dabobbada

Considering the inclinations of their Chairman Mao Tse Rosie, your sugestion is probably close to the present truth on the taking of that covenant. :blink: :P Catcup, Upon reading the rest of your story, I also agree you made the right decision and for the right reasons too. Probably the greatest sin of the denizons of the TWIlight zone is the perfection of the self-righteousness that makes them never ever wrong. Those who aren't with them are enemies of god and unworthy of any kindness. Indeed they must be watched and vigorously opposed. In reality, I imagine they quake in their boots for fear that you will breath on them, melt their faces, and suck out their souls. I have found that when people have treated me evilly, it is because they can't out argue me, so they turn to personal attacks and other rippings to bring me down and defame me before those I love or work with. The title Satan means "The Accuser" doesn't it.

You HAFTA be ex-military

Hey Catcup, good to see you again. I go with those who believe it depends on the closeness of your relative and the love bond you have with that individual. I might suggest you contact them and ask about what the bosses are thinking here. This certainly appears to be a major change from past policies of total exclusion of ex-wafers even to visitations of gravesites. If you go bring your strongest best friend, present yourself well, stay positive for your relatives weddings sake. As the old saying goes, hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst. Then it will be hard for the conniving to blindside you I would go just to see what is going on there these days, from the layout of the land to the mindset of those still inraptured by the dying embers of the Ma Kettle of the way. Maybe they are ready to mend fences and go ecumenical with all the other run offs. <_< (Would such a group be called The United Way?) Once or twice a month Fox 45 out of Dayton runs a Sunday night tape of a way service. I've watched a few and find them kind of creepy. (I hope I wasn't really like that when I was in.) It is mostly singing and 35 minutes of a sermon. The music was uninspired, the smiles were superglued in place, the pfal level sermons inspired massive doze-offs in my neurons. A Wedding is a celebration of a deliberate decision by a man and woman to join in Holy Matrimony before God and man. You are there as an invited witness and celebrant to this most major of Holy Vows. That is the reason you should go if you choose to. If others should make evil of it, their evil will be upon their own heads against the day they stand before the Righteous God. Catcup, God Bless you and your family. Love, Bob

In the days of my youth, my curiosity to learn led me thru such areas as comparative religion, psychology, philosophy, the occult and eastern mysticisms. Finally I ended up in TWI, you may draw your conclusions as you desire on that. ;) Throughout the occult and spiritualist realms, the familiar spirit is an “advanced spiritual soul or being” usually with a fine pedigree of exceptional past lives, who is a companion, guide, teacher and the connection between the physical and spiritual realms for the practitioner of the occult arts. For many in the ancient magic religions, the familiar spirit usually is visibly seen as an animal; say, the wizards - witches - druids: pet cat, wolf, snake, or raven. On the other hand, a medium or psychic has a familiar spirit who is a disembodied spirit seen or heard only by the psychic. In a séance the familiar spirit would be the one on the other side of the veil who makes the connection with the dearly departed loved ones and helps them to possess the medium. As I remember, the witch of Endor was supposed to have conjured up the soul of the Prophet Samuel for King Saul. And it seems I’ve read that Socrates the Greek philosopher had a familiar daemon who was his spiritual advisor. Being both a twig leader and advanced crass grad at the time, I too was privileged to listen to the Leadership Tapes. As I recall, what The Great Foreski … er, Forehead said was G**r assumed many of V.P.s mannerisms, giving the sense of the presence of the ol’ DocVic. He then went on to name the 14 debbil spurts that that he revelated were in G**r at the time. I don’t recall familiars as one of them or not. What I did see after that, was hardly a Sunday nite teaching went by without a rant on those who betrayed him and walked away. He nursed that pain and anger til it went Way beyond obsession and dare I say, ….{shudder}… possession! Aww.. The spirit of Rosylie at work.

Dear friend Ron, You do indeed have my deepest symphonies. :blink: The only way I know of to cure a case as sirius as yours is to run out and buy the complete boxed edition of the 666 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Movies. (Ususally available at any convenience store for $4.98 or in french at $1.50 in any French Embassy or francophile cult.) Play the whole set at once all the way to the end. If you are still alive, you will be completely numb, which can be loosely interpreted as cured, and Dean Matin can never ever hurt you again. (Actually, you won't even feel it if you get run over by train.) Or you will be a brainwashed fan and won't care that the song bores holes deep into your pyche, shortcircuiting all logic and reason, leaving you selling flowers in orange robes at airports and way functions. The good news is if you buy the french version is you will be fluent in french.

DANG!!! :blink: I haven't been able to make a connection for a month and when I finally do, look what I find. :D :D :D Congratulations Ted and Moonie, My best wishes to both of you. Love, dabo

Ok..... I'll bite. Why does Tom have to shave his privates? :o--> :D-->

Yoda divulges the secret of Jedi wisdom: :D--> :D-->

Cathy, Actually, I'm pretty sure the picture is staged and is a joke picture. It's too ironic. :D--> outandabout and Hammeroni, It does take a bit to notice the 'uniform' of the white guy because of the apparent reality of the intense activity in the room. I think that just makes the surprise even better. Zshot, I have no idea. --> Garth, ;)--> I was thinking we should have a caption contest. Anyone have any ideas? :D-->

:D-->

Thank you, that was great! :D-->

I never paid that much attention to his basketball bragging, but I do remember at the '83 or '84 ROA, VP had his college basketball coach on stage. The way he talked, it seemed to me it was to prove he really did invent the hook shot and some of the other brag points he'd talked about.

It was a hot and steamy day. (Nyuk, nyuk ;)-->) The tropical sun beat down upon the tarmac as I walked over to the C-130 cargo plane with my duffel bag. I always loved those C-130s and was excited to be able to finally ride in one. The cargomaster was loading some pallets into the plane and several of us were hanging around waiting, for the ride to some airbase like me I assumed. In mid July of 1969, the daytime temperatures of Thailand were about 110 degrees. The sun beating down on the airfield tarmac radiated back at us feeling more like 140. . I had flown into Bangkok two days before and wasn't too much impressed with the area, but I guessed it beat getting sent to Vietnam. I was glad I was a photo lab tech and the lab would be airconditioned to keep the photo chemicals within control specs. The cargomaster calls us aboard and closes us up and announces the flight schedule. We'll be flying to U-Dorn, U-Bon and U-Tapau air bases and then back to Bangkok, he says. He didn't tell us there was no airconditioning in the airplane. Hot. Hot still air, sweating like a pig. Flying north, east, and then south, covering most of Thailand in two and a half hours in the hot oven-like belly of an Air Force cargo bird, yippee. About ten minutes before landing at the first base, an oddly familiar looking guy sits down beside me and says: "Isn't your name Hansen?" "Yeah, it is...." "I think you went to school with my brother, Billy Borg. I'm Jimmy Borg, his younger brother." I said: "Yeah I know Bill, ( One of the biggest jerks in my high school.) fancy that, meeting someone from my hometown, in the middle of nowhere, half way around the world." He said: "How about that, ain't that something. Look, since we know each other, could you lend me $20?" (Groan!) (I get off the plane in Bangkok, and the very air smelled bad. I learned that is because of seasonings from cooking mixed with their way of dealing with sewage. I and twenty others get sent to a cheap Air Force supplied Hotel, where I find my expensive brand new Norelco Tripleheader razor with a built in sideburn trimmer, is stolen. The next day, I grab a taxi to go to the US Post Exchange retail store to get a new one. The ten year old taxi, I find has no shocks, maybe three springs, two gears forward and no reverse, running on three cylinders and probably still has the origional oil in it. When our traffic was stopped, he pulled into the oncoming lanes of very large dump trucks, busses, divers trucks and cars, other Bangkok taxis, mopeds, bicycles, oxcarts and elephants. When I protested, he turned around and smiled at me and waved a little charm he had around his neck, (while still driving into oncoming traffic,) and said: "Have Buddha, no die!" Twice. My hands and feet still had a deathgrip on various car parts when we pulled up to the Post Exchange. And then the driver was trying to get me to buy him some contraband Scotch Whiskey and cartons of cigarettes too.) Three days in Thailand, my nose is assaulted, my razor is stolen, I'm taken on a kamikaze ride in Bangkok taxi hell, and now some jerk, brother of a hometown jerk wants half the money I have left. I looked at Jimmy, he got a pleading look in his eyes, and he said: "I wouldn't ask except I am flat busted. You know where I'll be and I know where you are, I guarantee I'll get the money to you as soon as possible. I swear it, man." I knew he needed the money. As a sarge, I was making three times what he was. ($400, compared to his $130) And I knew I'd never see him or the loot again, but it was nice to see a Borg looking at me with pleading eyes, so I gave him the $20. Such a nice intro to Thailand indeed. but I grew to love the country and adapted to Thai dishes so hot a Mexican has to train to build up his tolerances. :D--> Yes, you can meet someone you know just about anywhere and in the most surprising places. And Thailand turned out to be so much fun, I extended my service to spend two years in Okinawa, which was even more enjoyable. And one day around 1984, at a TWI Word in Business Doo, I met a Lawyer who was born and raised on Okinawa.

Actually, Lucifer, the angel of the manifested power of God, was the ruler of the first earth. As he and his angels became more self centered and selfish and controling, sin entered and sin eventually brought forth death. So Lucifer became death and is death. :D--> :D-->

satori :D--> Yes Tom, Lobsters could be loosely compared to cockroaches. With the exoskeleton shell on the outside and organs & muscles inside, Lobsters, shrimp and crabs are the insects of the sea. They get larger than land insects because because water's natural buoyancy supports a much larger size and weight. like a cockroach also, lobsters are scavengers and carrion eaters, vaccuum cleaners of the ocean floor. However this includes all bottom dwelling fish and crustaceans, all scavenge carrion and clean up the ocean floor. But then almost all fish live by eating other fish, then again, other fish are eating living fish, not dead and rotting ones. I did read a story awhile back where a man died from lobster overdose. Apparently, lobsters like pigs retain a lot of the decaying poisons in their bodies. (Which no doubt also are part of what gives them their good flavor.) Well this man ate something like 12 or 16 of them and then later went comatose and died. The coroners verdict was lobster poisoning.

In the '80s, I lived with a believer family from Maine. The husband had many a story to tell about growing up a Mainiac, and he told them well. :D--> He lived near the coast so it was nothing for him to run down to the shore to gather all type of sea critters. When scuba diving, he never came back up without some lobster. According to him, in the old days, Lobster commonly got up to 35 to 50 pounds. In his days, a 35 pounder was pretty rare but you could still find plenty in the 20+ pound range. He said fishing law was set for a maximum size limit on lobster catches to preserve the species. Apparently the big ones are the prime breeders. The lobster traps of course naturally limit the critter's size intake. Scuba for them was also illegal, but a lot of mainers did it for home use.

How Do I Handle Reproof on Greasespot? Ohhh god,.................. I............ can't... cope! It,.... it devastates me. It's like some ol' devil spirit slugged me right betwixed the ol' earballs. I crawl over to a corner, assume a sitting fetal position, grab my blankee and suck my thumb and start stroking my nose. Sometimes I like to rock back and forth too. I lose my appetite for days at a time, the idea of food in any form absolutely repulses me. In times like this I rarely eat more than eight or nine times a day. Self esteem, I have none. I am reduced to the four year old child who, when dad was mad at me, had to go play in the basemment of the outhouse. I am so filled with self loathing I pull out my cat-o-nine-tails, and start flagellating my back. I try, I flail, I flail, I cry out and try harder and flail some some more, it is so hard to flagellate when your back is against the wall. I am covered in a pile of shredded wallboard dust, insulation, and framing splinters. But the fresh air from outside mixed the plaster dust both delights and chokes the soul. Yes, I'm starting to feel better. I break out of the gloom, I break out of the spiderwebs. (Where'd these come from? How long have I been in the corner?) I put on the teakettle just so I can built up some self esteem. I boil some eggs so I can break outta the shell. I put on Rodney Dangerfield. Oh yes, I am definitely coming out of it and now I want revenge. I want e-vile revenge, I want bloody revenge, I want sweet revenge, I want freddy kreuger revenge, I need an aspirin. God, I also need a thesaurus. I read and re-read the offending poster. I pick apart the weaknesses in his post until my hands get tweezer spasms and I must stop. My mind boils at a thousand miles a minute as I plot out a scalding reply. I want to put the fear of Bob in him. I want to reduce him to a smoking okie, like a texan on a lambchop. I want to make him wish he'd never left the comfort of the household of the way! MuuuHaahahaaaa..... Feeling ready now, I turn on my beast and power on the net. I find the GreaseSpot. I find the post: OH YEAH! Lal-Lay-Yo, you are dead wrong!!! It wasn't "Jesus said something about taking the mote out of our own eye first." it was: Quit trying to take the moat out of your neighbors eye when you got Jim Beam in your own eye! .......SO THERE! :D--> :D--> :D-->

Yeah HCW, Don't you know we were the best, the holy ones who knew it, dare I say; the superior ones. Let the plodding ordinary christians do the plodding ordinary things. [With the music of The Impossible Dream in the background] We the Royal Knighthood of La Mancha would be tilting at the spiritual windmills.of The Enchanter to gain the "Golden Helmet" of Mambrino. Meanwhile, The Padre and his co-conspirators are playing with Dulcinea backstage. (Beware the Knight of the Mirrors!) Besides, ordinary christians really couldn't understand our advanced selves anyway. Actually, I got along with regular christians quite well, though it was good to agree to avoid certain subjects with some folks. All born again are in a spiritual brotherhood of equals that can in no wise be broken. Through all the self concratulatory rhetoric, you sort of ended up expecting we would end up on the hill at the base of the throne of heaven. All the other christians would be out in the suburbs somewhere. (Can you imagine that VP and The Loy'd expect to get seats near the throne, next to Paul and Peter.) Amen to that. The good that was in twi was in the good christian hearts of those 'ordinary' wayfers who kept the real truth of God's Word. We were humble enough to know it was God and not us that was special. We wanted to do good with people because God had been so good with us. But TWI had other plans for us. Thinking of the picture with you in it, I know I remember seeing a young black man with similiar coordinated clothing, probably at HQ. You stood out in your quietly elegant way, and were not unnoticed. :D-->

Virtually every other christian church in the US would consider charity giving and helping people as things on their must do list. Especially so if a member of the congregation were injured while participating in some church sponsored activity. They would do everything they could do and then help you connect with others that would help you. Yeah, VP was pretty slick about that, He said let the others provide soup kitchens and help the poor, we are going to teach people the word. If TWI helped it's discards at all, it helped them get some sort of welfare assistance. The last few years, even HQ staff was directed to get government assistence for health problems as I recall.

Scout Finch, I once worked with a man who recieved a head injury in a Jeep accident in Korea. Nicest guy you'd ever want to meet, but the accident made him a manic depressive. As long as he took his meds, he was OK.

So, Soques knows the origions of the skunkpelt then. I guess that shows how dumb he is! :D-->

(A la, I'm just dealing with your homemade trailer here so I cut out the rest of A la's post.) I think most trailer accidents not based on bad loading start with a bump. Either a hole, or a big rock can send one side of the trailor airborn. If you hit a hole or rock just right, it will also shove the trailor sideways. (Because they are lighter than cars.) These actions can levitate the load for a second and shift it from balanced to unbalanced, which then oscillates and fishtales on you taking you out of control. Such bumping can also puts a lot of stress on the ball and coupler and can loosen and break them. Just so we are using the same language, here are the proper definitions. Hitch - the steel frame that holds the ball to the vehicle. Ball - Bolted to hitch, attaches vehicle to the trailer coupler. Trailer coupler/ball coupler - the coupler attaches over and locks to the ball. Trailer tongue - the trailer frame coming out the front of the trailer, attached to the coupler. You said the hitch was good, but didn't mention the ball. I'm assuming the ball was good too, they don't fail unless the bolt gets loose but you should notice that when you couple the trailer. So it appears the problem was in the trailer frame or the coupler. If the frame failed, it would have to be some weld broke, which would be your uncle's fault. For a failure of the coupler, I can only think of two things. couplers are designed to be bolted to the tongue, most are bolted but some folks will weld them in place. Both are good, but there is the rare break of the coupler/tongue hold. remember all the stress energies of vehicle/trailer dynamic are centered on the ball-coupler. Failure there would again fall on your uncle. The most common failure is with the tightening knob on the coupler. Inside, as you crank that knob, a cog is supposed to tighten against the ball so the coupler stays put on the ball. It always seems to take way too many cranks to tighten it and if you don't check it by trying to pull the coupler off the ball, it might still be loose. You always have to double and triple check to see if it is really cranked down tight. Then check it again, if the cog ain't tight, the coupler can bounce up and down and in and out and loosen or break the cog. At that point you are pulling a lethal weapon. The person who tightens the ball is of course guilty one for failure there. I haven't run a trailer in 7 - 8 years, but I went shopping with my brother when he bought a new Suburban and helped him find a new ball mount. I noticed there all sorts of innovations in hitches, balls, and couplers these days. There are better adjustable ball mounts to make sure the trailer is level and more solid coupler locking systems, this is very good. For what it is worth, said brother still has two of dad's homemade trailers. :D--> I don't know if this helps or not, but it just about had to be something with the coupler. Trailers are quirky, skittish things that have 100 different ways to go wrong on you under the right conditions. Here's some history trivia, until the late '40s, the national speed limit was 35mph, towing trailers was not a problem. Til the late '50s, the speed limit was 55, people were expert enough with trailers to use common sense. In the '60s, the limit went to 65, and on the new Interstate System, they allowed 75mph. Signs started limiting trailers to 45 mph. In '74, gas cost brought the speed limit to 55 again and trailers were still 45. In recent years we can go fast again but most cars are too small to pull a trailer. people wisely use vans. ;)-->

I was fortunate in that I was usually around men who tried to visit the sick and comfort the broken hearted. (real lucky I guess.) Though many meant well, all they could do at best was offer God's love and beg you to build your believing. As the years rolled on, it turned more to the pious platitudes of the self-righteous perfected priesthood until we achieved the High 43rd Order of Gestapo Godliness in the '90s. It is amazing to me to this day that they did such a good job of hiding their evil works, both to young women and to those who didn't get healed (both mentally and physically,) as TWI thought they should have. they used them up and threw them away. And I didn't find out until WayDale and Greasespot. Damn them to Hell.

HCW, I'm sure the trailer was well built, anyone who would know how to do one, would now how it had to be done right. Yes, a loosepacked load could go airborn with a bump and shift possibly to the rear. A trailer load must have a 10% or 200 lb. weight bias to the front or the trailer will fishtale badly. With Kevin, I'll agree he was a good lead man on your say so. Only he could relate his experience with trucks and trailers. I do know he reacted properly to the situation once it came into being. Even though you stated he was close to the edge of the road, it was the gust of wind which blew you off the road. It is very likely that no matter where he was in the lane, the wind would have blown him off the road. Having towed a number of trailers and owned several vans including two '67 VW splitwindow vans, I know what the wind can do. With all my experience, the wind still surprises me at times.

Thank you Sunesis, for showing us some of the person that Rochelle was. I weep for her because she so deserved the better she desired and never got. They stripped her of her dignity, her faith, and her (believed) family. They took away her reason for living and in such, her humanity and worth. She died in a stark sterile remote hotel room feeling she had been crushed to nothingness by TWI. Satori, this is where your anger at TWI shood be focused. It wasn't the accident, because accidents happen. It is what they did with the people after the accident that is reprehensible.