WordWolf

When asked why he chose lcm, vpw said that it was a matter of loyalty-lcm would just do whatever vpw told him to do. Walter, apparently, thought for himself. Plus, Walter was not considered a dynamic speaker. (Too much substance, not enough style.) So, vpw chose lcm because lcm was the most rabid bootlicker to vpw, and had style that suited vpw. Since lcm's SUBSTANCE was nonexistent, this was the beginning of the end. Even vpw didnt see just how low the organization would stoop afterwards- the former Mrs W is now living in a "home" because she's outlived her usefulness to twi and thus is too expensive to support (despite her lending them legitimacy all those years.)

Great job, Outin88! You won't mind being quoted on that later, will you?

Which, of course, might just have been the normal result of normal business. Sad to say, but businesses close all the time, all over the world. The closings there MAY be related, or may NOT. Impossible to say without more information.

The consensus around here, signals, is that the people at the top of twi now most prize money and comfort. Since twi's assets are mostly tied up in the "non-profit" organization, they have to keep the thing intact on paper and at least PRETEND to care about people in order to keep it-and their cash cow-alive. With it alive, they have 5-hour workweeks, cushy salaries, indentured servants doing all their chores and cooking all their meals, full health coverage, and so on. So, they want to keep it intact as long as humanly possible, because otherwise they "kill the goose that lays the golden eggs". They can't just put all the money in a suitcase and flee the country.

It's mostly agreed-upon here that, with vpw at the helm, you pretty much had a free ride at twi if: -you had a title like a PhD -you were famous, like on a sports team -you were a military officer -you had money -you held a public office -you were influential in your local community -you were in the immediate family of one of the above You WERE expected, at some point, to have a visible presence in twi, at the very least, be willing to be "name-dropped" often. Some people still seem unable to imagine that others' lives were destroyed while they and their family were treated quite nicely. Looks like you've figured out something they haven't.

Hello, signals. Fear not-this site goes thru cycles. A lot of sites are quiet now, and this one will get busy again soon enough. Apparently, you missed out on the entire lcm and rfr eras (to date, anyway), so you missed the lawsuits and so many other things. We've discussed them all and they're around here somewhere. :)--> The main site for the GSC has some editorials, and documents and articles. I strongly recommend reading them all over the coming months if you want to really get information. These also include audio clips of things like saying someone died because a family member left twi. You'll notice this is about as egalitarian a place as you can find on the internet. Whereas some things would get you banned or suspended on other places, Pawtucket allows for a free exchange of ideas. As a result, you'll see things you don't normally see in one place. You'll see people who think vpw is STILL the greatest man since the apostle Paul if not greater than Paul. You'll see people who believe all religion is slavery and superstition. You'll see people who think pfal is still the greatest class of all time. You'll see people who've worked behind the scenes on staff. You'll see people who blindly defended twi, and some who still do. You'll see people whose lives were destroyed by vpw, lcm, rfr or others-PERSONALLY. You'll see people who wish vpw was alive today so he could be thrown in prison and sodomized. You'll see people who think that's too lenient. You'll see people who've put it all behind them, people who are still in twi, and people trying to figure out what happened to themselves. You'll even see some never-been-twi, here for their own reasons. Paw welcomes them all, sorta. Good manners are always appreciated, staying on topic is always appreciated, but neither is the rule or even common here. Raf will be along soon to offer you some coffee. :)-->

Steamboat Willie? Gold Rush? Nosferatu?

Lord of the Rings:the Two Towers Viggo Mortensen Young Guns II

Here's the LA Times' story, via the Star-Tribune. Here's the LA Times' own story. Here's the Kansas City Star's account. Hm. The Seattle Times seems to say it all. I was wrong-CNN has the WHOLE story. I trust I've linked enough- Google news kicked up 339 links for this story.

"But the other side also has another side."- Japanese saying. Before you lynch the superintendent about something you read in a newspaper, you might want to get the ENTIRE story.... ------------------ This is from the NY Daily News, Sat 5/7/05, page 7. "School officials tell a different story. According to a statement from Muscogee County School District Superintendent John Phillips, Kevin never said he was talking to his mother and started swearing. It was only when the teacher had taken him to the office that Kevin divulged he'd been on the phone with his mother, who is serving with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division." ----------- If the student's version is true, then he was holding the phone up to his face (and, thus, his mother could hear everything said) while he said so someone that "This is my mom in Iraq. I'm not about to hang up on my mom." She then heard the connection go dead. She then tried to call him back, and "left a message scolding her son about hanging up and telling him to answer the phone when she calls." So, if the student's account is correct, his mother heard him telling someone he wasnt going to hang up on her. Obviously, this was some sort of authority figure he was addressing. Given that it was school hours, it doesnt take a PhD to figure out he got in trouble with a teacher for using his phone. However, she called him back and chewed him out for hanging up and NOT ANSWERING BACK, despite obviously still working out with a teacher whether or not he could use the phone. So, either the student's account is inaccurate, or the student's mother is an idiot who doesnt know where her son normally is during school hours, or his mother thinks he can make up his own rules in school. Your choice. Me, I think it's simpler to think the student's account has been "enhanced."

In other words, cg's class was better than lcm's, since cg went for a carbon copy, and lcm went out on his own, and demonstrated most of his deficiencies at once.

Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later Jamie Lee Curtis Trading Places

If you mean "SpoofStick", I use it, but it's capable of being fooled-and I've seen it fooled myself.

So, if you wanted to walk in and sign up, and didn't even know Sharon, that would be fine. :D-->

I don't have the answer, but I wanted to say... Jeff, you can sign up and post under your own screen-name. It would allow us to know who we're addressing each time... There's no admission fee or prerequisite.

Dustin Hoffman Dick Tracy Warren Beatty

Oh- and yes, they have nothing better to offer people than the lcm class. They can't use the wap tapes because they'd elevate lcm again, and, frankly, him on tape is inferior to the average person, live OR on tape. They can't make another class for two very important reasons. A) After years of driving off the talent, they don't have anyone left with the skill to produce something the equal of pfal. B) If they ran a class with one teacher, they'd face their WORST NIGHTMARE. The girls in charge don't want another leader to show up and show them up. So, they face "tall poppy syndrome". If you demonstrate skill, they have to beat you down. Then they wonder why nobody with a lick of skill can be found....

They're not using the tapes of lcm. The locals are teaching it live. This is not a quality-control issue, since the odds of them doing a WORSE job than lcm are slim to none. ======== Actually, I liked DWtA also, because it also seemed to acknowledge that the students needed to think and respond from time to time- thus the "on guard" thing. It also had some material that could be USED instead of purely doctrine (i.e. how many crosses, how many denials). Finally, I loved the return to the class of one segment. That's where Walter started by discussing the secrecy of the adversary's moves, and the camera is on the desk-but the desk is vacant, and even a slow pan doesn't show the speaker. Made the point and was amusing.

That was the point I was trying to make here, Raf... But that was the POINT. He was faking an accent he didn't have, and trying to pass for Scottish-unsuccessfully. I bet Ford can do a CONVINCING Scottish accent when he wants to, and had to practice doing a BAD one.

Hm. Ok, what was she in BESIDES "Goodbye Girl"? Ha! Drop Dead Fred Carrie Fisher the Blues Brothers

Contrary to what outsiders said who never took it, notes were discouraraged, but NOT disallowed. I remember things better if I take notes. (Four times better, if I match the typical person.) So, my syllabus had notes all over it. I had brought a notebook to take notes in-thus juggling THREE books- syllabus, Bible, notebook. After the first segment, it was suggested I just put the notes IN the syllabus and save myself 1/3 the juggling. When I sat down to take it a SECOND time, I said to myself "now I can catch everything I missed the FIRST time. I prepared to fill my syllabus with notes I'd missed before. There was nothing to write-I had taken down all the useful notes the FIRST time around. So, maybe it would take as much as twice before the average person caught it all, maybe once like me. At 3 or more, you're going for memorization and indoctrination. You're ready to spit back vpw's answers on anything in the class. Comprehension came the first time, rote memorization came later. BTW, when I first took it, I was told grads could come and go as they wished (so long as they weren't "undershepherding" a new student.) The main requirement: be on time for all sessions, which strikes me as a sound requirement. As it fell out, that was later amended to "grads should make a committment to attend all 12 sessions if they want to retake it." That's a big committment for people who often have to clear work or college for weeks to fit the class in. That was partly because Session 12 would suddenly erupt with people and pose a distraction to the new students, and partly because "supply" (seats) was exceeded by "demand" (grads). The first complaint could have been addressed more easily by making an exception for Session 12. "Due to demand, do not attend Session 12 unless you've been attending Sessions 9-11." Those looking to polish their understanding of Session 12 would have needed 9-11 anyway, and if they'd been around the past 3 sessions, the students would be used to them. The second complaint should have been addressed by running occasional "grad" classes. That's happened in a few places, I hear, but not in most or where I was. The expectation was that we were ALWAYS dragging in new students. If it had REALLY been about the teaching and not the money, there would have been a LOT more copies of the class materials circulating. Each territory would have had 2 copies of the materials: one of the videos, one of the audios. At any moment, that territory could have run a video class for the new students (and some grads), and an audio class for grads-only. In any normal area, ready grads exceeded new students anyway- supplies should have matched that. It's not like this would have been a "financial hardship". They could EASILY have run off more videos to supply all the territories, and as for audio, don't make me laugh. The grad classes would need no new books (except maybe grads replacing a worn book rarely), so they would only need the audio tapes. The one-time expense for making more audio and video tapes would have been more than offset by the added convenience. As it was run, the sacred holders-of-the-tapes had to watch a single set of worn-out videotapes as if it was an illicit cargo, and follow it around the state. If twi cared about the ability to run their classes locally, this would be unforgivable. Worn-out tapes are a distraction to the new students, and rare supplies made classes inconvenient to run. So, MORE tapes means you're encouraging MORE and BETTER classes. The only reason to run things the way they did is if twi cared more about controlling the tapes- and thus, the one thing pfal grads were taught as valuable, thus controlling access to them- than they cared about the students, new and grad.

Goldfinger?

Right after "Empire", there was some speculation about Darth Vader's armour, and I think it will all play out EXACTLY as predicted. (I'm not posting a spoiler that big and blatant.)

Yes, that's what lcm taught. Yes, that's how he justified it-a painting. Yes, he engaged in a fast-talk where he changed the meanings of 1/2 the words in Genesis 3 until he could crowbar his definition in. Yes, they're still teaching that now. Yes, new posters periodically express great surprise that this was and IS being taught. You'd SWEAR we were making it up. It's obviously too ridiculous to be true..........anywhere except in wayworld. Of course, in wayworld, nobody has any doubts, there were never any rapes by leadership, never any coverups, never any plagiarism, never any intrusive leadership, never a mandatory policy about debt, and all the women are desirable, all the men are strong and virile. I'm unsure what colour the sky is, there.

Beverly Hills Cop Judge Reinhold Stripes