Juan Viejo2

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Posts by Juan Viejo2

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  53

  TYRED OF SPELING ERURS? SIK OF BAD GRAMMUR?

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  Juan Viejo2

  For my formal editing in Word and other word processing programs I use Grammarly primarily. One thing I love about it is the "plagiarism" feature. While I do not plagiarize source materials, it does allow me to find other sources that have used similar phrasing about the same subject. In one case, I actually found a reference that pointed out that a source that I intended to use as a resource had actually plagiarized much of what I was about to quote. While I still used much of it, I was able to redirect my footnotes to the earlier and proper source.

  For online and website editing I use After the Deadline, an often free addon to Chrome and Firefox. If set to automatically find errors or make suggestions, it helps me edit while I am writing and before I publish. It's not perfect (I am always going back and finding errors in my published writing) - but it does help me correct most of the errors as I go along.

  I recently read an article about a local Protestant (read "holy roller") independent church school that decided to toss out the state approved English grammar text book because it contained too many phrases and words the pastor did not approve. When the local newspaper reviewed the text book they planned to use instead, it ran a PDF version through its own spelling and grammar checker. The result was that over 50% of the paragraphs in the book (not examples) had moderately serious spelling and grammar errors.

  The biggest issue that most of us have is that we are either too lax about spelling and grammar or we become anal and go overboard, checking everything we send out (Facebook, email, notes to family) to make sure that they are absolutely correct. When we do that we often take out the fun and personality inherent in our own writing and turn it into something that sounds like it was written for Funk & Wagnalls...

  JV
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  12

  Barbara Anderson scheduled to appear on "Chuck Morse Speaks" from 11-12 AM ET on November 11, 2014

  by ABibleStudent in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  i found out that barbara anderson is scheduled to talk about the watchtower's child abuse problems on chuck morse speaks from 11-12 am et on november 11, 2014 about child protection and/or sol reform.. .

  to listen to podcasts for $0.99/month, click on this link chuck morse speaks.. .

  to listen to chuck morse's show 'chuck morse speaks" on the radio, complete an information form for the irn usa network using this link: station finder | irn usa radio.. .

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  Juan Viejo2

  For those who might be interested, there is now an edited (eliminated the first hour of the show, commercials, excessive music and show tags, etc.) version available on Barbara Anderson's website and on YouTube. We've also deleted some repitious material while adding some photos and screen grabs to give some visual interest to the (now) 35 minute interview.

  Personally I found Chuck Morse to be a better than average interviewer, although he could have stepped in more often to break up Barbara's segments to make it more conversational. While he seems neutral on the religious aspect of the JWs and even supports the theological application of the two-witness rule, you can also hear the frustration in both his and Barbara's voices when she starts counting off all of the child abuse cases that have happened just since she found about the problem in 1991. The Watchtower is appropriately compared to the Vatican as well in their willingness to spend millions defending their indefensible positions and failure to protect children. For those who don't know, Barbara is also active in SNAP.

  If you choose to stay with it all the way, there are more photos per minute at the end than the beginning and there is an "easter egg" during the end credits. Those of you who frequent JW websites, YT videos, and Facebook threads will like have heard and seen it all before. But those who are not familiar with Barbara Anderson or her work will get quite an education.

  The video can be found on her home page at http://watchtowerdocuments.org (an article will follow in a few days) and direct from YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXlKSmNVFY0

  Feel free to leave your comments...

  JV2
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  116

  Creationist Should Dismiss Genesis Quickly

  by Coded Logic in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  chris tann,.

  in your earlier post you seemed to be under the impression that genesis and science were somehow compatible .

  however, the truth is the two are not reconcilable at all.

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  Juan Viejo2

  Good one, Coded...
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  12

  Barbara Anderson scheduled to appear on "Chuck Morse Speaks" from 11-12 AM ET on November 11, 2014

  by ABibleStudent in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  i found out that barbara anderson is scheduled to talk about the watchtower's child abuse problems on chuck morse speaks from 11-12 am et on november 11, 2014 about child protection and/or sol reform.. .

  to listen to podcasts for $0.99/month, click on this link chuck morse speaks.. .

  to listen to chuck morse's show 'chuck morse speaks" on the radio, complete an information form for the irn usa network using this link: station finder | irn usa radio.. .

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  Juan Viejo2

  An edited version will be available on line during the 3rd week of November. There will be both a audio version and a video version available.

  JV
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  35

  Earth rotates the wrong way. ( no one even knew that )

  by kairos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've heard it mentioned a few times.. the rotating earth graphic in the background on jwtv rotates backwards.. i've mentioned it to the active and they are not concerned at all.. my response is, "it's something they are portraying that cannot be more wrong".. .

  two gb members have stood in front of it telling us to trust them.

  how can you when they think the sun rises in the west.... .

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  Juan Viejo2

  Maybe the GB has confirmed that the South Pole is really the top of the world, not the North Pole. We know that the North Pole was predominent because 80% of civilization lived in the northern hemisphere when map making began. It was thought that the North Pole was the "top of the world." I don't know of any reason why the north pole has to be at the top except that near it is "magnetic north" - so our compass needles all point in that direction. However, scientists tell us that the geographic/magnetic North Pole is actually the south magnetic pole. So we could turn our maps upside down, put the South Pole at the top, let the earth rotate backward and change all of our clocks and maps. We could still leave Greenwich as the center point for time, except our clocks would go backward.

  But we live by the traditions and guidelines developed by the Greeks and Romans - although the Babylonians and Egyptians were no slouches either. And we also have to give the ancient Arabs their due as well - since most of their mathmatics, map making, and geography systems still form the basis of our modern science standards.

  Maybe in the New World Jehovah will order that New Light be directed from the south instead of the north and that the world will spin in the opposite direction.

  JV
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  14

  This should be an interesting book to read

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i have not yet read this book, but it should be interesting:.

  "the better angels of our nature: why violence has declined", steven pinker.. the publicity blurb states:.

  "believe it or not, today we may be living in the most peaceful moment in our species' existence.

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  Juan Viejo2

  You can get a good idea of the message of the book by listening to his speech on the subject. Here is the version given at Yale University. Long, but very engaging. It will give you new insight about our age. Is it really more violent? Are we worse than we were in the Middle Ages or even a century ago?

  Well worth your time. Get a snack and something to drink and hunker down. You will never forget this...

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsuCGc-Rw3Y

  JV
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  14

  Help me keep this site active

  by Old Goat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the watch tower history blog is the best out there.

  the owners are considering shutting it down for lack of blog visits.

  maybe a visit and a comment would help keep it alive.. http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/.

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  Juan Viejo2

  Old Goat -

  Blogspot is not the place to host your site. Blogger.com (supported by Google) was never intended and does not work well for a stand alone site. The only way to get visitors is to go out and post links on other discussion sites (Topix, Yahoo! Answers, etc.) or create a mailling list and send everyone on the list a notice that you have posted something and then ask them to share the links with their friends.

  Wordpress.com is similar, but is paid for by ads from Adsense, etc. But the plan is the same as most Blogger and Wordpress.com sites are mostly ignored by search engines and are rarely found in the top ten pages of any search.

  I would suggest that you offer your articles to another blogger who is looking for material and let them archive your posts or integrate them within their own blog. The problem there is finding another blogger who has your same interests, point of view, and religious leanings. A very religious blog will not do well on one hosted by an atheist and will find little support among the masses of JW readers.

  Bravehost is another hosting service that has hundreds of articles and posts regarding JW scandals and personalities. But again, they are poorly ranked and indexed on any of the search engines so are hard to find. Most get their readers from JWN, Freeminds and other JW discussion sites that provide an occasional link to a good article or two.

  So again - my suggestion is that you find another blogger who would agree to take over an archive your Blogger posts on their own site and then credit them to you. Pick carefully - your host should be on the same wavelength as you or else the relationship will not work.

  JV
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  26

  how long before an overworked wt lawyer says SCREW THIS!!!

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

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  Juan Viejo2

  This morning my contact who speaks on occasion with Bethel insiders (many are in WT Legal) gave me a quick call. He told me that he would have to be very careful what he shared because he didn't want to give himself away, but he did share this much:

  Many of the attorneys at WT Legal are worried that they may have pushed the judge on the Lopez case too far by ignoring his orders and then appealing directly to higher courts. They are also worried that in future cases this approach may poison the well for them - even in cases that are relatively weak. One of his contacts indicated that this strategy may not have been encouraged by anyone in the legal team, but may have been determined by the GB or even Losch himself. The legal teams are afraid that they may be going into future cases with their guns empty and the plaintiffs attorneys ready to spring that fact (Watchtower refusal to obey court directives) to the court early in the procedings.

  While appeal courts and the state supreme courts must rule on the merits of each case, the fact that the Catholic Church took a similar approach and lost badly (in California, very badly), the fact that the Watchtower has refused to respond to a judge's order will surely be recognized and expected as a strategy they will use in future cases. Whether this has any noticeable effect on the Conti appeal is unknown, and the court would certainly indicate that each case stands alone and has no effect on any other cases in their docket, for the future the Watchtower's "go f*** yourself - we answer to a higher law" response to court orders can not help them in the long run.

  Looks like the Watchtower may be lining itself up for an early US Supreme Court appeal. They have done well there in the past and the current court tends to bend over backward to appease the religious wackos who appear before them (abortion, contraception, monuments, church use for secular activities, zoning laws, etc.). The only thing really working against them is the fact that they have few supporters within the Christian Right, with the possible exception of the Mormons and Scientology. They are also not political, so they can't help the Republican and Right Wing voting block even if they do win their case. The only reason the Christian Right would ever come to their aid is to enhance their own protections against lawsuits directed toward so many of their sect and mega-church leaders who have been involved in sexual deviance and child abuse cases. They may want to push this now before the court has a chance to become more Liberal leaning. Timing is everything.

  They are watching and eagerly waiting to see how the California Appeals Court rules on Conti. That will be the standard that they will have to wrap their future strategies around.

  My contact admits the most of his connections work outside of the child abuse cases loop, but they are on the fringes. Patterson is abuzz over the Lopez case and everyone there secretly peruses JWN, JWSurvey and Watchtower Documents. But never on the campus. They use only their own personal cell phones, pads, and laptops and only when they are away from WT HQ. Every email, upload, download and voicemail message transmitted there is being monitored 24 hours a day and IP addresses are being tracked. A few have two smartphones, one set aside for just this purpose.

  A few have admitted that they feel like they are working inside the CIA, rather than a religious organization. No one really trusts anyone else. A few have have been burned badly by trusting the wrong person, someone who they were convinced was as reliable as they were. A few are seen packing up and being escorted to the travel vans every month. No one is ever sure why. Those who continue on are staying for shorter periods than was typical just ten or fifteen years ago. Looks like the average stay at one of the Bethel facilities has now fallen below the 24 month mark. There are also fewer younger volunteers. Many who are arriving are pioneers who have been in the field for several years and have held elder positions, with an average age well above 30.

  In any case, this is all second and third hand - so take it with cup of salt. I am just the mail man. But it will be interesting to look back in 24 months and see how close this insider gossip came to predicting actual events.

  JV
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  15

  How did the term "The Truth" come about?

  by FeelingFree in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i just wondering how this vile term came to be used in constant referral to the org, i really, really hate it!

  it's only since coming out that i have realised how much the jdubs use it.

  everything is the truth this and the truth that.

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  Juan Viejo2

  When I was just a little kid in the early 1950s, the term/code name ["The Truth"] for Jehovah's Witnesses was just beginning to be used interchangeably with the generic term "God's Organization" and "God's People."

  After Nathan Knorr took over as President of the Watchtower Society and Fred Franz became Vice-President a few years later there were two basic threads that provided the framework for the modern version of Jehovah's Witnesses. The original version of "The Truth Shall Make You Free" (1943) was followed by the primary study boook "Let God Be True" (1946 - Green) which was just a few years later followed by a revision the original version of "The Truth Shall Make You Free" and a revised version of "Let God Be True" (1952 - Maroon).

  It was during the 1950 and 1953 International Conventions in New York that the term "The Truth" first became synonymous with "The Organization" (i.e. The Watchtower). While rank and file JWs were slow to grab on to that nickname for the organization at first, still referring to the Society as "God's Organization" or themselves as simply Jehovah's Witnesses, the substitution of the term "the truth" became locked in as the descriptive name for the Watchtower ("The Truth") in 1968. It was during the International Convention that year that the study book "The Truth that leads to Eternal Life" was released.

  The last three paragraphs of that book (pages 189,190) lock in the phrase "the way of the truth" as a substitute for "the way" (a term used by early Christians as a descriptive way to describe themselves and Christianity) as an approved and more or less formal way to describe the Watchtower.

  I remember my parents first using the descriptive term "The Truth" in the early 1970s when they would plead with me to "come back to the Truth" or when they refused to consider any objections to the 1975 prophecy ("Johnny, we could never leave the Truth," " We could never take a stand against the Truth.")

  I think it is quite interesting that Jehovah's Witnesses have switched from being "Christians" (noun) to members of the "Christian (adjective) Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses" and have all but abandoned the use of "Bible Students" to describe themselves except when they are in uncomfortable situations when the use of "Jehovah's Witnesses" might prove embarrassing or dangerous.

  It must be uncomfortable to call their organization "The Truth" when it is forever changing what it believes and reversing positions on even some of their most basic teachings. Must be why "Let God Be True" is no longer their primary introductory study text.

  JV

  http://ex-jw.com/truth-shall-set-you-free
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  7

  AFFECTATIONS of INTEGRITY and other steaming piles of Poo

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  there is a marvelous greek word for what an actor does in a play as he assumes an identity other than his own.

  and proceeds to affect behaviors which convince an audience every word and deed performed is the gods' honest truth.. do you know the word?.

  the word is ??

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  Juan Viejo2

  Totally off topic...but I couldn't pass this up

  Terry - by the way - I noted that your new gravatar reminds me of another sleuth / critic / highly intelligent person. You could look just like him because you already do...

  1. Cut your hair very short.

  2. Put on a medium to dark gray three-piece suit.

  3. Wear some amber or light green sunglasses even when you are inside.

  4. Wear a dark fedora set comfortably on your head but above your ears.

  5. Show your intelligence is so far advanced over that of your enemies.

  6. Plan to identify and maybe eliminate all of your enemies before you die.

  

  Yeah, I think that would work. Never give them a break, Terry...

  JV