A blog by Tom Sheepandgoats (aka Tom Harley)
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The Salvation of Moore’s Law
You must admit, it's a cute ad. People from TV invade the Intel briefing room, only to find those therein on hands and knees looking for their newest chip – some clod apparently dropped it. 'It's – uh – not big,' murmurs the chairman. 'Ah – here it is!' And he holds it high at tweezer's end. Even magnified, you can't see it. Our big…
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Advise and Consent and Sexual Orientation
Talk about politically incorrect! Senator Anderson punches his gay ex-lover in the mouth. The poor fellow drops face-down in the gutter. Now…there's a lot of things that can happen to a guy when he's punched, but this guy goes in the gutter! Face down! The unmistakable symbolism: that's where he belongs!!* That's how Otto Preminger treated homosexuality in his 1962 movie Advise and Consent. A…
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These Are My People
Time was when those district conventions geared up very slowly. Sit down…..listen up….take notes….get enough sleep….keep track of your kids….if you were already planning to behave you could just as well skip that first talk, and if you weren't – well, one talk was not going to change things much. Then there might follow an talk-by-talk preview of the program, stretching out 20 minutes or so. Then a few old timers would surface on stage,…
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What We’re Allowed to Read
I'm wondering, Tom, if you've even taken the time to read any of these "atheist" books? asked one of my interrogators. Dawkins and crew had come up in conversation. Well….um…ah…ahem…that is to say………(no) Perhaps in fairness I should read one or two. Moristotle positively used to plead with me to do it. Trouble is, I've read atheist arguments singly, through blogs and so forth, and…
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The Pundits, Michael Jackson, and Joe
After his 2003 acquittal on molestation charges, it barely mattered which pundit you read – the verdict was the same: Michael Jackson was all washed up. Yes, his flamboyant lawyer may have gotten him off, those pundits conceded. But the public knew better, and they were fed up. From now on, it was asserted, Michael was a has-been – a footnote, a freak. He was…
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Making a Man
I saw Frank Mulicotti at the last circuit assembly. He was weaving his way through the seats, soaking up the good will, hugging folk in his path. It was enough to make a guy wish he were Italian. I told him so when he approached me. I’m not Italian, of course. Sheepandgoats (der Shep.und.goots) is Germanic in origin, and Germans do not embrace. They shake…
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Translators, Qualifications, and the New World Translation
In the midst of discussing Coptic translations of the 3rd century – practically the earliest of all translations yet discovered – did you know they translate John 1:1 exactly as the New World Translation – “the Word was a god”? – one grouser has had enough. He wants to know who translated the NWT. What qualifications did they have? Grouser: Just b/c I understand what…
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Heart of a Lion, Courage of a Warrior
When someone comes along and tells his story better than you ever could, you don't try to tell it for him. Especially when he's a holocaust survivor. Especially when he's 103 years old. 103! Leopond Engleitner is the world's oldest known male holocaust survivor. He's one of our people – one of Jehovah's Witnesses. At 103, he still travels widely. Here, he's on the California…
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Scholars, Bias, and the New World Translation
If reviews of a film all rot, that tells me the movie’s a stinker. If reviews gush with praise, that tells me the film’s great. But if some reviewers savage a film and others praise it – the same film – what that tells me is not so much about the movie. That tells me about the reviewers. So it is with the New World…