LG

You're right that something didn't smell right, Vickles, but the stench wasn't coming from where you thought it was. She was blind. The visions centers of her brain were dead. In other words, there's no way that she could have been tracking that balloon in that video clip. What the video really showed was the person with the balloon tracking random eye movement. That's just one of many deceptions in those video clips. No evidence of abuse. So all those allegations that only came up when the cameras began showing up turn out to have been made up. More deception. She didn't have "half a brain," in the sense that one half was functioning and the other half missing. She had a functioning brain stem and little else but disjointed fragments of what had once been a brain. Together, they totalled about half the mass of a normal brain, but nothing like half a normal brain. The courts got it right on both law and facts. If other governmental bodies had kept their noses where they belonged, the tragedy could have ended much earlier, with much less pain for all concerned. The rest of us should never have known about it, except perhaps for reading a short story about it in the news a few years ago.

Satori, what you say is confusing wasn't addressed to you or about anything you wrote. Maybe you should have left it alone and let houseisarockin respond. Just because you start a topic does not mean that every post should concern you.

You seem to be confusing your thoughts, to which I was not replying in that post, with House's non-hypothetical statement, to which I was replying.

I do. House's statement was in reply to your question about faith (or "believing") working for Jesus "in this physical world of effect." In the Bible, Jesus didn't primarily relate faith to behavioral changes, but to manifestations of spiritual power (miracles) in the physical world.

I'm not so sure that there is "plenty of evidence" that spirit is anything more than an imagined substitute for unknown causes.

Positive thinking has been proven to do what? Engender the sorts of miraculous healings the Bible attributes to Jesus? If so, then where can I go to read documented case studies? Not necessarily. As a simplistic, extreme example, if your past actions included cutting off a finger now and then, changing your actions would not regenerate the missing fingers.

I suggest that one basic problem with the dogma is the assumption that the Bible is a reliable source for facts or dogma. That is an assumption that is based on the previous assumption about the Bible.

Lindy didn't mean what he wrote, oenphile. He was sarcastically ridiculing people who actually believe those sorts of things.

If it was running 95, it probably can't run XP, but may be able to run 98. It's not worth spending any money on a Windows 98 computer, but your daughter might very well be able to get by with one for a while. I may be able to help you. I'll send you a PT.

Sure the weapons meant something, dmiller. They confiscated them, didn't they?

He got in because he is a U.S. citizen.

Wow! In Texas, with a written lease, an eviction usually takes less than a month from the time of delivering the notice until (if necessary) the Constable shows up to force the tenant out. Even without a written lease, the whole process usually takes no more than two months. The difference is the required time between delivering an eviction notice and filing suit. The time from filing the suit until actual forcible eviction, if necessary, is usually about three weeks. A clever tenant, who knows and is willing to use a rather obscure technicality, can extend the time by about a month.

That's just goofy! I have probably hundreds of things in my house that would be very effective deadly weapons. (I have only two guns, but lots of tools and cutting implements, many of which I'd prefer to a chef's knife if I were of a mind to harm someone.)

I'm in love!

Johniam, I think your passion is affecting your clarity of thought.

If you think so, then you don't have a clue what constitutionally protected freedom of speech means.Nobody has prohibited either of your two cases that you say indicate a double standard, so free speech isn't even an issue. If you were to say that most people hold churches to different standards of approval than they do Marilyn Manson, then you would be correct, but societal approval of the content of speech has nothing to do with whether or not it is free. Disapproval does not equal abridgement. In most cases, they're not even similar. You're using the same nonsensical argument that anti-war people used when they were criticised for some of the things they said.

That settles it. God sounds like a perverted, alcoholic, rural Ohio grifter of German ancestry. But I'll bet Mike could have told us that. :)-->

No, Mike, that's not what happened. You chose on your own to insert your "true understanding only will come for those grads who return to PFAL..." spiel into this thread.

Mike, Your spew belongs in Doctrinal, if anywhere at all.

I don't think that mell was asking about what Wierwille said about God speaking to people in general. I think the question was about Wierwille's claim that God spoke to him audibly in his office, just before the claimed blinding snowfall that obscured the gas pumps from his sight. Did Wierwille ever say anything about how that voice sounded, other than just saying that it was audible?

I think Steve! meant the rebuilding of the Republic, rather than the Empire. Lucas did originally say that he planned three trilogies, with the third to cover events after ROTJ, but he apparently has decided to leave things as they are.

You must have some pretty broad definitions of harrassment and profanity, Hap.

The best gifted and talented program consists primarily of a caring, involved, and capable parent.

You weren't misquoted, Galen.The first personal income tax, on individuals, was adopted by the federal government during the Civil War. The modern personal income tax, on individuals, was adopted by the federal government in 1913 and has continued ever since. If you had said that tax rates increased, or that the practice of witholding taxes from paychecks began under FDR, you would have been correct. But to say that the personal income tax began in the 1930s is not correct.

Galen, the pie chart you saw includes Social Security revenue, but no matter how you figure it, most federal revenue comes from taxes on income. (Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes are taxes on income, whether or not they are labeled “income tax.”) If you include them as government revenue, then taxes on income account for about 80% of all federal revenue. If you don’t include them as government revenue, then the income tax accounts for about 2/3 of federal revenue.And, no matter what your grandparents may have told you, the income tax predates FDR. But none of that has a thing to do with signal’s point that you challenged. TWI’s tax exemptions extend to more than federal income tax, and the benefits they enjoy cost all applicable governments (state, county, federal, etc.). Those costs are paid for with tax money paid by others. That, I think, was signal’s point. Whatever you may think or know about personal income tax has nothing to do with that point.