Posts by yammer-hammer

40

Andersinfo: Swingle - Sydlik - Fekel - Jackson

by TheOldHippie in

since you've known quite a few of the gb members etc., and mentioned that when jaracz entered a room, sydlik would leave, i'd like to ask you about sydlik - what was your impression of him?

it seems he was sort of a reformist without enough power, but i've also read that some say he had a less glamorous role at the 1980 events?.

and then swingle, of whom i've heard nothing but nice things - your impression?.

yammer-hammer

Daniel-p, I have wondered about that myself. Maybe a little of both. I had some real problems with clinical depression and some in my family attributed my loss of faith to that. I am sure he knew about some of my episodes and so maybe he just wanted to be reassuring and kind. In spite of his sometimes grumpy exterior, he was genuinely compassionate towards people.

He usually came to Salt Lake City for the District Convention that's always held in Ogden about 50 miles to the north. I did not go the last time he came; he had lost his wife a few months before and he was so old and frail that he had to sit to give his talk. He lost his place in his notes... he sat confused for a minute and then broke down and cried... in front of about 6,000 people. But he pulled himself together and got through the talk.

This pic is from about 1970-1980.

David.

40

Andersinfo: Swingle - Sydlik - Fekel - Jackson

by TheOldHippie in

since you've known quite a few of the gb members etc., and mentioned that when jaracz entered a room, sydlik would leave, i'd like to ask you about sydlik - what was your impression of him?

it seems he was sort of a reformist without enough power, but i've also read that some say he had a less glamorous role at the 1980 events?.

and then swingle, of whom i've heard nothing but nice things - your impression?.

yammer-hammer

Ah, sorry OldHippie. I misunderstood. Yeah, that's an interesting question. I'm only venturing a guess here, but Knorr was a very good businessman, and I think the business of the Borg probably came before all else. Franz was no doubt a brilliant man, but maybe he was considered more the Reasearch and Development engineer. Knorr was probably considered a better marketing man.

It cracks me up how many terms the Society had/has that come from the business world... convention "delegates," I think they used to call the congregations the "company," "field service," and I imagine you may have been around when everyone's monthly activity was posted on a big chart for everyone to see. They had "quotas," and the chart was more like a scorecard from a sales department.

David.

54

ARE YOU BEING MONITORED BY BETHEL? (not really!!)

by AllTimeJeff in

jw
friends

this is for anyone who cares... just my thoughts and opinions, which have slightly changed since i have left the cult.

a poster named melita said some really inappropriate things on barbara andersons thread on jaracz's stroke, which got me to finally post this, just to put it out there...... when i first left, i was scared s*itless that i was being monitored and watched by bethel for reading and posting here.

and i bet i am.

yammer-hammer

As far as monitoring the WTBS private network, no doubt it's done. With a DHCP server it's possible to trace not only what Web sites a user visits, but also every page on every Web site they click on. Most big LANs and WANs have a DHCP server and a proxy server that allows connections to the outside world. The company I worked for kept all DHCP log files for up to six months, and they were able, if the need presented itself, to search the logs for a particular user, a particular IP address (which would reveal the actual computer the user was on), or sort by a particular Web site and find all user accounts that visit that Web site.

As Jeff said, someone has to have a good reason to write a query into such enormous logs, no one would have the time to sort through every user account on the network and monitor everything a user was doing. I seriously doubt anyone at the Borg does such a thing other than spot checking accounts. If someone wanted to watch a certain individual or group of individuals, that could be done, and no doubt has been done at Bethel and every other big corporation. It's perfectly legal if you have a policy for doing so. With such a policy, it is also perfectly legal to install "remote monitoring" software on any computer in a corporate network. We did it all the time for support and trouble shooting purposes.

As for connecting to an outside network and feeling safe, don't count on it. A few weeks ago I watched someone use a "packet sniffer" on an outside network and he showed me how easy it was to find unsecured communications, such as e-mail and chat sessions. If you have a wireless network in your home, (and you haven't done anything to secure it) someone could be down the street watching (and logging) everything you do; there are very easy and unsophisticated ways of watching wireless traffic (it's actually a hobby of many computer geeks called "War Driving"). It's like your home... if someone really wants to break in, there is little you can do about it. You can discourage most crooks by taking some basic precautions, and that will repel 95% of the attacks.

It would not take much effort for someone on the inside of a LAN to install a packet sniffer (a free download from the Internet) and watch other users' traffic. In that case, we would have Bethelites watching Bethelites, and there may be IT administrators at Bethel who are monitoring the LAN for packet sniffers. That can be done too.

Abj vs lbh ernyyl jnag gb shpx jvgu fbzrobql'f urnq, lbh pna nyjnlf hfr n Ebg13 plcure ratvar yvxr guvf bar. Jura fbzrbar jvgu n cnpxrg favssre ybbxrq ng gur grkg sbe guvf zrffntr, gurl jbhyq dhvpxyl cnff vg ol guvaxvat vg jnf whfg tneontr. Vs lbh'ir tbg ceboyrzf jvgu gur PVN, ubjrire, fgnl gur shpx bss gur Vagrearg, gur cubar, gur enqvb, naq qba'g hfr n snk znpuvar. Gubfr zhgure-shpxref ner FREVBHF.

If you want to know what that last paragraph says, you have to copy it and paste it into this Web site: http://www.rot13.com/ and hit the "Cypher" button.

And in case anyone is out to get me from the Borg all I can say is: PBZR NAQ TRG ZR LBH PUVPXRA FUVG ONFGNEQF!

Yammer.

40

Andersinfo: Swingle - Sydlik - Fekel - Jackson

by TheOldHippie in

since you've known quite a few of the gb members etc., and mentioned that when jaracz entered a room, sydlik would leave, i'd like to ask you about sydlik - what was your impression of him?

it seems he was sort of a reformist without enough power, but i've also read that some say he had a less glamorous role at the 1980 events?.

and then swingle, of whom i've heard nothing but nice things - your impression?.

yammer-hammer

Here's the letter from my uncle. I have removed a couple of paragraphs to protect the innocent. I can only say that it reveals an aspect of how judgmental he could be about things that he knew nothing about... like raising children and dealing with teenagers. It was very hurtful at the time for me to read the comments that I have deleted, after I showed this letter to my mother, who was dead set against my going to Bethel, she said that Lyman simply didn't have a clue about some things, especially children.

I did break up with this girl later, but not for the reasons that he mentioned in this letter. We later got together again, and we were engaged for a while, but it simply did not work out.

40

Andersinfo: Swingle - Sydlik - Fekel - Jackson

by TheOldHippie in

since you've known quite a few of the gb members etc., and mentioned that when jaracz entered a room, sydlik would leave, i'd like to ask you about sydlik - what was your impression of him?

it seems he was sort of a reformist without enough power, but i've also read that some say he had a less glamorous role at the 1980 events?.

and then swingle, of whom i've heard nothing but nice things - your impression?.

yammer-hammer

I wonder why Franz was not made president, IF it is true that he in fact wrote some of the Rutherford-era books.

It seems like he was president after Knorr died (?), but by that time, the GB had staged their coup (as a result of the "tail wagging the dog" talk by Freddy hiz-self) but it was no longer considered to be the "highest" position... similar to when the "elder's arrangement" was put into effect. The Presiding Overseer was not considered to be the "boss" of the congregation any more, just another elder.

I think he also lost a lot of respect from the GB after they gave their half-hearted apology about 1975. I have nothing to base that on, JMO.

By the way, "onceawitness" is the same as "yammer-hammer." There is also an account I created 3 years ago named "yammerhammer" without the hyphen. I couldn't use that account for some reason... maybe because I haven't posted here for so long. My apologies to the mods... it would be great if you could delete the "onceawitness" and "yammerhammer" accounts. They just confuse me.

David.