Ham

Is any (self-perceived) stability one gains, really worth the price one pays.. 1. You are going to die, anyway. No amount of stability one can garner will prevent that.. despite claims to the contrary.. you don't get claims on this particular life forever.. 2. Stability Sucks. Big Time.. who would really want it, to begin with.. boring. Always the Same.. one day, one year, one decade.. one century after another.. no change. Harmony? No.. that is only experienced during a half way decent concert.. Maybe Absolute Quackiness. Absolute only considers the magnitude, not the particular negative or positive religious or political leanings.

At the moment.. the Low Minds of Cultdom seem to be inheriting the earth. No, they are not meek.. self-entitled, ignorant, arrogant, egocentric self-serving bastards. Well.. maybe that is the nature of things.. its just an observation. Why do people continue following them in one venue, and voting for them in another? The answer to this must be bigger than me..

I think ferrets are distant cousins of skunks.. or am I mistaken? They have the scent, and scent glands, just on the lighter side. Now shrews. We had a cat once, that was quite proficient in catching them.. despite their claim of extreme quickness. I never saw how she did it.. but she always brought us the evidence. As a snack for family I think.

You didn't miss much.. I think it could be likened to da way corps, only without any perceived glory or recognition.. I was in it for about the month or so before it went defunct. But I think I was mainly there so they could practice "discerning of spirits" or something.. I'm still kind of weird..

The ROUS's are of Legendary Size. But everyone knows they aren't real..

Frigging Hippies. You should have stayed on a course heading towards chaos. Can't tell me you've really gained anything otherwise.. really.. god bless you and all.. (some of you) looked chaos straight in the eye, and survived, once. Or twice.. or even more often..

The Real Sad Thing here. Those who participated in the early years actually think they are Entitled to a Gift Ministry. I think they were damaged beyond any hope of repair..

Finally, Maggie Muggins was only destined to be a Twig Coordinator..

I don't know how much I could comment about "brother leonards" works.. I've pretty much abandoned anything "brother vic" ever had to say. I've just never felt "led" to try to substantiate, or verify vics claims at the source. but this is interesting.. I have read a little.. brother leonards work was to lead a participant to fulfilling their gift ministry.. then vic imitated the same. Then there were too many: too many chiefs. Too few villagers.. then it morphed into a two year or so program. Gift Ministries pretty much guaranteed. Then what.. there was a program with a year break.. and those with No Gift Ministry generally did not come back.. then what.. more changes. Finally, he took the supposed Five Ministries off of the guaranteed Corps Seal..

In the ninth grade, I had a gym instructor who would let his favorite students smoke cigarettes with him in his office. Is this relevant to the discussion? I dunno.

sometimes.. I think the agreements we make in this life are agreements of Stupidity. I'll just go along with the insanity for a moment to cop a good feeling or something.. Maybe the most troubling thought is that cults of various levels of stupidity have gained national prominence. They seem to be able to endlessly prattle and bray. generally at the viewers, and taxpayers expense.

I dunno. Maybe John's definition of ascension is not exactly what we think it is supposed to be.. well, you asked. :)

maybe we need a few catastrophic repercussions.

I wish it were so easy.. a long, long time ago.. lichen figured it was meal time..

I would agree. I still have not read any kind of scientific article, on either side. But. I'm thinking.. we are pretty damned arrogant. Produce food, that is toxic to parasites during its growth cycle.. and considering.. with the application of bug killers, antibiotics, and such.. we've raised another generation of super bugs of sorts.. we are genetically engineering our Enemy. However indirectly. all along abandoning our Allies.. we have a few, by ancient agreement..

Heh.. that is only when one is forced to land in planets in the outer rim. No Republican credits accepted here.. not even with persuasion intended towards weak minds using the force.. GMO's may be too big. But I'm still aware of them.. "They" are still alive. So they have role to play, don't they? Those who choose to sell futures will try to figure out how to sell anything.. I thought it was only in the relm of mathematics that one could sell something so Abstract.

what if. I know, it is really, really weird. Like out of some B sci-fi movie. What if your next paycheck was delivered to you in terms of digital bandwidth.. with it you have the choice to purchase (not so cheap now) genetically engineered food.. it was cheaper once, because they didn't have to apply insecticides.

From what it looks like to me.. they've already tried to sell futures in internet or technology based venues, and some lost a lot of money. But this was really the first time around with all of this. what if, suddenly, facebook charged fifty bucks a month. As long as you didn't post to much.. how many would (greatly) grumble, and simply pay for the conveniences? all of your "friends" are internet savy (read paranoid). You can safely share all of your most intimate secrets basically without the risk of a real human encounter.. it's like the Perfect Relationship. Fifty Bucks a month. Yeah, people will pay.

The "problem" here. There are a lot of us over the hill whatevers.. who could live in either world, parting from existence. Some sooner than later. That leaves a population dependent on technology.. don't know how it works, and probably can't live without it. It just seems.. those who can rule, will still be able to manually do all of the calculations with paper and pencil. What if.. the price suddenly went up. Maybe this is like dependance on petroleum. The average worker will grudgingly pay the price, and continue to buy.. what if.. the powers that be manipulate bandwidth as some kind of punishment or reward.. bandwidth is definitely a marketable commodity.

Touch tones were a carefully guarded corporate secret. Except they went public, and then pulled in the welcome mat when they figured out that everybody were not electronically clueless.

No downloadable books. No social interactive sites. No.. computers? No, you can have a computer.. no secure online banking.. no chat.. the theme is a *tad* more than "what if there were no about the way forums". No more working cash registers at wally mart (or practically anywhere else for that matter..).. ah.. music. What if you had to wait for the latest and greatest to show up in a "pricey" format at the corner store.. people actually lived like this, once.. It was long, long ago.. What if it took over three days for a message that you originated to arrive at your friend's house.. if you had a ham radio license, you and your licensed friend had instant communications at your disposal.. that was the exception in the day, not the rule. Well, maybe not the exception entirely. One could subscribe to Ma Bell's overpriced services.

Hmm. now I think. Why do I keep coming back here.. maybe I'm a glutton for punishment. then again.. maybe I'm just looking for a few outdated, good drugs.. no, *they* don't make them anymore. That can't be it..

I think John is not unlike the young pencil salesman.. "how much are your pencils".. "well, they are $1,000,000.00". "that's a lot for a pencil, isn't it?".. "well.. I only need to sell one.."

any further updates? Is *Mr* geer still with us? You know. It can't be a great existence when one has others waiting to cross one's name off of some kind of list.. I only have one or two individuals that fit that description. i.e. crossing my name off of a list.. I can't even imagine to begin to think what it is like if one has hundreds, if not thousands eagerly waiting my demise.. what a freaking sad end for a human being..

if you don't mind me saying.. dogs behavior can be *partly* amusing.. dogs will be dogs.. but a species with a brain weight twenty some times larger..