markomalley

I use cable broadband and love it! Streaming audio, streaming video, large file transfers in a flash, sizable e-mails, etc. I am able to hook up to my work's network via a VPN and it's just like I'm at work. And no its not that I am a workaholic, but it allows me to telecommute from time to time...and when I can do that, it sure beats doing a commute through the center of DC! I have a wired/wireless network in my house. So everybody has their own computer and we can all be online at the same time and share printers, file storage, etc. (again, just like a work network) -- and nobody seems to be stepping on each other. My cable provider is advertising that they are in the process of increasing the network speed from 3.2 MB/S to 7.8 MB/s for household subscribers. I'm not there yet (still only at 3.2), but I can't even picture that after they increase the speed. Has anybody tried Vonage, or another Internet telephony provider? I was seriously thinking about switching my telephone service over to them...and get rid of my regular telephone.

The CO was canned, huh? No surprise, Galen. I couldn't have imagined otherwise. His fault or otherwise, he signed the hand receipt for the boat and it was his responsibility. As to the boat, cut the reactor out of her and turn her into a target?? :(-->

You have a really good point, Vickles. But even if it never crossed over into women, heterosexual men, or children, it is still a horrible thing. With the old-fashioned HIV, a person could have as much as 10 years of symptom-free life after having the virus detected and about 18 months after the onset of AIDS until death (with meds). With this one, 3 months. That is a hard thing for anybody, no matter what the demographic.

Hopefully, anybody to whom this might apply will have already been made aware of this, but on the off chance that they might not have, the following was announced in NYC (via Reuters): BTW, although I have my opinions, this goes beyond personal opinion or doctrinal stand. Please be careful out there folks. This looks like a particularly nasty strand. Hopefully they can develop something quickly that will hold this one off.

Oh, by the way, there are some more data published at: http://www.gaiaresearch.co.za/superwater.html. Additional studies are cited here -- however, I have not looked to see if any of these studies exist or what any of them might say. But it is another data point.

Based upon some information that David provided in one of his posts, I was, in fact, able to find a single study that supported David's position: something called Peroralen O2 Therapie. A person by the name of Prof. MD. A. Pakdaman developed this technique. If you take a look at this web page, http://www.pakdaman.de/, you will be able to look at the results of his study. By the way, the English language pages on this site ARE NOT the same as the German pages...the German pages, based on a cursory view with my very rusty German, look like they might be somewhat credible. Now, having said all of this, I AM NOT defending any of these snake-oil salesmen, including the one posting here. I AM NOT qualified to evaluate the validity of this information. I am posting it so that somebody who a) speaks better German than I and b) has the requisite knowledge of medicine/biochemistry/molecular biology can look at it and tell me if it is bunk. Having said this, I will bring up the following: - the site from where I found this guy's name cited him as Prof. MD. A. Pakdaman of Heinrich Univeristy of Duseldorf (there is no such thing as Heinrich University in Duesseldorf -- note the spelling difference. There IS a Heinrich-Heine-Universiaet in Duesseldorf, http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de, but this guy is not listed on its faculty) An individual by the name of A. Pakdaman has been published in some medical journals. I have provided one of the citations below (from the MEDLINE database). But, thhe study at the Pakdaman web site has not been published in any scholarly journal, so far as I can tell. He claims to have been presented a Manfred Koehnlechner Prize from the German Research Foundation in Munich. He is not mentioned on the website (http://www.dfg.de) nor is a Manfred Koehnlechner Prize mentioned. So, you all can take this information for what its worth. Citation from a published work by A. Pakdaman:

Cult-like behavior is tough to conquer. I don't care if its a religious cult, an anti-religious cult, a political cult, or whatever. Some folks like the taste of kool-aide. There's little or nothing that can be done for them other than to shine the light of factual information enough in the hopes that some of it gets beyond the rose-colored glasses. Hopefully the person will, at some point, see that the object of the cult adoration (or excoriation) is not as perfect (perfectly good or perfectly bad) as originally believed. Howard, I asked you a question a few pages ago that I think got buried in the noise: I am sincerely interested in your assessment of the situation and answer to the above. If you want to read the post, it can be found here. This is not an attack, it is just a genuine question. Thanks.

Well, the verdict came in: And let me say that I certainly hope that: 1) He has a really appropriate cellmate (pun intended) in prison 2) That they make him suffer greatly before slowly killing him 3) That he has a special place in hell reserved There are a couple of interesting little tidbits about this case that I found interesting: First, the case was based primarily on "repressed memories" of his victim, as reported by The memory is a weird thing to rely upon. Does anybody here remember a daycare scandal from California several years ago (early 1980s, I believe) There is a condition called "false memory syndrome" that discusses this. You can see this site for more information. Note: I am not saying that this was the case here -- there was corroborating evidence that supported the recovered memories of the victim. Secondly, there were, according to testimony in the trial, no accusations levied against this guy until 1993, after he had left the Boston diocese. This victim had his memories repressed until 2002. The victim related that his accuser said, "He told me nobody would ever believe me if I told anybody." This should be a warning to parents out there to maintain trust and communication with their kids. Years of abuse cannot get fixed after the fact. Note: I am not defending the Boston archdiocese here. But the fact of the matter is that had an accusation been levied when he was doing the abuse, it would have been far more likely that something could have been done to stop it. Judging from Cardinal Law's actions in the Geoghan case, I'm not saying that this would have happened, but there's no way that it could have been fixed after the fact. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of people in positions of authority who use that authority to take advantage of children. Priests, ministers, teachers, pshrinks, etc. Its a lot easier for an abuser to say "nobody will believe you" if there are barriers to communication between the child and his parents. Third, I find it interesting that this guy was apparently an activist for the Church to change its teaching on homosexuality. According to the article below, "Despite church teachings, he argued for acceptance of homosexuality and pushed for gay rights. He called himself a "sexual expert" and advertised his counseling services in the alternative press." That should have been some sort of a warning signal, IMO. And, Abigail, I know that you made a definitive (but unsupported) statement that most pedophiles are heterosexual, but, the fact of the matter is that of children victimized by priests were male. The position of the Church for several years was (and no longer is) that a homosexual could be ordained, as long as they lived celibately. The Church also teaches that a homosexual inclination is "objectively disordered" while saying that people with this inclination must be "accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity." Why they would ordain somebody with an inclination that they themselves identify as "objectively disordered" is beyond me. I look at it this way: had the Church not made this (imo) error, several of the cases of reported male-male abuse cases would not have happened. I realize that some of the cases would have still happened, but not nearly that high a number. (Yes, I realize that I'm going to get flamed here, but, oh well. Been flamed before, will happen again) Bottom line: there were a lot of mistakes made by a lot of people. Due to the negligence of people in positions of authority, an (objectively disordered) evil man was allowed to ruin a minimum of one life and, in all likelihood, many, many more. May God have mercy on that (objectively disordered) evil man's soul, because I won't. My only wish is that Bernard Law somehow be held accountable for his (at a minimum) negligence or (at a maximum) conspiracy.

Well, I for one was not terribly hurt by TWI. Other than wasting a lot of my money and screwing my religious beliefs up on a messed up system (delaying my involvement within a normal Christian setting for YEARS until I finally realized that maybe, just maybe, they had taught me some incorrect stuff), I can't think where I'd been hurt very much by it. I met some great people along the way. In fact, the vast majority of folks I met were wonderful folks. I also met a few a$$holes as well. I was far enough out of the center of the storm that I really didn't have my mind sucked far enough into it to become so totally mentally dependent upon the "Way Tree," though. I was in the military at the time: going WOW was not a possibility for me, going in the Corpse was likewise just not possible. Had I been in different circumstances, I likely would have done both. (Thank God I was in the military) So does that make TWI OK? Hell no. Thanks to the stories that you all have told, I can see the full scope of the harm that it did to so many who were within that system...and the likely harm they would have done to me had I been able to devote my full life and strength to them (as I really wanted to but couldn't, due to my military commitment). I remember having the thought, for years, that TWI was alright, but when the Loy took over, he really messed it up and started making it more cult-like. I hung on to those beliefs for years and years and years. I thought that the ministry (gawd I called it that for so long after I left) was undergoing a lot of turmoil and that maybe it would come back. For years I clung to that belief. But the key was that I knew that the basic TWI doctrine was OK. Any time I went to any kind of a church, I judged that church based upon the standard of Vic's doctrine. Of course, no church would ever measure up to that high standard, so I went basically churchless for a long time. I realized that I had a NEED for the fellowship that was around in a church. I realized that TWI wasn't it. I realized that the offshoots weren't it. And I had to go back and re-examine a lot of the basic church doctrines that VP threw out and ask myself if those doctrines should have been thrown out? Are they justifiable? (Those beliefs that Vic taught us to deny) You know what I figure about TWI in the final analysis (at least for this week)? I figure that the vast majority of people were a lot of good folks that wanted to love God and each other and serve the living God. TWI advertised a mechanism to accomplish just that. Little did we know how messed up they were. Little did we know how some really bad people would use the hearts of some good people to accomplish some really bad things. As I said, I used to think that twi was something good that had gone bad. I now think that there was something rotten at its very core. The good that happened to anybody there was likely more a result of good people who were able to walk in God's grace, in spite of all that was messed up. Again, one of the best things from this site (along with its predecessors) is that it has provided an opportunity for us to see the harm that twi had done others. I don't know what it has accomplished for others here, but for me its provided me an opportunity to really see HOW bad it was. Doctrinally, practically, everything. And that has been incredibly satisfying to me...

Trefor, Although I understand what you're saying in regards to the "reactionary old bigot," I think you'd far prefer a "reactionary old bigot" like him rather than a "dynamic leader" like Pat Robertson, Bob Jones, or Jerry Falwell. Also, I don't know of any precedent for a Pope abdicating for health. I can only think of possibly a few examples of one abdicating for political reasons.

A very astute observation, Howard. It seems to me that a lot of this stuff was about "tempting God." I remember throughout my life being delivered from some pretty incredible situations. The stories are largely irrelevant here, but it seems like the laws of physics may have been stretched :)--> I am sure that a lot of us can recall things like that happening throughout our lives. The thing I find out about TWI in general, and LEAD in particular, is that people were put in crazy, dangerous situations not for any particular good, but just as a teaching exercise. Now, Howard, I've done a lot of things in my past. While in the military, one of the things I've had to do (among thousands of others) was set up training. Sometimes very difficult, very physically, mentally, and emotionally trying training for people...in an effort to teach certain behavioral (doing), cognitive (thinking) and affective (believing) objectives. Some of the training involved classic military group skills (fire team, squad, and platoon level skills training), strategic and operational large group skills (up to theater level). Shoot, in one assignment, I even had to be qualified to be a high-ropes course instructor. Anyway, in all of these situations, our first concern was to stress safety. Always. The second concern was the management of all events and all reasonably likely sequels to those decisions. We used to map out sequences of planned events on a timeline and then the decisions and their consequences on networks that proceeded from that basic timeline. By the time we were done with our planning, we'd have a spiderweb of a network diagram drawn so that those of us providing the training could keep control of the situation...first, to ensure safety, and second, to keep the training going where we wanted it to go. I realize that LEAD is not military training but it does employ experiential learning concepts in order to teach whatever objectives they wanted to pass on. And I can tell you that they did not employ basic techniques to assure effective training. That's why you hear some people saying that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread and you have other people that said that it irreperably damaged them. Contingency planning is fundamental to experiential learning. I don't see that this was done. (Now, if there are some former LEAD instructors here, I will be happy to have them tell me that I'm wrong in that assumption) Assuming that I'm correct in my assessment, the whole scenario reeks of: You put people in dangerous situations and then say, if you believe, you'll get through it? Give me a break. If that's not tempting God, I don't know what is. I think that you're assessment, "I don't blame Kevin. I blame the devil," is pretty accurate. But at what point did the devil have his input: in the essence of the Way Corps program with its learning objectives? in the essence of the the LEAD program with its objectives? For the condition of the road and/ or the weather conditions? Or a (possible) lack of concentration on driving in a dangerous situation? Howard, I wasn't there. I don't know. All I know is that the situation you described is horrible.

The Marine Corps Rifle Creed: The Penta Water thread creed:

That's the first time I've seen the Corps principles listed in a long, long time. I know that there were other teachings on the subject, but I look at those principles in light of true Christian service and am absolutely amazed at the difference in emphasis. All throughout history, the examples of great men of God were those who abandoned all to serve God and His people. So many examples of people who gave it ALL up to do so. Look at all of the martyrs in the Bible. Look at all of the martyrs in the 2,000 years since the Bible was written. People who have voluntarily given up wealth, health and everything else with their eyes only on God. But that's not Way Corps. I look at these principles and think that I used to aspire to live them. But I look now at them and wonder what I was thinking? I now look back on them and think what an ego trip. It seems like the emphasis is on making a set of super-believers rather than training servants for God's people. Its no wonder to me that so many in the Corps turned into a bunch of arrogant mini-MOGs hell-bent on controlling others rather than delivering others. Yup, no surprise at all.

Jackmm: Keep in mind that if you load a trailer with 3,000 pounds, you may only have a tongue weight of 300 pounds (depending upon whether it is a single axle or a double axle trailer and depending upon the length of the tongue and how the weight was distributed in the trailer).

This is all too commonplace. Not only hunters, but people in positions of trust: When you end up having a teacher, a minister, a priest, a WC member, a physician, a psychologist, and so on that violate that trust, well, there should be a special level of hell reserved for them... Has it always been this way and just never reported or is it becoming more prevalent?

Remember a while ago that there was a thread about a submarine that ran aground. Well, got a couple of pictures of it from work. Thought you all would be interested:

Happy 29th birthday Shell (whichever anniversary you are celebrating!)

bueno.

If you want to read the rest of the article, you can click on the link. I did not feel it appropriate to put on the board. Oh, by the way, I don't think this AP news article is a hoax. You can click on the following for substantiation: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/briefs...s/hb041102c.htm http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/br_4.html http://www.cirp.org/library/cultural/JewishEnc/ http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp...=C&search=#1811

The Pope was rushed to Gemelli Hospital in Rome with a severe "acute respitory infection." Washington Post Article Your prayers would be appropriate. If you feel so compelled, this would also be the appropriate spot for your death wishes or curses. That's why this is in the "open" forum, rather than the "prayer" forum.

Oh, the entire doctrine of the absent Christ made possible, imho, the MOG worship that practically plagued so many people and caused so much damage to so many lives.

Well, where to start....it might be more of a challenge to determine what they DIDN'T get wrong in their doctrine. When I think of TWI, the first thing I consider was a statement attributed to Gamaliel, "Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." I think we are all seeing the results of their error. First off, I think that the doctrinal error (or deceit...remaining to be determined) was widespread. How VPW could think that he was smarter than 2,000 years of Christian thought in so many areas is simply beyond me. His very basis for interpretation of scriptures, using a variant of the ultra-dispensationalist mindset, imo led to his error. His total disregard of the integrity of the scripture helped compound that. Disregard, you may ask? Well, if he didn't like something, he interpreted the h3ll out of it in order to make it fit his mold. He openly deleted scriptures (one in particular that I can consider) when they couldn't be twisted around to meet his ends. His world-famous "literal according to usage" expression allowed him to twist God's Word to fit his meaning. Wierwille brought up a valid point: the scripture must be understood in light of what it meant in that culture and in that time. So what did he do? He brought in some obscure Indian preacher whose thoughts he could use to support his position. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, here, but Palestine is a long ways from India. And, from what I understand, the cultures are not alike. But, could he consult the writings of the Church Fathers who were there in the culture and in the approximate time? Nope, sure couldn't...because those Church Fathers would end up steering him more so in the direction of orthodox Christianity, rather than down the path he chose. A couple of areas where these errors manifested themselves in faulty doctrine include the way he differentiated the use of the word "faith" and the way he parsed out the different definitions of the word "holy spirit." Honestly, there are SO MANY issues out there. But, this is not the doctrinal forum and so discussion of specifics is really not appropriate. Secondly, I honestly just don't like arguing over this stuff. I have never seen anybody convinced through argument...through inquisitiveness, yes...through argument, no. Interesting question, Abi, but, as I said earlier, one that could really open up a bucket of worms.

Dang. Dulles is a trip away (over 30 miles each way). No way to do a workday lunch there. We could meet in Tyson's Corner, though. That's about 1/2 there -- time-wise. There's a Rainforest Cafe that we could meet at at Tysons Corner Center. If we met at 11, you could be on your way and at the airport by 1, no probs. Where are you guys staying, anyway?

Well, if you are flying through National (DCA), I could meet you for lunch on the 21st. There is a Friday's and a Legal Seafood at the airport (before the security points). That way you could be in place in plenty of time for your flight back. I can just grab the metro from Crystal City to the airport, so it works good for me.

Send me a PT to let me know when you're going. I work in Crystal City and so maybe we could meet for lunch...might have a couple of ideas for some other things to do that aren't on the normal tourist route, either.