Hughes, in many ways, was luckier than he was smart. He was forced by the Feds to divest himself of TWA when the stock was at its highest and he made more money than he ever had before.
Had he treated Noah Dietrick better (stock) he'd never have had to turn to the (shudder) Mormons and Robert Mayheu. It was the beginning of the end.
His aides could see clearly that he was dying and didn't lift a finger. That's murder any way you slice it.
TerryWalstrom
JoinedPosts by TerryWalstrom
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Howard Hughes and the Lure of his Estate
by TerryWalstrom inthe lure of money--lots of it (this day in history 36 years ago.).
howard hughes was an aviator, manufacturer, film producer/director and famous recluse.
when he died of kidney failure in 1976, he was a multi-billionaire.. he passed away unmarried and childless and surrounded by employees he felt he could trust only because they were members of the mormon church.
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TerryWalstrom
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The Dub At My Door (is back for Return Visit)
by TerryWalstrom inthe dub at my door ___________________i’d rather have a root canal than agree to a sit down with an active jehovah’s witness.i’m an ex-jw.
for good reason.
fool me once....i’m an activist and an author of a book or two exposing and vilifying the destructive jw cult organization.yet i agreed.
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TerryWalstrom
If I need to change the subject and put them on a different brain wave, I've got some lead-ins.
1. "Let me ask you what I think is an interesting question. If you were absolutely certain God was talking to you and he told you to kill one of your family members...would you obey? and Why or why not?"
(This is to set up a dynamic in which the Governing Body can be seen to be people who equivalently "hear God telling them something" and proceed merely on their faith it is Jehovah. IF THE ANSWER IS "no" (which a sane person would have to give) it also means the GB's predictions and changes of doctrine would reflect the "voices in their head" rather than ACTUAL directions from Jehovah.
2, "Are the religious scholars among Jehovah's Witnesses affiliated with a particular seminary or is it all homebrew?"
I can insert these PRRI poll results:https://www.prri.org/research/american-religious-landscape-christian-religiously-unaffiliated/
3. "Going door to door, as you do, you probably run into problems with women asking about the problems your church is having with child molesters. Right? "
(Cite PRRI Poll: Women are about twice as likely as men to cite the clergy sexual-abuse scandal as an important reason they left their childhood faith (26% vs. 13%, respectively).
Note Pivot to Australian Commission Findings "Have you followed those hearings?" -
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A find on Fred Franz's "system of things"
by careful ini was looking at the footnote in the 3rd ed.
of weymouth's nt (1912) on an unrelated topic and i happened on the phrase "the passing away of the present system of things" (p. 659 n. 2).
when i was in, i remember reading that the nwt "committee" (= f. franz) came up with that "system of things" rendering of the greek aion from john parkhurst's very old lexicon.
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The Dub At My Door (is back for Return Visit)
by TerryWalstrom inthe dub at my door ___________________i’d rather have a root canal than agree to a sit down with an active jehovah’s witness.i’m an ex-jw.
for good reason.
fool me once....i’m an activist and an author of a book or two exposing and vilifying the destructive jw cult organization.yet i agreed.
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TerryWalstrom
I got a text this morning and Cheerful Earl and an older man (elder?) would like to "drop by". I gave the okay. So, thumbs up to those who predicted this!
I've planned a Hannibal style ambush. (Not the psychopath, the Carthaginian general).
I've got three traps set. Any one of which, if sprung, should lead to topics which will place an Elder in a defensive posture.
Keeping 2 of these creatures off balance is like juggling chainsaws! -
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Howard Hughes and the Lure of his Estate
by TerryWalstrom inthe lure of money--lots of it (this day in history 36 years ago.).
howard hughes was an aviator, manufacturer, film producer/director and famous recluse.
when he died of kidney failure in 1976, he was a multi-billionaire.. he passed away unmarried and childless and surrounded by employees he felt he could trust only because they were members of the mormon church.
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TerryWalstrom
THE LURE OF MONEY--LOTS OF IT (This day in history 36 years ago.)
HOWARD HUGHES was an aviator, manufacturer, film producer/director and famous recluse. When he died of kidney failure in 1976, he was a multi-billionaire.
He passed away unmarried and childless and surrounded by employees he felt he could trust only because they were members of the Mormon church. I might add, by all accounts, Hughes was suffering from mental illness and drug addiction when he passed. He had been a notorious womanizer, hypochondriac, and germaphobe. His corpse revealed neither his hair, toenails or fingernails had been cut in years. Oh--and his closet was filled with jars of his own urine. Make of that what you will.
________What were Hughes’ intentions as to the disposition of his estate? As far as anybody knew, all that money (billions!) was up for grabs unless somebody could produce a Last Will and Testament. Hughes’ personal aide explained to probate court his boss had told him he had made out a will but being of a suspicious nature, had refused to tell him the location of that document.
There are two popular sayings which now spring to mind:
1. Necessity is the mother of invention 2. Behind every great fortune, there are great crimes.
________________Enter: Melvin Dummar.
Melvin Dummar was a gas station attendant who claimed to have found a man stranded in the Nevada desert one day hitchhiking. He rescued the man, drove him to the Sands Hotel and “loaned” him a quarter. According to Dummar, before he left, the hitchhiker revealed himself to be Howard Hughes.Mere days after Howard Hughes died, an envelope appeared at the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Howard Hughes Last Will and Testament was contained therein. The text of this document had many curious anomalies. Perhaps the most curious of all was the name of one Melvin Dummar (name misspelled as Du Mar) who was to receive $156 million dollars.
10 handwriting experts were called who verified the Will and attributed various oddities to Hughes’ medical and mental problems.Ah but--not so fast!
A carbon copy of an unsigned Will was produced by the executives of Hughes Medical Institute (a tax shelter) leaving his estate to that charity and its executives! $2 Billion.
A battle of Wills commenced in court. The Melvin Dummar Will bestowed $156 million of Hughes’ fortune to establish a home for orphan children, $156 million to the Mormon Church as well as Dummar, and other awards to the Boy Scouts of America and Hughes’ ex-wives and a fourth of the estate to four Universities.
A notorious and scandalous battle had begun.
By the time the court ruled, accusations of fraud and malfeasance had been hurled by both sides. An FBI investigator had determined Howard Hughes’ employees had recalled his sudden appearance disheveled, sunburned and indisposed from a day of checking out several mines he had purchased and also near Hughes’ favorite brothel, on the day Dummar had said he’d found Hughes hitchhiking in the desert.
All of which was ignored and overruled by the court. The so-called Mormon Will was invalidated and a jury declared it a forgery.
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=3258087&itype=NGPSID
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Perhaps the strangest testimony offered in court is described in this article from The Washington Post, September 5, 1981:
_____________"The woman before Judge Gregory almost 60 years later was in her early 60s. The left side of her curly hair was blond, the right side black, apparently a combination of two different wigs.
On top sat a straw hat festooned with multicolored feathers. Her silver blouse bore a large Confederate flag on the back. Over that, she wore a gold lame jacket, which was split down the back to reveal the flag. She had on tan silk culottes along with sandals, but no hose.
One pair of glasses perched on her nose and a larger pair of sunglasses covered those; another pair was stuck on the brim of her hat. She was weighed down with necklaces, bracelets, charms and assorted turquoise jewelry, and large, long looped rings dangled from her ears.
A camera hung from her neck. She claimed she had dated presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy and had been caught by her husband in bed with Elvis Presley. She said she is the mother of Howard Hughes, come to claim her rightful inheritance.
She was not alone. More than 600 alleged wives, sons, daughters, first, second, third, fourth and fifth cousins lined up in Gregory's small courtroom on the fifth floor of the family law center on the north edge of downtown Houston with their hands out, trying to claim a share of the Hughes fortune.And those were just the ones who showed up in person or sent a lawyer. Gregory held his hands about two feet apart to indicate the size of the stack of letters he received from others claiming to be Hughes long-lost relatives.
What brought this strange parade of petitioners to Houston was the lure of money, lots of it."
____________________It wasn’t until 1981 that a court awarded 6 1/3 % of Hughes’ estate to three sisters. Over the years, over 600 protests over the will had been heard. A probate Judge awarded 71 ½ % to Hughes’ paternal heirs, 16 first cousins, while the attorneys handling the case ended up with 40% of their client’s shares.
ATTORNEY'S always seem to come out ahead.
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I have personally read over 40 books about this Billionaire weird beard.
This book: I CAUGHT FLIES FOR HOWARD HUGHES is by far the greatest at being entertaining.
https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780872163577-us-300.jpg
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Movie: MELVIN AND HOWARD
http://vidto.me/7g8xchmesm3y.html -
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The Dub At My Door (is back for Return Visit)
by TerryWalstrom inthe dub at my door ___________________i’d rather have a root canal than agree to a sit down with an active jehovah’s witness.i’m an ex-jw.
for good reason.
fool me once....i’m an activist and an author of a book or two exposing and vilifying the destructive jw cult organization.yet i agreed.
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TerryWalstrom
If this Dub was any other run-of-the-mill brain-dead robot I would have given him my Apostate speech:
"Let me just stop you there before you get too deep into your message, my friend.
In the interests of full disclosure, I used to do exactly what you're doing today. I was one of Jehovah's Witnesses back in the 60's and 70's. I even spent time in Federal Prison over the Conscientious Objector Christian "neutrality" principle which was in effect back then. I was a full-time Pioneer as well. So I am quite familiar with what you are offering me."
I stop at that point and see if they are curious or can't wait to get away from door.
If they are curious I add a little bit more about the run up to 1975 and how the Earth was going to be too overpopulated and people would be starving by 1975 and how it was the End of 6,000 years of human history and Bible studies were only to last a maximum of 6 mos. because time was so short. And how NOTHING happened and the Watchtower and GB said NOTHING for almost 2 years while we all waited for the other shoe to drop.
I never get very far into details before they are inching toward the exit :)
One Dub said rather haughtily, "Yeah, some of the weaker Brothers and Sisters were only hanging around to save their own ass--they didn't love Jehovah."
I replied, "I think that's called Salvation, isn't it? That's the central message of Christianity, saving your ass. As far as not loving Jehovah, I think you're missing the point. All of the predictions ever made by the Watchtower have been made IN THE NAME of JEHOVAH and they turned out to be a lie. Why would an intelligent person want to stick around for more and more lies? Every false prophecy is sold as Jehovah's loving provision. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice---hell no!" -
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The Dub At My Door (is back for Return Visit)
by TerryWalstrom inthe dub at my door ___________________i’d rather have a root canal than agree to a sit down with an active jehovah’s witness.i’m an ex-jw.
for good reason.
fool me once....i’m an activist and an author of a book or two exposing and vilifying the destructive jw cult organization.yet i agreed.
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TerryWalstrom
IF the Bible is a collection of hearsay, the core basis of Jehovah's Witnesses is opinion
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1. The Faithful and Discreet Slave is consequently granting itself power based on human opinion (self-deception).2. The reason constant doctrinal changes occur and prophetic dates fail is human opinion is fallible no matter how sincerely believed.
3. Only JW's old enough to have lived through dramatic failures and dogma changes fully appreciate the plausibility of this statement.
In view of the above, debate with JW's is two-mindsets clashing in two separate magisteria or jurisdictions.
This being:A. Ex-JW who has seen the human error and investigated evidence which debunked claims of divine authority. A so-called "Apostate" is NOT really a renegade against God.
B. The convinced (i.e.faithful and loyal) JW imagines himself to be representing an honest organization.
For person A, person B is deluded although honest. For person B, person A is Evil and fighting against a truly necessary work.
How then can any agreement be possible since their separate realities clash?
In my opinion, the core issue is AUTHORITY and consequently AUTHORIZATION.1. The Bible, if really the Word of God, must contain necessary Truth and somewhere there is a pure understanding to be found and cherished and promoted.
2. The Bible, if only a human document, may contain historical wisdom and ethical ideas, but cannot purport to be anything other than a competing philosophy in the marketplace of ideas. It stands or falls on a case by case application.
MY TASK is to lay out those two alternatives and require evidence to support all claims.A TRUE Bible (Divinely Authored) would never fail any test and would stand up against all competing systems.
A corrupt human document BIBLE would break down historically, and logically in terms of internal consistency with reality, plus supernatural knowledge (data) would jump out of the text beyond Bronze Age wisdom.
All the above is sort of my road map toward a possibility of testing foundational arguments. An intellectually honest person would agree in advance to accept where the evidence landed regardless of one's prior position or belief. -
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The Dub At My Door (is back for Return Visit)
by TerryWalstrom inthe dub at my door ___________________i’d rather have a root canal than agree to a sit down with an active jehovah’s witness.i’m an ex-jw.
for good reason.
fool me once....i’m an activist and an author of a book or two exposing and vilifying the destructive jw cult organization.yet i agreed.
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TerryWalstrom
I appreciate all the supportive comments very much.
I remember at the Dallas Market Hall assembly of 1966 outside in the parking lot a group of protesters with signs were being quarantined by attendants.I clearly recall my thoughts in reaction.
I was walking over to the protesters to query them about what gripes they had and I was surprised when an attendant jumped in front of me blocking the way.
"Hold it Brother--these are the EVIL SLAVE CLASS!"
Ooohhhhh. Really? That sounded spooky and devilish.
"I just want to ask some questions."
"No Brother, their father is Satan and he is the Father of lies."
Ooohhhh. Really?
I'm amazed still how absurdly melodramatic this scenario was and how transparently superstitious the attendant was. BUT IT WORKED!
The primitive tactics of debunkers, ex-Dubs, whistleblowers and outright Apostates back in the 50's and 60's was too confrontational and unfounded in reality. It was more like an Anti-war protest than humanitarian. Too bad, too. Who knows what I might have learned?
30 Years a Watchtower Slave and Visions of Glory was as close as you could get to something tangible by way of exposing JW's.
Those protest books took, in my opinion, the wrong path because they sounded like sour grapes and insincere. One day you believed THIS and the next day you suddenly see through EVERYTHING? Nah. Not buying it.
I plan to spend very little time on "Disproving" the authenticity of the Bible. He'll come back and have to admit to "no originals" and I'll pivot to another matter. All his research and apologetic material won't come in handy because we shall be on a completely OTHER topic. -
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Another Hollywood Memory
by TerryWalstrom inanother hollywood memory____________________“thanks for the pink chablis, marta.
who’s that singing?
sounds familiar.”.
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TerryWalstrom
Thanks, Pete.
I think I shouldn't have sat around after writing about her listening to Michael Franks music for the last twenty-four hours :)
I honestly hardly knew her in the grand scheme of things. She was just so special it pisses me off how she died so young. DEATH is the enemy nobody conquers except delusionally by "belief."
I'm getting older than old. At Seventy, I'm in the killing fields and in the crosshairs.
Everything suddenly has "final value". It's a going-out-of-business sale on APPRECIATION.
I need to pace myself... -
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The Dub At My Door (is back for Return Visit)
by TerryWalstrom inthe dub at my door ___________________i’d rather have a root canal than agree to a sit down with an active jehovah’s witness.i’m an ex-jw.
for good reason.
fool me once....i’m an activist and an author of a book or two exposing and vilifying the destructive jw cult organization.yet i agreed.
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TerryWalstrom
If Earl comes across negatively in any way it is my fault for not writing accurately.
He's a special man in many ways. Personable and real. I feel the humanity in him. I can't and we can't judge him as a person for a good reason: he's trying to do the right thing. He could have haughtily cut it off right away and packed up and left dismissing me. He's hanging in there FOR ME. So, I'm doing the same, hanging in FOR HIM.
Hell, in another life, he could be me.
An honest, upstanding JW is like a kid on his way home from school who steps in shit. When he gets home, he tracks it in with him. Once the shoes are removed and the smell is aired out--he's still just a nice kid ...who happened to track shit wherever he went :)
