JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  5

  If I could go back to 1974

  by Quarterback in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was very young back then, and can remember telling everyone at school, family, and all my worldly friends that the world would end in just another year.

  now after reading the latest july wt, and reviewing all the updates, i can't help but wonder what effect i would have if i told members of my faith that armeggeddon, wouldn't come that year.

  the fds has two appointments, 1st in 1919, and then 2nd after the gt.

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  JeffT

  If, only I could go back in time, but what good would that of done?

  None. They would have DF'd you so fast your head would spin.
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  28

  Syria limited strike and consquences

  by d in

  1. social
  2. current

  what do you think would be the result if we go the u.s goes thorough striking syria?

  i fear that it will drag the u.s into a vietnam like situation and this will hurt our economy..

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  JeffT

  Attempts to start "limited" wars frequently don't work out well. The Austro-Hungarian Empire planned a war limited to spanking Serbia for the assination of Archduke Ferdinand. Four years and sixteen million dead later the Empire didn't exist anymore. Japan planned on a fast war with the United States. Both sides figured they could end the Civil War with one good battle.
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  55

  Do You Think The Witnesses Actually Know What They Believe In?

  by minimus in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i think they know what they don't believe in, like no blood, no hellfire, no trinity....but they really couldn't explain what their beliefs are and why they believe as they do.

  do you agree?

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  JeffT

  No, they don't. A few years ago a couple of guys came by (I think they were elders) and they were clueless on the mediator issue. I looking for a chance to ask one about the generation change.
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  23

  Given your perspective, would you rank AA as a cult after reading this?

  by NeverKnew in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a very dear friend's husband is going to aa and has been successfully clean for a year now.

  he has attributed his success to aa.

  we are all very excited about his sobriety.

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  JeffT

  maybe he's the one who had the key to the door

  quite possibly. That guy and the guy who make the coffee are the really important ones, although if they don't show up you can meet in the parking lot. Or the coffee shop down the street.

  FYI, I'm sixty-two, the 29th marked eight years of sobriety and involvement in AA.
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  23

  Given your perspective, would you rank AA as a cult after reading this?

  by NeverKnew in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a very dear friend's husband is going to aa and has been successfully clean for a year now.

  he has attributed his success to aa.

  we are all very excited about his sobriety.

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• 

  JeffT

  Shirley, it's not a matter of terminology. AA does not have people who lead or people who consel, no matter what you call them. The meeting secretary does nothing more than get the meeting started on time, introduce the chairman and handle a few announcements. Most groups rotate the position every three months. The chairman is a different person every week, just a speaker who talks about their own experience for ten minutes or so to get the meeting going, and then calls on members of the group to share their own thoughts.

  The group itself is run by the consensus of its members. Every group is autonomous and free to run its own affairs within very broad guidelines. Which is why I tell people not to judge AA by one group. If you don't like one, go to another one; they can be very different. There are also meetings just for men or women, and specifically LGBT friendly meetings. Many of us have problems unique to some background of our own.

  Was your friends husband a licensed counselor? He might have been leading a support group seperate from AA. Or he could have been a sponsor, although that only involves helping one person who has asked for his help in gaining sobriety. A sponsor only has no authority, he can only make suggestions, and the sponsee is free to pick somebody else anytime he wants. I had three my first year of sobriety and we're all still good friends. It's also possible that he was meeting with several sponcees at once (not usually pracitce, but done sometimes just to get everybody together). If so that was not an AA meeting.
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  23

  Given your perspective, would you rank AA as a cult after reading this?

  by NeverKnew in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a very dear friend's husband is going to aa and has been successfully clean for a year now.

  he has attributed his success to aa.

  we are all very excited about his sobriety.

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  JeffT

  Sigh.

  AA saved my life, my marriage and my relationship with my family. If you don't like it, don't go. Keep drinking if you want, we don't care. Nobody has any monetary incentive in AA, I've been involved in several groups and after we paid rent on the hall and bought our coffee there wasn't anything left. And all of us tried to quit and haven't been able to do it on our own. There is a significant genetic factor to the disease. Our bodies process alchohol and other addictive drugs differently from normal people. If you are not an addict you quite literaly cannot understand what it is we go through.

  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2442454/

  Shirley, nobody leads an AA group.

  Nathan, being on the road can make it very tempting to drink. Looking up the local group is likely to help.

  PS I've read that article several times. It reads like a Watctower article about why catholics are wrong or some such. If I felt like expending the time and energy I could make that say JWN is a cult. Speaking of time and energy, who is A. Orange and why does he/she/it have such a hard-on for AA?
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  43

  JW Mission = Find all checker floors in WT publications

  by bytheirworks in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  your mission... should you choose to accept it, will be to find all checker floors in the watchtower publications, especially those involving worship.. .

  if you can upload them here, great.

  i don't know to upload a pic from my computer on this site.

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  JeffT

  http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/quick-history-checkerboard-flo-136019

  first thing that showed up on a google search for "history of checkered floors." I think Solomon's temple had a checkered floor. That predates Freemasons by about two thousand years.
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  60

  Is The WTS Building Beth Sarim 2 ?

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i continue to puzzle over the future direction the watchtower is taking.

  it seems very strange.. let's review: they are selling everything off in brooklyn, raking in huge sums from that real estate and building heavily in a fairly isolated part of upstate ny.. why?.

  it may be classified as a country club (legally).

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  JeffT

  Besty, I figured $200 a foot which is very close to your estimate. I then doubled it becuase in 25 years of real estate experience I've never seen a project come in on time or on budget. I expect they'll want to gold plate their nest which drives up the cost. Either way, they can build it and have some money left over to live on. Central NYC is some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Selling it off makes sense from a financial perspective.
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  60

  Is The WTS Building Beth Sarim 2 ?

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i continue to puzzle over the future direction the watchtower is taking.

  it seems very strange.. let's review: they are selling everything off in brooklyn, raking in huge sums from that real estate and building heavily in a fairly isolated part of upstate ny.. why?.

  it may be classified as a country club (legally).

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  JeffT

  Chaserious, I agree with what you say (particularly, upon reflection, regarding potential liabilities). However as you point out, most of the assets are still where they can be attached in a court case. A trust might work, but they'd pretty much lose control of the assets if they did that.

  Overall, I think its about selling valuable land in NYC and replacing it with something cheaper upstate. I'm trying to do some research on what I think they're going to spend on the new complex, as a rough figure I'd say $500 million, but that still leaves them with a chunk of change they can invest and live off of for many years to come.
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  60

  Is The WTS Building Beth Sarim 2 ?

  by metatron in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i continue to puzzle over the future direction the watchtower is taking.

  it seems very strange.. let's review: they are selling everything off in brooklyn, raking in huge sums from that real estate and building heavily in a fairly isolated part of upstate ny.. why?.

  it may be classified as a country club (legally).

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  JeffT

  Transferring assets to avoid creditors or potential creditors is against the law, and it won't work if there is ANY connection between the new holder of the money and the WTBS or its affliates. The only way out of that kind of liability would be to dissolve the WTBS and give the money to some other non-profit organization. And officers of the WTBS could not serve or receive pay from those entities.

  I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think this is a workable plan for avoiding lawsuits etc.