Twinky

The point about the scapegoat is that all the sins were notionally put on its head - but then it was released. It was cast out, but it wasn't vilified, stoned, publicly or ritually slaughtered or in any other way killed. It was released and left to find its own life in the desert, where it either thrived or died. Being a goat, it probably thrived until some wild animal, lion or whatever, decided the goat was breakfast. The scapegoat was symbolic that way. In contrast, you'll note that most of those who opposed or were blamed by VPW and his henchmen were not only cast out but prior to that were publicly humiliated, with their own "sins" and imaginary sins of everyone and for everything heaped upon them. Such human victims were humiliated, ritually slaughtered in front of the whole congregation or at least in front of the whole Way Corps, and then cast out. They were also told (and believed) that the roaring lion was out there looking for them in particular, so they lived in fear (not just watchfulness) constantly. Nobody was released without being terrorised beforehand. So not quite scapegoats, not in the Biblical sense.

Ain't that the truth!! He knew much better. He knew what was Godly behavior and what wasn't He knew what was appropriate and what definitely wasn't. And where he didn't know - he wasn't circumspect, and erred on the side of caution. No, he just erred ... and erred ... and erred. A deliberate slap on the face of God. And God will reward him appropriately :eusa_clap:/> :mad2:/>

Subjunctive, actually. (Bold phrases in what follows are mine.) In this case - guess what! - VPW appears for once actually to have been correct grammatically. Which is pretty much a first for him. PFAL is littered with his misunderstandings of English grammar. Infuriated me during the class. Infuriates me to hear VPW-worshippers trot out the same errors now. (Don't ask me anything about the other irrealis moods mentioned. Heck!)

I woke up the other day with this mad idea, I suppose based on some dream I didn't remember... I planned to write a letter to TWI telling them how good life is now, away from them... ...which led me to thinking how the "sins" I committed were that I was not "meek to the Word" and I would be given a facemelting by someone or other and relegated to some "punishment" duty (dishroom, doing snow clearance at 5AM, etc) intended to ... to what, exactly? Reflect on what I'd missed out on - but never anything substantive. There was never anything substantive that I did wrong. Once I got reproved for being joyful and excited that an Advanced Class was about to happen! (I skipped down the corridor, Corps Coord told me it was "undignified"!) Plenty of "doctrine" - even more of "reproof" - but of "correction"? Real, honest, correction, given meekly? Very little - none from the facemelters. Though generally kindness and proper teaching from those I worked with. Veiled accusations, so that I could apologise for something they weren't aware of, thus accusing myself. Self-denunciation. Self-condemnation. . .. ... .... ..... ...... I didn't write any letter! WELL, I'M FINE, THANKS FOR ASKING. LIFE'S NOT QUITE WHAT I EXPECTED, BUT IT'S PRETTY GOOD AND THERE'S PLENTY TO BE THANKFUL FOR. GOD IS EXCEPTIONALLY KIND AND EVER WILLING TO SHOW THAT HE CARES. CAN YOU HEAR ME, TWI??? It wouldn't matter if you nailed 95, or 95 million, theses to the OSC or the Auditorium or the pregnant guppy. Some folks never get it. Or rather, they got it already (stashed in the bank) and they just plain don't care about anyone else's opinion.

Snopes gives CryptoLocker a green (=true) indicator.

This guy Atwill probably sees gas pumps and snowstorms too, or some equivalent.

I argued about that with the person who witnessed to me and persuaded me to take the class. - If I have to pay this money, then it's not a donation, it's payment for the class and/or the materials. - No it's not, it's just a contribution towards the cost of the books. - Well what if I don't want the books? - Can't take the class, then. - So it's payment, not a donation! And so on. But he ... I liked him. He was apprentice Corps doing his WoW year and the family was struggling to get a class together, under some pressure from interim Corps, and I wanted him to succeed ... Little did I know what I was letting myself in for. You could say I walked right into their double-speak with my eyes wide open.

I do like it when some of these old threads get bumped up again. Lest we forget how vile some of that time was.

I'd say the (compulsory) donation was more of a tax dodge. If it were something that had been sold, it would be taxable. However, if it were just given, as a donation, it wouldn't have to be taxed. Of course, if it were also a registered charity, then the donations may also be offsettable against tax paid by the donor. Not that receipts as such were given. And not that you could take PFAL without making the required donation.

Do other Christian organisations actually use the phrase "moving the Word"? I have heard "doing Kingdom work" and "sharing the gospel" and "bringing people to Christ" - but moving the Word? Nah.

It was probably supposed to have been a letter "I" as in Iesus not letter "L" And whoever was in charge of "proofreading" the design for the medal didn't do his job correctly.

Seriously cheap property, that. If it were in the UK you would be talking several million pounds. For the house and a fraction of the land. With all that land...buy it up quick, demolish the house, and put a small housing estate on it. You could pack a lot of houses into 6.5 acres. Was this house going to be the STFI "Gunnison Family Ranch" equivalent??

Wow, you lot are either boring or sorely disappointed in God!! Did God not do anything for any of you recently? By the way, the wrist injury I mentioned above is beautifully healed, just a slim red line left that gets a little shorter each day. I am now praying for (among other things) some trees I pruned at the wrong time of year. Too enthusiastic. Please God protect me from my foolishness in pruning them when I did.

Another cuty trick of Win 8. Today I sent an email to a friend with a link to a website. I used these words: "Here is a link." Win 8 does not want to send this without checking with me - looks like I want to send an attachment but there isn't one, should Win 8 send anyway or do I want to add an attachment? S'pose it might be a good idea, it's all too easy to forget to attach something. I don't know if it's a good thing or not, though. Win 8 is obviously double-checking what I do. And lets me know about it, too. Will Win 9 or some other later version...actually prevent emails being sent, if it isn't satisfied the sender knows what s/he is doing? :confused:/>

Was looking through some old topics and came across this one: Doctrinal topic Got me thinking. ... Maybe we should share a few stories. What did God do for you today? This week? I'll start. I was gardening last Wednesday. Placed my well-used loppers in a hedge that I'd just cut, so that I could reach them easily from a tree I was climbing up...and fell out of...onto the point of the open lopper blade. There was a big deep ragged slash across my wrist. I felt faint. But I washed it, TCP'd it; on my way to the walk-in clinic for it to be sewn up went past a pharmacy - called in, was bandaged up nicely. Was back at work in 10 mins! Out that evening at a Christian gathering - friend prayed for healing - when I took the bandage off the next day the wound was healed over already and is now only a short red slash which I believe will disappear completely. I thank God for His healing power. And I thank him for His grace. I could so easily have landed more awkwardly, severing a vein, an artery, or the nerves. Or contracted some vile infection from who knows what garden microbes lurking on the blade. Instead, there is no permanent damage. Strikes me as being miraculous. I'm so stupid. :redface:/> I'm so happy!!! :eusa_clap:/>

Oh, the hairs that were split over the difference if any between faith and believing. None of which hair-splitting ever got beyond an intellectual discussion. TWI was keen to tell us it was the "heart" that mattered and then distracted us by such intellectual discussions. And kept us all too busy to listen to our hearts. Whereas demonstrating (by actions) true grace, love and kindness, would have done far more to build our faith.

Squirrel, I'm sure you as a radio ham have never had a problem with finding a voice. Your own and many others. :wink2:/>

Article Raf refers to Useful sort of article. Actually I'd never considered it. What I have considered, and this is a bit off topic but not irrelevant, is that if Joseph had to travel - anywhere - to be censused, then so did his father (and possibly mother) and his brothers (and wives?) and who knows how many other hangers-on. What about Mary's parents, where were they from? They also are supposed to be in the same lineage, so wouldn't her father also be in the entourage? What a vast number of people on the move!!! (You'd think there might be some sort of swap-a-house for a few months, while everyone was moving about the country to their different places of origin) (Oh wait, pre-internet...) And surely, surely, Mary's mother would wish to be with her heavily pregnant daughter as she was about to give birth to her first child? Or some of the wives of the brothers? Would Mary really chose as midwife the innkeeper's wife or some random woman she just came across? Or did she expect the angel Gabriel or a midwife angel to materialise at just the right moment? So in this "stable" / caravanserai we have not just J&M but at least his parents, perhaps hers, a load of brothers (and their wives? and their kids?) quite a crowd. No wonder there was no room in the inn! But maybe in a nice big stable area, all of them could have space to move around and yet still stay together. With plenty of help for the new mother. Get rid of the schmaltzy idea of a lonely couple with naught but a donkey out in the savage wilds. Or two kids and a baby emitting light rays (halo) and mooing cows and whatever. There were loads of people present.

Hey, get this!! I was just drafting something up and used a word not in the standard MS dictionary though not an unusual one. As it's something I might use again, I added it to the dictionary. I finished the document and have gone to Save it - and up popped a new screen inviting me to send to MS all the words and phrases that Word doesn't recognize. "Help us to improve our proofing tools. The information listed below is from your use of the spelling checker, grammar checker, thesaurus and hyphenation tool. We want your permission to send these words and phrases to Microsoft. ...the information...is only used to improve our software and services." The program has been through ALL my documents (inc my old CVs/resumes) and has pulled out British place names (cities, streets etc), names of previous employers, phrases from my CVs - that's just what it's telling me about. While of course the place names can easily be picked up from any street atlas - or even Google maps! - I have to say I am NOT thrilled at a program that nosily pokes around in my documents and then wants to send info to MS or anybody else. Makes you wonder what else is poking around - without saying so - and what info is being extracted and sent who knows where. Win 8 ... spyware.

Krys, I do think you'll be happier with Win 7. Win 8 will probably be okay once they get all the bugs out of it. You can upgrade to Win 8 from Win 7 (on payment of a fee) but you should be good with Win 7 for some years yet.

Allan, in above post, the CC as in Corps Coord. The CC as in Country Coord didn't try to face-melt me, just to assault me Craig-style. (Y'know, "a man has his needs when he's away from home.") The only serious face melt from the Country Coord was the last time I saw him when he publicly threw me out.

I purchased a new laptop with Win8 in late December, to replace my ancient thing that ran Win2000 (!). Of course, I was fully familiar with later operating systems (XP, Win7) through other computers that I had regular access to. The difference between Win 7 and Win 8 is profound. If you want a program that will drive you bonkers, Win8 is it! It is VERY different from Win7 and many of the features you expect are absent or located somewhere else. There is no Start button (though due to common complaint Microsoft is thinking of reintroducing that) - there is a Start screen (like a Desktop) which is littered with Tiles (which are the apps). There sometimes don't seem quick ways to access data or other programs. There is no "Find File" aspect (part of the Start button in Win7) or if there is I haven't found it yet. Other familiar features are missing or hard to find. The Tiles on the Start screen give access to various other programs and come pre-loaded to Wikipedia, Bing, Skype, Skydrive, Google, IE, Messenger, etc and a load of games, photo software and such like. However, these Tiles don't always take you to where you really want to be. I had loads of trouble with the Skype program as (would you believe it!) there is no way to answer an incoming call! (After some months of failures I rummaged around on the Skype website and found this is a common problem and a huge complaint - the solution is to uninstall the app and download the latest desktop version of Skype). Win8 reads your (Hotmail) address book and tells you lots of things about the people in your address book and has added my Hotmail contacts as contacts in Skype (yeah, I really wanted them to do that...not). It's added stuff in my Facebook account too. You might wonder what info about yourself it is passing to other users. Disgracefully (but secretly in the background) intrusive - though Microsoft would say it's doing everyone a favor. If you have other older devices you may find they do not work with Win 8. My HP printer does not work and HP does not make a patch for it. Some other manufacturers of printers have made patches. My brand new camera purchased less than 2 weeks ago is set up to download to Win 7 and the viewer program does not work with Win 8, found that out two days ago. The patch/recommended solution doesn't work either. Fortunately I have some other software (pre-installed) that can view the photos. I find viewing photos is hard work just getting round the viewer and making it do what I want. There is a quick link to the Pictures Library but not in a useful way like letting you move easily from one photo to another; you have to go to some other location and set up Picture viewing another way. I use this computer every day, probably totalling several hours a day. I only have simple requirements and very often wish I'd got a computer loaded with Win 7 instead of Win 8. I don't want or need the extra toys it provides and don't find them helpful - rather, they're intrusive. There are probably lots of things that Win 8 is good at, does better; however, given what I use my computer for and given the annoyance factor in such longwinded ways of getting to do simple tasks, I'd go for Win 7 if I were buying again. I find if I'm not very careful how I use this computer, I inadvertently bring up the Start screen again and again. There is a Windows button to get out of it. Visitors who have attempted to use my computer often give up. You might want to arrange a tutorial if you do buy a Win 8 computer. Vendors are keen to promote this new program so may throw a tutorial in for free.

I endured several face-meltings from Craig, who would have the Corps Coord and maybe a few other henchmen present, and he'd scream at me about my disobedience and "lack of meekness." Heck, all I'd've been doing was something somebody "in authority" over me had told me to do; or it'd been something that appeared completely inoffensive where no direction had been given...nothing of substance or in itself wrong. He terrorised me several times about my "lack of meekness" and also had the CC do the same - the CC did it to be "obedient" but Craig did it to be manipulative. He didn't like that I still had a brain that functioned. We all know now how "meek to the Word" that rapist and serial abuser of women Craig was. This is a most interesting thread.

"Severally" in its ancient usage meant "separately" - ie severed, separate, cut off, from the other aspects; individually. It's part of a phrase which nowadays is encountered mostly in legal documents: people might be "jointly and severally" liable for something - a contract, a lease, a mortgage, whatever. "Jointly" means together with the other people who have signed the document. "Severally" means separately, solely, individually. And the liability will be for the whole of the contract, debt or whatever. When a person is "jointly and severally" liable for say a legal contract, in case of default the other party to the contract (let's call him Z) can go against (sue) any of the people who signed the legal contract if there is a breach of contract. Usually Z would go against all of A, B, C and D all at the same time; but Z doesn't have to do that; Z can go against any of A, B, C and D. Each one of these is "severally" (individually) responsible for the entirety of the debt. They're not each responsible for a half or a quarter, however many of them there are - they're each responsible for all of it. If A is dead, his whole legal responsibility continues on his estate and on B, C and D. If B is bankrupt, his legal liability falls on A's estate and C and D. If C is a minor and not legally allowed to enter a contract, his liability falls onto A's estate and D (That's because A B C and D were jointly liable, B's liability is extinguished by his bankruptcy, and C was never legally liable, being a minor). Even if A, B, and C are all alive, of age and financially stable, Z can still choose to sue only D and doesn't have to sue A, B and C at all. (That's "severally" liable - a severed responsibility for the entirety of the liability.) Of course, D if he has any sense will immediately join A, B and C in the same proceedings so that they are jointly liable with him - which is why Z usually sues them all in in the first place. In this sense, just as there is a separate individual responsibility to fulfil the legal obligation, "dividing severally as he/it will" emphasises the personal, individual, entire spiritual package which each person receives. It's not a "part" of the gift - it's the thing itself in its entirety. The very same as is given to everyone else. That's not at all from a PFAL perspective. That's from the perspective of a lawyer of many years experience who had a specialty in litigation and contract law. Joint and several liability is something a law student learns about in the first term. As a practising lawyer, it was something that had to be explained very carefully to clients about to embark on any kind of legal contract. Again, they're not each responsible for a half or a quarter, however many of them there are - they're each responsible for all of it. In fact, when coming to that part in PFAL, I understood immediately that everyone got everything. I very much doubt that VPW had that anything like that perspective on it, whatever angle he came at it from. Lesson over. Back to the bunfight.

Oh I'm just being naughty, Chocky. It was a weird thought that occurred when clearly my brain had nothing better to do. Yes I'd agree that LCM's rants were probably frustration with his wife's activities with her girlfriend. But he was violently anti-homosexual particularly against males. In fact, he spent almost an entire Corps night :wacko:/> detailing what (he said) were the activities that males got up to and the things (he said) they did to enhance their sexual enjoyment. And returned to the topic on many other occasions. In fact, he spent nearly a whole semester referencing these activities one way or the other in Corps night. Gross, or what? He cast out male WC Corps, graduated staff and living in Founders Hall, for alleged homo activities. I don't recall him doing that with any female Corps. Maybe he didn't have the courage (?) to do the deed himself. So he attacked men's wives as surrogates. Two years in rez under his leadership...is more than enough. I probably saw and heard more of him that you did, Chocky. Having a hard time remembering anything positive that he said.