TerryWalstrom

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Posts by TerryWalstrom

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  143

  Good Guys VS Bad Guys: Facts Nobody Wants to KNow

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  facts we don't want to know.

  the purpose of war is to kill humans.. .

  which humans?.

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  TerryWalstrom

  UNTHINKABLE thought for the day.

  The “worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time...” has been identified by United Nations officials.

  Where?
  Do you know? Do you care?
  The answer is YEMEN
  But wait--there's more!

  The man who created the worst humanitarian crisis has been celebrated by titans of government and Silicon Valley recently.

  Who? Mohammed bin Salman.
  The Saudi Crown Prince who was Saudi defense minister in March 2015 as the New York Times has reported, “took the lead, launching the war… without full coordination across the security services.”

  Yes, cluster bombs. Banned under international law continue to be used against Yemen.
  The de facto ruler of one the richest countries in the Arab world has been bombing and besieging the poorest country in the Arab world for the past three years

  Who is celebrating this fellow?

  Major Hollywood bosses like Brian Grazer and Bob Iger,
  Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
  Tech titans of Silicon Valley like Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos and Evan Spiegel, to the heads of Harvard and MIT.

  Also, “liberal interventionists,” such as Bill Clinton and John Kerry, to liberal capitalists, such as Lloyd Blankfein and Michael Bloomberg.

  But ALL THESE PEOPLE demand we bomb Assad in Syria.
  So?
  Here is our UNTHINKABLE THOUGHT for today:
  Our leaders of industry and political heroes are simply bald-faced HYPOCRITES.

  Why? He's tall, charming, handsome, rich and calls himself a "reformer". Oh--and starting this June, he'll ALLOW WOMEN TO DRIVE in Arabia. But--only with a male guardian present.
  Oh, and only for certain hours of the day.

  Yippee!
  
  
  (https://theintercept.com/2018/04/24/mohammed-bin-salman-mbs-saudi-arabia-yemen-war-crimes/)
  
• 
  143

  Good Guys VS Bad Guys: Facts Nobody Wants to KNow

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  facts we don't want to know.

  the purpose of war is to kill humans.. .

  which humans?.

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  TerryWalstrom

  Let me try being pithy :)
  
  Politicians don't know what's going on unless they are BRIEFED by the "Intelligence Agencies".
  Agreed?
  The "Intelligence Agencies" are by nature non-transparent. Black ops. Black box. Hidden.
  
  So the dog who wags the tail is C.I.A., F.B.I. N.S.A. and a dozen more acronyms.
  It doesn't take five minutes to compile a list of outright LIES issued from this alphabet soup of agencies.
  Right?
  
  Conspiracy is what?
  More than one person secretly planning things which subvert the law. Right?
  LIARS are in charge. These LIARS have their own agenda for their own reasons and nobody can stop them.
  
  The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses is a lot like these "Intelligence Agencies" issuing statements which prove (ultimately) false. They too must be believed. Their inner workings are non-transparent. They have their own agenda and are not held accountable for their "sources" (i.e. Jehovah is a construct).
  
  Bottom line? GOOD INTENTIONS are no excuse.
  Korean "Rocket Man" is inflated by the press into an "existential threat" one minute and the next minute he is in talks with South Korea and planning to get rid of his Nuclear arsenal.
  It is all cotton candy.
  Trump is a madman but both parties vote huge funding for the red button under his thumb.
  "We Are the Opposition" is bullshit.
  
  In other words, why do we take newspapers, television, politics, "Intelligence agencies" or the Governing Body seriously? They are exempt from reckoning.
  
  Our job as citizens is to fight with each other and posture morally while the people at the top enrich themselves, lie, send young men and women to die.
  Business as usual.
  
  There is no solution...and that is why I never vote.
  

  
  
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  21

  Beard update

  by Coded Logic in

  1. social
  2. physical

  so it's been over a month since i decided to grow a beard.

  the mustache and chin have come in fuller than i ever imagined - while the cheeks leave me wondering if i'll ever grow enough hair to make it not look so wildly unkept and patchy (if anyone has any advice here it'd be much appreciated).

  but in the mean time i'll give it another month and see how it goes.. .

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  TerryWalstrom

  
  
  
  
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  17

  49th Anniversary of my PAROLE from Federal prison

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  today is the 49th anniversaryof my parole from federal prison.

  in french, "parole" means 'word of honor'.in effect, a prisoner promises the authorities they will be honorable.. in 1967, i violated the u.s. military training and service act.about 25,000 draft age americans simply ran away to canada.i did not run.

  i stayed and gave my 'witness.".

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  TerryWalstrom

  Thanks to all for your comments.
  I just posted some follow-up thoughts on WAR in general.
  No matter which group we find ourselves in, it generally comes down to
  Good Guys VS Bad Guys and listening to leadership and believing what we are told.
  
  In the long run---we discover which side we were on and if the "Truth" we were assured was moral high ground really was so.
  
  The history of the Watchtower religion is fortunately riddled with testable and falsifiable statements of "Truth" from a Divine source.
  The result? LIES.
  Believing and acting on a lie is certainly problematic--isn't it?
  
  Doing the wrong thing while believing you are wholly in the right is one of the
  most troubling states of being.
  
  If only. If only. If only I could point to something actually achieved during my stay in Federal Prison. But no.
  I taught myself to play the piano. Well, Yippee for me.
  I memorized "significant dates" in history. (Total bullshit dreamed up by Fred Franz.)
  I wrote many letters filled with bromides and holy balderdash.
  I made "friends" with 39 "Brothers" who never stayed in touch.
  

  I didn't kill anybody. That doesn't make me moral. It is better than killing and thinking that the orders I followed exempt me from culpability. Yeah.
  
  But! I could have worked in a hospital and done somebody some good.
  Could have but it was remarkably disallowed!
  I hang that on the GB and the Jehovah monster.
  
  
  
• 
  143

  Good Guys VS Bad Guys: Facts Nobody Wants to KNow

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  facts we don't want to know.

  the purpose of war is to kill humans.. .

  which humans?.

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  TerryWalstrom

  FACTS WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW

  _____

  The purpose of war is to kill humans.

  Which humans?

  Declared enemies. BAD GUYS.

  Ah, but who declares and identifies the enemy for us?

  Us, the GOOD GUYS?

  _____

  Pick any year since 1776 and there is about a 91% chance that America was involved in some war during that calendar year.

  
  

  The Good Guys dropped Atomic Weapons on civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 people in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day.

  
  

  Say what you like or believe about that.

  Innocent people died and bad guys died.

  
  

  So-called Military Intelligence INFORMS these wars.

  Deliberate lies are told to Congress and the American people and especially to whoever is President at the time.

  
  

  The C.I.A. has a horrendous record of meddling in sovereign countries and overturning democratically elected leaders.

  ______

  
  

  HOW is it we think the U.S. has a MORAL HIGHGROUND to go to war against any other country considering our own history?

  
  

  Guys my age who fought in the VIETNAM WAR were honest people, courageous, and patriotic. What exactly did they achieve? 58,220 U.S. military fatal casualties seem to mean absolutely NOTHING.

  
  

  They followed orders. They achieved nothing. They died.
  
  (I have no moral superiority to the men who fought or died.
  I refused military service.
  I achieved nothing as well and I was "serving Almighty God" which means, i.e. believing something lying assholes told me was true.)

  ______

  BELIEF
  
  

  Do you believe your President? Do you believe your F.B.I.?

  Do you believe your C.I.A.?

  Do you believe your news outlets?

  ARE WE THE GOOD GUYS? Do we have a Moral standing to inflict death on
  foreign countries as superpower heroes?

  
  

  The Democrats and the Republicans are Both parties of WAR.
  
  

  Newspapers owned by corporations in the weapons business get to write the talking points.

  
  

  ARE WE THE GOOD GUYS?

  
  

  Obama ran as a peace president. America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016. What a bloody end to Obama's reign!

  Is there a disconnect?

  
  

  ____
  

  Behind all the wars you'll find BELIEF in leaders. Leaders with Advisors. Advisors whose motives and foibles are not transparent. "Intelligence Agencies" free to do as they please with no accountability. NO MORAL HIGH GROUND.
  
  We can only see the effects of their policies. Death. War. Blame. Fear.
  Rinse and repeat.
  ___
  Why do you believe what you believe anyway?

  These are FACTS NOBODY WANTS TO KNOW.
  ________
  
  
  
• 
  17

  49th Anniversary of my PAROLE from Federal prison

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  today is the 49th anniversaryof my parole from federal prison.

  in french, "parole" means 'word of honor'.in effect, a prisoner promises the authorities they will be honorable.. in 1967, i violated the u.s. military training and service act.about 25,000 draft age americans simply ran away to canada.i did not run.

  i stayed and gave my 'witness.".

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  TerryWalstrom

  crazyguy: Please share again how the local leaders of the cult basically blamed you for going to prison at some later date? I don’t remember the details.

  ___________
  In a conversation with an active JW (who saw fit to actually speak to me even though it should have been obvious I was DF'D) I was told I CHOSE to go to prison and could not blame the WT.
  
  I asked him if a robber put a gun to his head and said, "Your money or your life"--would he turn over the money?
  "Of course." He replied.
  
  I said, "Same thing. Same coerced "choice."
  
  He wanted to argue the point.
  
  The point is not philosophical in the least, IMHO. Undue influence happens when somebody uses their power and position to impel you to act AGAINST your own best interests. Often, it is for some "greater good."
  
  Without climbing into Ayn Rand territory, acting against one's own best interest is something each individual has to be clear about before any clear "choice" is really uncoerced.
  
  Where I really went astray was in REGISTERING for the draft in the 1st place. I registered when I graduated High School in 1965. May I remind you, this was PRE-COMPUTER. Everything was analog with few exceptions.
  Computers were big, dumb, glorified adding machines.
  
  Had I NOT registered, I'd never have appeared on the Federal Government's radar unless I got a driver's license. And then, only possibly. I didn't start driving until I was 23. Three years before President Nixon abolished compelled registration for the draft.
  
  Getting a JW to understand the coercive nature of the SHUN GUN is a tough struggle. NO matter what, the GB is never attributed responsibility for undue influence using fear of disfellowship (or death at Armageddon) as a weapon of intimidation.
  IT IS!
  Further, this JW told me I was just trying to save my own ass and didn't really love Jehovah.
  That pissed me off.
  "If I were trying to save myself--I would have taken Alternate Service as a civilian--you dumb ass!"
  That pretty much ended the colloquy.
• 
  17

  49th Anniversary of my PAROLE from Federal prison

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  today is the 49th anniversaryof my parole from federal prison.

  in french, "parole" means 'word of honor'.in effect, a prisoner promises the authorities they will be honorable.. in 1967, i violated the u.s. military training and service act.about 25,000 draft age americans simply ran away to canada.i did not run.

  i stayed and gave my 'witness.".

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  TerryWalstrom

  Today is the 49th Anniversary
  of my PAROLE from Federal prison. (1967-69)

  In French, "parole" means 'word of honor'.
  In effect, a prisoner promises the authorities they will be honorable.

  In 1967, I violated the U.S. Military Training and Service Act.
  About 25,000 Draft age Americans simply ran away to Canada.
  I did NOT run. I stayed and gave my 'witness."

  Historical fact:
  in the early days of Christianity, military service wasn’t a moral issue because Jews (and by default, Jewish converts to Christianity) weren’t permitted to join the imperial Roman army.
  During World War I, pacifists were imprisoned in places like Fort Lewis, Alcatraz or Fort Leavenworth, or classified as mentally ill.
  Not until 1940 were Conscientious Objectors who refused to be part of the military as non-combatants finally offered alternate service as firefighters in Washington State or in menial jobs in psychiatric hospitals.
  I was sentenced to work in a psychiatric hospital.
  My religious leaders privately counseled me to refuse.
  Consequently, I was imprisoned.
  IRONICALLY, in Seagoville Federal Correction Institution, I was assigned the duty of FIREMAN.
  I also did on-site construction (i.e. destruction of rocks), worked in the Dental Clinic, the Chief Mechanical Services as a draughtsman along with 40 other JW's.
  _______________
  49 years later, I have lost touch with every single one of my fellow JW's. Probably most are dead, disfellowshipped or still faithfully waiting on Armageddon.
  I've become an anti-Witness activist and wrote 2 books concerning mind-control in religious cults.
  Today's Anniversary is a day of solemn reflection for me.
  _____

  (Shameless self-promotion:
  Amazon book titles: I Wept by the Rivers of Babylon
  The Monorails of Mars by Terry Edwin Walstrom)
  
  
  
  
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  65

  Lloyd Evans' New Book - Is It Really Necessary?

  by pale.emperor in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so lloyd evans will shortly be releasing his new book how to leave the jehovah's witnesses.

  i do enjoy his rebuttals and the stuff he manages to get hold of and leak.

  but i'm struggling to understand what he could possibly write to merit a whole book.. all info on how to leave is right here on this forum.

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  TerryWalstrom

  A handy quotation for just such circumstances as these:
  
  "To those who understand, no explanation is necessary. To those who do not

  understand, no explanation is possible."
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  9

  Rudofl Steiner

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  rudolf steiner 1861-1925, developed eurythmy a performance art.

  he wrote hundreds of books, a brilliant person in many fields from austria(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rudolf_steiner).. steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach.

  he based his epistemology on johann wolfgang goethe's world view, in which "thinking… is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear.

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  TerryWalstrom

  FWIW...
  When I was working at Half Price Books in the Religion & Philosophy department, one day an older gentleman arrived with several boxes of Rudolf Steiner books and pamphlets which were quite old and in excellent condition.
  I confess I knew nothing of the author. However, another employee was apparently deeply into the "fringe" of certain philosophical schools and he bought everything for an offer of $200.
  I said to myself, "We'll never sell this crap."
  I made room for everything and shelved the entire caboodle.
  Within less than a week we'd sold everything at a collector's selling price of nearly $700. Even that price was (they told me) quite the bargain!
  
  That made me want to delve and discover what the attraction was.
  Long story short, the man's life is as colorful, interesting, and fraught with drama as any figure of his time.
  Adolf Hitler hounded him erroneously as a "tool of the Jews" inasmuch as Steiner warned Germany that the embrace of the Nazis would prove disastrous for one and all.
  
  Stop and think about it just for a moment.
  How many great and famous men actually found Adolf Hitler to be admirable and how few (like Steiner) put themselves in harm's way to speak out and oppose the National Socialist movement.
  
  His main aim was to (somehow) harmonize man's knowledge of Science with that of the separate realm of spiritual matters. For Steiner, it all starts with a basic understanding of Karma and Reincarnation. If you can swallow that large pill--well, you're on your way!
  
  The trick is to avoid the notion of Destiny by exercising one's "free will" through enlightenment and education in all intellectual pursuits.
  
  In my opinion, not that anybody cares, is that Science is objective and stems from non-contradictory descriptions of actual phenomena while Mysticism is subjective and impossible to measure, quantify, or make falsifiable.
  

  In this regard, Jehovah's Witnesses are pretty much closer to Rudolf Steiner in mindset than to Isaac Newton.
  A great many otherwise intelligent individuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries earnestly sought to make discoveries as essential to everyday life (in the Spirit World) as technology in the everyday pragmatic world.
  Those who (IMHO) squandered their intellectual gifts on Mysticism may have attracted vast hordes of followers and movements, but the general benefits aren't at all apparent in the long run. In fact, disciples of Pastor Russell and Rudolf Steiner (each in their own narrow category) probably wasted more people's time and money and energy than generated any positive outcome.
  
  
  
  
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  7

  May 1969 :on a highway, somewhere this side of a life unlived

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  may 1969. i didn't know i was in trouble.now, years later, i suddenly do see it.. we're not talking drugs.

  i never did drugs.

  ever.nothing is worse than stone cold sober.what i did was more destructive: i had mainlined on god.a weird brand of god: jehovah god.. i was shredded and unaware.

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  TerryWalstrom

  The Legend of King Sisyphus comes to mind.
  
  As a devout Jehovah's Witness, each of us is given various large stones to roll up
  a mountain incline to the top. Just when we're ready to be declared faithful...
  oops! Down it rolls.
  
  When I walked back into my home Congregation--the Kingdom Hall with all my erstwhile Bros. and Sis's (whom I had not heard a word from), I confess I thought
  I would be greeted with rejoicing.
  
  What a letdown!
  The Watchtower religion all comes down to this:
  "What have you done for me lately?"
  "I have been in prison from 1967 to 1969 to please Jehovah."
  "Well, that's what you're supposed to do."
  
  No welcome home--just on to the next stone to roll up the next mountain.
  My Congregation Overseer (no Elders back then) saw me and darted into the library and came back out with a sign-up form for Pioneer work.
  
  There was No "Hello, Brother Walstrom? How are you feeling?
  All I got from him was, "You'll want to sign up for Regular Pioneer work. My son Gary needs somebody to go with him out in the fieldwork."
  
  Why oh why didn't I say to him: "Sir--you can kiss my ass!" ???