Galen

We grew up during the same era. I recall following along with a guy in jr high, who was molesting his younger sister. I have since thought back on that incident many times, in sorrow and horror at what terrible boys some of us were. While I never slipped any girl a 'mickey', it was also another part of our era. And once we began drinking, the idea of drinking a girl "under-the-table" so that the guy could have his way with her, was also a common thought. I saw it happen and I knew of many who were trying to do jsut that very thing at every party [or so it seemed]. I dont believe that I ever attempted such myself, but I dont think that I was nearly as hard-up as were others. A nice girl that I graduated highschool with [Lisa] has recently found me through googling, and so far catching up with her has been fun. Lisa and I dated briefly when we were seniors, it brought back a lot of memories for both of us. she had to remind me that when she hosted a graduation party at her house, I showed up with two girls [one on each arm]. I had to laugh as I honestly did not remember until she was describing it to me. In today's society many of these activities [which were fairly common] would today be felonys. Our society has changed a lot. As a male member of the society of the 70's, I do apologize for my participation in that behavior, and for it's effects on ladys.

That just can not be allowed. :) This is just one from among a few topics which can not be allowed without an angry crowd stomping on you. :) I too was a sinner.

Paw- Ever see chickens running free range when one of them is showing a wound? It does not have to be a real wound, just something that looks like a wound to the other chickens. :)

That is so wrong. I have no clue.

It was Hyman Rickover who insisted that everytime he addressed congress that he be provided with a pitcher of drinking water that had recently been taken from a nuclear reactor's coolant loop. He lived to 86 yr old, under his close supervision the Navy produced 199 nuclear-powered subs and 19 nuclear-powered surface-skimming target vessels. He insisted on personally interviewing every officer to serve onboard a nuclear-powered vessel, and to gain his approval each candidate had to meet his exacting and eccentric standards of personal integrity. He served under 13 presidents. What a screw-ball. :)

Each different design has it's own good and bad. But designing a plant to be cooled by a metal that is normally a solid, just seems dumb to me. Most of our plants 'melting down' really is not a issue. RO's get plenty of practice, and should they ever melt the liquid would just drop out into cubes underneath and cool down again. No big deal, regardless of what movie pictures would imply. :)

When we lived in Italy, we found that the idea of Jesus having been a husband and father is very commonly held. But I dont see what spiritual significance there could possibly be if someone did have a small portion of their ancestry coming from Jesus. Our spirituality and brotherhood with Christ is through grace and not through the lineage of our blood lines. :)

I am so glad that I have been able to firmly plant myself in your mind with such an image. Boobie Potty-Sprinkles

You know what they say about those: "Dippinlips" coming form the bad side of the tracks and all. But those: "Snicklepants" now they are just great. In fact wonderful folks. Every Snicklepants that I have ever known was truly a wonderful person, Loving, caring, and with a big heart. :)

Boobie Potty-Sprinkles??? hmm.

42. :)

Oh yes. We usually got along very well with everyone in each of our fellowships. Lots of love and helping each other, standing by one another and 'barn raising' [watching each others children, fixing each others cars, etc]. When I was told to make a copy. It was within the context of dealing with 'ring-knockers'. WC-grads who insisted that only WC-grads should be allowed to handle PFAL, would commonly wave their precious holy spirit dove rings in our face, as they went on about how spiritual they were. Or that only twigs who had WC-grads should be running PFAL. Or that if three twigs were all running PFAL at the same time and had to share the tapes, the WC-grads among them would skip the sequence and only share the tapes with their fellow ring-knockers. So any fellowship without WC-grad ring-knockers would intermittently get the sessions, while WC ran classes would get every session according to their schedule. Ring-knockers helping each other at the expense of Average Joe Believer twigs. :) I dont know why others would have been told by their Limb Coords to make and keep copies. that was why I was told to.

Lets see, 81 - 83 we ran a twig in Virginia. We were introduced to the Lally's once as the 'out-laying areas Twig', at the airport. Otherwise we would not have recognized each other on the sidewalk. We only ran a twig, we never actually met the Limb Coords, in person, nor saw them at any events. 83-84 we briefly shared a house with WC in Fresno California, but they did not really get along with other WC very well, but the Twig was great! 84-86 we ran a twig in Upper Lake California. Never saw a single WC the entire time. 86-87 back to Merced California, doing a Twig there. Ran some classes. did lots of things with other twigs, we were outside of their 'normal' branch outlines. For one 'do' we were in the Fresno branch, but for the next 'do' we were in the Modesto branch. Lots of times we did things with another twig in Snelling, or one in Mariposa. 'They' kept re-drawing lines, and changing stuff. Wanting us to run classes, but then saying that we could not run a class if we had no WC in the county. back and forth. bahh. Finally in Stockton, the Limb Coord told us to make copies of PFAL, so we would not have to fight for each each time we run a class. Then in 87 we moved to Scotland. Gartmore was nice to visit, but they did not want us Americans inside of their branch - twig structuring. So we were told to run independently. I tried to contact Ohio, what a zoo! I was told that I was the Country Coord 'for Americans living in Scotland' and to go through Military Outreach for classes and support. So we tried to contact Paul Norcross. Now I have never met Mr. Norcross, but my experiences in the military were very limited [1976 - 2001]. But I did manage to get him on the phone, and was told to try again with Gartmore. At the time, I did not want to be using our personal copy of PFAL, as I felt that PFAL should have been handled via the Way Tree. Chris Kent came to our twig and visited twice. The second time he came to visit he brought PFAL with him, but he began to back out from our agreement that he would hand over PFAL to me to run for our twig. Some of the believers in our twig laid hands on Chris Kent and physically convinced him to go along with his previous agreement to allow us to use his copy of PFAL to run a class in our Twig. I guess that while in Scotland we were kind of 'stranded'. But it did not really occur to us that it was any different than it had been previously. When we returned stateside in 1991, and took over a twig in Connecticut. It was obvious that something had happened to The Way Ministry. But it took a while to learn what had occurred. I guess that we were just too busy running a fellowship, to notice. :)

There are numerous churches that have very convincing debates about the old-age of Patriarchal men. Some animals were collected in sevens and not just in twos. Genesis claims that there was an Earth before the Garden of Eden, and it appears to have be populated with something. If some of that life left fossil record, okay. :)

Krysilis- Okay. I have been using Military bases. For stitches anywhere that I can not reach I go on base to the ER. I learned long ago that if I can reach the wound, I am better off to put in the stitches myself. After all as an Electronic Tech I have just as much training in putting in stitches as the 18yr old corpsman that would put them in if I went to the ER. The last time was this little girl who was shaking so bad, her knees were shaking, my head was down between her knees and I had to hold her knees to keep them from shaking so bad, while she tried to pull the two sides of my scalp back towards each other they would hold the stitching. Once after that I did go in for a slice on the bottom of my foot, but after seeing the reaction form the corpsmen, I wnet home and did it myself. Every year they want to take pictures of my ulcer, so I have to schedule an appointment with the base Ob-Gyn. Apparently Ob-Gyns are the only guys who get to play with the camera they use. It is a 4 foot long garden-hose with a camera inside it’s end. I have to swallow this thing, so they can get it down to my duodenal ulcer and take pictures. I commonly make jokes, asking about where he has been poking the thing and into what dark hole was it in last? But that appointment is cool, as it always gets me in to see a doctor who has been to college. A year and a half ago when Bonnie had her heart attack she was in the Cardiac ward of the local civilian hospital, her ‘cardiologist’ was a Navy doctor. A real one who had gone to college. that was rare. From my retirement until this past November I was on Tricare Standard which did not cost me anything. I could walk right into any military hospital, and sit and wait for an appointment cancellation. Anytime a servicemember canceled his appointment, they would call for the next waiting retiree to come up and be seen. Or sometimes I could be seen after hours when the night duty staff got done with their dinner. If you go to a civilian doctor with Tricare Standard, you need to find a doctor that will take it [most will not] and you need to call Tricare first to tell you that they will allow it. When I first returned stateside, the VA sent me a letter telling me that they had appointed a primary care physician, and that my first appointment was on such-such a day. I called them, and later I went, but as I told them I was still going to see the corpsmen on base so I did not need a VA doctor. They billed me $12.50 for calling their office, and again they billed me $12.50 for having the appointment. From what I could tell every time that I called or walked into a VA hospital they were going to bill me $12.50 We seem to have gotten them to stop sending us letters now, but we ended up with eight separate billings for $12.50 each before they lost our address. Last November, I went to NAS Brunswick to get a new script written. The desk told me to wait, and the other retirees waiting told me that they had too many active duty to get to us retirees. No availability! But I was welcome to sit and wait with them. I went to the Tricare office there, and was told that Tricare underwrites with a local HMO called: Martin’s Point and that there is a HMO medical center near our new home. I paid $460 for one year enrollment. http://www.martinspoint.org/documents/USFH...berHandbook.pdf I checked in December and they had not gotten the paperwork to the correct cubicle yet. Come January they had gotten it, but it was not during the right period for enrollment, but come the end of January I got a call for setting up our first appointment, and mid-February Bonnie and I both had our first appointments. I saw a real doctor [it was an adult lady from Georgia Russia] and she wrote scripts for my ulcer and cholesterol. She had gone to college and everything like any real civilian doctor does. Unfortunately one of the drugs are non-formulary so not covered by the HMO drug coverage. The other two drugs were covered and I paid $3 for a month’s script and $9 for the other month’s script. At the local drug store I got my ulcer meds for cash. Thank you.

Brand new current boxed-set curriculum for homeschooling a child through any grade-level can be had for $150 per grade-level. In Connecticut [where I lived recently] the average amount of 'public monies' spent on education is $8500 per child per year. Here in Maine they spend closer to around $8400 per child per year. Are children from either of these states any better educated? do they have any better college entrance scores? Sadly no. Money can to thrown at education, and in the process: teachers, school administrators, janitors and even computer geeks can all have nice pay raises and benefit packages. But historically [since we began this 'public funded schooling'] funding had no direct correlation to education levels nor to intelligence of children. Two of my own grandparents taught in one-room grammar schools, both of my parents were taught in such manner. but that was before the Great Depression and the 'New World Era', and personal income taxes, and Social Security. So what next? Want to discuss 'free' national health care? I have Federal government provided healthcare, want to hear about how well that works? LOL, I advise that you truly dont want to spend money on that idea either. :)

Yes paying the salarys of servicemembers is a lot, it is a good thing that we have maintained our military at the same levels, rather then allowing it to swell. Most of the money that goes to civilians, is going to US companys so we are keeping most of even that portion in the US. So it is supporting US servicemembers and their familys, and US companys [who pay taxes] and their employees [who pay taxes].

I still tithe. Just as I was taught as a young lad in my hometown Baptist church. This past summer, the local Baptist church in near by Bangor did a series on tithing. Their teachings did not stop at 10 % either. That is why we are leaning more towards the Mennonites now. :)

I have no doubt. Your description of WC sounds about right. As for the fellowships, ... there are other ministrys even today that still do that. :) Bless you.

Thank you, sir. Glad to hear that we were not the only ones. :)

In my lodge, when a petition is first submitted. It is read aloud in open lodge. We all have the opportunity to discuss the petitioner. Then a committee is appinted to investigate him. Their job is to 'investigate', and to meet with the petitioner and ask him some questions face-to-face, and finally to read a certain statement to him to prepare him to what is to come. Then the investigating committee reports back in open lodge, the results of their investigation. Again the entire lodge has the opportunity to discuss the petitioner. Then the ballot box is prepared and passed around, by the senior deacon. Then the ballot box is read, first by the Junior Warden, then by the Senior Warden, and finally by the Master of the Lodge; and together they declare what the condition of the ballot was. Whether it was found to be: "Fair, Clear and Bright", or Foul Cloudy and Bitter" Any information that you have found is to be relayed to the lodge, for them to read and make judgement, before they ballot. White cube or black ball. :)

Perhaps our experiences differed greatly. Being mostly in twig areas with no WC, in most areas that Bonnie and I were in, we were able to encourage folks to read their own Bibles. We kept a glass jar in public view and when questions arose about doctrine, or anything that we really did not feel that we could comfortably discuss in biblical detail. We wrote the question out on a slip of paper and put it in the jar. Whatever topic we were working on, as soon as we were done, someone would pick another slip of paper out from the jar. The first few times, we walk through doing a word-study on a simple word used ten times. Then: "Lets all do word-studies on 'X' and anyone who finds something interesting can share it next week." or "these are all the uses of 'X', if you take the first twenty, I will take the second twenty, and on until everyone is included and all verses are looked at. Everyone just remember to read the context and look for clues in the context that describe the meaning of the word. then next week, we will take turns and review what we have found, to compile it into a single definition of this word, or into categories of definitions." We once did a very lengthy and involved study on all aspects of marriage and family life. We looked up every word translated father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wive, concubine, kin, etc. It took our twig months. I went out to sea with all the notes, and spent months underwater trying to compile it into a single thesis paper. In our last fellowship where we ran PFAL, our last one was on 'dishonesty'. It kind of broke up the fellowship. One couple insisted that it was a silly word to look at. "Everyone knows what dishonest is". As it turns out, did you know that the Author of the Bible only uses the terms for 'dishonest' in the context of business dealings? Never in personal dealings, and never when someone 'mis-represented' through leaving out information. Only when talking about business. Hmm. :)

Dear sweat coolwaters; Be violent and get sent into the military? come on now! What makes you think that the military would ever want someone who's mental discernment capabilities can not allow that person to keep out of fights? To give someone a weapon, the military needs to know that said person is capable to holding the weapon and caring for it, without the using it. Without the need or compulsion to get into fights with his fellow squad members. To say 'lets throw all homicidal maniacs into the army', the army can not use a person like that. The army would place that person into a federal prison, far away from weapons, and far away from the ability of killing his friends. I do thank you for the implication that all military members are uncontrollable violent people. I served over 20 years on active duty in the Navy. I have seen crewmen get into fights, in 20 years I can think of two. Let me tell you what happens. When someone finally 'cracks', and throws a punch. Whoever threw the punch gets separated, they are referred to counseling, and a formal written statement is put into their file. Two of these incidents and they will go before the Commanding Officer for NJP [either a fine, or imprisonment, or reduced-rations, or bread-and-water, or any combination of the above]. If someone throws a punch at you, and you respond then you are also guilty of fighting. One person can 'crack' and fight; and then that one person will be 'in trouble', if two people are seen fighting then both are in trouble. There is no excuse of "I was defending myself", either you were fighitng or you were not fighting. I served 14 years on submarines, we did have firearms and we did arm our topside watchstanders; but before arming anyone we need to be well assured that each watchstander was in full control of themselves. we were also in control of many nuclear missiles [orbital platforms each capable of launching multiple warheads], as well as torpedos. I also served 6 years doing Law Enforcement. I carried a loaded pistol, drove a MP car and responded to: traffic accidents, robberies, break-ins, rapes, and murders, etc. If any MP has ever had in his record an incident of domestic violence he can never again have access to weapons [by federal law]. If he shows any indication that he is not in full control of himself, or if he presents any danger to others around him; then I can not issue him a firearm. We did walk into fights, we had to separate fighters and take them into custody, without becoming fighters ourselves. We did have to respond to fire-fights, but we also had to maintain a level head and evaluate who was firing and who was innocent bystanders. I assure you that the vast majority of military personnel are not 'violent' people. and if you have any great tendency to be violent, then your likely going to prison, even in the military. :)

Maybe I am ?

Lots of cool stories came out of having so many believers on boats. If sonar picks up an enemy combatant nearby and 'patrol-quite' needs to be shifted to 'ultra-quite' it is done via the sound-powered phones to all watch-standers. Maintenance being done by off-watch personnel is halted and they are sent to bed. We look around to ensure that nobody is wearing hard-soled shoes [but realistically nobody does anyway]. Only watch-standers know about it, but it is assumed that as they 'see' others they will tell them. The issue is that if someone is using the library, for a 'private' ceremony or worship service, they will not hear about the shift to 'ultra-quite', there are no watch-standers in the ship's library. Boats are normally rather quite places anyway. 'underwater comms' mangles the sounds of speech a lot. some syllables will echo, others will not. Experienced 'underwater phones' operators speak in a rhythm, one syllable at a time, slow and distinct. Otherwise it gets garbled and nobody can understand. Unless someone was speaking in that kind of speech, and it was amplified through the hull, it would be difficult to imagine it being understood onboard another vessel. :) Great I am sorry that I missed him, perhaps if I had stayed on active-duty a bit longer I would have eventually met the man. :)