Rocky

By design (not mine). It will take more than simply "contacting" them. Persistence is a necessary virtue (skill, perhaps?).

Have you (RR and Dooj) set a date?

Last week I read news reports about BofA losing $200 million in the last quarter of 2009. I'm not sure why or how they did that but I do know that BofA has systematically been fraudulently charging outrageous late fees and overdraft fees based on highly improper timing schemes related to depositing checks into accounts and then not making the amounts of those deposits available to write checks against. I know one local contractor here in the Phoenix area that was hit with nearly $1000 in such fees based on only one such incident (one deposit he made, several checks that he wrote against those funds). I also read in 2009 that BofA had been successfully sued in southern Arizona for improperly charging those fees for quite a few customers. So, my hunch is that your problem IS systemic in that bank.

Just be careful it doesn't become YOUR worst nightmare... (or even WURST nightmare!!)

Was that a Freudian slip?

groan

Happy Birthday to our brother Tom Strange! :)

To AVOID crap????????????????????? good grief.

Michael Trauscht who was (and still is) an attorney in Tempe, AZ. http://www.manta.com/c/mm3tmgv/michael-e-trauscht-law-office

:) Thanks Z! And OnionEater!

:) Thanks everybody... been hangin out at facebook.

And we you... (I speak -- at least -- for myself). :)

From the descriptions given by OldSkool... I'd say that the association of those people with TWI defense attorneys is right on the mark. Now, I understand the term "cult experts" as used here are indicative of the poster's impressions. My hunch is that those people were human resources consultants. Clearly, TWI had much more of a legal problem with labor law compliance than what was alleged in the lawsuit by the Allens. Rather than indicative of a cult, per se, that kind of problem with managing human resources is very common in American corporate life... including in government agencies. Perhaps ESPECIALLY in government agencies. Because every organization that functions because of the labor of workers is under stress (pressure) to get as much effort/productivity out of the individual(s) for the least possible amount of wages/salary they have to pay. I worked in a large state government agency longer than anywhere else in my working career. Where most organizations rely on its workers simply not understanding (and therefore unable to assert) their rights as employees, TWI took it a step further by having the sacrifice narrative, appealing to a noble goal. Does anyone remember how that ties in to Dale Carnegie's book (How to Win Friends and Influence People)?

but don't forget that TODAY (Nov 4) is LCMs birthday... ;)

Btw, some months ago (maybe a year or so ago) JAL tried his hand at posting a blog on the WC site. The notable thing IMO to that blog is the tone he took. The majority of the members of that site were/are at least 50 years old. Yet JAL was writing (preaching/teaching) as if he was talking to new recruits or young people just setting out to find their path in life. We were all (or most?) at that place in our lives sometime... but how MANY years ago!!!??? Needless to say, since none of the people who read that blog post were newbies, there was plenty of feedback. And it wasn't all sweetness and thankfulness for JAL's kindness in sharing his wisdom with us. Many of the comments were calling him out for being so pompous. It wasn't long before Mr. Lynn just stopped responding to the "confrontation." After all, we were not being "meek" to the "truth" he was setting before us. John Lynn IS gifted. He's gifted as a performer, an entertainer. His video clip hawking the SAT prep class demonstrates that he can effectively use words and body language to communicate concepts such that the listener/audience will retain the message after the performance is finished. But just like sincerity is no guarantee for truth (after all, Wierwille convinced all of us he was sincere, didn't he?), so too is it true that being a gifted entertainer/communicator is no guarantee for truth.

I understand he HAS a job... teaching SAT prep classes. Someone had posted a sample video of it on the WC site some months ago.

The CRIME of "Threatening and Intimidating" is, in many instances a felony. Arizona Criminal Code on Threatening or Intimidating Arizona Revised Statutes cover this in Title 13 (Criminal Code), in Chapter 12 (Assault and related offenses). In other words, legally speaking, it is considered violent crime.

Isn't "having [a] fundamental Christian belief..." different from a fundamentalist approach to Christianity? As for me and my house, we will reject fundamentalism of any kind....

I'll give you a hearty AMEN to that, brother! :)

I would be surprised if ANYone here who considered themselves "followers of The Way" failed to recognize many of those things in their experience with twi.

here?

Good post, skyrider... tnks for bringing it back up here. :)

As penworks mentioned, a large part of it is a sense of belonging... For me, it is key to understanding our experience for me to keep in mind that many young adults "explore" various types of spiritual experiences. It's a very vulnerable time and TWI (by far) wasn't the only group to aim marketing efforts at that need. btw, I've written out some of my additional thoughts (elsewhere) on my experience with the WC social site... I'm going to sit on that for a bit, then decide how much I'll post here. While I have criticisms of the way that site is now being run, I'm not a victim of anything and don't want to sound like it. :)

NO... this is significantly different from what those who wanted in but weren't allowed in either experienced or didn't experience. Your "I told you so" (yes, you did communicate that) completely misses the point. But I don't care one way or the other. Of course, most of US were those inexperienced kids when we first became followers of wierwille...

Surprise? Well, that's relative. Compared to what I thought in 2007, yes. However, compared to how I saw it develop over the last six months, no. I'll expound later. :)