Raf

What the Hey, And to think, I've actually tried using reason to argue with you. You have absolutely outdone yourself. The whole chapter is a highlight? Woohoo!

You shouldn't find it odd at all. No one's heard of TWI, pretty much. It was always a wannabe organization. About a year or two ago, I did a story noting that the greatest increase in the number of Hispanics in America was in Raleigh, North Carolina. True story. No other region had seen a greater increase: 900%. I loved saying it, because it's so counterintuitive. But while that fact is true, it can be misleading. The addition of every single Hispanic in the community had an effect on the numbers because the numbers were so small to begin with. If the Hispanic population of Raleigh went from 1 to 10, that would be a 900% increase. But it's still only nine people. Why am I saying this? Because TWI was called something like the second fastest growing cult in America. Well, duh, of course it was. The baseline was so small and the introduction of the marketing device of PFAL contributed to produce seriously impressive numbers, when you look at percentages. When you look at raw numbers, I've never even heard anyone claim "200,000." The most I ever heard was 100,000 having taken PFAL (though I imagine the actual number probably is closer to 200,000). So, let's be generous. 200,000 members (assuming everyone who took the class stayed for a little while). In a population of some 250 million (give or take 50 million, depending on what year we're looking at). Someone check my math: 0.08 percent? One in every 1,250 Americans. And that's assuming a number of participants, 200,000, higher than anyone has ever claimed. Jehovah's Witnesses, by contrast, have 5.6 million worldwide, 1.064 million in the U.S. They increase by 280,000 a year (in one year, they outdo TWI's 60-year track record. Think about that). They probably lose more people in a year than TWI ever had, too. And we wonder why even a cult researcher never heard of TWI? Simple: TWI is a pis/s/ant organization that would have loved to be the cult everyone feared it would be, but it was at most a blip on the radar screen as far as these organizations go. We think of it as significant because we were in it. But as far as anyone looking to study cults, TWI was way low on a list of way lows.

No. I've done it before and I'm tired of having to restate what I've already stated. You already know everything you need to know in order to look it up. Hint: It starts with a G and ends with an oogle.

It was page one.

Tom, you must have missed this post:

THE-Day. April 21, 2000. A day which shall live in TWIstory.

The problem is genetics has proven that the Ashkenazi Jews share a Middle Eastern, not Eastern European, ancestry. Which makes Koestler's thesis moot. It's like saying the moon is made of green cheese. A while ago, we couldn't really disprove it. But after we sent people up there and they came back with rocks and not cheese, you would have to revel in your ignorance to hold onto the green cheese claim (and the Thirteenth Tribe).

This is THE

It is THE's birthday today!

I've always heard this the other way around: How do you know the toothbrush was invented in Arkansas? If it were invented anywhere else, it would have been called a teethbrush.

Wow. That IS a HUGE volume difference. Be warned, folks.

Check the anniversary thread. Click here.

Crash!

A computer burp gets half of an anniversary thread. Unbelievable.

Ok, I need to step in here... Listen, guys, I'm all for flexibility, but I must say that a Broom is not Doom, and another pic should be chosen for that. You can't get "doom" from "broom," or even "dustbroom." That's taking flexibility a tad too far (and this is coming from the yutz who posted "big apple, big apple," so it's not that I'm being completely inflexible).

Shut out again. Whoops. That's not the winner's list. Click on the "2006" for this year's winners.

Ok, so now you've added California to the mix, but given no reasons Californians will flee from this movie as you believe New Yorkers will. So you still haven't made a compelling case about this. 1. Will NYC residents see it? Maybe. Maybe not. The focus of the movie is not what takes place in NY, although that plays a crucial role (obviously). This movie is not about how it felt to be on the streets of the city that day. 2. Will NYS residents see it? More likely than NYC. NYS residents feel connected in spirit to 9/11 without actually having been there. I expect the upstate crowd to turn out in big numbers. 3. Will California residents see it? That will depend more on the quality of the movie. 4. And here's the question you didn't ask? Will Florida see it. Will Washington DC see it. Will Philadelphia see it? Will Chicago see it? Will Toronto see it? Will Indianapolis see it? Will Minneapolis see it? Will Atlanta, Nashville, Phoenix, ... The notion that it's up to NYC to determine the fate of this movie is untrue. It will depend more on two things: marketing (which thus far has done a pretty good job) and the quality of the movie itself. If you won't see it, that's fine. But speak for yourself. "I won't see it, my fellow New Yorkers won't see it, and therefore it won't do well" puts your assertions far beyond what you can possibly know to be true. Well, if they're releasing it nationwide on the same day, that statement can't be true.

Yes. That's it exactly. Chicago Queen Latifah Bringing Down the House

What does anything have to do with THE?

It is a documented fact that if you put peeps on a THE thread, you no longer have a THE thread. I'm just sayin...

Succumbed to temptation? Maybe. I don't know how it started. To me, succumbed to temptation implies that he was the tempted and not the tempter. And maybe that's the case. But it's also likely that he was the initiator from the beginning, the one knocking on her door requesting a backrub. Which is it? I don't know. But I wouldn't discount either scenario.

April 17 is the announcement. We're hoping our paper gets it for one out of the three nominations.

Scream Neve Campbell Wild Things

Welcome back, Zix!

God: What have you done for me lately? sycophantic wannabeliever: I defended the honor of VPW against the people who told the truth about the way he preyed on your people. God: I'm sorry, maybe you didn't understand the question...