George Aar

I'd submit that the biggest actual error was in anybody ever taking the damned thing to begin with...

How could it be in "Bad Taste" when we don't have any taste at all (well, I don't, anyway)?

It's also in Karl Kahler's book, The Cult That Snapped

Another school assignment, Ex? I can't imagine that someone in "steerage" would bring much. Likely some clothes, some food to eat while in passage, as much money as they could scrape together, and maybe a picture of family, and a Bible. I don't know about the Irish in particular, but I have read some diary excerpts from generic European immigrants of that era. Lots of them didn't bring a damned thing. It was all they could muster just to get a steamer ticket. I know my grandfather stowed away on board a freighter bound for Canada, then snuck across the border to Minnesota. He brought absolutely nothing with, other than the clothes on his back...

I think it's such a shame that resources and the talents of - probably well-meaning - individuals are squandered in the quest for chimera. So much more needful things to spend one's time on, what a waste...

And last month we had a young boy around here who refused a blood transfusion - due to his JW indoctrination - and died as a result. Isn't religion just swell?

Just kinda boring right now. The big drama is over for the time. Now it's just "sit on the front porch and pick yer nose" time. And maybe make fun of the rubes walking by. Yeah, real entertainment, uh un...

Yeah, And a good back-hair groomer would come in handy too... Gee, Belle, there's some ladies I know that work down on the streetcorner. Should I see if they offer gift-certificates?

Yes, I know the teaming masses have been waiting with bated breath for me to weigh in on this issue, so here goes. As reprehensible as I find the actions of STIFFY - and any of the other various and sundry splinters for that matter - I find I have an equal amount of disdain for anyone dumb enough to buy into such nonsense FOR A SECOND TIME! Unrestrained credulity has its costs. "Decoder ring" theology didn't prove itself out very well with the likes of the conman VP, why in the world would you think his minions have anything more to offer? If you're willing to throw in with the SAME CAST of maladjusted characters, pitching basically the same old snake oil (NEW! IMPROVED!), well, I think you deserve whatever you get. Good grief, we're in our 40's and 50's now (some in their 60's), Isn't it about time to wake up and smell the DECADE? So, for those who STILL don't get it, I'll help you out. There IS NO Santa Claus, you really CAN'T start a "zeo-down" real estate empire with the change leftover from your lunch at McDonald's, and there are no long-lost secrets hidden in The Bible that some red-mouthed, mid-west jerkoff has just discovered, and that will change your life markedly for the better if you just study hard enough. Grow up fer Chrissake. There, I've said it...

Well, second try I got 372,000 on level 10. The first try I only got to level 8, but I got a phone call halfway through. It was kinda hard when they got to places like Brunei and Tunisia. Trying to carry on a conversation and think of where those little burgs are at was too much fer me... It's kinda of joke trying to be accurate with that pointer though. Sheesh, lots of the places I knew EXACTLY where they were on a map, but still got off by 100 or 200 miles.

Yeah, When I was in Japan the last time, I saw a news report about these. I guess they're easier to store and cut up? Not quite sure, my Japanese wasn't good enough to decipher what they were saying about the purpose of the whole concept. This is the country that injects sugarwater into strawberries to make them sweeter and feeds beer and cornmash to their steers (and also gives them massages twice a day), and invented the cultured pearl, and Godzilla. Natural things can always be made a little better with the proper treatment...

Did anybody else ever slow down the "Chipmunks" recordings to hear how the guys sounded in real life? There used to be some record players that had a "16 1/2" setting on the speed of the turntable. If you put the record on at that speed you could hear the actual sound of the singers. It was a little odd, as I recall, in that they had to enunciate very clearly and actually sung quite slowly. Musta been a bit of a chore to get it right...

Vegetarian soup: 1. 50 gallons of water 2. 25# each of a. onions b. carrots c. celery 3. Various spices and whatnot Boil 1 vegetarian for several hours, add other ingredients, salt and pepper to taste Serves 15 or 20 carnivores...

Yeah, Ditto to Hiway and Sudo's impression of "novelty" songs. I never heard one that I'd describe as anything but "LAME". I always thought that most of 'em were the product of one local d-jay or another. We had one in the Seattle area, I think he called him "Robert O. Smith" IIRC. He did a song called "Walter Wart the Freaky Frog", and a few others. I had the same opinion of his songs as I did of anyone else's. Strained, silly, and just not funny. But then Robert O. started hosting a local Late-night horror movie show. On T.V. he billed himself as "Dr. Zinger" - again IIRC, and he was hilarious. We would actually stay home on Friday nights just to catch his show. As for the rest of the genre "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" and such like, - long grooooooaann...

Well, I think a really big-screen plasma TV, a refrigerated keg cooler, and maybe some Barcaloungers would be a big improvement. No, I never have been very spurtchul...

One wonders why you'd have to "practice" something that was a "God-given ability". But, then I do wonder about a lot of that stuff...

Well, since somebody brought up Tom Waits, ya gotta listen to this one, a minute and seventeen seconds, and he'll break your heart: http://youtube.com/watch?v=XewO1DB96To&feature=related

Well, no tree, no lights, no tinsel, wreaths, anything fer me. The kids are grown and gone, the woman's run off, the cats don't seem to care one way or the other, so I'm not doin' nuttin' fer Krismass. And any gifts now are just money stuck in an envelope. Those stupid gift cards are such a waste. The recipient is stuck shopping at some particular store, which they may or may not like, and I guess about 10% of them NEVER get redeemed. Why bother? Why not just stick a fifty in a card? Anyway, put me down for my usual "Bah Humbug"...

I believe death is nature's way of telling us to slow down...

Another one bites the dust... I'm kinda curious. When it comes to Great M.O.G.s, do they come in any flavor other than "Charlatan"? One wonders...

The earliest memory I have is of laying in a crib, and my mother - with both my feet in her left hand, holding my legs up while she spanked me, and I seem to remember her yelling (and most likely swearing) at me for wetting the bed. Something like that, pretty vague now. I do remember being in crib though, and being in diapers, so I was maybe three? Geeze, sounds like a scene from "Momma Dearest" or somesuch - HA! And I remember being really impressed by the wind outside my bedroom window. All the autumn leaves blowing around the trees in our backyard. I might have been 4 or 5 then. It is odd how awareness seems to just turn on at some point in life. I wonder how it really works?

Well, I think it more likely to actually be the work of Alexander Hamilton or James Madison. I guess Washington, though a statesman through and through, wasn't particularly verbose or eloquent in speech, and often had others pen his proclamations for him. Also, if not actually an atheist (as some claim), he was certainly very tepid in his religious pursuits. I think so much of the references to God in his - and other contemporaries' - speeches was simply a matter of throwing red meat to the crowd. Good PR, but not very representative of his actual feelings.

Well, It keeps him off the streets I guess. And, being as how the sales of aluminum siding have fallen off so precipitously, what else is he gonna do with his time?

I guess I'm just a slob through and through. I can't hardly work up any indignation about this. They sorta tried to clean the glasses didn't they? Isn't that good enough? After having stayed in Phnom Penh where a 4-star hotel means they chase most of the snakes out of your room before you enter, the idea that maybe I should rinse out my glass before using it hardly strikes fear in my heart. Is this TV station having a dearth of controversy these days? I think maybe they're working too hard to try to stir something up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager These are some well-worn arguments. Not that there's anything wrong with that...