LG

In her post above, excathedra highlighted both the essence of the tragedy of this thread and, in part, the true evil of TWI and similar organizations. Yet it claimed to have answers to those problems, to be able to solve or "heal" them. The pursuit of those answers, solutions, and healing through TWI cost many people many wasted years, spent in denial and make-believe. Others paid more dearly.

I just want to clarify that my previous comment was not to dismiss the possibility of damage to the machine, but to emphasize the more important consideration, the flow of oxygen to the person who needs it.

The purpose of the alarm is not to warn of possible damage to the machine, but to signal that the flow of needed oxygen is being obstructed, which could be life-threatening in some cases.

Pitney Bowes probably wouldn't even be involved. The USPS will disclose the name and address of any meter user to anyone who requests it and provides the requisite information, which is printed on the envelope by the postage meter. All one needs to do is to take the envelope to the post office and ask.

Hate to say this, folks, but TWI's perfectly legal action in discovering who sent the letter is also perfectly normal. If you were a pastor or on the board of a church, and received an anonymous letter about alleged doctrinal errors, purportedly from a member of the church, might not you also attempt to discover the source?

Assuming 75 ppm dissolved oxygen at 32 degrees, the amount of molecular oxygen in a liter of the stuff is about half that in one normal breath. Even if the oxygen were to remain dissolved through the warmth, churning, and chemical reactions of the stomach, and absorption were 100% (it wouldn't be) at best drinking it would provide no more oxygen than taking a few extra breaths a day. It may very well taste good and be refreshing (as is any good-tasting, cold water) but it won't provide much extra oxygen to the body, if any at all.

Here are a few ideas.

What he’s doing (and frequently does) is called obfuscation, with a bit of blame shifting thrown in for good measure.He’s spouting off about child abuse and neglect, in general, in order to cloud the clear topic of the thread, which is a TWI minister being convicted of sexual assault of a child. He does similar things on almost every thread that deals with ministerial sexual abuse, and many that deal with other ministerial misconduct. He’s concentrating on females (purportedly) committing more acts of child abuse and neglect, most of which are not sexual, in order to shift the discussion (and therefore blame) from sexual assault of a child by a TWI minister. He’s carrying on about many perpetrators of abuse having been victims themselves, which may be true, but is no excuse for an adult claiming to be a minister of Christ and using people’s trust in that office in order to sexually assault children.

In other words, Pat, what I said was exactly correct, even though you previously said it was wrong. (I never said that you made an offer.)

TWI never sought to shut down those sites and never alleged infringement, either direct or by association, regarding The Path of Christ Ministry or Ex-Wayworld. I know I’ve said that before, and you or others probably have too.

No, Pat. I would have made informed decisions that would have precluded a lawsuit. If I wanted to operate web sites such as yours, I would avoid any possibility of trademark issues, by choosing names that did not include a TWI trademark. I would have considered the cost of any potential battles and the likelihood of winning, and chosen only battles I could win. If you had done that, you never would have received the June 2000 or December 2003 letters from TWI’s attorneys. You never would have thrown away money on an aborted attempt to register THE WAY OF CHRIST MINISTRY as a trademark. You never would have registered the domain name “thewayinternational.com” or, if you did, you would never have used it in a manner that even hinted at infringement. (Recall that, although TWI objected to it in 2000, it didn’t bother you about it after for over three years after that, because you were simply holding it and not using it. TWI didn’t act until you began using it illegitimately in 2003.)If I had your goals, as I understand them, I would have avoided any possible trademark disputes and concentrated on exposing TWI, informing current, potential, and ex-TWI followers, and helping them where I could. Those are all noble goals, the pursuit of which you have been distracted from by the trademark issues. The guy in the tuxedo has been telling you that for a long time.

Pat, I often know more about your case than you seem to, because I know something about the law and legal process. You have demonstrated lack of understanding of rules of discovery and the concept of relevance regarding evidence. You've demonstrated ignorance of the jurisdiction of U.S. District Courts, in particular their original jurisdiction over matters of federal trademark law, including domain name disputes. You've even demonstrated ignorance that a U.S. District Court Judge is a lawyer and appointed by the President of the United States, rather than elected. Now whether you really are that ignorant and devoid of understanding, or you are intentionally spouting off things you know to be wrong, I don't know. What I do know is that you do continually spout off pure BS about a lot of things. Now, regarding Early Neutral Evaluation, I don't claim to know the specifics of what went on at a meeting at which I was not present, but I do know what Early Neutral Evaluation is. Would you have me to believe that you and TWI presented briefs and oral presentations to the Evaluator, but did not get any feedback (frank evaluation) in return? Of course you did! That was the main purpose of the meeting. It is why it is called an evaluation.

Pat, I'm not going to rehash what we discussed months ago. The bottom line is this. You got a frank evaluation by a competent neutral evaluator of the legal merits of the dispute and promptly agreed to TWI's demands. You could have done that months ago or, better yet, never have wrongly used TWI's name to start with. Instead, you chose to waste a lot of time, effort, and money, all to no avail. That's fine by me, but I'm not going to congratulate you for it. I think you were dead wrong.

Nope. I haven’t been ignoring you. I've just been working my way through the posts and replying to them in order, but also doing a few other things between posts. (I varnished a bedroom floor I'm refinishing since the last post.) This is my first response to you.I don’t think I’m ragging on Pat. I have nothing against him at all. I think TWI is a despicable outfit, but I really don’t care much about it. I’m not all fired up about “getting” TWI or rescuing “innies” like some of you are, but I do understand the zeal some have. I’m all for Pat or anyone else publishing truthful information about TWI, but I think that Pat is dead wrong on the trademark issues. I wouldn’t care much about that, except that some of what Pat writes here could be dangerous for others, if they were to believe it or follow his example. I’m not as supportive as some are of Pat’s Internet endeavors, but I’m completely supportive of his legal right to pursue them and I agree that they harm TWI in legitimate ways. He could pursue them more effectively if he avoided trademark issues entirely. I think he’s wrong on those issues, but even if he were right, at best they’d be a distraction from his other pursuits, as well as a needless and useless expense. At worst, they could lead to bankruptcy and possibly other personal problems stemming from that, all for naught. TWI has not been harmed by the trademark disputes with Pat or the one with Global God Ministries (the former TWIM). It has spent a little extra money (see below), but its trademark claims have been strengthened as a result. Every successful defense of its rights strengthens its position. About that money… Pat thinks he cost TWI about $50,000.00. I suspect that’s high, but let’s accept that figure. Comparatively, that’s like costing me about $500.00. I paid that much to a title company just today, for handling the sale of a lousy $18,000.00 rent house. I paid more than that a month ago, to repair a gas line that had started leaking under another rent house. I pay that much for lots of things, many of which are unexpected and some of which could have been preventable, at least in part, if noticed and dealt with early enough. It’s part of doing business. Similarly, occasionally laying out several thousand for legal fees is part of doing business for TWI. It’s something they’d rather avoid, if possible, but it’s not that big a deal. Pat wasted a lot of time and some money, probably as much as TWI spent, relative to their respective incomes and assets. He got nothing for his trouble and expense, except whatever he learned from the experience. TWI got what they wanted and strengthened their position regarding their trademark rights. I’ll not rag on him for that, but I will point it out, if he tries to claim some sort of victory.

Liar. And how would you know what went on? Reading your crystal ball? You make all kinds of wild assumptions about my motives without a shred of evidence. Liar Pat, you did informed (the former) TWIM of TWI’s trademark applications. You filed for an extension of time to file an opposition to those applications. The reason you filed for an extension of time is because you didn’t have the money to actually oppose the applications yourself. The very next day, TWIM filed its opposition. Now, perhaps you didn’t in your wildest dreams think that this would cause TWI any trouble, but I suspect otherwise.

I've discussed both of those in some detail previously, in your "TWI has sued me..." thread.

If TWI had dropped the case before Pat acceded to their demands, that would have been really stupid! If they had done that, they'd have been better off not even bringing the matter up in the first place.

Because pursuing the matter any further than necessary to get what it wanted would have been a waste of time and money. TWI did not want to sue Pat. It simply wanted Pat to stop infringing on its trademark(s), specifically through his ownership and use of the "thewayinternational.com" domain name. If Pat had done in December what he finally did in October, TWI wouldn’t have sued him. Obviously, I can’t answer for them, but I can state what I think. Pat probably doesn’t know it, but he provided part of the answer (in a post later than the one I’m currently addressing). It boils down to a District Court ruling having the force of law, which a WIPO UDRP ruling does not. In other words, a WIPO ruling is binding (by agreement, not law) on the registrars, but not on the parties. Either party may take the matter to court if it doesn’t like the WIPO ruling. Given Pat’s previous actions, I can understand TWI taking the matter directly to a U.S. District Court, which has original jurisdiction in such matters.

It may have, if TWI had simply discovered TWIM, but that's not what happened. What happened was that Pat sought to cause trouble for TWI by informing TWIM of TWI's pending trademark applications. TWIM directly challenged TWI's trademark rights by filing an opposition to those applications. TWI then sent TWIM a cease and desist letter, after which TWIM filed suit against TWI. Then TWIM got spanked, pretty hard, but not as hard as it would have had the case proceeded to trial.

No, TWI can enforce its trademarks by being right on the law and the facts.

Actually, I had consulted with several trademark attorneys over the years who had the same opinion. That establishes NOTHING.

The judge's decision and order was dated July 7, 2004. The hearing as to the evidence was scheduled August 16, 2004.It is obvious that the judge made a decision before the evidentiary hearing was held. Yes, the judge ruled on TWIM’s MOTION FOR A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER, not on evidence to be presented later. He ruled on that order exactly when and how he should have. One of the factors a judge must consider in deciding on a motion for a TRO is the likelihood that the party seeking the TRO will prevail. Another is whether that party will suffer irreparable harm if the motion is not granted. The judge considered those two points, as he should have, stated his findings, and denied the motion. All of that was timely and proper. It was NOT premature and NOT a mistake, both of which you presumptuously and erroneously claimed. It’s a darn good thing you finally came to your senses and gave up the domain. You’d have been spanked by the judge if you showed up in court spouting the nonsense you spout here.

I wanna know how those guys got my picture.

Venomous rhetoric? Hardly.I have no stake in this or anything else related to TWI. I don’t care about TWI one way or another. I didn’t care about TWI, per se, when I first discovered Waydale. I was simply trying to gather some information so that I could help someone I do care about. I’ve hung around because I like some of the people here and enjoy discussing some of the topics that come up (mostly the political ones these days). If you’ll take a look at the political forum, you’ll see that I’ve been far from “virtually silent on this board.” My interest, such as it is, in the TWI legal matters stems from my general interest in legal, governmental, and political matters, not from any particular interest in any of the parties to the disputes. Pat, I think it’s inexcusable for any purportedly informed, responsible adult citizen of the United States not to know that U.S. District Court judges are all lawyers and are all appointed by the President, not elected. It’s just flat out appalling for someone pretending to speak competently about matters of federal law and cases before U.S. District Courts to not know such basic information and, even worse, to spout off contrary, false information that uninformed readers might believe. You’re being more than a little presumptuous there, Pat. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

Do you just make this stuff up on the fly? Your ignorance (or deceit, if that’s what it is) is astounding! Judge Gilbert is a United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of Illinois. U. S. District Court Judges are not elected. They are all appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. They are all lawyers, including Judge Gilbert. You can read about his education and professional career HERE. Are you really that devoid of understanding? First, that’s not what TWI said. Second, the remotely similar statement that you butchered in no way suggests that THE WAY or any other TWI trademark is generic. Third... Oh, forget it! I'm not going to teach basic college English, with a smattering of logic, here. Yes they were. No, Pat, they weren’t. The moment you agreed to stop infringing on TWI’s trademarks, the whole thing went away. TWI has not sought to shut down excultworld.com, twisucks.com, or any of your other domains/websites that don’t use a TWI mark in the name or domain name. You are, and always have been, free to operate those sites. All you have to do is to avoid infringing on TWI's marks and they'll leave you alone, just as they have left Pawtucket and Raf alone.