George Aar

My impression of Tupelo is pretty much what Rummy said. Of course, it's been years since I was there last. Birmingham is alright I guess. I remember a couple of nice restaurants there - and hey, there's the "Sloss Furnace", such entertainment! Or if you're looking for real excitement, maybe head a little further east and avail yourself of the world-famous radar traps of Pell City/Riverside. Talk about fun!

Nah, never gave it a moment's thought as I recall. I'd had serious doubts about the veracity of religion in general and the "Bible" specifically long before I got involved with WayWorld. Once I'd figured out that they were as full of "it" as any other denomination or sect (and maybe a lot more so), I pretty much walked away and never looked back. The only hard thing for me to figure out was what KEPT me staying around that looney bin for as long as I did. For THAT I still don't have a real good answer...

I'm reminded of a quote from one of my heros: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed – and hence clamorous to be led to safety – by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H.L. Mencken

I'm still betting on the cockroaches...

Well, I thought it was remarkable that a homely person could do anything right. I mean, we all know that generally only beautiful can actually perform, don't we? Yes, it's uncanny how someone who looks like she does could ever sing. What are the odds?

I don't mean to pizz on anybody's memories, really. I just can't relate to anyone's warm feelings with regards to anything Way-flavored. Saving a W.O.W. pin to me is like an ex-addict saving a favorite hypodermic needle to remember all those wonderful "highs" he had. Unseemly, at best. I just can't relate, sorry...

I sold both my W.O.W. pins on eBay many moons ago. I don't remember what I got for them, but whatever it was, it was gratefully accepted. To me they were overt evidence of the detrimental effects of credulousness. I feel as if there was nothing "earned" and certainly nothing I wanted to remember of either of those years. It was just another painful reminder of how young and stupid I once was. I identify with the old bumperstickerism "We're too soon old, and too late smart"...

You're just in time to join the exodus to "facebook", "Myspace", "Twitter", and the like. Gettin' kinda lonesome 'round here...

Uh, yeah, it is. Believing something does not make it true. It just means you believe it. I can't imagine an omniscient being giving out extra points for simply being credulous, or casting one into everlasting torment for exercizing a modicum of skepticism. Such a being could only be described as petty, I'd think...

It's the oldest sales technique in the world. The "carrot and stick" Offer on one hand a land of milk and honey and everything sunny - for those that unflinchingly give obeisance to your doctrine. And on the other hand threaten to boil them in oil if they ever even consider that what you're pitching isn't the whole truth. And in the final analysis what do you really have to support any of it? Nuttin' But hey, if you're scared enough not to check, you may just continue to buy the bullchit. That's religion's bet...

It IS kinda interesting how your stats group up in the responses. I wouldn't be surprised if your polls are giving a lot more accurate picture of WayWorld than you seem to think. I know people who study this sorta thing claim that it doesn't take a whole lot of numbers to get reliable data, if the sample is random enough...

I'm not sure anymore. Maybe it's the recurrent dream that one day I may have the opportunity to punch Zig Zigler in the mouth...

The only issue I'd have with Muslims at all is that, like any other garden-variety religious sect, they give over at least a portion of their allegiance to unproveable, unarguable, -often nonsensical- superstitions. Anytime anybody adheres to tenets simply because their religion says so, somewhere down the road serious "stuff" is gonna hit the fan. Be it denial of modern medical care (a la Christian Science and JWs and others), or riding off to cleanse the Holy Lands from the heathen hordes (a practice I would have hoped died out in the Middle Ages, but...), or all sorts of depraved rites and practices pertaining to sex, food, entertainment (or denial thereof), or the adorable desire to blow oneself to Kingdom Come (and the ensuing orgy) and taking as many infidels with as possible, it all results from the abandonment of reason in exchange for superstitious pablum. I can't think of anything more UNholy than religion, no matter the brand...

I'm a jelly roll! Ooops, wrong misnomer...

LH, I get a sense of some serious "inside Baseball" being played here, all the same. I think the whole bonus fiasco was just throwing a little red meat to the crowd while the real business is being conducted behind the scenes. I have nothing really concrete to base that on, it's just how it "feels". The numbers are so large for the "real" problem, and so inconsequential for the boner problem, but it makes good copy, no?

Well, you can include me in your "we" Geisha. I was going to post a similar thought (along with the "a suggestion is tantamount to a command, and "God taught ME like it hasn't been known since...", and the requisite fawning and servile obeisance stuff). Maybe YOU didn't join in with the rest of us servile lackies Mr. Dove. But there were certainly plenty of us mindless, Stepford-wife, dipchits, standing in line to lick Mr. Wierwille's azz every time He made a dramatic entrance. And He played the role and encouraged the sycophant behavior at every opportunity. He had a "Messiah" complex, beyond any rational shadow of a doubt...

I'm getting the distinct, sinking feeling in the last few days that we're still being played, right here in the midst of all the carnage. Yeah, sure, it's dispicable that these amoral sons a bitches are busy feathering their own nests with the meager retirement assets that a few of us had managed to scrape together over our lifetimes, but, if you step back from the mess for a moment and look at the larger picture, I think it's primarily a diversion. Yeah, so some miscreants weasled away 160 million or so. And we're all focused on that (ultimately insignificant) amount. But what about the 125 BILLION that we've given away to prop up the Foreign banks the AIG was involved with? I really think that's the real atrocity. So they give us a minor deal to get all lathered up about and wax vitriolic, meanwhile they're hauling the SERIOUS money out the back door. Hmmmm...

Oh, and don't look now WD, but he's got it relisted. While I think his appraisal ability is sorely lacking, he's clearly not intimidated by baseless threats. I'm still wondering though, is there anybody that gives a chit about this? To me it's sorta like knowing the secret to "sawing a woman in half" or some other hackneyed trick. Once you know what's really going on, why would you want to still pretend otherwise? Really peculiar...

OM, thanks for reaffirming my low opinion of you. It's somehow comforting to know that my contempt was not misplaced.

Well, I won't criticize your friend too much, though the thought "imprudent" did sorta flit through my brain. In a larger sense though, do you ever wonder at the wisdom of marriage altogether? Jeezus, it seems like they ALL end in divorce, sooner or later. And those that don't probably SHOULD. I'm just not entirely sure that men and women living under the same roof will ever work out well. They just think too differently (I'll spare you my feelings about the quality of women's reasoning abilities). So my advice? Maybe life in an Ashram or a nice convent or a cloister of some kind. Really, I think that sex is for kids. Once we start getting wrinkled and flabby I think celibacy is the only reasonable alternative.

Well, I'm am decidedly NOT a techy by any stretch, so I primarily find the site to be just farking annoying. Maybe I just don't know how to navigate it well enough, or I don't understand the basics of it, but I just avoid it for the most part. I tried too many of the stupid "Find our your I.Q." kinda games, only to find I'm just being pumped for private information or somesuch, so that kinda irritated me. Other than that I don't know just what it is you're supposed to do there. There's no real chatroom, no topics to discuss. Just a place to post a line or two. I think it's meant for a much younger crowd than I hang with. Mostly, I just don't get it...

What I wonder about all the Wayfer-derivative organization "leaders" is, do they really find working at a real job THAT odious? I guess they must, seeing as how they're so willing to continue to debase themselves perpetrating such a vapid shell game. They're all well beyond disgusting, IMNSHO...

More to the point, one wonders if "Prophet's" followers ever realize the awful truth. Of course I believe it's all a shellgame. Finding a "true" prophet is akin to finding a leprechaun, faith healer, Feng Shui consultant, or honest hedge-fund manager. In other words, not likely...

If you'd like to see what I've done with "What we were taught", it would neccessitate rummaging around in old disposable diapers, pop cans, and leaking garbage bags. I'm not much of a fan of superstitious drivel anymore, especially the kind that is so agenda-driven. I echo the others in that it's good to see you back, but I don't share even a tinge of your apparent fondness for our WayWorld experience, anymore than I would wax nostalgic for my days of selling Amway products...

Oookay, but just how does one know when it's at it's "lowest point"?