krys

I enjoyed the list too, Roy.

Total assets Dec. 2000 6,979,075

Maybe there was something lost in translataion?

The sick side of my brain wonders how much of that doctrine was a test of our loyalty. It made no sense to me then, and it makes less now as I hear you discussing this point. Maybe that whole part was just to test how far we would go to rationalize the totally ridiculous so that we could still be retained as worker bees, diciples for the lord, rah rah...and they were secretly laughing at us for believing such idiocy. At this point in time, I cannot imagine any other reason for including such questionable doctrine.

Colonel Mustard in the Library with the candlestick.

I miss hearing from you too. Hope it was a great day.

It's really hard to make sense out of this! Bacteria and viruses have their own ways of making a living, and they all do it differently. No, Morgan, not this one. Mosquito's do infect humans with this virus, but in order to cause a pandemic, this virus would have to active during the entire year. It dies off in mosquito's during the winter. The birds still have it, but mosquito's don't survive the winter as adults, so each spring and summer, a new crop of mosquito's collects the virus from the crows is draws blood from, and we start again. Of course the number of crows infected grows, but that won't cause west nile to travel from person to person. Some viruses don't seem to ever become able to pass from human to human. Malaria is transported by mosquitoes too, but so far, the only known humans who have ever gotten malaria have gotten in trough a mosquito. Part of the life cycle of the malaria virus takes place in the mosquito and part takes place in the human. Both mosquitoes and warm blood creatures are needed for malaria to continue to exist. So far as I've been able to determine, it is most reasonable that another pandemic of some type of flue is most likely to come from Asia, probably China. The reason for this is cultural. People live in close proximity to birds, especially chickens and ducks. It is believed that when a particular fowl, most generally history indicates it's a duck, has both a human flu virus and an avian flu virus at the same time in it's body, there may be some exchanges of viral info which would allow the virus to now infect humans by means of another human. That is when a pandemic will begin. If and when a virus is able to spread from human to human. Over the long course of what we know of of the history of these pathogens, this kind of "crossing over" is quite rare. There have been several times where I did occur, but in terms of the number of bird -bird and bird-human contacts, the ability to acquire this ability to spread from human to human is rare. I don't know if this addresses your concerns or not, but I hope so.

Happiest of B'days Robin! Enjoy your special day.

Let's hope "On the Beach" was not a prophetic film.

The virus won't be in your fish. They call it "Chicken of the Sea" as an advertisement jingle, that's all. Last I heard tuna wasn't "avian". Seriously, your stuff is safe. It's person to person transmission which will cause a pandemic, and so far, there is no evidence that the virus can move from one person to another.

Happy Birthday! and indeed many more!

That ain't your "ordinary" mom & pop station wagon!

Me too! Happy Happy day!.

I am also glad all is now well with you. Thanks for the story.

I get it Oakspear; I was a victim of tunnel vision. Before twi, however, I was into church, and I just accepted the fact that once graduated from whichever seminary, the title of "Rev" was automatically bestowed regardless of the person's spiritual abilities. Some of the seminaries listed their graduation ceremonies as "Graduation and Ordination", in fact.

Goey I do understand what you mean and where you're coming from. Suppose I refered to the person who my denomination put in charge of my particular church within their jurisdiction as "Pastor", that makes a difference, doesn't it? or does it? The idea of just confering a title of "Reverand" upon somebody with no demonstrated skills as such bothers me too.

(originally from Oakspear)The "ordination" doesn't confer any degree of spirituality on the person, just legality. I suppose this is also true for those who graduate from Divinity Schools also. However, I believe it is correct to refer to those as Rev. so and so. Maybe this is just a social custom, but I thought it was a correct and proper title.

I'm not so sure this is such a terrible thing. Let's suppose they still have required 3 meetings per week. One of those meetings could be "leader's choice", and one could be what's listed here. I'm not saying it IS like that, but it's still not so terrible. When we had larger memberships, we had "regular" teachings of the Navite and so much of what was taught was good. I still do believe the Bible is true, and that there was such a thing as a Christ-line. One gospel lists it one way, and another lists it another. Both must have been important. Yes it is a shame to have to stoop to this, but these are rather generic topics. When I was involved in a "normal" church, our sunday school classes all had the same curriculum for every grade, so that by the time you were done, you had a basic smattering of most things. I don't see how this is any different.

Believe it or not, she was one of my heros! dead at 92. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/national...arks.html?8hpib

To set the truth, however - Yellowstone does have some ongoing geological things happening. That's what "Old Faithful" and other hot springs are coming from. It is not impossible for some kind of major activity to occur there,however. "Not Likely" is not the same as "Impossible"

nobody can do nuthin' 'till the power comes back on - - sigh -

Point Taken

The weather I saw tonight suggested that a nor'easter with rain instead of snow could be expected and that some areas well inland could get a taste of what winter is all about. Guessing about the weather is almost like "guessing" about football. The next morning, everybody knows what happened and why!

I forgot how to post pics in the picture forum!

MadeItThrough: What a wonderful post. Welcome to our tree house on the net. I'll get your pie while Raf pours your coffee! Why did I leave? I left from pure exhaustion. I really, really, from my heart really wanted to be the best disciple I could be for God. I just followed the wrong rules, but I was duped into believing they were the right rules - - the only set of rules. Like everybody else, I paid a very high price for being duped. But Jesus Christ, who didn't really exist in the organization already paid the price in full. Since the price was already paid, I wonder why I worked so hard and spent so much money and energy getting God to spit in my direction. I don't even remember why I thought I needed that. Good evening Mr. Linder. Happy Trails to you.