Posts by Chaserious

27

Education Double Standard

by Tech49 in

jw
friends

this is the kind of thing that really burns me.. .

wtbts holds out an extreme double standard in regards to education.

most, if not all, of you know how they feel about obtaining an education past high school (in the u.s.).

Definitely a big double standard. There was a brother in my congregation years ago who actually had an engineering degree and became a JW when he was in his early-mid 20's not long after graduating college. He got married and he and his wife got recruited to move to Bethel. I got the sense they didn't really like it that much and Bethel really kissed their asses to get them to stay. He got appointed as a Bethel elder very quickly, they got a nice room with a great view, he got a corner office with a view of Manhattan, and the wife got taken off her cleaning job after a short time and got assigned to an easy office job. There has to be a real shortage of people with that kind of education thanks to their double standard. But this couple left after a few years anyway. I can't imagine how the rank and file Bethelites felt who didn't get all the amenities because they followed the WT counsel on education while the educated ones get the preferred treatment. You have to really be indocrinated to be able to swallow or ignore the double standard.

I gave up a full scholarship to stay in the WT as well. Of course, I wasn't allowed to move away to the school that offered it to me. Probably should have cut ties right then. As it turned out, I had to take night classes well into my mid-20s that I mostly paid for myself to get my BA. Even so, I count myself as happy and fortunate to have gotten out relatively early.

10

What is the stand/view of the JWs regarding the Illuminati and conspiracy theory?

by UBM101 in

i mean.... are the dubs pretty much supporters of the conspiracy theory (watching videos, researching etc) or do they avoid such materials/topics?

Chaserious

If there is an illuminati conspiracy, why didn't Ray Franz out it? Wouldn't governing body members know about this alleged secret control? Or was his exit and expose all part of the conspiracy?

9

Candice Conti

by zound in

jw
friends

watchtowers brief due today?.

can anyone explain to me how to get the briefs from the californian court website?

i need to direct a jw to the website to get the breifs but not really sure how to get them myself.. .

Chaserious

144,001 is correct about the brief that's due this week. They probably won't have it for a few days at least. I meant that the two opening briefs have already been obtained by jwleaks and posted there. As for legal databases like Lexisnexis and Westlaw, I do have access to these but the Conti briefs did not get posted there, and usually will not be made available for state appeals cases. They typically will only put the eventual written opinion of the appeals court in the database. Sometimes they have the briefs available for federal appeals cases. Just didn't want anyone to waste their time trying to open an account for this.

9

Candice Conti

by zound in

jw
friends

watchtowers brief due today?.

can anyone explain to me how to get the briefs from the californian court website?

i need to direct a jw to the website to get the breifs but not really sure how to get them myself.. .

Chaserious

The briefs are not made publicly available online by the court. They are available online at the jwleaks site, and I believe AAWA also obtained and posted the Conti appeal brief.

49

Reinstatement Hearing Secretly Recorded and on JWStruggle

by RayPublisher in

okay people i have a new video that some of you may be interested in- i believe it is the only one of its kind online.

three elders meet with a young female that knows ttatt and is trying to get back into the jws for family reasons.

the audio also includes the three elders disagreeing and deliberating after she is dismissed from the room and then when they call her back in.

Chaserious

Very interesting.. I listened to some of the recording. It seems that these three elders were somewhat sincere about trying to do their job in this case. Elder #1 is kind of a hardass. It is possible that he is very perceptive in figuring out that the person just wanted to get reinstated to see her family (which is true). However, I wouldn't give him that much credit. I think it's more likely that he just wanted to put the screws to her some more and make her suffer for a few more months since it was her second offense.

As an aside, if you have the resources, it might not be a bad idea to seek some advice on whether recording elders' deliberations could be problematic from a legal standpoint, especially if you plan to publish more of these should they become available.

60

Is The WTS Building Beth Sarim 2 ?

by metatron in

jw
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).

Chaserious

Transferring assets to avoid creditors or potential creditors is against the law

The first part is correct, but the second is not. It's perfectly legal to transfer assets if that transfer happens to have the effect of making the assets unavailable to unknown future creditors. Under fraudulent transfer law there has to be an intent to avoid a specific liability. By making transfers when the organization is in good financial condition, they stay out of constructive fraudulent transfer territory also. And even if transfers are determined to be fraudulent, there is a limited look back period, so after enough time passes even a fraudulent transfer can't be reached. Under bankruptcy law, preferential transfers can be recovered from a bankrupt even without meeting the above, but at most you can only go back one year. I'm not an expert on trusts, but I'm sure if they wanted to, they could move assets into some kind of asset-protection trusts outside of the U.S., or transfer assets to another Watchtower related corporation overseas and after a while, those assets couldn't be reached to satisfy U.S. judgments. (Or make it so expensive to reach that judgment creditors will settle for pennies on the dollar). As an example, it's not uncommon at all for doctors to make some of their assets hard to reach just in case there is a huge malpractice suit. You just can't do it after you commit the malpractice.

That said, I highly doubt asset protection is a significant factor. If the WTS were to face massive liability, the new branch land and buildings would still be available, as would all of the assembly halls and at least all domestic assets. I'm sure they aren't planning on that happening.

60

Is The WTS Building Beth Sarim 2 ?

by metatron in

jw
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).

Chaserious

There is a clear paper trial between the two, meaning that claims against the WTBS can follow them to the new place.

While I don't think the purpose of the move is to liquidate (at least in the sense of concealing assets), only past claims will follow them to the new place via a "paper trail." In theory, the proceeds from the Brooklyn sales could be transferred to other entities or otherwise disposed of such that they are not available to pay future claims that may arise. I do think liquidating the real estate to free it to invest might be part of the motivation, as Las Malvinas suggested. If you can sell Brooklyn for $1B and build the new compound for $200M (give or take), you might as well free up the other ~$800M to invest and earn income on. Being near cargo ports doesn't matter any longer.

32

Is (a possible) revised NWT prompted by lapsing copyright?

by slimboyfat in

in the united states i gather that copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years.

if copyright only lasts for 70 years from publication of anonymous works, then copyright for the nwt of the christian greek scriptures would be due to run out in a few years.

watchtower leaders probably don't like the idea of others being able to publish hard copies or circulate the nwt in ebook format.

Chaserious

I don't know a ton about copyright, but the life of the author + 70 years rule only applies to works first published after 1978, so it would not apply to the NWT. Also, re-printing a work with a new copyright date does not restart the copyright period. First publication is the key date, and last printing doesn't matter, contrary to what was indicated above.

This said, and subject to correction if someone else is more expert on copyright law, I believe that because the original copyright was renewed, the NWT's U.S. copyright period would last 95 years, so until at least 2045. (I believe the "Greek Scriptures" was published in 1950. I'm not sure whether the copyright for the entire publication would expire then, given that the "Hebrew Scriptures" was not published until later). The anonymous/known author distinction that ties the expiration to the death of the author only applies to works first published in 1978 or later. Here is a good summary of copyright term length for various works: http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

33

Evolution, Biogeography VS. Experimental archaeology

by Brother of the Hawk in

i thought of posting this on an ongoing thread regarding proof of noahs flood by poster *lost*, but i think a separate thread is needed.

this is why.. first my disclaimer.

this thread is a theory since so many people love the theory and so as not to hurt feelings and insult anyone, this is only a theory.. my personal observation is this, as long as you bash watchtower all is ok. as soon as you try to present any resemblance of christianity or any belief in the bible, such as the flood, you are personally bashed.

Chaserious

I don't usually open the threads on the accuracy of evolution since I don't often find them interesting, but when I read the OP's post, it made me think that it just shows that neither creationists or realists have the market cornered on being assholes. Then I went to the thread by *lost* on Noah's flood here. BOTH wrote, in quotations, that *lost* was told in the other thread " You can do all the research you want, just don’t post it here." The only problem is that it does not seem that quotation appears anywhere in the other thread. So it seems all that is left is the OP making up his own mis-quotation from the other thread, angrily responding to his made up/paraphrased quotation, and then taunting another member for having potentially terminal cancer based on a complete lack of understanding of what "survival of the fittest" means from a scientific standpoint. That KO punch is looking a bit like a boomerang punch now, isn't it?

85

The final chapter in the confusedandalone story...

by confusedandalone in

this morning i get a frantic call from my sister (who has been baptized 1 year and one month and never attends meetings anymore).

in tears she tells me that this morning my father picked her up in the car and told her that i was am apostate.

that i no longer loved jehovah and that i was going to be disfellowshipped.

Chaserious

Congrats on making your freedom official! Thanks for sharing your interesting stories, and I'm sorry to hear about how some of your family members have treated you.