johniam

I have no intention of buying Jose Canseco's book, but all this press does raise the question...steroids: right or wrong? All sports present some way to cheat. Ty Cobb says in his autobiography that during his playing career (1905-1928) it was actually legal to put any substance on the surface of the baseball (molasses, chewing tobacco, vaseline, etc.) if you were a pitcher, but you couldn't puncture the surface of the ball. He said also that unlike today where a typical baseball game requires the use of 60 balls, back then they tried to make the same ball last 4 games and balls hit into the crowd had to be returned to the playing field. Once a foul ball got wedged between a metal fence and a concrete wall. When the catcher retrieved the ball he noticed it had been punctured. The pitcher enjoyed the results of this and once word got out it became a soap opera for the umpires to calculate who was puncturing the ball: first basemen would have files in their glove and do it between innings, pitchers would wear rings with a sharp edge on them, etc. The Oakland Raiders teams in the 70s would spray stickem all over the uniforms and gloves of pass receivers to have an advantage. NBA players seem to know how to foul and not always get caught. I suppose with all the money at stake at the top pro levels of each sport that the pressure to cheat here and there is a reality that many will succumb to. It has been argued that no amount of steroids will teach anyone how to hit a good major league pitch. True, but if someone already knows how to hit a good major league pitch, steroids could certainly make the difference between a fly out to the warning track and a home run. How many times a year? Mark McGwire gradually built up to his home run totals. He hit 49 his rookie year (1987), had up and down years for the next 10 seasons, hit 52 in '96, 58 in '97, then '70 and '66 for the next 2 yrs before injuries ended his career. Barry Bonds never hit more than 49 until he hit 73 in '01. Hmm. It seems kind of convenient that Sammy Sosa hit over 60 at precisely the same time McGwire did; especially since this feat hadn't been done in 37 yrs....?!?! IMO all three of those guy took steroids and probably many others. The deaths of Lyle Alzedo (Raiders lineman who admittedly took steroids and died of brain cancer at 43) and Ken Caminitti will send a message to anybody who is tempted to try them, but like drugs and rock stars, this situation will probably have to run its course and that may take awhile. I attended a Cardinals game in 2001. I sat next to a guy from Kansas City who saw Pujols play as a college student a couple yrs earlier. He said AP wasn't near that large bodied then..."must be hittin' the roids." He was matter of fact about it, but I can't help wondering about AP now. I still am wondering... Did MLB's waygb pressure some players to take steroids? Should home run records since 1995 have an asterisk? What potential lawsuits are there if other players die prematurely? Any thoughts?

Lies have to be deliberate. There are many possible motivations for doing so. TWI always said the spirit of lying would tell one truth for every 9 lies. Jon Lovitz made a good pathological liar on SNL. Getting the price wrong on an electric bill? Calling that a lie is at best hyperbole, at worst slander.

Man, reading this is weird. Back in '76 I played that Grateful Dead song "Ripple" at a sunday branch meeting as part of the overall service. The BC wasn't corps, but there were corps there. Nobody thought anything of it. The lyrics sound kinda philosophical but don't really put their finger on anything. OK fast forward to a 1992 5 state meeting with Larry P who said that there were more mature beievers now (1992) than there were in the 70's. So I guess all these top leaders were just biting their tongues for 20 yrs waiting until it was safe to kick us "dead wood" believers out of "God's ministry".

Socks: Ray Thomas wasn't there? He was an original who played flute and occasionally sang lead, including 'Legend of a mind' (Timothy Leary's dead). I saw them in '69 on the children's children's children tour and again in 1998. In the '98 show I thought John Lodge's voice had lost a little zip, but Hayward and Thomas were strong as ever. Groups like Yes, Genesis, ELP, etc. owe a great debt of gratitude to the moodies IMO. I heard in TWI that they were seed maybe and that 'In search of the lost chord' would get you possessed. God, who comes up with this stuff?

I used to read this comic called the fabulous furry freak bros. about 3 60s/70s style hippie dopers. One time they tried to go into Disneyland. Before they could go in, this man called the 'attitude inspector' looked intently into each of their eyes for a few seconds. Then he let 2 of them go in, but said the 3rd couldn't go in because he had a bad attitude. Sounds like TWI now uses this method.

Good problem solving skills. I once woke up at 3AM to find my 2 yr old son on his haunches on top of the refridgerator next to a cupboard where he saw my wife put away a box of cookies. In order to do this, he had to use a drawer to boost himself up to the counter top, then use an upside down large bowl in the dish drainer to get to the top of the refridgerator. He scared us like that a lot, but he's 14 now and he seems to understand the concept of safety better. Maybe that mom should learn to pray.

quote: I wonder how you would do an enema toast. Why...cheek to cheek, of course.

quote: more later when i can figure out what i'm trying to ask It's not what you're trying to ask, it's what you're trying not to ask: namely..."If bad things DID happen to you in twi, does that mean twi WASN'T OK?" Good question either way. quote: do you look at these things secularly, spiritually, logically, what ? There has to be logic in there somewhere even if it's just implied. I ask myself, "Would things that happened in twi apply the same way to things that happened in ... schools, jobs, athletic groups, music groups, basically anything I've ever been involved in." The answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no, but one relevant factor is that NONE of the other things ever demanded near as much unconditional loyalty from me as twi. This changes everything! TWI wanted to be the most important thing in my life. That's a violation of my personal space, regardless of their reasons for it. They don't have the right to assume that role for anybody IMO. As long as I was a good unquestioning believer they didn't hassle me much, but they went and attacked my marriage, which I believe IS the most important thing in my life, both in the eyes of society and God, and despite 18 yrs of hearing that 'commitment to family is not as important as commitment to God', I immediately left when they did that. Not without worrying a little, but never to return. I've been out 10 yrs and I'm still reevaluating everything.

quote: You know,I would be interested to know what the corpse trainers,or the students for that matter,had in mind regarding objective #1 "Acquire an in-depth spiritual perception and awareness"... John Hendricks, who replaced BM as overseer at Rome City, did a teaching on CP1 back in '86 or so. His take was that just making it into residence didn't automatically mean that you HAD spiritual perception and awareness. It was a confrontational teaching, I suppose, intended mainly for in residence corps. He said that anybody who didn't genuinely want to help people (look at me I'm corps kiss my a**) wasn't going to ever GET a spiritual perception and awareness.

Now THAT'S some 'news of the weird!

Abigail: Good point. In Grand Rapids, MI where I lived, it just seemed like there were headlines all the time. A female Burger King late nite worker got punched in the face HARD through the drive thru window. A 35 yr old late nite 7-11 worker was shot to death by 2 black guys who robbed the place. A woman was shot while sitting on her porch. A Jordanian store owner was gunned down during a robbery. The word was it was all gang related...that you'd be allowed to join a gang if you had a murder on your "resume". But this kind of stuff seemed to happen all the time in GR. Not so in STL.

Shellon: quote: I don't understand what the color of the children has to do with anything. I don't know what parallel universe you've been living in, but in the world I live in, black people are more likely to commit crime than white people.

I lived in Grand Rapids 85/86. I remember the wows who came there that year. Most of them have left GR. I can only think of one couple who are still there...Mike & Sheryl P. It's been 5 years since I had any contact with them.

I have a few ideas about crime: I live in a small town in north STL county. I estimate that 70% of the kids in my kids' schools are black. Yet we have had no real problems. Police here openly racially profile, though. Actually, we did have a scare maybe a year ago. My wife was driving to work, stopped at a light, when a man opened the way back door (van) and climbed in and said "Drive!" He had her take him 5 miles or so and told her to stop at a certain intersection and got out and ran. It was 5 below zero that day and the guy only scared the crap out of her so nothing much happened. We told police but heard nothing. I second whoever said...Abigail! Yes, big dogs are good at "warding off evil" all right; we have a black lab chou(sp) mix. I've been fortunate over all. Once I lived for a time in downtown San Franciso (corner of Geary and Larkin for you natives). I was into taking walks late at night. Two nights in a row I missed a murder by a block and a half hour. I know I could be a victim of just about anything, but nothing has affected me to the point that I worry.

quote: he has the personality of a nazi prison guard I just found out that John Banner, the actor who played Sgt Schultz on 'Hogan's Heroes', was not only Jewish, but was actually in a Nazi prison camp early in Hitler's reign, before it was a death sentence to be in one. That is too weird! OK, back to our regularly scheduled thread.

Wordwolf: Thanks for looking.

In 18 yrs, moved 4 times.

Hey, Norah Jones is good.

In PFAL VP supported the 'all without exception/without distinction' statement by going to scriptures which said all people can be saved (without exception) but not all were saved (without distinction). He was trying to get us to be careful while reading the bible. He was clever getting us to focus on the semantics of the word 'all' while impregnating our minds with the truth that all CAN be saved but not all WOULD be saved (free will). This was perhaps one of his best teaching techniques. It doesn't matter much to me if he copied it from Bullinger or if he changed anything at PFAL 77: either it's true or it's not. Hey Mike, or anybody? I'm certain that in one collateral chapter VP quotes the poet Ezra Pound. I thought it was in God's Magnified Word, but I can't find it. Ezra Pound was an Idaho born poet who had to go to Europe to find his 'own private Idaho' because he was one of the people Mc Carthy targeted. But does anybody remember where that reference is?

If her parents live in a gated community then they could have been putting all kinds of pressure on her to dump him for whatever reason. She cried? 17 years? Yeah, she'll at least give it some thought. This reminds me of that scene in the movie 'Parenthood' when Rick Moranis's wife, a teacher, leaves him and he comes right to her class in front of all the students and sings "Close to you" to her.

According to the Intro to Psych class I took 20 yrs ago, most people are left brain dominant (right handed). There's got to be lots of variation in this though. I read where Paul McCartney was so right brain dominant that it took him extra time to learn to ride a bike; it felt natural to him to pedal backwards, so he required much repitition to not fall off the bike. I write, throw, bowl, bat, and hold the squeegee (cleaning windows) left handed, but I golf, play guitar, hold both tennis raquet and ping pong paddle, and throw a frisbee right handed. That psych teacher said she thought people who write left handed with their hand in a hook shape, which I do, are usually left brain dominant. I just do what feels comfortable. Several things on both lists above apply to me.

But what if I'm left brain dominant?

Before they were called feminists, they were called liberated women. It meant informed concerning the feminist agenda. The word 'liberated' may be archaic now in that context, but that general definition was the first thing that popped up when I read the title of this thread.

10 - ordinary power of observation. 15 - above average power of observation. 20 - very observant power of observation. 21 and above - stoned! I saw 14 including the horses and cowboy.

Two years ago we bought a 1987 Ford van off ebay for $900. We've gone to Phoenix and back and twice to Fla and back. The owner was old and tried to sell it by parking it close to the road with a sign in the window. They wanted $2100 but their son talked them into going the ebay route. It was a good purchase for us but it looks like they would've had to junk it if not for ebay. I have also bought a movie from the 80s called 'Heaven help us' plus a hand held Wheel of Fortune game off ebay with good results.