Ham

heh heh heh.

I don't think this line of reasoning nulifies the idea that all of us are special, or unique. Or can be.

Well, maybe YOU are special!

Well, if Groucho is up to it, I guess anything is possible.. he IS the driver, after all. Just have to find where I put that darn glad-wrap.. No toga pictures. I "renewed my mind" sufficiently to "cover the past".

Ahhh, the freedom of it all. What freedom you ask? Well, the last fifty times I parked in the back of the darn lot, it wasn't because I was a slimy, unbelieving flea on the back of a possessed camel, either.

Too bad for the local fellowship though.. if I was still going, they could claim some kind of "victory"..

Two momentus days ago, I had to go to, gasp- by myself, to the darkest place in town, WalMart. As I pulled up, the car in THE FRONT ROW pulled out, and I pulled in. I did not even give it a thought: 1. That it was an answer to prayer 2. That that is how the Almighty awarded me for being faithful in "da househole". 3. That somehow, it showed that I was supposedly special or something.. 4. That those who pulled in and had to park in the rear of the lot were somehow "inferior" to almighty ME. 5. That the lord had to move heaven and earth, for my convenience. Really- didn't think one of these- just thought about it today.

23a. And blue jeans and T shirt are required.

"What about THE PEOPLE?" Personally, I don't think God Almighty is quite as bound and gagged as we think. "If its to be" its not necessarily up to me. Sure, I do my part.. but I'm not so damned egotistical anymore to think that somehow the whole stinking universe is waiting for me to act, or something..

A lot of us took the same stinking beatings from "them", over, and over, and over.. If you ask "why don't you just get over it?" I say, you've got to be kidding. Nobody ever really gets over it. For me, it was over twenty two years invested in that rats nest. Doing more and more, just hoping it would finally click in or something.. Twenty two years of wasted efforts are just not going to go away. But I am "getting on with my life", believe it or not.. Now they would LOVE to do the same, with my kids. They'd receive them with open arms, and smiles and giggles.. One instance, they desperately tried. Friggin bastards. Can't say this is all so irrelevant to today's life. I wish it was.

Problem is, the horse is not dead. It refuses to die. It still promotes the same kind of nonsense, same kind of abuse, only worse than before. More blatant, more devilish. So what do you do with a rotten, stinking, controlling, thieving, devilish, conscienceless horse that refuses to die? Oh well, its a gruesome job, but somebody has to do it I guess.. I have nothing but the highest admiration for these people, even to this day. At the least, I feel pity for them. If they are still busy raking God's people over hot coals, I think they deserve some (continued) contempt. I think most of us woke up, and found what we were "sold" was not all it was cracked up to be. Nor was a lot of it "the Word". For me, it took YEARS of failed efforts before coming to this conclusion. Not an extreme change after all, at least to me. Personally, all I saw was talk. Maybe a good talk, but just... talk. I don't discount the Lord's ability, I question man's. Years of dedicated, loving effort, and I never saw anybody raise even a stinking dog from the dead. No walking on water, no this, no that- but THAT was "available". When it did NOT happen, "well, results are not guaranteed". What I observed: any question about "where's the beef?" was artfully assigned to the category of "seeking for signs". "Bad, bad Thomas. you oughta know better.."

I think you guys are outdoing me, heh heh. Jim, good point, except I perhaps would substitute "very ripe tomatoes" for "spitballs made from sylabus pages".

Alan, I thought I would answer the question here. MY OPINION: No. He did not believe in believing, he believed in God, and God's unlimited ability to perform what was NEEDED. I think "whatsoever ye desire (or ask) when you pray" is not "whatsoever your little heart could desire, if money is no object". How short-sighted we are at times.. "God, give me ten million dollars".. When it doesn't happen, and we (or I) were the most positive, "properly" motivated "believers", having no doubt, someone has to explain why. "Well, maybe you weren't really believing". I suggest otherwise. Perhaps there is something fundamentally wrong with the doctrine itself. Maybe God WANTS the mountain in question to be right where He put it. Maybe He's worked eons to get it just right.. maybe He thinks it looks pretty right where its at. If He's gone to all the trouble dressing up the place, what business do I have mucking it up? I think one of the WORST things to happen to the world would be for me to be able to believe to get whatever I wanted.

15. The MOG's cup shall be filled with PRECISELY three and a half cubes of ice, which MUST be made with "yellow water".

13. There shall be NO ushers. People will sit where they damn well please, and not be herded like cattle all the way up to the front row. 14. Chiming watches and cell phones MUST be turned on.

Well now.. it was one of my fantasies to rent a cushman somewhere, put on a golf getup, a blue or red hat, and ride that thing around. I would magnaminously wave to the people, and they would say, "there goes... well, I have no idea WHO he is.." Would have been a pretty good gag..

"We walk with God. Beta is the RIGHT choice..." Ludicrous.

Deep, in the dark recesses of Japan somewhere, there is a sadistic engineer with a plan, probably for release in the year 2010. "Beta V, Digital"

Oh yes. And there was nothing like obsolesence three times in a row. Correct me if I am wrong, Steve!, but as I remember it, there was BetaII then BetaIII. If you bought a Beta II, it would not play Beta III format. Finally, Beta III was a gonner, largely due to great improvements in VHS. Some people ended up buying THREE machines, if I remember correctly. Actually, four, when they finally got a VHS unit.. But like Frankenstein's monster, that refused to die, and return, sequel after sequel.. Beta lives on! 8 MM beta, anyway.. at least until a couple of years ago. I think that may be gone now, haven't gone shopping recently to know.. edited for darn spelling errors..

Well Catcup, they could always rely on paper and pencil. At least until someone gets a paper cut from one of these dark, devilish devices..

But David, they sure can try! You may not have noticed, but derails are welcome in my threads.. I don't rule with a iron fist or anything. :P--> But all the talk about minor/major chords really does exhibit just another one of the more ludicrous things some of us have heard.

Microwave ovens, computers, and other such "mysterious" office appliances are plummeting from Bally's windows as we speak.

Thanks, Ala, heh heh. Well, you mentioned this on another thread, and it obviously seemed to belong here..

Ala, we had a Guinea Pig, we named it "Mr. Big".. (nothing to do with the size of its organs or anything- it was more of like "the Godfather") Anyway, this rascal would mate with ANYTHING. Even his own daughter.. Guinea Pigs are not supposed to be able to jump. This one not only jumped, but he jumped out of a twenty four inch tank, and into a twenty four inch tank that the female(s) resided. The Guinea Pig population soon reached epidemic proportions here..

Unbelievable Catcup, almost.. the list just seems to go on and on.