WordWolf

Here's the story I can find. I have no idea if vpw is one of many people who passed it along, or if he changed it and told a different story, or told none of them- I didn't hear him say it live or on tape. But this may be part-or all-of the answer you wanted. Please note that different people add some endings to it. ========================================= There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it; and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there." --------- A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

http://www.coldwellbankersouthshore.net/servlet/AgentListing?action=detail&ComColdwellbankerDataAgent_id=594832&page=agent& My, what a skill at euphemism and rephrasing we see here! "I've lived in the New Bremen, OH area for 29 years" Right- lived on-grounds at a cult, and made sure most people were kept off-grounds for much of those 29 years. "My background includes experience in the bulding trades and project management." Oh, I was impressed with this most of all! "Experience in the 'bulding' trades" must refer to making sure "Way Builders" kept buildings maintained. "Project management" is referring to the bossing-around on-grounds of everyone below him on the ladder. It's like Jeffrey Dahmer writing that he has experience making "exotic cuisine" (very few people, I admit, know how to prepare human flesh for digestion) or John Wayne Gacy saying he's been a pillar of his local community, a member of the Jaycees and even entertained children as a clown. (True-but leaves out his vile acts and murders of minors when he says that...)

Good friend, we maintain the website for the people who become exposed to them. An old man, going a lone highway, Came at the evening, cold and gray, To a chasm, vast and deep and wide, Through which was flowing a sullen tide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim; The sullen stream had no fears for him; But he turned when safe on the other side And built a bridge to span the tide. "Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near, "You are wasting strength with building here; Your journey will end with the ending day; You never again must pass this way; You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide - Why build you at the eventide?" The builder lifted his old gray head: "Good friend, in the path I have come," he said, "The followeth after me today A youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm that has been naught to me To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be. He, too, must cross in the twilight dim; Good friend, I am building a bridge for him." Will Allen Dromgoole (1860 - 1934)

Ah, what language DID you read it in that says that "the tree of knowledge of good and evil {is) right next to the tree of life"? The tree "had some very interesting things growing in it", but, being in the midst of a great big GARDEN like it was, so did lots of other trees nearby. They were bound to see that tree, they were bound to see the other trees. If you saw a really beautifully packaged box of RAT POISON, and someone kept trying to tell you to try some, that all your life you've been told it's deadly to you but that it's really the healthiest thing you could possibly eat, it would taste fantastic, it would burn away belly fat, and regenerate hair, how long would you be able to resist trying some, and who would you blame if you decided to open the box and eat some? In case you're wondering, NO, those are not RHETORICAL questions. They relate DIRECTLY to the discussion by analogy. Which means I'm expecting an answer. If you want my answer as soon as you give yours, I'm fine with that. The entire situation, whether literal or allegorical, was one where free will was THE BEGINNING of the situation. If Man had NO choice and couldn't sin, Man would be denied the free will CHOICE to sin. Sounds like you think the only sensible thing for a smart God to do would be to make sinning impossible or nearly so, and block out Man's capacity to CHOOSE, think and act for himself, and live with the consequences of his decisions and actions. I'm rather thankful for free will, myself. Granted, at the moment, there's a lot of problems that would be bypassed if free will wasn't an option, but we're here, and so is free will, and I prefer that to the most comfortable, idyllic PRISON God could construct.

Seems like YOUR UNDERSTANDING of the story in Genesis is a stretch to begin with, and conflicts with your- and my- laws of the physical universe. Plenty of Christians believe Genesis AND that dinosaurs were on the Earth millions of years ago. Who said the Bible was required to cover subjects not germane to the discussions at hand? It was never meant to be a scientific textbook. As understood, what it DOES say hasn't conflicted with scientific understanding as people have learned down the centuries, despite people forcing incorrect meanings into text. If you're interested, there's actually a lot of smart science all over the Bible. It's not listed as "chapters 5 Scientific theory, chapter 6, Scientific application" because the Bible was never intended to be a scientific textbook. The books of the book (the codex, really) span thousands of years. Just because they're not written in the CURRENT style is no reason, in and of itself, to throw up one's hands and say "it's illogical, it's anti-science, it's anti-reason." Of course, if one has ALREADY MADE UP THEIR MIND to dismiss the Bible, it doesn't matter WHAT the contents say, the only thing one will see is pretexts to ignore it, and a reasoned discussion is already precluded.

The "we never saw Voyager" crowd requests another show.....

Hey, Hiway, still in town?

"We are but poor, lost circus performers. Is there a village nearby?" "I wonder if he's using the same wind we are using." "Did I make it clear that your JOB is at stake?"

"I wonder if he's using the same wind we are."

I'm pretty sure there was a movie that shared its name with the car (and the video game, and the album) "Gran Torino." (IIRC, Garbage did the album.)

I have no idea. I think nobody else has an idea. Can you post the answer or something?

When I was in, I occasionally had someone try to comment on my casual reading. It completely failed to move me for several reasons. A) In the first twig I attended, the regulars read, more or less, the same stuff I was reading. (Not the same exact books, but the same genres and so on- meaning comic books, science fiction, fantasy.) B) Only a fool would claim I hadn't been reading twi books. In short, if someone had REALLY pushed me on what I was reading, I would have challenged them on how well they knew the twi books I was reading SOME of the time. C) Most people didn't know I was reading whatever I wanted, and didn't know I was reading stuff by other Christians on the side. My position was one of eclecticism- I felt I could exceed the understanding of the best of twi eventually if I took all of twi's learning, and then added the best works of other Christians I could find. (I believed the common propaganda that twi stuff, ounce for ounce, was the best, but I also thought that other Christians had specialized skills I could learn from- especially in areas twi was weak. In short, I didn't hear it much, and when I did, I blew criticism of my reading materials off as criticisms without merit.

What instruments do you both play?

[it's sad that "Dr" WearWord's education so neglected to teach him the value of a good dictionary. Myself, I was taught that a good, "COLLEGIATE" dictionary would serve me well for the rest of my life. (I was taught that in Junior High School.) Both the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language were recommended as excellent resources that any (EVERY) person should own (one or the other, as suited their purpose.) I got both. When I quoted one, I flipped to an entry and read from it. Anyone with a more COMPLETE education should be familiar with at least their names, and the uses of a collegiate dictionary. They give the correct spelling of a word, its pronunciation, its uses, and its origins (and does other things as well, but these are the primary function of collegiate dictionaries.) As it turns out, the internet age has given us the ability to read their entries for ourselves, if one doesn't have a copy at home and doesn't want to visit a library to check one. The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary's website: http://www.merriam-webster.com/ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zero "Etymology: French or Italian; French zéro, from Italian zero, from Medieval Latin zephirum, from Arabic ṣifr" The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language's website: http://dictionary.reference.com/help/ahd4.html http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/zero "[italian, from alteration of Medieval Latin zephirum, from Arabic ṣifr, nothing, cipher; see cipher.] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. " Just for fun, here's what the Online Etymology Dictionary said for the same entry (a resource specializing in word origins.) "zero 1604, from It. zero, from M.L. zephirum, from Arabic sifr "cipher," translation of Skt. sunya-m "empty place, desert, naught" (see cipher)" (Ibid.) It also gives its own link to the history of the derivation. http://www.etymonline.com/zero.php On the one hand, we have resources that are respected by competent educators and genuine students of the English language. (That's resourceS in the plural.) On the other hand, we have one resource noted for inventing the associations between things when it suited him, who contradicts them. What is more trustworthy? Where is the weight of the evidence? Can it be any more obvious?]

[What's wrong with a deduction is that some people don't know how to use mathematical proofs correctly. One such example is above, where zero ended up "= God." Another example, equally "valid" and equally incorrect, would be: "God is love. Love is blind. Ray Charles is blind. Therefore, by commutativity, where things equal to the same thing are equal to each other, Ray Charles is God." And dodging the issue with non-answers doesn't change that. "Are humans smarter than God?" "Did God forget how to count?"] [They were based on your erroneous assumption- based entirely on an error of Hislop's plus your own assumptions- that "zero" in English is in any way connected to the Hebrew word "zera" or "seed" simply because the words are spelled almost the same. Heck, in Aramaic, the words for "camel" and "rope" are virtually identical in spelling and are unrelated in concept, as are Samaritan and devil, which is worth a separate discussion, I suppose. In English, the words "chump" and "champ" are unrelated, as are "descent" and "decent" and "desert" and "dessert." "Pain" in English is an ache, "pain" in French means bread. So, all you've got is your own suppositions and some mental sleight-of-hand to make "zero" appear where it had nothing to do with what's there, either in word or concept, and fobbing off criticism with "it's hidden so only the elite can find it." It's a lot like saying "lack of evidence is proof that the conspiracy is working." There's no evidence to support your claims? "Take that up with God." No, I take that up with the person making the bald assertions. God was minding his own business when someone decided to slap His name on a pet theory to give it the illusion of credibility.] [The Bible directly mentions the name of God. The name given BY God as a name would be transliterated YHWH. Its exact pronunciation is up for discussion. It is a consistent error of the English language Bibles that YHWH is consistently rendered "LORD" (and rarely "GOD") rather than as YHWH. However, don't blame the author-the Hebrew that the English Bibles are supposed to be taken from contain "YHWH" in all the correct spots. It appears thousands of times in the Torah/Old Testament. If you pick up a Concordance and flip to "LORD", you'll see a comprehensive listing of how often and when. Your English Bible at least makes it noticeable by rendering it "LORD" rather than "Lord". God said they'd know him as YHWH- WHEN ASKED. God never said His name was "Zero" (or even "ZERO".) For the curious, YHWH BEGINS appearing in Genesis 4, and Eve is the first one recorded as using it. ("I have gotten a man from the LORD.")] [There's STILL no connection between the Hebrew "zera" and the English "zero." Hislop consistently made the error of making assertions of the connections between things without documenting them. (He claimed "Tammuz" was supposedly the "son" of "Nimrod" and "Semirammis". However, there's no connection between "Tammuz" and either of them other than Hislop saying "they're connected.") Someone who swallows his assertions without checking them might be prone to making their own bald assertions and just SUPPOSING they are correct.]

I suspect it's more a desire to "recapture the good old days" and capitalize on the feelings back when everyone in twi was young, foolish and enthusiastic. With modern information sources (the internet), the people are less foolish, the people in twi are more than 20 years older, and they're certainly less enthusiastic. So, these out-of-date fashions strike me as about as relevant as (seen once on "Friends") a woman trying to catch a man's eye by putting on her old cheerleader costume from back in high school, since it never failed for her back then.

Or at all, really.

Not from lack of trying. I heard the early form of this slogan from vpw on ROA tapes. (Review ROA '79's tapes sometime.) I probably heard him say it in passing on other tapes as well. He started off with the early form, phrased a little different, and as a question, then required the answer from large groups where SOMEONE was bound to give him the answer he wanted. "Where would we be without GOD?" (audience off-microphone) "That's right, some of us, we'd be DEAD!" From there it was a short hop to swap out "God" for "God's ministry" or "God's class" or some other nonsense, making it "if not for the plagiarizing rapist, his class, and his group, I'd be dead!" One more short hop brings you to "I must owe this organization my slave-labor for life!"

[First, you have to have a word that's transliterated to have this be germane to the discussion. "Zero" was never "transliterated" into English. It was translated from the Latin "zephirum." (Scroll up-I cited a reliable, knowledgeable source.)] [No, they got the term from the Latin "zephirum". I have a reliable source for that. Do you have any kind of source for a claim "zero" came from "zera", or is the entire claim based on their being similar when written with English lettering? Because LOTS of unrelated words are equally similar with English lettering, but are unrelated nonetheless.] [source for this claim, please. Other than your opinion, is there documentation from anything resembling a knowledgeable, reliable resource that says "zero" is connected with "pharaoh" "hero" "Nero" "El Zoro" (or "El Zorro") ? ] [Ascribing a meaning to a word does not automatically mean it is CORRECTLY ascribed. I can come up with all sorts of unrelated words, ascribe meanings to them, and be completely wrong-but sincere...]

Similarly, vpw was called "Doctor" and also- at his instruction- called "THE Teacher". Calling him "The Doctor" really isn't a big stretch. It's not precise, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

With some of the main conspirators still running twi (rfr and Donna), it's amazing how current a lot of the old news still is. Then again, with it a matter of public record that rfr lied to the twi members, why is it a surprise they'll just believe anything she says now? They haven't stopped yet...

If it wasn't for twi, Tom M would still be alive.

It is indeed "Casablanca."

From the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, "zero" is from the ML word "zephirum". According to Wikipedia's entry on "zero", outside of the Mayans- and in regards to all of the "Old World"/Eastern Hemisphere, There was no symbol to represent "zero" until roughly around 130 AD (the earliest documented occurrence.) With no WORD or SYMBOL for "zero" until AFTER ALL THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE CANON WERE WRITTEN, it should be no surprise that the word "zero" cannot be found in the Bible. http://www.biblegateway.com/ Go ahead, run a search. I checked in the 4 versions with the most "word for word" translations to English I know of- the KJV, the NKJV, the NASB, the NIV. All of them have zero occurrences of the word "zero." With zero occurrences of the word "zero", those Bible fundamentalists still among us would ascribe ZERO significance to the word "zero" in the Bible. (Hard to ascribe meaning to something that isn't there.) It ranks with the usages of the word "OLDSMOBILE" in the Bible.

That's interesting. I was thinking the opera singer might have enjoyed the movie as much as Dawson, but for some reason I didn't post it. Ok, next movie. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."