Posts by StarTrekAngel

Random Musing of an ex-JW Closing a Chapter

by StarTrekAngel in

as you all may recall, i made it public a few months back that i was moving away from my former neighboorhood.

well, we moved into our new place during the christmas/new year week, and it has been an awesome decision.

more on that later.naturally, after having hauled all our "material possessions" to our new place, we embarked on the process of giving our old home a touch of paint, etc.

StarTrekAngel

As you all may recall, I made it public a few months back that I was moving away from my former neighboorhood. Well, we moved into our new place during the Christmas/New Year week, and it has been an awesome decision. More on that later.

Naturally, after having hauled all our "material possessions" to our new place, we embarked on the process of giving our old home a touch of paint, etc. Getting it ready for listing. I am not sure how long I can hold on to two mortgages but the relief of being away from that place out weights the rest. This weekend was no exception. We spent most of Sunday cleaning and painting, and it was also an excellent opportunity to pick up my mother-in-law, whom despite living with us at our new place, insists on spending the weekends back with her congregation. We drop her off on Fridays and pick her up on Sundays. During the week she technically misses that meeting. I say "technically" because she does not go to the nearby KH. Instead of calling in to listen to the meeting, she puts on a dress, reads the information and even sings out loud in her room. Although I am inactive or spiritually weak, I am a baptized male, and she should be wearing something on her head... LOL. I won't hold her to it. Small price to pay :/

Going back to the work I am doing at my former home, my wife talked me out of doing some of the work myself and decided to hire someone. Mostly the outside paint. I was, however, cleaning out my shed when I realized it needed to be finished. It too needed paint on the still barewood frame. I took out my phone and wrote it down in the to-do for hire list. Then in a sudden flash I also changed my mind.

It was back in February of 2016 when I first started painting it. I had done a good 80% of it before that day. I was a fairly warm day but not bad in terms of what summers are like in South Texas. I had this uncomfortable dizziness most of the day, and I was blaming the warmth although I knew I had been in worse before. All was fine until I had to step on a ladder. The dizziness suddenly became more than a nuisance. Mind you I have been an installation technician for a good part of my career, and I've also climbed telecom towers up to 500 ft. Getting on a ladder 3 ft off the ground should not have been an issue. As a tech, I have climbed countless rooftops looking for towers and sometimes did so with one hand while holding heavy equipment on the other hand on 26ft ladders, sometimes fully extended.

All that to say that I was shocked at the way I was feeling and I got terrified. I ended up in the ER that night because the dizziness got worst and would not go away. My BP was 180/100. The ER Dr assumed he had just discovered a case of chronic high BP and gave me a pill that I now know could have killed me. It was fine the first night, but this was a weekend, and he directed me to take the same pill until I saw my Dr on Monday. I woke up the next night like at 4 am, shaking uncontrollably. Turns out I was overdosing on BP meds and dropping my BP to the ground. In an effort to not repeat things I had described before, this was the beginning of a long series of health issues that were not real. Although it felt very real, it was all brought by chronic stress and anxiety. Don't need to explain it here. Many of us have been there before.

Long story short, I stood there looking at my shed and thinking... this is one honey-do that I did not finish thanks to the Watchtower. That wasn't the only thing that got suspended due to the motions of going thru the process of coming out to the family about my awakening, but it sure was the first one. After all the hell I went thru and all the feelings and anxiety, fearing for my life and my future, what better way to begin closing that chapter of my life than finishing the shed. I scratched off the list and went at it myself.
When I finished, I took a step back and meditated for a second. Took a picture and decided I was going to share it here.

5

Random Musings of an ex-JW Closing a Chapter

by StarTrekAngel in

as you all may recall, i made it public a few months back that i was moving away from my former neighboorhood.

well, we moved into our new place during the christmas/new year week, and it has been an awesome decision.

more on that later.naturally, after having hauled all our "material possessions" to our new place, we embarked on the process of giving our old home a touch of paint, etc.

StarTrekAngel

As you all may recall, I made it public a few months back that I was moving away from my former neighboorhood. Well, we moved into our new place during the Christmas/New Year week, and it has been an awesome decision. More on that later.

Naturally, after having hauled all our "material possessions" to our new place, we embarked on the process of giving our old home a touch of paint, etc. Getting it ready for listing. I am not sure how long I can hold on to two mortgages but the relief of being away from that place out weights the rest. This weekend was no exception. We spent most of Sunday cleaning and painting, and it was also an excellent opportunity to pick up my mother-in-law, whom despite living with us at our new place, insists on spending the weekends back with her congregation. We drop her off on Fridays and pick her up on Sundays. During the week she technically misses that meeting. I say "technically" because she does not go to the nearby KH. Instead of calling in to listen to the meeting, she puts on a dress, reads the information and even sings out loud in her room. Although I am inactive or spiritually weak, I am a baptized male, and she should be wearing something on her head... LOL. I won't hold her to it. Small price to pay :/

Going back to the work I am doing at my former home, my wife talked me out of doing some of the work myself and decided to hire someone. Mostly the outside paint. I was, however, cleaning out my shed when I realized it needed to be finished. It too needed paint on the still barewood frame. I took out my phone and wrote it down in the to-do for hire list. Then in a sudden flash I also changed my mind.

It was back in February of 2016 when I first started painting it. I had done a good 80% of it the week before. It was a fairly warm day but not bad in terms of what summers are like in South Texas. I had this uncomfortable dizziness most of the time, and I was blaming the warmth although I knew I had been in worse before. All was fine until I had to step on a ladder. The dizziness suddenly became more than a nuisance. Mind you I have been an installation technician for a good part of my career, and I've also climbed telecom towers up to 500 ft. Getting on a ladder 3 ft off the ground should not have been an issue. As a tech, I have climbed countless rooftops looking for towers and sometimes did so with one hand while holding heavy equipment on the other hand on 26ft ladders, sometimes fully extended.

All that to say that I was shocked at the way I was feeling and I got terrified. I ended up in the ER that night because the dizziness got worst and would not go away. My BP was 180/100. The ER Dr assumed he had just discovered a case of chronic high BP and gave me a pill that I now know could have killed me. It was fine the first night, but this was a weekend, and he directed me to take the same pill until I saw my Dr on Monday. I woke up the next night like at 4 am, shaking uncontrollably. Turns out I was overdosing on BP meds and dropping my BP to the ground. In an effort to not repeat things I had described before, this was the beginning of a long series of health issues that were not real. Although it felt very real, it was all brought by chronic stress and anxiety. Don't need to explain it here. Many of us have been there before.

Long story short, I stood there looking at my shed and thinking... this is one honey-do that I did not finish thanks to the Watchtower. That wasn't the only thing that got suspended due to the motions of going thru the process of coming out to the family about my awakening, but it sure was the first one. After all the hell I went thru and all the feelings and anxiety, fearing for my life and my future, what better way to begin closing that chapter of my life than finishing the shed. I scratched off the list and went at it myself.
When I finished, I took a step back and meditated for a second.

I believe that for me this seals it. I can't guarantee that these dark years will not happen ever again. Whether it is the same issue or a new one but at some point, you have to wrap it up like you would old bills for a service you no longer use. You archive them away and keep the notes of what you have learned.

I now live in a brand new, beautiful master planned subdivision with lakes, trails, and parks. I am closer to work and to everything that I need for daily living. I got yet another promotion, and quite a few of other toxic people at work are gone or retired. My kids can now mingle with other kids at the park and not have JW only friends. My wife and I are as happy as ever, and we have not attended a meeting in the years since.

I hereby declared that chapter of my life closed. May the new one be all that it appears to be for a long, long time.

10

RBC... something I heard this weekend and I want to confirm

by StarTrekAngel in

i have not been around much or even cared to dig into jw land.

i been working on moving to a new place and leaving behind my old jw past, even the neighborhood where it all happened.. but something i heard this weekend had me thinking.

my mother in law has a small, run down wooden home near the kh where we used to attend.

StarTrekAngel

I have not been around much or even cared to dig into JW land. I been working on moving to a new place and leaving behind my old JW past, even the neighborhood where it all happened.

But something I heard this weekend had me thinking. My mother in law has a small, run down wooden home near the KH where we used to attend. She gave it away to her son and he told her that he was going to offer it up for the RBC since there will be a KH remodel/repair in the area in the near future. This way they could choose to house volunteers from other states or areas. This weekend she told us that he was told that starting (I don't know exactly when) the RBC requires that the residence being offered up be equipped to be "comfortable" for the visiting volunteer. This included (as a demand) that the bed be fitted with brand new sheets and towels, etc.

I thought that may be she misinterpreted whatever was said but she also added that a number of other sisters whom had rooms to spare in better looking homes, had to step back because they felt their places were not up to the new standard. She also added that now the RBC requires JWs to donate the food that will be served to the volunteers. Last time I participated on a remodeling there was a trailer home with a huge kitchen and I don't recall anyone having to donate food

Has anyone heard about this?

29

Do you remember when you realised it was all bulls£&t

by moley in

i remember when my faith left me.

i used to enjoy meetings and used to participate but then all of a sudden i was finding myself bored shitless at meetings.

i was taken off the theocratic ministry school for not attending when i was due to give a talk and not long after did something naughty and got disfellowshiped.

StarTrekAngel

We all must be ready to obey.... whether it makes sense or not...

Those famous words... I was there on Sunday WT study when they were first uttered from the platform...

As hard as I think and considering I was already having doubts (Serious doubts) by then.... I can't think of any other single statement or event that had as profound of an effect as this did... Is like I saw my life flash before my eyes in this huge aha! moment. This must have been the only time as a JW where I truly had a "deer in the headlights" look (while life was flashing in front of me)...

72

Did you know Banks create money out of thin air?

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

banks create money “out of thin air.”empirical studies have been undertaken to prove this thesis and this is the conclusion:.

in the 5,000 year history of banking, banks have been thought of as “deposit taking institutions which lend money”.. 1. what is the legal reality?

banks don’t take deposits and don’t lend money.the public is under this false impression on purpose because the language of banks is not legal language.. so--what is a “deposit”?a deposit is not actually a deposit.

StarTrekAngel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nBPN-MKefA

I think there is mostly a misinterpretation of the concept. Banks do print money money out of thin air, just not all the time. However, that's not to say your local branch or even the entire corporation is doing so. They don't have the power to just add it there. Banks means just that, the banking system on itself does it, not a particular bank whom may be borrowing money from each other.

The simple side of it is that you can't make things out of nothing. You don't grow a crop without seeds just like you can't have money without something. That something used to be gold or other tangible goods.

Someone please show me what that is now and I will believe money doesn't get generated out of thin air.

Everything in the financial world is binary. you can't buy bitcoin if you don't sell your dollars. True, inflation is not only a consequence of increased money supply. It can also come from devaluation. But both play a role. Just like I said, it's a balance between two things. Just like a dollar can devaluate not because of the American economy itself but because may be other economies are changing.

Supply and Demand.... repeat that to yourself. Supply and Demand is the ultimate regulator of markets. Money is no different. The balance between the money supply (the printing of money) and money demand (which can be trigger by devaluation among other things) can cause inflation to fluctuate. That is the reason the federal reserve banks of every country try to reign in the balance of both by doing things like regulating interest rates.

By the way... making money out of thing air does not necessarily equal money the bank can pocket as profit. It means they can loan money they don't have and basically put it out on the street by means of the borrower.

144

Asylum Caravan

by dubstepped in

alright, so what is the deal with the thousands coming to the states right at election time seeking asylum?

i'm not up on this, usually try not to be, but how can this not be manipulative?

it's either manipulative in the size of the group and pressure that creates, or in where it started or who started this, etc.

StarTrekAngel

Yes. You are correct. That is exactly my point. That is why I said I would gladly pay more for those products if it came down to it and it was done by legal workers at the right wages. It was exactly my point that the greedy corporations still prefer illegals to work for lower wages. That is partly the reason there is no effort to legalize them and a major reason as to why they keep on coming no matter how many obstacles you throw at them.

When I said that they are not a social burden, I meant by claiming benefits. The cost of detaining them counts but not from the perspective most people look at it. Most people that are angry at illegal immigrants claim that they come here to take their jobs and claim benefits and that is what i am referring to. Hardly anyone will tell you they want to stop illegal immigrants because it is too costly to detain them.

The jobs are not taken in the way of stealing from you. They are given to the lowest bidder and that is what voters should concentrate on. Cut the ability for companies to hire illegal workers and the illegals will stop coming. No wall or detention facilities would be required and money will be saved. Yet the rhetoric from certain political parties is that they are your enemy

I certainly don't want bad people crossing the border. Like I said, they've been in my backyard. I don't propose open borders as a solution. That is another rhetoric used in the political ads. We are never going to arrive to a proper solution if we keep breaking apart the issue and not considering it as a whole.

144

Asylum Caravan

by dubstepped in

alright, so what is the deal with the thousands coming to the states right at election time seeking asylum?

i'm not up on this, usually try not to be, but how can this not be manipulative?

it's either manipulative in the size of the group and pressure that creates, or in where it started or who started this, etc.

StarTrekAngel

Native South American here... living in South Texas for 18 year very very close (like 10 min away) from the place where those kids were detained a while back.

Facts from the ground...

- A wall is already there and it hasn't stopped anyone. If you want a picture of it, I can go bye it today and take a shot. I have seen illegals arrested in my backyard (literally speaking within the limits of my property) even with the wall in place. After the installed a blimp with cameras and sensors it never happened again. Way more effective and cheaper than a wall but there are businesses out there ready to make a buck on the political rhetoric

- South America may not be as deadly as a German concentration camp but if you use that as a reference or a metric to determine asylum eligibility then you are no better off than those who justify the watchtower child abuse policy by saying this happens everywhere. Is not that you are wrong, your humanity threshold is just off. Where have I seen that before??? With that said, the crime rates and the atrocities committed by gangs in central and south America are heavily under reported. All that along with the corruption and persecution you experience if you don't conform to the demands of the gangs. We recently went to Mexico to drop off a close relative who is here legally but is leaving the US voluntarily as a step towards legalization (yes, that is a thing). We dropped him off at a bus station but before that he had to find out which bus line is up to date with the drug lords. If you take the wrong bus line you run the chance of getting stopped and robbed or even killed. Once he got there, he told all his family he was on vacation for fears of getting kidnapped if local gangs got to know someone has an interest on him returning

- It is a myth that illegal immigration is a social burden. Not saying some people do seek the easy way out but the vast majority of illegals work hard for their money and they do jobs no one else want to do. If that doesn't seem to chime with you just simply know that if they were here legally, your fruit and your hotels and other services would be much more expensive. Don't get me wrong... I would gladly pay for it. All I am doing is pointing out a fact. I know plenty of illegals and some of them are relatives of my wife. I don't know a single one of them that is counting on government to take care of them. My wife worked the fields along side many of them for 5 years as a teenager. Same there... no welfare queens to be seen. There are more welfare seekers among Mexican Americans born and raised in the US than from illegals. The real social burdens are the companies that will come to benefit from overpriced services to the government and that would make a political push for the status quo so they can keep raking in the dough at our expense. This include the jail operators, contractors that will build facilities and even some airline charters that deport people

Done with the facts from the ground part

The caravan thing is fishy.. I'll give you that. If we are going to down the conspiracy theory path... either party could have initiated this for political purposes. Any radical political idea or change can be carried out without the name calling and the bullying. If anyone should be able to spot that should be us ex-cult members. Bringing up the birthright citizenship issue at this last hour is not any less suspicious than the caravan. All politicians a crooked, but this one president can smear shit in your face and people still smile pleasantly as long as he keeps pointing out to any mere little climb of the stock market. Never have I seen such blind compliance to any little bullshit he points out as positive while blaming CNN and the democrats for everything else. Oh no... wait, I have... at the watchtower.

The words of Deborah Layton are more applicable than ever before... "If there is any lesson to be learned it is that an ideal can never be brought about by fear, abuse and the threat of retribution"

It seems like many here have forgotten those words

43

A Cult Tactic: Removing Guilt By Dehumanising Others

by pale.emperor in

in the real world, very few parents would disown their own children simply because they read a magazine that told them to do it.

very few people would forever completely ignore their own parents because an elder got up on a platform one day and announced that they no longer follow the same religion as you.. in the real world it just doesn't happen.

and yet, for 8 million jehovah's witnesses it's very a normal part of their world to treat "other people" differently than they'd treat each other.

StarTrekAngel

And yet as conscious as we all seem to be of this fact, there are many whom fail to see the same parallels with other situations in life. Very easy to find in politics lately.

The one thing that has come to shock me after waking up is how many people fail to stay away from the next cult.

44

Business class for Governing Body

by Sergey Antonov in

jw
friends

hello everyone!

does anyone have any confirmation that the governing body uses the business class for its flights?.

also interesting is the information about the hours that were on the hand of one of the members of the governing body..

StarTrekAngel

Well that Rolex could certainly be a knock off. But check out the beauty that GB Jackson wore for the ARC interview. That was indisputably an Apple watch and it was golden in color. I am not aware of any company out there making an Apple Watch knock off.

Long story short, he was wearing a $12,000 watch. Any average witness would have been scolded for flaunting such display "of one means of livelihood". Whether he bought it or got it as a gift makes no difference. Humbleness is a principle, not a situation. He could have straight out rejected the gift or passed it along to the organization as a donation.

At least that is what he would have demanded of us.

Regarding the First/Business class travel, there was a full time pioneer in my old cong with contacts high up. He had been sent in many trips as a backup CO and as an assembly delegate. He would never hesitate to show how well the org treated those who dedicated themselves like he did, which included first class travel. If such low laying underlying gets the royal treatment, what can you expect from the kings?

14

Watchtower Corporation Hacked By It's Own IT Department

by Brokeback Watchtower in

it's hard for me to think that the watchtower it department must be fully aware of wt duplicity as in they are experts in using the internet and are fully aware of what the internet is saying about their boss.. so why not hack them and make more public their utter bullshit in a humanitarian concern expressed by what ever powers he has to reduce guilt.. as the reputation of the watchtower goes south and more dirt is revealed the more likely it is for those in position of trust like watchtower it department to be forced into a very precarious position of helping a bunch of frauds and so why should it be of any surprise that some type of corrective vengeance is planed by many members of the it..

StarTrekAngel

IT departments such as theirs are heavily divided even internally. There was a few videos leaked not long ago in this site that were internal IT videos. I would risk to say that 80% of those working for IT have hardly any clue of where to even go to find the dirty laundry, let alone have the required access to it. In many cases you can be in charge of systems where you don't really have access to the content itself.

Even then, even if the top IT dog turned on it, there are plenty of logs and plenty of watchers to rat you out before you can cause too much damage. Not to say it is impossible, just not that easy.