Oakspear

I haven't thought about Ken Figliozzi in years. Bought a hat from him on Long Island once. I think I shared a almost-flooded tent with him at ROA '79.

The last I heard Joe Fair and Ralph Graham moved back to Long Island. They are both listed in the "thanks" section on Rose Falcon's 2003 CD.

Yeah, LOTR II & III are in a different category, since the books were written as one story, broken up into three sections, rather than self-contained books.

I would agree that its a start, and thinking you have all the answers would definitely be a PREREQUISITE for culthood. After all, if you are open to competing beliefs, you can hardly require conformity.

Aaaaw...what a merciful god...the aliens, widows and poor were supposed to be cared for...unless they thoughtlessly worshipped another god. What does worship of the loving and merciful god of the Old Testament demand? Worship me or I'll kill you!

Thinking you have all the answers doesn't constitute a cult, IMHO, but acting to enforce compliance with that mindset through fear or intimidation. I know plenty of folks who act as if THEIR take on spirituality is the only valid one, and put down those who think differently, but they DON'T have a big organization backing them up, so it's just their opinion.

Not only did they pick and choose what parts to follow (in complete opposition to what PFAL's stated aims were), but the interpretation was sometimes laced with such flimsy logic as to be laughable. For instance, Wierwille stated in "Christians Should Be Prosperous" that since the believers in the OT gave 10%, we as sons should give more. Huh? Mayb-bee, but you don't see any scripture to back it up. If that logic was correct, then, since OT believers gave one seventh of thir time (the sabbath), we as sons of God should give more: yay! TWO days of rest!

What jumped out at me is the fact that she was handcuffed. I know this is not unique to Florida, but why do non-violent offenders need to be handcuffed? Years ago a neighbor was taken out of his home in 'cuffs because he didn't pay a few parking tickets.

A musician friend of mine set me straight on that SuperTramp song years ago. He suggested that sometimes what you're hearing is not exactly what is being sung.

Cigarettes...are an excellent way to prevent ulcers. They also reduce the risk of Parkinson's disease, relieve schizophrenia, boost your brain cells, speed up your thinking, improve your reactions and increase your working efficiency. And all those warnings about lung cancer? Nonesense! ...cigarettes are a kind of miracle drug: solving your health problems, helping your lifestyle... "Smoking removes your troubles and worries", says a 37-year-old female magazine editor. "Holding a cigarette is like having a walking stick in your hand, giving you support. Quitting smoking would bring you misery, shortening your life." The number of smokers...is growing by 3 million annually. Quoted from The New York Times, June 19, 2005

Well said Steve! I just noticed the color scheme of your big (*) - very nice Seems to me that if oxy water's benefits are for real, then a double blind study could only CONFIRM the claims of it's proponents. By the way, I'm drinking a glass of Leinenkugel Oktoberfest, and I feel much better than I did before I started drinking it. In fact, I just noticed that the sprained wrist that I suffered after tipping over a picnic table the other night is healed. It must be the Leinie's.

Yeah, it's only "none of your business" when it's one of the grand high muckety-mucks. My marital and financial problems became EVERYBODY'S business when I was put on 6-month probation.

Mike: This IS a few pages back...but please don't use a conversation with me to insult Rascal. I consider her a friend. She's no Puritan by the way.

I was "in" during the nineties JL, although never Way Corps, and there was a lot of that thinking that you describe. People who couldn't coordinate the toilet paper to their butts were suddenly Limb Coordinators. I believe that there were also some who, although they weren't part of the "evil", couldn't bring themselves to believe that their beloved ministry was falling apart, or who wanted to remain behind to try to fix things. Some of those folks post here. There is a tendency at times to believe that the exact time that you left was the exact perfect time to get out, with a disdain for those who left before and a judgement of complicity on those who left afterwards. (Yes, I know, I'm generalizing!) But in general your observations are on the mark from what I saw.

You rented a car! You're now on the Omaha to Lincoln shuttle committee!

...like in a foot above the ground?

Nitpicking Break: Where is the evidence, outside of what Wierwille said about it, that literal heaven is anyplace above the earth?

Does he want to attend a wedding?

Igotout brought up a good point about lazy and unproductive people...being BUSY is not being PRODUCTIVE. I have nothing but respect for folks who worked full time jobs, raised families, and STILL tried to do their best to run twigs and branches and limbs. We had a Family Corps couple here as WOWs the last year there WERE WOWs, and was the LC the next year. The guy was an engineer, worked his butt off all day, and still came home to teach, or run classes or whatever. He and his wife are the ONLY TWI leaders to not question us on our decision to home-school our children. In contrast we had another couple running our branch (two twigs - some branch) a few years later when the "full-time Corps" were in full swing. They had NOTHING TO DO! They were required to be at their desks (an office was set up for Mr., and small desk in a corner of the dining room for Mrs.) by a certain time each day, maybe 8am. Since there was NOTHING TO DO, they would get on the phone and start calling the peons. We all had to work, so our jobs would get interrupted. They would shuffle papers and "study the Word" for a few hours, go out and "witness" for a few hours, then have lunch. The afternoon would be spent minding other peoples' business or preparing scintillating teachings for fellowship. Then it was time for dinner. They did precious little housework, since they had my son and another wayfer living there to be their slaves. It used to tick me off that we were paying for it all. What ticked me off more was when they went on vacation (from what?) fully paid for with our "abundant sharing", when I was spending MY vacation time going to TWI events

By the time WWII ended, a Jewish presence in Palestine/Israel was a fait accompli, many were already there due to the UK allowing almost unrestricted immigration during the early days of the mandate, and secret immigration during WWII. The Jews were given the portion of the land (by the U.N.) that was settled mainly by Jews, and the Arabs were given land that was settled mainly by Arabs. When the dust cleared after the newly proclaimed Israel beat back the combined Arab armed forces, the proposed nation of Palestine was occupied by the Kingdom of Jordan. After Jordan "stole" the Palestinians' land, they occupied it until Israel beat back another attack and occupied it themselves. Why no outcry over Jordan's occupied territories back then? Or for that matter the Turk's centuries long occupation? Israel has hegemony over the Middle East? The country that many of it's neighbors say has no right to exist? Huh?

Half the problem was that what was "devilish" in any given area was defined as by what the local leadership didn't like, and many of the waybrained (myself sometimes included) were ready to judge others by our own private interpretations of what "ungodly" was.

I just finished the article krys Now I must digest it

No Names? Who are you referring to? Steve, Raf and I have all made our real names known here. We just don't use them (well, those two use their FIRST names) as our handles (*)

People quote scripture at GS all the time, not all of the are (*)'s.

I'm as glad as the next guy that David's friend Linda is feeling better. If the water works for her, hooray! Even if she drinks the water and it doesn't have anything to do with her recovery: also hooray! Would I call for a double blind study to see if Linda is REALLY feeling better? Of course not. Would I need a double blind study to try it myself? No, I wouldn't. But I'd sure as heck want them to be done, and the water's effectiveness PROVEN, if I was going recommend it to someone else AS A CURE FOR ANYTHING. The placebo effect is real. Confirmation bias is real. That's why double blind studies are done that include control groups: to avoid the either anyone doing anything that could give a false result, or influencing the results. Drinking oxygenated water with the intent to cure something or alleviate a condition, with the preconceived notion that it will work, and fuzzy notions of what defines success, leaves us with...not much. What if drinking regular water yielded the same results?