Rocky

And let's not forget, for those who still would like to find people who they know who may have been in the way corps, FACEBOOK is an excellent platform for finding people. Many of the people on the WC site are also on FACEBOOK. And Dan Haas has also started a FACEBOOK group to facilitate connections for people who were (and/or still are) in TWI.

Nothing's up with it. In some ways similar to GS, but in plenty of other ways different. No one is anonymous there. Not everyone hates TWI, Wierwille and/or Martindale. It has a chat feature. Each member has his/her own page. The forums are not about controversial topics, but each member can have blogs, pics, music, and/or video. Member blogs cover many topics, some controversial. Some members extol the virtues of Wierwille's teachings, some make it clear why they no longer associate with TWI. There's really not much more to it than that. Excie is certainly free to express her opinion about it, even so far as to do so on her page on that site. But if there are genuine, legitimate concerns, the owners/administrators invite feedback so that if reasonable, do-able changes can be made, they would be made.

Echo! (I like that word better than "ditto" these days).

Me too, but LindaZ's point is well taken... wikipedia is NOT good to use as a SOLE source. IF you need to rely on anything you read on wikepedia, verify it with other sources.

I'd take that!

How much does a card like that cost?

Perhaps the plethora of questions simply is a statement of how ridiculous your posts on this subject are. btw, why is this political discussion taking place here?

Nonsense. The ONLY fact is that YOU BELIEVE President Obama is a socialist. Even IF your statement that "a man is defined by his actions" were true and/or applicable to this, it is not YOUR interpretation of his actions that would define President Obama one way or the other.

Excellent questions. However, I would counsel you to not hold your breath waiting for OM to answer... my hunch is he would have an extremely difficult time even allowing himself to become consciously aware of the ramifications of his political and economic beliefs as to how they would (mis)align with Godly wisdom/concepts.

While you are obviously free to decide what to do about anything I post, I remain free to ask questions. Frankly, the asking of the questions (specifically as done last night) in and of itself provides food for thought for any reader wishing to consider. Your failure to reply responsively goes directly to my (implied) point that it's all in your irrational imagination anyway... that is, unless you explain otherwise what might actually be genuine tyranny of which you refer.

Please describe: the impact this newly imposed "tyranny" has had on you personally. your understanding of the ramifications, in as much detail as you can, of allowing AIG to "go Chapter 11," on the American economy and life in general. your decision processes that allow you to decide in favor of said ramifications, instead of in favor of the dreaded (by you, apparently) "tyranny" that you believe is the alternative.

In Arizona the agency is the Division of Developmental Disabilities. It's a division of the state's social services agency, the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Somehow, "developmentally disabled" seems more respectful of the individual(s) than "mentally retarded." It's probably a matter of cultural evolution. In other words, how the meanings of the words and expressions have changed over the years in our society.

While your point is well taken, I think it is important to also consider that the cultural evolution of the meaning of the word has made it a significant epithet when used in the manner and context similar to how the President used the term "Special Olympics." I'm not going to say it was acceptable for him to make that particular verbal faux pas, but I appreciate that he has the self-awareness to realize his mistake/error and apologize without having to wait for a media firestorm. That is... self-awareness AND personal sense of confidence that allows him to own up to his mistakes without having to be shamed into it.

You are correct. The Ph.D. took some liberties... Likely because he doesn't like the President.

You seem to have made some unjustified inferences. I simply posted a link and some of the text from that link. Everything else you inferred from that is in the category of error that you alone are responsible for.

Actually, RR, your "ribald" comments were about the fact that YOU misunderstood the context of the responses to your initial post to be a politicization of your innocent and innocuous post. (the ONLY fact is that you misunderstood the responses)

No question that flip was intentional. Mom was understandably upset.

That was NOT off topic, really. No, we cannot change human nature. HOWEVER... you have eloquently articulated the essence of and for the need for oversight and regulation of critical industries.

Courts Unlikely to Strike Down AIG Tax Law, Legal Experts said March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Courts probably will uphold Congress's effort to tax employee bonuses at American International Group Inc. and other companies receiving federal bailout funds, several legal experts said. The House yesterday voted 328-93 in favor of a 90 percent tax on bonuses, including the $165 million insurer AIG paid last week after receiving $173 billion in bailout funds. The Senate plans to vote next week. The measure raises a number of legal questions, and New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg yesterday said the legislation was unconstitutional. Still, any legal challenge will meet a significant obstacle: the historic reluctance of the Supreme Court to second-guess Congress on tax issues. "Given the state of the law, it will be unlikely that the Supreme Court will strike down this legislation," said Edward McCaffery, a University of Southern California tax-law professor who says he questions the wisdom of the proposal. Gregg said the legislation would violate the constitutional ban on bills of attainder, or laws that single out individuals for punishment. "It's basically targeted on a small group of people," he said. The House took several steps to shield the measure from that argument, said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School.(continued)

Legal Definition of Ex Post Facto Clause EX POST FACTO CLAUSE - A misnomer in that actually two Constitutional clauses are involved. The U.S. Constitution's Article 1 Section 9, C.3 states: 'No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed,' and Section 10 says: 'No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law. . . .' The 'words and the intent' of the Ex Post Facto Clause encompass '[e]very law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed.' Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (1 Dall.) 386, 390 (1798) (opinion of Chase, J.). An ex post facto law is a law passed after the occurrence of an event or action which retrospectively changes the legal consequences of the event or action.

FBI Ramps Up Probes of Financial, Mortgage Fraud WASHINGTON -- The number of probes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into corporate fraud and mortgage fraud is growing by the month. FBI Deputy Director John Pistole told a House panel Friday that the bureau has more than 2,000 open investigations into mortgage fraud as well as 566 corporate-fraud investigations. Mr. Pistole said 43 of those corporate-fraud investigations involve "matters directly related to the current financial crisis." Those numbers are all larger than those Mr. Pistole offered to a Senate committee last month. Comparing Mr. Pistole's testimony Friday with the data he gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, it appears the FBI has opened 36 new corporate-fraud investigations and 200 new mortgage-fraud investigations in recent weeks. Mr. Pistole said the FBI continues to experience "an exponential rise" in the number of fraud investigations it is conducting, "a trend we expect to continue." He said the FBI's investigations on corporate fraud and financial-institution failures are focused on accounting fraud, insider trading and financial-statement manipulation. Mr. Pistole told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that the FBI's investigations into the current financial crisis involve companies "that everybody knows about." Mr. Pistole said Friday that the growing number of fraud probes was straining the FBI's resources for investigating white-collar crime. (from the Wall Street Jounal)

The (initial) question (subject of this thread) had to do with whether a bill making its way through Congress right now (passed the House yesterday) to tax said bonuses at the rate of 90 percent was the best answer. THAT bill would essentially be symbolic only for the reasons I cited. President Obama indicated during his interview on Leno's show that his administration was going to pursue any and all avenues to recapture those bonuses. While nobody here at GSC has been able to cite anything specific about the conduct of AIG or about specific provisions in existing law that the federal government could invoke to legally effect said recapture, it's entirely possible that the laws you (RR) were thinking of might apply to the AIG situation.... BUT would be something exclusive of the question posed by washn'wear to start this thread.