GT

Who said anything about political speech? It says:CONGRESS shall make no law.....abridging the freedom of speech... Congress is the government, the one that makes the laws. Congress is the one prohibited from interfering with speech. It says nothing about speech outside of this. Last I checked, Richard's little speech did not involve him breaking some law prohibiting the use of the N word that Congress illegally passed into law, being charged with a criminal offense. This is a civil case between people outside of the government. There is no such thing as free speech outside of the government trying to abridge it. Although public danger is a one instance of your words being used against you, it is not the only and shouldn't be. My example of slandering Sudo's dentistry is another. There is no public safety issue with the loss of a dentistry (outside of rotting teeth) but I don't want to live anywhere where someone can legally spread lies about me in order to ruin me financially. I have no clue on your petitioning the government point. Are you suggesting Richards start gathering signatures to petition congress to make mental anguish injury suits illegal?

Good point Griifp. That would be an interesting trial although we'll probably never see it unless the amount sought in the settlement is outrageous, bankrupting Richards and he feels his career is now shot to hell. Or, he feels strongly enough that he should be able to use that word and decides to do the full trial to make his point, irregardless of consequences.

Big assumption that I'm not willing to admit. I think if you were to take a look at the number of tragedies occurring to TWI people and compared it with the population in general, you would find the percentage to be about the same. The believing myth has no affect. The problem here lies in the fact that all good things that happen to TWI people are promoted to the sky by TWI, exhibiting proof that God does in fact bless and protect their people. Bad things occurring are buried and unspoken, except for their witch hunt to place blame on someone for allowing it to happen. When real life does happen to TWI people and it escapes being buried, someone has to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

The right of free speech does not apply to this case. Free speech is only applicable when there is government action involved. Outside of this, there is no right of free speech. A good example of this is are the trials involving Rodney King and OJ Simpson. In Rodney King's trial, where the police officers were accused of brutality against him, they were found not guilty, sparking the L.A. riots. They were latter brought to trial in federal court for violating his 1st amendment rights and found guilty. They could do this because the police officers were a government agency at the time. When OJ Simpson was found not guilty, no such trial was possible because OJ was not working for the government when he killed those two people. Therefor he could not be tried for violating Nicole and Ron Brown's 1st amendment rights. Say you rent a house and you want to hang a sign outside it that says, "Vote for Bush!". The landlord doesn't want it there and removes it, forbidding you to put it back up or risk being kicked out. You claim your 1st amendment rights are being violated and you take him to court. You lose. Case gets thrown out before it even gets started. No government action, no violation of free speech. There is no such thing as free speech outside of the realm in which the government is involved. The purpose of the 1st amendment is to prevent the government from suppressing speech. It has nothing to do with speech outside of that. For example, say I set up a web site and claim that Sudo's dentistry is a fraud. He overcharges, does shoddy work, has bad breath, and tells really bad jokes while working on your mouth. When you type Sudo's business name into Google, my site is the 1st on the list. People flee Sudo's dentistry and he is about to go out of business. At this, Sudo sues me. Sudo shows how he has been injured by my speech (via my web site). I claim my 1st amendment rights in defense. I lose. Unless Sudo's dentistry is a government agency, no such right exists. My only defense is the truth, i.e. that everything said is in fact true. In all civil cases as such, all the plaintiff has to do is prove he/she has been injured by the speech of the defendant. The defendant must then prove all things that were said are in fact true. Otherwise the plaintiff wins (in Great Britain, even the truth defense is not valid. Once a plaintiff proves they have been injured by the plaintiff's speech, case is over and monetary damages awarded). What keeps the court from being flooded with these types of cases is the truth defense (and lack of monetary resources of the defendant). Before you take someone to court in a case like this, you need to be sure every thing is false. Otherwise, you will have a court stating that your dirty laundry is in fact dirty. What makes this case so appealing to lawyers is the monetary resources of Richards and his lack of truth defense (can you imagine him trying to prove what he said is actually true?). About his only defense would be is that he was provoked and the speech was only intended to defend himself. I don't know what type of damages a court would award in this case, especially since the plaintiffs are unnamed in the video and not even seen. Their careers or businesses could not have been damaged by being unknowns in the video. The only damage is mental anguish. But what a court would award is irrelevant. The publicity of such a trial would do far greater damage to Richards, making the court's monetary award insignificant. He has to settle out of court with a non-disclosure agreement in tact. The settlement amount will far exceed anything a court would award.

Of course I don't want to see anyone hurt. No one was. It was just some house damage. The point is, even though TWI paints itself as the land of milk and honey, living the abundant life, they are not immune to the reality of life everyone else has to deal with. Their doctrine of "you receive what you believe for, both positive and negative" is a load of crap. If someone had been burned, that would be a different story. But they weren't.

To be fair, we were not the ones saying, "You know what killed that boy! The fear in the heart and life of that woman." It's not stretching to say, "You know what started that fire....." And TWI's own history is littered with their application of this twisted doctrine.

Your emails were sent but copies of what you sent are not saved. The server takes your email message, hands it off to the SMTP server and says goodbye to it, trusting that the Internet's post office system will ensure its delivery. If you want to keep a copy of what your sending, try using Private Messages. These are messages sent to the user's account on the forum (the PM button in everyone's profile), not their email address (although they will probably get an email stating they have a new Private Message). A copy of what you send will remain in your Messenger section, which you can find by clicking on My Controls on the menu at the top of every page.

Never heard of the problem. Firefox is probably damaged. Try re-installing it. If that doesn't work, start looking for pesky bugs (a.k.a viruses) running on your PC.

You forgot to mention one thing - a place to dispose of the drained oil. Where I live, that's next to impossible.

http://columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=22975 Missourian News November 21, 2006 Pets, guests and host left unharmed by chimney fire The fire, which interrupted an early Thanksgiving feast Sunday, caused about $15,000 worth of damage to the home. By ELIZABETH A. PHILLIPS When a chimney fire broke out in a northwest Columbia home Sunday afternoon, Louis Morgensen, about 19 members of his fellowship, his dog and one cat left the house. Morgensen’s other cat, named Meshach, remained behind. But, like his biblical namesake, he emerged unscathed. Morgensen, 85, is a member of The Way International, a nondenominational biblical research, teaching and fellowship ministry. He and 19 other members of his ministry had gathered Sunday at his home, 1811 Rose Drive, for a Thanksgiving feast. But as Morgensen was finishing his pumpkin pie, a guest noticed a dark streak above the fireplace and smelled smoke. “The first thing we did was call 911,” Morgensen said Monday. “My son and some of the other people here started tearing off part of the wall and sprayed in there with the fire extinguisher.” Morgensen hooked up the garden hose and sprayed water on the fire. “I think that’s what saved my house,” Morgensen said. When Columbia firefighters arrived at the house, they evacuated everyone. While Mor­gen­sen was able to get his dog, a beagle named Misty, and one cat out of the house, his cat Meshach had disappeared. Morgensen named Meshach after the young man in the Bible who, with his friends Shadrach and Abednego, was ordered into a fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar after they refused to worship a golden idol. But according to the story in the Book of Daniel, Shadrach, Me­- shach and Abednego told the king that God would protect them from the fire. When they emerged from the furnace, they were unscathed. Like his namesake, Morgensen’s cat was unharmed by the fire. He had found refuge in the bathtub. “He found the safest place in the house,” Morgensen said. No one was injured. Columbia Fire Department Battalion Chief Gary Warren said the fire caused about $15,000 of damage to Morgensen’s home. Warren said chimney fires are common this time of year. Warren said homeowners should have their chimneys cleaned before their first use each year and should burn only seasoned wood to avoid chimney fires. Where was their believing?

http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j29/JGH_Photos/?action=view&current=LubeOil.flv

You're a good man Nate.

I disagree George. Calling some kids bitch (among other things) just because they were raised in TWI and haven't been able to figure out what has been shoved down their throat their whole lives is plain wrong. Nato is attacking people who had nothing to do with what happened to him.

Another thing to consider is that most of the people on that site are kids, high school and college.

Such a post here, aimed at general GS'ers, probably would remain (the profanity being filtered out) but only because there are a number of people who would love to put the person in their place. Your post there is going to have the opposite effect you intend. Calling them in effect stupid would put anyone in defense mode, irregardless of TWI. It only serves to push them further towards TWI. Whether what was said is right or wrong, the delivery method of the message no one deserves. You might want to consider posting an apology on their site before the thread is deleted and your ID banned.

This guy doesn't have a clue. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f_7ZSQ3or4

Not really. I've only heard the song probably less than 30 times, but every time was at TWI -- them trying to get my foot up, usually after I worked for free all freeking night. The song could be re-associated with Ohio if I heard it enough times in the context of Ohio and not some podunk cult. Still sticking to your prediction, given Bo dieing to inspire his team?

Well put hiway.

I thought George's observation was a given and that Ed being promoted based on his talents was the hypothetical.

Looks like it's gone now.

He provides evidence that karma exists.

I fixed my link. Your turn.

Simple online test. http://www.jakemandell.com/tonedeaf/ Somehow I scored 77.8%, which means I have excellent musical abilities. :blink:

Nothing that exciting, just a few memories and the current state of the place by John E. Peterson. The Emporia Gazette - A C of E campus story