Jim

Sunesis and Catcup, You know what the really sad thing is? Some of the nicest, most Christian people at HQ worked in the bookstore. What a pity they had to deal with "Big Red".

Might of had something to do with the soap operas

I grew up in WA on the side of the Cascades. I remember going out every night and covering the tomatos and then uncovering them in the morning. I now live in the Califorinia Sacramento valley. There's big piles of tomatos at each curve in the road where they fall off the semi's. The fields are red this time of year. Never saw so many tomatos in my life. My daughter was complaining last night about working 6 days a week. I was reminded that I once went 37 days without a day off working at HQ. And I hated those meetings too...

Acknowledged

Nailed it Steve. Not gonna happen again here. Didn't we invite John Lynn over for a dialog? Didn't he decline? Still wants us to sit at his feet and passively listen I guess. I think he'd do better door-to-door than with us old "sticks"....

I saw it on the big screen and I couldn't stand it. I tried hard to get into it. But it was so out of my reality space, I couldn't believe it.

Wow, you sound like John Lynn holding up a copy of the Way Magazine. Oh wait, someone already said that in so many words. I'll be just fine if nothing ever "blesses my socks off" again. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Damn, and it's too late to have the ROA this year...

Cool, If I were offended, and I am not, I would expect an apology, not a removal of the post. Rewriting history doesn't fix anything, it just obscures it. But don't worry about it. I've read your posts for years and when I crossed you "I knew the job was dangerous when I took it". Nonetheless, I appreciate Radar's comment. I'm just sad I couldn't have helped her back in '79. So here's the thing about child abuse claims. More than one innocent person has had their life destroyed by unfounded accusations of child abuse. More than one person has been held hostage in divorce proceedings by the threat of child abuse claims. More than one person has had to deal with the consequences of false repressed memories. Does any of this mean that child abuse doesn't exist? Of course not. Child abuse exists and it is heinously tragic. But it also means that it should not be used to entrap innocent people. It means no witchhunts. Now a person is free to come to GS and post pretty much anything they want within the broad guidelines that Paw has set. Does it mean I have to believe every post that I read. Of course not. Waysurvivor has given us scarce information to go on as to her credability. GS operates on a "web of trust" Many of us have known others personally. In other cases, we have read each others' posts for years. Based on the "web of trust, we rate the veracity of each post. I know enough about Excathedra that I don't doubt her word. Same with Radar. I know nothing about Waysurvivor and I just can't take her statements on her word. For all we know, she may be a lawyer or a government employee fishing for God know's what. All we know about her is her posts. The fact that she admits she was not a member is of no consequences. Does this mean I want to protect TWI? Again, of course not. Anyone who's read my posts for any amount of time knows that I have no desire to protect TWI. The one common thread that goes through most of us here is that we are truth seeking individuals. That's why we got into TWI and thats why we got out or were kicked out. There's no triumph in damaging TWI if it's done without truth. So understand that you can post anything you want, but we are under no obligation to believe you. GS can be a hard crowd, but it also can be a loving and healing crowd. We aren't a support group, but lots of support is given, and we're not a Christian group, but lots of Christian teaching gets shared. Waysurvivor, if you are what you say you are, contact the people that have offered to help. They are good people and will do their best to do the right thing.

Thanks Radar.

Cool, I've read the thread. I know the people that I associated with. I stand by my post. I did not say it could not have happened. I did not say that there were not child abusers in TWI. What I did say is that the people that *I* knew would never have done *or* tolerated such an act. Is that so unbelievable?

No. It did not "normally" happen. In fact, had any of the people that I knew in TWI been made aware about such an incident, they would have resolved it immediately. With force. In such a way that the perp would not be able to repeat the crime. That's why your story seems so incredible.

What you desire is a noble and worthy thing, and I believe there's none among us that would begrudge you the honor. There is one small detail that must first be resolved. You must write us a doctoral thesis. Now taking into consideration the unorthodox nature of your request, and the questionable legitimacy of any research that you may have been exposed to at TWI, most any thesis you submit, whether it be your original work or that of others will probably be accepted.

Years ago, I did write a letter to the man who was my supervisor when I worked on staff. I told him that he certainly must see the problems of TWI, that I respected and admired his ability and what he had taught me, and that now was a perfect time to find a secular job. I offered to write a letter of recommendation for him and to be available as a reference. I got no reply and he is still working at TWI. What more could I do?

I'm not going to speak to the spiritual or Biblical issues because I don't consider myself to be much of a spiritual or Biblical person. On the other hand, my experience in building my own business and being involved in local politics does give me an insight into the matters of money and control of power. We should have *never* poured our money and time into an organization that gave us *no* control over it's future. Our money went toward Loy's "homo purge". Our money supports Donna in the Corps chalet. Our money cleans Rosie's pool. What should have been done differently? More money staying at the local level, like Dopp and Hefner wanted. Believers on the BOT placed there by popular vote of contributers. Public documents on the spending habits of BOT and upper staff. Caps on the amount of cash reserves that the ministry could accumulate. No more non-profit Enron's or Tyco's

Sunesis said... They can say something, they can demand something, they can walk around wierwille road carrying pickets, they can withhold their abundant sharing. All it will get them is what we are, being an outie. The BOT is a perfect power structure. With a rumored $40M+ in the bank and nobody to answer to, they don't have to and won't listen to anyone. They don't care who stays or leaves, there's plenty of money in the bank. The fewer the members, the less work for the fat cats at HQ. So don't hold your breath for any popular uprising against Donna.

I will never, ever complain about the price of tickets to classical music events. I heard Bach's Mass in B Minor, 2 hours of arguably the finest choral music ever written, in a world-class concert hall performed by a world-class group, in box seats, for $36 a ticket.

No, coward. ***** is a good thing.

I have to run client/server on the network. Can you tell me where I can get a copy of this article?

Zix, Ack what you said about machines, graphics/CAD people get Prescot P4's, 3Ghz, 1gig DDR, everyone else Celeron 2.6Ghz, 512m DDR. Everyone gets the same motherboard/network card/AGP graphics card/dvd drive so that one set of spares can be kept and changed out with no driver hassles. I'm still concerned about DNS. The Win2003 server will not be used for any TCP/IP services to the outside world. What I've read is that for it to be the intranet server, it has to do DNS for everybody on the local network. Sigh, time to read some more. Ckeer, I'll definitely look into that. The biggest gripe I've heard so far is that there's not a file explorer in the traditional sense and it's not clear where XP puts your files.

My company has several machines running Win98se. They are all networked peer-to-peer along with a machine that works as a server for common data. The server runs Win98se peer-to-peer as well. Over the next couple of months I have to migrate all the desktops over to WinXP Pro and the server to Win2003 Server. The reason is that we have to install some new software that needs either client/server networking or WinXP running on the desktop. As you might expect, I'm really dreading the changeover. The Win98 boxes have been very solid and I've heard lots of complaints about XP Pro. On the other hand, I look forward to the much-improved performace promised by the upgrade. I have the luxury of buying all-new hardware with the exception of monitors, so I can set up the new system in parallel with the old one and test it. I have two major problems, first I have to learn or hire a consultant to help me set up the networking. I understand that I must run DNS on the Win2003 box and that I should have a good grasp of group policies. My skill level is pretty low on the Microsoft side of things. I've set up several Linux servers and have a good grasp of routing, DNS and the like, but not the way Microsoft does it. I will have the option of bringing in a knowledgeable consultant at a reasonable price, and I'll probably use a couple hours of her time to get me started. The other big problem is the users. A couple of them are downright hostile to XP Pro and I'd like to have some way to minimize the changeover problems. If there are any ways to make the desktop look and behave like Win98 for these users, I'd sure like to know about it. Finally, a lessor problem will be to set up a decent data backup scheme. Given the cheapness of hard drivers, I'm looking at installing a machine whose job will be to automatically run a rotating 7-day backup each night to it's local drives, along with a tape backup to go off-site once a week. I would be delighted to hear any and all advice concerning these issues.

Wasn't there another big and stinky issue about corps sponsorship? Seems like contributers thought it was deductable and the IRS decided it wasn't.

While we're on the subject of "books that make you wish you'd never joined a cult", I also nominate Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis.

My first reaction exactly. She's a wordy and engaging author that can tie you up for weeks. I don't particularly sign off on her idealogy, but I will credit her with some excellent writing.

Here's some AwesomeTruths from TWI that I've learned. 1. Money invested in real estate has a better rate of return than money invested in TWI. 2. Time invested in a college degree has a better rate of return than time invested in TWI. 3. Most, if not all, religious leaders have clay feet. 4. Saying "sincerity is no guarantee of truth" is no guarantee of truth. 5. Millet for breakfast sucks. 6. Ohio is too hot and humid in the summer. 7. Ohio is too cold and windy in the winter. 8. Cornfields are best used to grow corn. 9. "Bless Patrol" is an oxymoron. 10. My job on earth is not to "spread the Word".