Ham

Yeah.. except for those at the top of the pyramid scheme..

Hey.. I walked out of Atlantic City forty bucks ahead. The poor guy with me though.. about seventy behind..

I thought it was "OK" to pray for "carloads of money".. :) Nothing like a shortcut to make up for the lack of good, hard, work.. I'm "believing" for a Master's degree in mathematics. Think if I pray hard enough.. tithe, or give fifteen or twenty percent, I should have it, in about three more years.. with some hard work. kinda like the Beverly Hillbillies. I remember Granny's "miracle cure" for the common cold. Had docs coming from all over to investigate it.. Jed said something like "yeah it's a miracle.. you take Granny's concoction and inside of six weeks you'll start to feel like a spring chicken.."

Yep.. and a person can "believe" they are in New York City when they are actually in Boston Harbor, too. Some people call it "delusional thinking".

Health, healing.. GUARANTEED.. money.. prosperity.. harmony in the home.. I think the problem with "what's available" is that it guarantees that if one pushes the correct levers, the results are theirs no questions asked. That was the whole point of der law of believing was it not? "works for saint and sinner alike.." I think that the practical reality is that what is "available" to one is not necessarily "available" to another..

Fruit.. hmm. reminds me of an old fairy tale.. "cmere, little girl.. here's a nice shiny red apple for you.."

Hmm. Well.. if he was such a good tree.. how come I've been pulling thistles out of my miserable hide for the last decade or so..

Horror of horrors.. I'm suprised and agast.. he actually documented his source here.. I guess miracles do abound..

A good friend of mine has a little motto.. a house isn't quite the same without a black cat.. :) The last black cat he had was a celebrity. People would call from Virginia, Florida.. they wouldn't say "how ya doing".. they'd say.. "how's the cat?" true story. Weird, I know.. but this cat was one soul that I was priviledged to be acquainted with..

Naw.. Meerkats are a little too "cultish" for my taste.. too daggone territorial and group think.. Lemurs.. lemurs.. naw.. they'd follow vic off the end of the world..

I'd have to be reincarnated as a marmot or something..

glad somebody can be optimistic about everything..

I think that's assuming a lot.. what if this generation lost it's one shot at this deal.. You know.. you've got something at stake in this as well as everybody else.. :)

Just to clarify.. I'm not speaking of Greasepot per se..these are two living, breathing human beings in my town.. maybe three.. out of how many from the "good old days", who would even take the time to look me up? only thing I can say.. thank GOD my kids aren't caught up in the nonsense.. I can only imagine what it is like for families separated with this kind of nonsense. Some organization..

I agree. yep. try communicating with parents/children/family/"friends" still in that wretched organization. Or even caught up in the "renewed mind" attitudes.. I think some people don't have a clue.. With the exception of two individuals here, I can't say that I even have friends left from the organization.. the local "twit heads" are either still in, or trying to relive the old memories and attitudes of superiority. For me, it's not that I'd be wasting my time.. I just don't have anything to work WITH..

And apparently, there is not a way, or it is rather difficult to measure what WAS- in real concrete practical terms. This is the most concrete claim I've seen made yet. And even that, it is tempered with some realism. I feel partly that way, mainly because I already had some peace of mind, even in the middle of some rather harsh circumstances to begin with. Maybe this sounds strange.. but circumstances didn't really define how I felt about myself, whether my belief was based on "da word of gawd" or not. My version of this scenario is exposure to figures of speech and a little bit of greek. Had I not had some kind of introduction, would I EVER had picked up Bulllinger's work on figures, or other materials? Hard to say, probably not. But the REAL benefits, though documentable, are few.I was the only guy in Calc I who knew what the little symbols were.. I could even pronounce them properly. :) I agree. I think it is only a rather thin skin that houses the spiritual, to begin with.. someday, it very well may all be gone..

What I find very interesting.. people generally have a hard time coming up with or defining a real good solid "something" that it did for them.. at least that can be quantified, looked at, or handled.. What did we buy? It reminds me of an old guy who worked in the store I'm in.. he had his crowning achievment in his old store. This guy was sooo high pressure.. so ruthless, but polite.. a person just couldn't exactly dislike him.. :) His customer went home. An hour later, the customer called the sales guy.. "Ma*tin, what did I just buy?"

No, I think it literally means torturing doctrine, reminiscent of a scene out of the dark ages. They strap (or appropriately duct tape) the verse in question it to a chair, and beat it with a lead pipe, all the while demanding that it recant it's "heretical" beliefs. "Now, admit it.. Jesus isn't really God, is he.."

Sitting on tacks helped.. the looking "excited" part, that is..

Well.. happy birthday! Since it really isn't your birthday, but rather a "virtual" birthday, here is your present. It's, what else from the Squirrel, but a piece of virtual pecan pie. here are your virtual candles. Feel free to blow them out, if you can. We won't count them..

Hey, have to be serious about SOMETHING in life..

I did a count once.. for me, it was somewhere between forty and sixty times if I remember correctly. All that, and I'm STILL nuts.

Nasty? Now this LOOKS nasty, but some 27,000 people show up for what is likely the biggest food fight in the world.. Too late this year Bumpy, but if you're in France next August.. Valencia is but a stones throw, or should I say a tomato's throw away..

Nasty? Not me. I took a shower today. Besides, I'm cute, and cuddly wuddly. That is unless you withhold my ration of pecans.