Oakspear

Gastrotheism = whose god is their belly

Pantheism = the worship of pans (pots too)

I don't think that the human factor in healing can be overlooked, unless one wants to ignore the fact that not everybody gets healed...Christian or not. If one holds the position that healing occurs as an answer to a prayer (which pretty much means " a request") to God, then the question of why God doesn't always heal must be answered. Personally I find the answer to be unsatisfying. To paraphrase our favorite deceased cult leader, that mindset seems to say: "I've God a jack, but I won't help you until you've got a new car". Thomas used the word whimsical, I used the word capricious. Maybe arbitrary fits in as well. God has the power to heal, and he does it sometimes, and other times he just heals us a little bit, and other times you're just a freakin' rose petal in heaven. It's like Calvin-ball! You never really know what the rules are! I'm going to make use of whatever mecahnism there is out there for healing, and not wait around for a god to grant my petition...or not.

My memory may be fuzzy about not accepting personal checks for the advanced class, but I'm sure that they were never asking for CASH!

We are directing people to The Villager Hotel http://www.villagerhotels.com/ If you are coming, or even think there's a possibility of attending, we suggest that you reserve a room NOW! It's a football Saturday, and the hotel rooms will fill up quickly. You can always cancel later. Unless, like Kathy, you want the park bench, or the back of "Big Woody", the WOWmobile :D--> We are not registered anywhere yet, but we'll let you know.

I'll be checking on the hotel tomorrow or Thursday. Will let you know. We're trying to go for economically priced combined with centrally located.

Reiklilady & I will be getting married on September 17th, which is a Saturday. It is also a football Saturday, so we need to get hotel rooms reserved ASAP! If you are planning on attending, please let us know yesterday so that we can make sure that you are not sleeping on a park bench when you get here :D--> If you fly into Omaha, my son has volunteered to help shuttle people back & forth.

That's Wicca, one of the groups within the umbrella term "neo-pagan". "Neo-paganism", or simply "paganism" encompasses a variety of groups, from attempted reconstructions of Druidism; Asatru, a continuation of pre-Christian Norse religion; shamanism; and goddess worship of various kinds. It's practicioners come up with their rituals from a variety of sources, some documented historically, some claiming to be chanelling dead people or spirits of some kind (revelation anyone?), and some just made up on the spot to be cool.

Didn't know Phil Chen was still around. Top-rate bassist

Answering the door in the nude to door-to-door missionaries seems like one of those urban legends where everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who has heard about it, but nobody actually owns up to it. Until now. Funny, I've never had a door-to-door JW not go away when asked, or be rude, or come back when told not to. Unlike some of us old wayfers! :D-->

The whole Mad Max series. Or the first Billy Jack movie, "Born Losers" perhaps? Or maybe put 'em together: post-apocalyptic Australian karate-kicks rednecks on motorcycles. :D-->

Repo Man! (feelin' 7-Up, I'm feelin' 7-Up!)

What was the movie with Roddy Piper and the sunglasses that let you see the aliens? "They Live" maybe? Oh yeah, that's screaming for an update

Saw the preview before "Sith" - looks good Special Effects-wise.

I had thought Lucas was going to leave that alone. My previous standing theory was that Anakin's father was a Sith who used the Force to blank parts of his Shmee's memory so she didn't remember him. When Sidious made his comment in the movie, I connected the dots also. Glad it wasn't just me. I really missed this...what are you referring to?

And President Nader would flying oversees in his electric hybrid airplane

Wow. Sounds to me like a local leader was trying to skim. I was "in" at that time (early 90's) and never heard of a situation where checks or money orders were not accepted. As I recall, the Advanced class was $250. If you stayed "on campus" it was another $200. When they started requiring that you arrange your own lodging, there was an additional fee for meals.

Yeah, I do go on more than that TH. And sometimes I even bring my own table :D-->. "My comments and questions refer to what was posted" would have more clearly stated what I meant. I'm now in the position of referring to a post that no longer exists, but I believe my earlier post accurately reflects the information that was given. If there are facts that I am "not privy to", of course my comments and observations will be lacking. I "don't know what happened" because apparently only part of the story was included in the now deleted post. My opinions on the incident can only be incomplete in this case. Here's my take on healing & miracles, part of my take, anyway: There is without a doubt things that happen that seem to be unexplainable by our current understanding of the physical laws of the universe. I'm not going to be the one to claim that every story about miracles and healing is a delusion. I really have no problem with the concept of the supernatural being possible: including miraculous healing. What I have a problem with is ascribing this to God healing people as an answer to prayer, or as just a grace thing (i.e. God healed or did a miracle without being asked, or paryed to about it). BLASPHEMY!!!! Why do I have a problem with this? Because it is obvious that despite fervent prayer, not everybody who asks to get healed, gets healed. Not everybody who is in a car accident gets spared serious injury. Bad things happen. This is beyond (IMHO) the "I didn't get my pony" syndrome. What does it take for God to answer a prayer to heal you? No one seems to know for sure. For every story about how God healed someone there are dozens, maybe hundreds or thousands of times when prayer yielded nothing, sometimes for the same person. What's the difference? Seems to me, that if that's really the way things work, then God is awfully capricious about who he hands out healing to, or else he isn't at all clear on what the prerequisites for healing are. It seems to me that if there are such things as miraculous healings, then I find it much more plausible that it is "healing energy" or "the law of believing". Why do I find that more plausible? Because when it doesn't work (and nothing seems to work 100% of the time) I find it more believable that a mere human can screw up his manipulation of whatever "healing modality" they are using, or fail to believe or what have you. Much more plausible to me than an omnipotent, omniscient, LOVING FATHER passing me up for healing without any hint of why, while healing the guy next to me, without any indication of why there is a difference ("respect of persons" anyone? Okay, if you believe that something that happened to you is a miracle, fine with me...I can't argue the facts (although I can argue the interpretation of those facts)...I just don't get it why God would behave the way he does. That's all for now...laundry beckons

...and grind

Isn't Colloidal Silver that radical Rabbi in Brooklyn?

Just going by what was posted.

I used to own an LP of West, Bruce & Laing. I always thought that they were the ugliest rock band in history based on the album cover I like Clapton, but I thought that Bruce, as Cream's bass player, was one of the better bassists of the era. I believe he had jazz training, and did time with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. That looks like a 4-string that he's playing in the pic above. I thought he mainly used a 6-string?

One of the things that is emphasized is Anakin's loyalty to individuals, not necessarily institutions, despite his protestations that his loyalty is to the Republic and to the Jedi. He is fiercely loyal to Obi-Wan, to Palpatine, to Padme. Padme loves him, Obi-wan trains him and teaches him to be a powerful Jedi, Palpatine feeds his ego and sympathizes with his frustrations. Anakin's horror that his friend Palpatine is a Sith Lord is overshadowed by his personal loyalty to him, and by his need to have what Palpatine can give him to save Padme from the death he has visions of. Even though he initially does "the right thing" and reports to Windu that Palp is a Sith, his action does not carry inner conviction and quickly is swept away. Anakin's anger at Obi-wan is fueled by Obi-wan's opposition to Palpatine and also by Anakin's perception that he has turned Padme against him. Earlier he not only risks his life, but the rescue mission itself to save his mentor. At first I thought that his actions in killing the Jedi, especially the "younglings", was too quick of a change in action. But he had begun compromising a long way back, including his marriage to Padme, and by sharing Jedi confidences with ol' Palp. Giving in to killing rages with the sand people and later with Dooku paved the way for what came later. Seeing Windu about to execute Palpatine seemed to cause him to snap. Everything that came after was natural to someone who had gone over the edge and was under the influence of a master manipulator.

There certainly is a lot of hand-lopping in these movies :D-->

well...?