waysider

Two old maids were layin' in the bed One rolled over and the other one said, "Let me play with your poodle-------I mean your little poodle dog." ------------Marcia Ball-----------

Is it "Mack The Knife"--------Bobby Darin?

NY? I had never heard of zenu(Shhhh!--- I substituted "x" for the "z", don't tell anyone.) I must be in a cult 'cause I google it and it all seemed pretty far fetched to me. You might even say it seemed intergalactic. I wonder if Tom Croose agreed to appear in T@p Gun because his character got to fly a familiar craft? Just wondering.

Dot Remember that old saying,"All that glitters is not gold."? There are places in south eastern Ohio that are absolutely beautiful. Rolling hills, winding country roads and plenty of nature in its glory are the norm. Neighbors are few and far between. The tranquility can be misleading. There is very little employment opportunity. Some people have reverted to a survival mentality. Pot is actually considered one of the main cash crops. Meth. labs are becoming more and more common because they can go relatively undetected. If you were to accidentally wander onto a property where such activity was taking place, your very life could be at stake. Many of these properties are rigged with booby traps and tripwires Tree stands are not always used exclusively for deer hunting.( I'm not just parrotting the news media on this. I can relate personal experiences.) Groundwater(private wells are the norm.) has been damaged beyond belief by unscrupulous coal mining operations. Entire sections of Interstate Highways have been known to crumble into sinkholes caused by abandoned mines. If you took a day trip to this area, you would fall in love with the sheer natural beauty that abounds. My point is not to raise a flag of pessimism but to stress that it is important to do some serious homework before making a big commitment. PS--- I do not live in that area but have worked there extensively in the past.

You know you are in TWI if you find yourself asking, "Who's this Col. S@nders who looks so much like Uncle H@rry?" ( Not the other way around)

You know you are in a cult when: You find that things you once considered nonsense suddenly seem like brilliant insight because they are being uttered by "leadership".

Weather and traffic ( out of necessity) Hockey! Austin City Limits ( If I haven't already seen the show 17 times) Red Green Show ( in small doses) That's about it for me.

You know you are in TWI when it suddenly dawns on you that you know more kid's camp songs that the boy scouts, girl scouts, cub scouts, indian scouts , brownies, bluebirds and Mr. Rogers all combined. You know you are at a TWI owned hotel, when , upon requesting a roll- away, the entire desk staff breaks into a silly song, complete with wacky hand motions and then asks you if all your needs are being met. You know you are in TWI when you insist the recipe for familia was divinely inspired. You know you are in TWI when you think Swiss Chard is an exotic food. You know you are in TWI when you think getting stuck in grid-locked traffic is a great opportunity to "lift" the leadership and find yourself giving thanks for long lines. You know you are in TWI when the most important feature you look for in a car purchase is a trunk that is big enough for the vcr and tv to run classes. You know you are in TWI when you find youself repeating the phrase"en garde" to yourself everytime a nasty old unbeliever starts to voice an opinion that contradicts "The Doctor". You know you are in TWI when hearing The Doobie Brothers sing " Jesus is Just Alright" confirms your belief that they are from the wrong seed.

Groucho Excellent analogy comparing the TWI spiritual scam to a real estate scam to contrast the scope of damage done. Although I don't get too wrapped up in discussing the sex scandals, I think there is a similarity there as well. It's not just about Joe believer and Betty Lou believer having an affair. That stuff happens everywhere, not just TWI. It's about someone abusing a position of trust and respect to satisfy their own personal agenda and doing it in God's name. The damage done goes far beyond the scope of what is immediately recognizable. I'm not sure what that has to do with"black and white" thinking other than to illustrate that rationalization played a big part in some of the justifications that were used to explain actions in TWI.

Poodle---It's what's for dinner.

Well------------ There WAS an awful lot of "begettin'" going on in Genesis, don't ya think? :D

WTH I'm pickin'up what your puttin' down, but let's be honest here-----The PFAL class was not written in Greek! Kapeesh?

I forgot to mention that the piece is called "The Messiah Will Come Again". The words he mummbles at the beginning are an integral part of the piece.

Ha! Knew I had it somewhere. It was in my AC notes. During the Advanced Class, VPW taught that in the Old Testament, God talked to His people through dreams because spirit was on, not in them. He said ( I'm paraphrasing my notes) that since the Day Of Pentecost, God only talks to his people via spirit within and dreams are no longer a valid way for God to speak to his children unless they had gotten so far out of fellowship that they could not recognize revelation.(or if they were not yet born again) Now honestly, given the foregone conclusion, who would want to admit they had experienced a dream? The notes go on to talk about the trap door, etc. and how daydreaming allows the renewed mind to let down its guard, thus unlocking the trap door for devil spirit influence. Sounds alot like "don't even consider" don't you think?

Thanks, Socks,Paul was about 20 years old on that one!!Here's some Roy B.

Kinda reminds me of that scripture where the begger continues to stay firmly planted on his behind and call out" There's a lion in the street" rather than take some affirmative action to warn others or somehow help to minimize the problem. If they don't think your house is up to snuff, perhaps they could stop hollering"there's a lion in the street" long enough to lend a helping hand. Just a thought.

I just found out that there is a new, live CD by the Paul deLay band. Paul passed away about a month ago. He was a master of the chromatic harp. He was once quoted as saying."This is one cat who ain't afraid to push the button.", a reference to playing beyond the standard "3rd position". Funny Paul D. story: In about 2000 or 2001, I learned that Paul had released a CD titled "Heavy Rotation". The promos said that if you ordered directly from him, he would send you an autographed copy at no extra charge. A buddy of mine is a big fan so I ordered two copies, one for me and one for him. At about 11pm my phone rings. I'm about 2 or 3 time zones east of Paul's home base in Portland, Oregon. Half asleep, I answered the phone and heard a voice say, "This is Peter Dammonn, Paul's guitarist. Paul is out on a solo tour right now but I just got your order for two copies of our latest CD. Would it be OK if I wait for him to get back and sign them before I ship them out?" It was, of course, more than OK. A week or so later , the CDs arrived with a huge gel-pen signature. Can you imagine someone like K. Richards calling you at home to tell you Mick was out solo and asking if it was OK to wait for an autograph? Ain't gonna happen, kids. I have not heard this CD yet. I'm going to go out on a limb and endorse it anyway. Paul never did anything halfarsed and I would be flabbergasted to find this to be the exception. You can find it at pauldelay.com. Did that sound too much like an advertisement? :)

Corps Puss L. PFAL--mnop. Advanced Class Action Suit. American Idol Worship Dancing with the scars Hey! You look familia!

No idea on the latest post. Sounds vaguely familiar. But, Wasway, no good band efforts since DD? Check out "Ocean of Tears" or "Nice and Strong" from The Paul DeLay Band. Not new, by any stretch, but much newer than DD and both solid "band" efforts. Point is--- music no longer comes looking for YOU, you have to go looking for IT. Lots of great stuff out there right now but most of it is not mainstream.

And don't forget: One must never consider.(ie:employ deductive reasoning) Eve did that, and look what happened to her. TWI doctrine got a whole lot easier to accept after session #7.

JavaJane RE: Your dream question Yes, I also heard these things in the 1970s. It supposedly meant you had your spiritual trap door open. I don't recall where I heard it, precisely, but I suspect it was one of those types of things that just seemed to "make the rounds" in TWI.

I don't think I know it but I do like the lyric.

This is a bit off topic.( The milk reminded me) There is an episode of The Little Rascals that takes place in a poverty stricken, depression era orphanage. The kids accidentally spill the only milk they have. They know the headmaster will punish them if he finds out. Thus, they decide to mix up some plaster- of- paris and water into the consistancy of milk. When they sit down at the table, there is nothing to eat except mush and "milk". One kid leans over and whispers to the next, "Don't drink the milk". "Why?", says kid #2. "It's spoiled." says the first. This goes all the way around the table until it reaches the headmaster who scoffs at the notion and takes a big gulp. He instantly spews the "milk" back out involuntarily. Don't drink the milk-----------It's spoiled!

How about Moment@s? Would that qualify as a usurption? I don't know what our class was called, but it pretty much fit the description of Moment@s We were subjected to a weekend of "reshaping" that took place in a LOCKED building. A locked-down building strikes me as more than infringement. We were shouted down and belittled at the very mention of the phrase "I think". "YOU DON"T THINK! YOU KNOW AND OBEY!" I remember that phrase quite well because it was directed to me, personally, more than once that weekend. Our choices and actions were commandeered that weekend. If that's infringement, it is an extreme form. And no, the agreement we made before going into the program did not make any mention of such "instruction". As I stated earlier, we were ORDERED to report to limb HQ in the middle of the night, on one occasion, and when we got there had to sit in complete silence in the dark only to then be told the program was being scrapped. Then it was reinstated only hours later but only if we fell in step without question. Again, if this is infringement, it certainly is an extreme form. Still, I did complete the program and graduate. I have a really swell green and white nametag to show for it. It's got a super cool Bible/Way tree/ Word over the world logo on it.--------Yee Haw!!

Oldies While I see your point about accepting what one agreed to, the point that is being lost is that sometimes these programs were not accurately represented in the recruitment process. It really doesn't matter how thoroughly one considered the commitment before entering, if the information was flawed to start with, one really had no idea how abherent the program would become in comparision to its promotion and promises. I think the generally accepted term for this kind of activity is "false advertising". A couple more quick points: Not everyone who left did so because they failed. Some were cast aside in a moments notice and no reason was ever given nor were we allowed to ask the reason why. There was one particularly cruel incident in which the ENTIRE PROGRAM was collectively dismissed at 2 or 3 in the morning, no specific reason given. At 5:30 the next morning we were told we were "allowed" to continue but only if we did exactly as we were told. I was not one of the ones who were thrown out nor did I quit. As I stated in my post, I graduated. Point #2: "Why did we keep coming back?" We didn't keep coming back------ we LIVED there, in a commune, isolated from general society.No phones, no TV. Our only connection to normal people was when we went to our secular jobs which we were to use as a means to witness so we could turn their names over to the local branches. If one had a job that was not conducive to that, they had to find another job. Pretty hard to strike up a conversation that doesn't somehow allude to a lifestyle you live 24/7--365 and then direct it to something unrelated. Our freewill was most certainly usurped. Was there anything good there? Sure. I learned I can tolerate a whole lot more horse cr@p than I had ever previously imagined. That, and I learned how to sprout mung beans and make my own mayonaise. I'll bet those cats in Acts never knew how to do either. Of course I can't really be certain because we never got around to that in-depth study of Acts that was promised.