Watchtower and are facing bankruptcy or severe depression or isolation, and at the same time offer them an opportunity and HOPE to develop skills to get a real job in the REAL world (using PRIVATE forums). “Posers” w ill not be tolerated, but deleted without warning.
We will also have a forum for Jehovah’s Witnesses who want to get out completely but due to family or other circumstances, may not be able to, if ever. Yet they don’t even believe the doctrines. We love you, too, and know how hard the WT can make your life with their damnable shunning doctrine. For you, freeminds2.org is the place to visit often and start actively changing your life. You may find that in less than six months all your fears are gone, and you are ready to live an entirely new, happy life and never even THINK about that lame religion ever again. Exciting prospect?
The original freeminds.org is designed to convince you through verifiable, factual information that the Watchtower BLATANTLY LIES about Church history, origins of doctrine, practices of the early church before Constantine, and much more, simply because they want you to:
(1) feel special as if you know something few others know, and
(2) to keep you under their spell of guilt and fear. What’s in it for them? A sense of supernatural “power” over others.
BREAK the spell.
DESTROY the mine field in your head.
LAUGH without a trace of guilt or fear of God at the silliness of a 19th century carnival religion, but without a cynical attitude, just true hilarity.
The most powerful tool you can ever use to remove the WT’s control over YOUR life is to get to the point, through a little study, so that you can clearly see you have been DUPED. Then you will never take them seriously again, guaranteed.
REINVENT YOURSELF
Then, reinvent yourself!
THAT is the entire purpose of the new freeminds2.org. We leave all the religious discussions for freeminds.org, so the two websites will contain very different things. A LOT of videos, new articles, and a compassion for training and encouraging the lost… preferably through knowing the person of Christ better, but religion will rarely be discussed. You can go visit freeminds.org first to get all the false teachings out of your head.
check out the new freeminds 2.0 currently at:.
http://freeminds2.org.
so the old and new will be combined all in one site shortly at freeminds.org.
I haven't set up the site, so don't credit me. I'm just beginning to learn it now that most of my backlogged work is almost up-to-date.
But thanks anyway!
Randy
the watchtower perposely keeps its leaders "cordoned off" for a reason.
the ones really in charge want to be invisible and have been in control since knorr's day, and still think like him.
the gb want like hell to be visible and powerful.
The Watchtower perposely keeps its leaders "cordoned off" for a reason. The ones really in charge WANT to be invisible and have been in control since Knorr's day, and still think like him. The GB want like hell to be visible and powerful. But like all newboys at Bethel, they have to "pleasure" the few older ones taught by Knorr. All the "types" (Ruth/Naomi" class, etc.) were all power ploys to keep the old guard in control. This is very common ie real life society/governments, business as well. If you have been in control for decades, it means one thing... your real power is invisible to the rank-and-file, and they WANT it that way! They are in hiding and use others to give the appearance of the "true leadership." But they are pretty old, so it will change soon, and the whole thing will start to fall apart as new powerplays begin. But by then it will be too late to stop the fragmentation.
I apologize for not writing much of anything in several weeks.
Did you miss me? (Don't answer that!)
I am doing pretty good now after going through the worst year of my 60 years of life... but in order to make some changes that will enable me to keep working, I really had to take time off to take care of medical issues (mostly my spine - destroyed after 30 years spending 10-12 hours a day on the computer). But it doesn't end on a sad note, once I get myself back in shape and out from behind a desk, I will be much better. At least I never get sick, it's all hereditary crap.
Plus, my original goal has been reached, to do everything in my power to:
(1) help cripple the authoritarian control of the Watchtower over millions of people, and...
(2) to "deprogram" many thousands of Witnesses from the implanted stupidity of the Watchtower doctrines and encourage them to get out and get a REAL LIFE, free from guilt and misery completely, and...
(3) to teach them how to enjoy life the best they can with what years they have left. I had no other agenda for them. Jesus was in charge of converting them... that was not my job. Far be it from me to take the place of the Holy Spirit. I see that too much in the churches.
Converting people is NOT my thing. I rarely judge people, as their reasons for what they do are too complex. My job is to be in the right place at the right time, and allow room for the Spirit to do HIS work. That's why I have never concerned myself with "invisibles," like who is saved and who isn't, and what the invisible sky-daddies and super-daddies are doing. How the hell would I know??
In fact, I considered "converting" people over to "my" path as blasphemous to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the only one I ever truly dreaded, crossing HIS path or "taking over his job." I have always been gently punished for crossing the Spirit. I won't touch that with a 10 foot pole!
I was never afraid of "Satan" and never have been. Though I loved horror movies even as a child (NOT slasher movies, but stuff like Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allen Poe). I've read several of Anton LaVey's books, visited his home in Northeren Calif. (after his death), attended several supposed exorcisms, attempted to sleep in a haunted house when I was 13, and made home movies where I was dressed in black and with my wand turned people into dog do-do (in the spirit of John Waters).
I have also done everything in my life (well, after about 18 years old) with a clean conscience, I can say in all honesty. I have never catered to any man. The only employer I ever had besides working at Anderson Lithograph the year after I left Bethel was my first real job at 16, working at a fish n' chips shop, and I was fired after 10 days because I couldn't keep up with the "assembly line" (I was left-handed and it didn't work). The job paid $1.35/hr. Oh, and I was a Ford mechanic (tune up) part time while I pioneered in Canoga Park right before going to Bethel. I never was too concerned with making money. So I was in heaven working at Bethel for $14/mo. for six years. LOL.
Hey, I got a slice of pizza in Brooklyn once a week and went to the movies once a month. I was there when the original STAR WARS came out and showed in Cinerama in Manhattan. (There was a contest going on among the Bethelites as to who watched the movie the most times - some saw it over 30-40 times!)
Bethelites were a rare breed. So I fit right in.
My goal was not so much to warn outsiders but to set the insiders free. Although as a licensed Foursquare pastor starting as early as 1984, I later traveled the world speaking in churches and even assemblies of pastors, especially in Australia and Japan, and hundreds of churches in California.
I'm over 2012.
ON THE DB not being on the committees, etc. [only one of several reasons]:
Like Christian Science, I would almost rather see them stick around just to watch the carnival. Especially now that they are hoarding everything in upstate New York (and can't even sell their properties to pay for Candace Conti's lawsuit victory for probably another year.) Their arrogance has slapped them down to the ground, forever more.
Sure, they'll be around for quite a while. Just like Christian Science and the Worldwide Church of God sects (although the main leaders turned to historical Christianity after Armstrong died, thanks to Joseph Tkach. They also changed their name.) But the loss of most of their members to little break-off groups of worshippers of the late Herbert W. Armstrong has left them with little money or property.
That's actually good... churches thrive on poverty, at least spiritually. People love one another and help one another more, and they can be a real family community. But when a church has one charismatic leader (like Russell, Rutherford, and Knorr), they get arrogant and proud and look down on other "Christians" as being stupid and low class. It becomes a powerful collective ego. But now that the Bethel old folks' dentures are falling out one by one, and the puppet-like Governing Body is extremely ignorant and has no charisma at all, it's all but over, folks. Sure, they still be around for a long time, but so will Christian Science! And when was the last time anyone was afraid of them?
The REAL powers that be at Bethel have always been hidden from public view. They are the ones that run the corporation.They are the ones who decide how all the money is spent, how to make more money and property purchases, and how to silence opposition. Don't even think the GB are really running the show! They are merely puppets on a string, and have zero charisma (which will destroy their credibility).
At least some of the 18 Governing Body members that were appointed 3 years after I went to Bethel in 1974 (and watched this sad drama) had some personality and charisma, but the current crop are real losers and Youtube videos from detractors as well as Sparlock teaching cartoons has, to their embarrassment, made it clear to almost everyone watching these videos how pitiful, ignorant and out of touch they really are. They are becoming the laughing stock of the internet world. Someday Watch Tower history will likely be made into a good movie that will astound thinking people.
Personally, I never believed more than 75% of what they taught... it was just so obvious what their motives were. If I hadn't spent 6 years at Bethel and saw it for myself, and talked to many old timers, I would still be oblivious to their vile and life-threatening schemes to intimidate and control innocent people.
Then you have men guilty of really serious crimes against humanity like Gene Smalley and Fred Rusk for running the "no blood" show (invented by Fred Franz in the "Rutherford slump" (after his forced takeover of the organization) to intentionallydrum up persecution and gain many new zealous members as a result, at the cost of how many tens of thousands of innocent lives... when Charles Russell HIMSELF said the supposed "prohibition on blood" was not a law for Christians, but for keeping from stumbling the Jews!
Russell at least agreed with the apostle Paul that he could walk into an idol temple and eat the meat offered up to the false god and not be affected at all or disapproved by God. And that was much worse than taking a blood transfusion as far as the tribal god YHWH was concerned!
I remember Nathan Knorr going to Italy and touring the Vatican and some old cathedrals while services were going on, and telling us about it at the Bethel table! You think he was afraid of demons??
KNORR was the demon. And Fred Franz was worse, but few have no idea of that secret. By outward appearances, Knorr was cantankerous and hated by many, ESPECIALLY at Bethel, but he was not nearly as deceptive and evil as Fred Franz. Franz was in the habit of inventing seriously life-threatening doctrines just to stand apart from other religions.
I remember attending one Bethel elder's meetings in 1979 where Karl Klein said Freddy has been "our oracle for the last 67 years."
! I almost tossed my cookies on that one. Things like that prompted me to write the very first expose' of what happened at Bethel in 1981, and thanks to Ralph Moore, pastor of Hope Chapel in Hermosa Beach, I was allowed to print 10,000 copies of it (gratis, thank you Ralph!) and sent them around the world. That's how Free Minds got started.
A lot of credit goes to Edmond Gruss, who wrote the first thorough rebuttal of the Watchtower organization and doctrines in 1970, called "Apostles of Denial." After I had left Bethel in disgust in 1980, I visited Ed and I was so encouraged by him that I stayed up all that night and wrote my story. It was the first time any insider told the story of the "Franz Incident." Ed was one of the first true insider whistle-blowers on the WT. He was not mean, had no axe to grind, but told it like it was. Ed later became professor of History and Apologetics at L.A. Baptist College for many years. I have a video interview with him, taken many years ago when he was writing his book, Jehovah's Witnesses: Their Claims, Doctrinal Changes, and Prophetic Speculation. I will try and get it up soon again.
By the way, the Watchtower speaks out of many contradictory mouths. As far as the blood transfusion doctrine, it has been in the process of dissolution for about two years. They are now being forced to gradually abandon it without looking like they are abandoning it. No one is being disfellowshipped for taking a blood transfusion in the last couple of years, unless this "crime" is interconnected with other crimes, like "thought crimes" and other "1984" similarities. They are very intelligent, but often do evil things. It's their nature. - Randy
check out the new freeminds 2.0 currently at:.
http://freeminds2.org.
so the old and new will be combined all in one site shortly at freeminds.org.
Did Harley Miller start or try to stop the Margaret Fire?
He was on the phone and it was a long call, and so he couldn't wait even though it was 30 below...
or was he peeing gasoline???
Curiously, the WT bought the Margaret Hotel and rebuilt it right after. I wonder if Harley got to live there with his wife Brook.
Or maybe he could get away from her there. At least he might have got his own private phone line. :-))
Randy
:-))
Randy
check out the new freeminds 2.0 currently at:.
http://freeminds2.org.
so the old and new will be combined all in one site shortly at freeminds.org.
Here is what happened when Harley Miller was on a "long call" in the hallway when it was 30 degrees below zero and he just HAD to take a pee while he was in the hallway on the phone:
This was 30 feet from my window at about 2AM when the day the Margaret Hotel was supposed to open, and the city had just declared it sub-code because of all the wood and couldn't get inside because the wooden framework was too dangerous, and so the fire burned for ONE WEEK before they could finaslly put it out! A firetruck laid stuck in two feet deep of frozen snow on the street below until it thawed and they could remove their truck!
Guess what? Then the Society bought the property!
Harley must have been proud to have help in putting it out.
Or was he peeing gasoline???
We'll NEVER KNOW....
Dogz