JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  17

  A note on the Watchtowers property investments

  by Saintbertholdt in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  about a year ago there was a thread regarding the 2008 watchtower bible and tract society of new yorks tax return.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/287098/2008-watchtower-income-tax-return?page=1.

  a reference was made to the provictor property fund iv which was listed as their primary alternate business activity.. turns out that at that time 75% of the chrysler building was owned by the provictor property fund iv until it was sold during that year.. http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/09/news/international/chrysler_building/?postversion=2008070913.

  just thought you should know :).

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  JeffT

  They owned a piece of the investment trust that owned 75% of the building.

  What the trust does is collect a bunch of money from a number of investors, and use that to buy the property. In this arrangement, you don't have a bank mortgage, the money that would go to the bank gets paid to the trust, and distributed to the investors. They can be good investments, a lot of what they pay out is tax sheltered income.

  I used to do a lot of accounting for real estate investment operations, although not necessarily REIT's.
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  17

  A note on the Watchtowers property investments

  by Saintbertholdt in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  about a year ago there was a thread regarding the 2008 watchtower bible and tract society of new yorks tax return.. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/287098/2008-watchtower-income-tax-return?page=1.

  a reference was made to the provictor property fund iv which was listed as their primary alternate business activity.. turns out that at that time 75% of the chrysler building was owned by the provictor property fund iv until it was sold during that year.. http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/09/news/international/chrysler_building/?postversion=2008070913.

  just thought you should know :).

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  JeffT

  As I said in the original thread, this appears to be a real estate investment trust, of which the WTBS owned some fraction. It looks to me (I'll take a longer look later today when I have more time) like they sold that investment and made about $17,000.
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  60

  New light from GB member David Splane!

  by Island Man in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  in the latest jw broadcast splane is quoted as saying:.

  "suppose there was a man who died 10 minutes before joseph was born.

  would he be part of joseph's generation?

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  JeffT

  Um, Brother Splane could you explain this over-lapping generation thing to me again. I'm confused.
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  5

  It's true, Doomsday IS coming!

  by Oubliette in

  1. social
  2. humour

  compelling proof that jehovah's witnesses have been right after all:.

  doomsday video.

  .

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  JeffT

  Or this one.

  Years ago the National Lampoon did a spoof of various other magazines headlines announcing the end of the world. The only one I can remember is Sports Illustrated: "The Fat Lady Sings."

  Some comic (Johnny Carson) did a spoof of Ronald Reagan announcing the end of the world "Well....that's a wrap."
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  2

  JW's aren't the only ones telling crazy stories

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ran into this one this morning.

  this story has all kinds of wrong in it, see my entry in the comments section.http://ldsmag.com/is-this-story-true-pearl-harbor-pilot-couldnt-bomb-hawaii-temple/

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  JeffT

  Ran into this one this morning. This story has all kinds of wrong in it, see my entry in the comments section.
  
  http://ldsmag.com/is-this-story-true-pearl-harbor-pilot-couldnt-bomb-hawaii-temple/
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  28

  What Convinced you to Leave?

  by LaurenM in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've been posting here a lot, but these last few weeks have been very difficult for me.

  anyways, lately, i've been thinking about confessing everything i've done to the elders and going back, but deep down, i don't really think it's the truth...so my question is, what convinced you it wasn't the truth and that leaving wasn't a horrible decision that everyone in the truth makes it out to be?

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  JeffT

  I came in just after I graduated from college in 1973, during the run up to 1975. In 1988 I sat through a talk at a circuit assembly about the evils of college and how it was a waste of time because the world was about to end. At the time my two oldest children were entering their teenage years and doing well in school. I vividly remember thinking "the world has been about to end for fifteen years, doesn't it actually have to end some time?"

  That thought launched a year of intense research and study, that ended with my wife and I DA'ing in March 1989. Once you start looking into it, the JW religion simply does not stand up to scrutiny.
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  32

  New Watchtower Corporation Formed !!!

  by xjwsrock in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  to all congregations in the united states branch territory .

  re: jw congregation support .

  dear brothers: .

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  JeffT

  NY44M, I don't think they can shield assets this way. As long as they maintain top down control the courts can follow the money to where ever it goes. I know that in some cases (depending on state jurisdiction, or if you're in Bankruptcy court) moving assets to avoid seizure is a crime.
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  32

  New Watchtower Corporation Formed !!!

  by xjwsrock in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  to all congregations in the united states branch territory .

  re: jw congregation support .

  dear brothers: .

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  JeffT

  I just looked at the NY state corporations info. This was originally organized in 2001 as the Regional Building Committee of Jehovah's Witnesses Inc. It appears that the name change took place this year.

  I think they are going to have a hard time proving its a separate entity to dodge lawsuits. The only way they are going to accomplish that will be to give a much higher degree of autonomy to the local congregations, which I can't picture them doing.
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  15

  Pangea and Anti-Matter

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  did anyone here get to hear the talk you will be with me in paradise by ciro aulicino in 2007 at the summer convention?

  i found part of the talk in youtube.

  oh the memories!!

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  JeffT

  Whatever is big enough to move continents around is going to be unpleasant to live through. The last real earthquake we had here in Seattle was a 6.8 - that moved a GPS marker at the University of Washington (giving a rough measure of the total movement of the tectonic plate) about two tenths of an inch.
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  15

  Pangea and Anti-Matter

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  did anyone here get to hear the talk you will be with me in paradise by ciro aulicino in 2007 at the summer convention?

  i found part of the talk in youtube.

  oh the memories!!

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  JeffT

  I couldn't resist playing with the numbers. A one megaton H-bomb equals the destruction of 46 grams of matter. According to this website http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-12-439.pdf the total human biomass is 287,000,000 tons. Destroying all that with antimatter would actually release the energy of twice that much matter. Doing a little math, this all equals 12 Billion H-bombs. That's like a hundred per square mile over the entire surface of the earth.

  I wonder if any of these people every actually think about what they're saying.