Galen

I did not know who she was, until I googled her name. I have seen this 'Lindsay Lohan' in Freaky Friday. She seemed fairly attractive. Most guys would not throw her out of bed for eating crackers. So what is the problem. I think that teenage boys would watch her in movies, the more so if she actually had large breasts. I generally think that large breasts often tend to make most women more attractive. I am certain that any movie showing her with larger breasts would be seen often onboard submarines. Again and again and again till we puke. And if she was jumping up and down, crews would burnout the DVD players cycling on that scene. :-)

Raf and krysilis: The Story is 'set' in South Africa. I have never been to S.A. Though from what I have read, it is a different culture than ours. To purport this attitude among men and women here in America is entirely out of place. Though unfortunately just about any discussion we have about rape ends in someone being insulted. In either case, S.A. does sound like a place that I would truly not desire to live. :-)

We recently got a 'quote' from a General contractor who owns and operates his own sand/gravel yard. [This is an older white-haired man, whose son I had been speaking with and I had thought that the son ran the company, but I may have been in error]. The work in question is to build a 350 foot driveway, dig and clear out a site for a building foundation at the end of the driveway, to make a septic field, and to install a septic 'lift station' and buried plumbing running 250 feet from the foundation back to the septic field. I have the building permit from LURC [the local state forestry guys], and engineer signed plans for the foundation, and a soil engineer's signed plans for the septic field. The site is in forest lands, has a very slight slope maybe 2 degrees over all, there is some standing water everywhere. Now this Gen. Contractor says that if his crews do the driveway, septic field, site-work and lift-station; his fee will be $23k. If I do the labor, he will provide all materials, and equipment for me to use, and he will advise me / over-see my work along the way to keep me from making mistakes and doing this he will charge me $12k. He says that this driveway will need at least 18 inches of ledge and gravel before it will support the heavy machinery. And the site will need to be dug down 4 feet, before it can be filled back in and brought up maybe three feet above the current grade, so the house-site will be above the surrounding grade and will provide run-off away from the site. Now this is outside of my expertise. And he says of himself: "I know dirt". Does this guys quotes sound right?

Once in 1979-ish I took a college course for EMT, down in Virginia. And during that course I do recall they said that the coke bottle-vacuum plug does happen and that ambulance crews see it routinely among teenage females. Just break the bottom of the bottle and it will immediately release [Either drilling a hole in the bottom of the bottle, or sawing through the bottle will keep the shattering glass at a minimum]. :-) I have never seen such personally. I was standing gate guard once, late at night, when two ladys drove up and asked If I would release their hand-cuffs. One lady was wearing only a bedsheet and those hand-cuffs. They told a story of 'party' that got out of control, and that one lady had smuggled the other out of the party before she got hurt, but that she still had these hand-cuffs on. I was a gentleman.

First: let me say that I am entirely against 'rape', and that I fully support all efforst to prosecute anyone guilty of violent rape. Second: Ladies please forgive the ignorance of an old sailor. I hear things, I think I understand but it is alwasy possible that I do not understand. Okay so dont yell at me. Thank you. Now I have always heard rumours, or perhaps 'Urban legends' of ladies who have stuffed things up inside themselves and later forgotten them. Old tampons, etc, And that thsoe items if left in place for long periods of time, will rot and that the lady will possibly have an infection. It this tube were left in place, could it possibly cause an infection? Now I find it difficult to imagine there being room to stuff too many things up inside a lady, let alone forget about them. But such 'legends' suggest that such is possible. If this thing was left in there, wouldn't a tampon get stuck inside of too? If this thing [a hollow tube] is in her, then to get it out again you would also need to stay outside of the tube, correct? [since the inside of the tube is lined with barbs] :-) Gentlemen inspect your garages before parking your vehicle.

I would not worry about it. I have named names since first visiting GraseSpot Cafe when I was on EzBoards. Yes I know that some will say otherwise, but have it is not slander if it is your honest testimony to what happened to you. Each SOB that screwed me, I name [if I can recall their names], and everytime that I read someone else' post about one of those guys, I jump in with my testimony. No body has booted me off GS yet. :-) [Thanks Paw your so cool!!!}

Hammeroni: "I have DREAMED of the day the former limb guy here walks up to "witness" to me in a public setting, heh heh." Wouldn't that be fun :-) "But I never received any of these famed letters of threat. Probably was far enough outside of the inner circle that they thought it might get them in trouble." Same here, we were overseas when it happened. When we returned stateside in 1990 [that time] we did briefly coordinate a twig with two WC couples who had both received letters demanding their loyalty oaths. One WC couple had not signed, and was suspended for not signing. The second WC couple had signed, but was suspended because the woman had married a non-WC sailor. [she insisted that at the time they had dated and married she did not know he was a sailor. After 2 years of marriage, he was transfered to Groton. She made a big deal that, she did not realize that he was in the military and she did not understand why he was being transfered when TWI had not given the orders.] Because it was a 'mixed' marriage and he was not about to desert from the Navy or 'refuse' his military orders to Groton, they were 'suspended' from active status. Both couples were assigned to attend my Twig, as there was no other Twigs at this end of the state, apparantly I was the only fellowship option that the LC had. I would attend the Twig Coord. meetings like once a month [though I think they had the meetings weekly for the TCs who lived local to the Limb and could better suck-up to him]. While all four of those WC guys were supposed to go to WC nights every week. They hated traveling to Limb. And they openly disliked how poorly they were being treated. Having to attend a fellowship ran by a non-WC, just burned them up [rightly ticked them off, heh heh]. They did call Limb a lot of fink on me, for whatever they thought I was doing wrong. It was always some junk that never had anything to do with the beleivers in the fellowship, so Bonnie and I were able to continue ministering to the beleivers, so it was not too bad. This lasted until 1993 when I was thrown out again, for performing weddings. :-)

ex10: "... I guess it's easy for those who didn't know VP, to paint him as a total villian." I think that labeling and stuffing into a box is just the easiest thing to do, so that some people dont have to invest time thinking about such a paradox. I did not know VPW. I dont think he was a 'total villian'. From what I have read here on GS about him, I see that he was a very complicated man. Obviously a villian to some, and a prophet to others. A man of: "... his kindness, ... his insight, ... he was horrible, ... kind and generous" All in one. :-)

BettyBoop: Just to clarify things, were these 'leaders' WC or were they Joe Believer Twig-Coordinators. :-)

"I don't know why" would be more than acceptable to me. And I'd still not blame God, or the Bible. Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? :-)

'WC leadership' would normally come around each year, soon after the annual placements, to 'visit' the twigs [assuming that they could find them]. This was the only time that they usually ever met the followers and learned their names. It was certainly the only time they ever came around to 'visit'. Otherwise you were generally 'safe', until the annual Limb Meeting, where the WC did all their recrutiment for WOW and WC. Outside of those two annual occasions our Twig members were generally safe from any WC knowing them or being able to recognize them on the street. Unless I attended a Twig Coordinator's Meeting [often a monthly branch level meeting, but some times a Limb level ordeal, and in later years they held these things weekly] and if I volunteered my people's names. Then I dont see how the WC would ever know who those people were. Or if I was stupid enough to volunteer what problems some couple was having. Then WC could have knowledge. But to me, such was none of their business. I would not violate what I would consider 'lock-box'. Just because some demanding bone-head wore a WC ring. Maybe it was just my training via the military, but a secret is a secret. And as such only people who have some effect on it, or who must know so that they can do their jobs, should ever be told. Functioning as a minister, in a fellowship, if those people feel safe to confide in me, then great. If they dont that is okay too. But should I violate that trust, why would they ever trust me again? :-)

A poll with one choice? Okay. 'No' I have performed over a dozen marriages, within our various fellowships and as many more with unbelievers outside of our fellowship [generally fellow servicemembers where I was serving as the Protestant Lay-Leader]. Of the couples that I 'married': one couple later ended in divorce, the majority of them are still together. Must have been 'good' glue. I have counseled many men who were dealing with the outcome of divorce. Some of them, a few, it was 'during' the divorce proceedings. Mostly it was always long after the divorce had been finalized, when the husband learned of the divorce. We have counseled one female about divorce. She has of that one couple that I had married that later divorced. She was in sontinuous contact with us, immediately after the wedding. Then we lost contact with her for a few years, then when we resumed communications with her, she was already divorced. We did give her counsel in dealing with life after a divorce. In her case, she did meet and eventually marry a different man. Bonnie attended her second wedding nnd was among the bride's maids. I dont recall ever counseling anyone to get a divorce. I will have to ask Bonnie to see if I am spacing someone. "... was a twig leader i was instructed by leader**** to encourage divorce to a couple in our twid i did do this and they divorced." I lead fellowships, both at sea and in our home. I was a twig coordinator. I dont recall any leadership instructing us regarding anyone's divorce, or marriage. Once a LC did loan me TWI's course on performing weddings. I still have a copy. I did have a couple dis-agreements with WC concerning which couples I should be performing the ceremony for. And I have posted long detailed descriptions of each WC and what idiots they were at the time.

Well you know that Hubbard's writings, while they were marketed as Sci-Fi, are visions of life away from this prison planet. 'They' consider Hubbard's novels to be non-fiction. So tell us more about these two egg-heads wandering in the desert, did the aliens probe them? Inquiring minds want to know.

dmiller: "How much did you have with you?" I dont know exactly, I stopped at NAS Brunswick to stock up for the next couple weeks, I spent a few days [maybe a week] driving North slowly, looking at properties for sale and talking to realtors. When I crossed the border, I only went across for the day, I wanted to get back to looking at more properties. I remember having an open 1/2 gallon of rum, and a couple other bottles, probably a fifth of Everclear, and a fifth of whiskey. "... I could leave the box with them, and they would gladly return it to me on my return trip -- although they couldn't guarantee that it would weigh the same when I came back to claim it." That was nice of them.

LOL I crossed the border at Calais last summer a couple times. The border patrol gave me grief about how much rum I was carrying in my car. And this guy gets to have a blood soaked chainsaw? Wow.

I have an old high school friend [John] who went into Scientology. He and I have spoken about our respective belief systems numerous times [well in the mid-1980s we did]. Scientology openly re-programs your brain to think differently. John was 'licensed' to operate their lie detector and to 'clear' a person. Under hypnosis they use a very sensitive lie-detector to determine when a subject has an issue with some idea or area of doctrine. Then they have very elaborate wall charts that layout exactly where you fit, and through a long series of these sessions they can walk you through each area where you disagree with scientology's doctrine, to get you to the point where you are at the next level. You see 'Earth' is a prison planet. Everyone living here was sentenced to be here to live through an endless series of re-incarnations until they have finally worked through whatever their crime was. Everyone on Earth was convicted of either sexual perversions, crimes against the empire or they are simply too smart, too intelligent to be allowed to mingle in common society. Most of those who scientology has recruited interestingly enough were all of the 'too intelligent' variety. Within scientology there are many 'levels'. The wall charts show that for each specific category of personality there are 'ranges'. Where you fit in these ranges determines where you are overall in your progress through re-incarnations toward your final release from the prison. For each level of each category where you fit, you can take additional sessions to move yourself 'up' on the charts. If you can finally get every category up to the top of your chart, then you can graduate on to the next wall chart. Many times you can not fully appreciate and learn to overcome a given weakness or depravity, until you have put yourself into that place, and lived in that lowest level of depravity, only after that can you grow through it to be able to go higher on the charts. To first walk in, and allow a trained operator to remove all societal prejudices from your mind makes you a 'clear'. Once you have finished with the first wall chart, in all areas of personality you become a 'Thetan'. I do not know of the levels above 'Thetan', as John did not tell me. John did tell me however, that all Laws of Mankind of Laws of Earthly governments are not indicative of rights or wrongs. They do not teach that anything is 'right' or 'wrong'. You have to consider what you are doing and if caught that you will likely be punished. If you sit in a jail for ten years, you are wasting those ten years, and not progressing up on the chart-levels. So they do focus on staying out of jail, or at least moving around enough so that they are aware of what is illegal where they are currently located. John is in a secret ‘spin-off’ group. They believe that the leaders of Scientology have become corrupted, and so some of them have been secretly working with each other to exceed their appropriate levels. ….. As a complete outsider, he does call me from time to time, to ask advice or use me as a sounding board, since I know none of his superiors I can not get him into trouble. What bothered me was their lack of absolute rights and wrongs. To hurt a friend, might inhibit getting help from that friend in the future, but hurting someone in itself, is not a wrong, and their concern is primarily about avoiding detection from the Law Enforcement Community. PS. When John had an odd youth. When he was 10, his father came home and shot his mother, his two younger sisters and John ran out of the home, before his father finally shot himself. The sisters lived, though his parents did not. I knew the three of them, as they lived with their grandmother, while they went through highschool. I always got the impression that living through such did have some effect on john. John was the second person to ever shoot at me. Well I should say the first guy used a shotgun, and fired over my head. John shot at me with a rifle while we were camping, he had gotten mad at me and was upset that he had not won an arguement. :-)

Yes ??? Meaning that people frequently are very 'proud' of their heritage, even when in honesty very little could ever be found to brag about their culture. But you knew that. ;-)

simonzelotes: "Galen,where are you getting your financing where you put no money down?...Does it have to be owner/occupied,like HUD,or something like that?" 'First Time Home Owners Loan' through FHA, I beleive that Fanny-Maes also do them. We have always bought 'slums' in low income neighborhoods. Owner-occupied, and once we even had to sign a contract that for the first year we would only rent to 'low income' families [we rented to military and they were well below the 'low income' limits]. So long as you only own one property in that state, then you qualify as a 'first-time home-owner'. We have done it in Ca, and Ct, and Wa. We did get a HUD loan once. It was a loan to make repairs with. Our neighborhood was under some Federal designation so that owner-occupied MFRs could get funding to make repairs with. They gave us $50k, we brought in a Fire Marshall, building inspector, and Housing Inspector; made one combined list of repairs, and they supervised completion of those repairs. We made payments on 50% of the loan, over 5 years. After we paid 50% of the money back [at zero interest], then we waited an additional 5 years and they removed the lien. So in total they gave us the money to make $50k in repairs, and we only had to repay $25k. HUD is cool. I think that HUD also required that we rent to 'low income' folks. No sweat. "...Out here,most investment properties,including 'seller financing' usually want 20% down..Even if you get the seller to carry the 20% down payment and a bank to finance the rest,..." Same here. [here? I mean East coast and West Coast that is] "...Plus,I've found that interest rates are higher for second properties,unless,of course,you can show the lender that you really don't need the loan in the first place..." I dont know. By there stndards, I have never owned a 'second' property, that needed financing. :-) Each time that we have done it, we were looking at our new 'Primary home'. It is weird how each industry has and uses a different vocabulary. To the banks, the primary home may well be where I am currently recieving mail. To the IRS, they focus on where you sleep >180 days of each year. :-)

GrouchoMarxJr: "Yes...I heard that stuff with my own ears. Veepee down playing the holocost, embracing nazi ideologies, and yes, stating that we were on the wrong side in WW11." As I stated previously I do see that so totally out of place, considering his ancestry. "When you think about it, the lofty position of power and influence that Wierwille had was not far from being a nazi tyrant...He took great pride in his German ancestory... I have seen many people who are proud of their ancestry. Is that a bad thing? Immediately after this last return stateside, I was surprized each time I heard someone saying that they were proud of being an Italian. I was commonly asking people what part of it they were 'proud' of. I even offended a few here on GS. Having lived in that culture, I was very much amazed at their 'distasteful' habits. The Police brutality; the levels of urine in their city drinking water; the complete lack of women's Rights; their insistance on blood-retributions; and the fact that anyone of them will sale their wife, mother, sister or daughter to you for a pack of Marlboros. No, I was wrong. Everyone should be able to be proud of their heritage. The more so for those who grew up in America, and only heard storys about their native country from their relatives. :-)

A week ago, I posted a thing on a different BBS that I frequent. It kind of goes along with this discussion so I will paste it here too. You may find this interesting: :-)

lindyhopper: "... But the normal wear and tear won't be much." Okay fine. :-) We have seen that when we live in the premises, the 'normal wear and tear' is less. When we live elsewhere the 'normal wear and tear' is more. "Youngs rule of being a landlord Number 1" clearly states that: resident landlords make less repairs, and renters 'feel' safer and more secure. Fortunately it is all a write-off. :-) "... She told us the going rate for a place such as our in our neighborhood was still more." You are fortunate. "... Its not rented yet, but I think we have a few bites and it should go soon." "Youngs rule of being a landlord number 2": The higher you set your rent, the longer you wait for renters and the quicker they will leave. As you set your rates lower than the 'going norm' your units fill faster and the renters stay longer. :-) Just trying to help.

It has been my understanding that VPW's family were German Immigrants. They spoke German in their homes, and thus taught it to their children. It was fairly obvious to me, that VPW highly respected the Germans, and he spoke of making trips to Germany to review manuscripts held there in various museums. It is also my understanding that among Germans living in Germany during WWII, as well as among Germans living abroad; that a general 'disbelief' has been held by a majority of them regarding the claims of the 'holocaust'. Germans living in Germany simply did not believe that they own countrymen had done such horrible deeds. Germans living abroad knew their cousins, their friends, their grandparents still living in Germany and as such refused to believe that their relatives and friends had fell to such depravities. As time goes on, and more proofs and first-hand testimonies and the pictures and documents of both; the 'medical' experimentations and the mass killings have been published: it seems obvious that ALL Germans everywhere must eventually come to terms with what their own countrymen did during WWII. Even if that coming to terms, is only to blame it all upon the 'Nazi' party and what the party-leadership told them to do. To me, looking at VPW teaching in the 60's and 70's; I don’t have a difficult time understanding and even empathizing with his point of view. He had been there, his parents and grandparents no doubt often spoke of relatives and friends in Germany. He was raised to highly respect his country of origin. To attempt to explain it all away, or blame it all on a hoax; to me would only be 'natural', until the point eventually where he and his relatives could all finally settle in their minds that yes he own relatives could have done such. Make a trip there even today and you kind of wonder; "Gee, there walks an old man with a limp, I wonder what injuries he sustained during the war, I wonder what his role was in it all". :-)

Change six, revision 3; Eric is going.

lindyhopper: "Where you make the money is in equity and resale." I agree with the first part. You do make good money in terms of the equity. A business that costs me nothing to start, nothing to run, that provides my family with a home to live in and builds equity is not bad, add to that the fabulious tax-sheltering and now you really have something. We sold the California property [my parents were co-signers and they wnat me to buy them out or sale. Buying them out would mean that I have to pay them 1/2 of the accumulated equity, I had no money. So we sold.] The washington place was costing us a fortune in management and repairs, without beign there to fix it myself it was losing too much money, so we sold it. Now we just cashed out the equity that we built in this place, and use that money to buy our new Maine property and I will spend most of this summer up there building. I dont see profit in resale. I do know that many say there is profit in resale, but when we talk about the details of their 'profit' often they break even on the expense of the repairs that they made, or they only clear a little and it gets taxed unless you roll-it-over in 'like' property. Bahh!! There is just no good tax angle to resale. "... We are in the process of renting it out and I would say we should still make money on it off of the rent for a few years. It is in good condition, so it won't need a lot of repairs for now." Not making repairs each year? Ouch that will bite you. "... We have a management company that is doing the leg work for us right now and they will do all the dirty work when it is needed." You are paying someone else? AND making a profit WOW !!! Very well done. That is rare. :-)

laleo: "Thanks, Galen." Your welcome. "... The part that surprises me is that you live in one of your units. So when you had all those foster kids, were you in an apartment?" We we ahve really gotten used to living in apartments though, we ahve done it for so long now. It is kind of different when you own them though. :-)