George Aar

AND my baby girl's birthday!

A year or so ago the Dow was above 14000. I knew at the time that there was more than a little irrational enthusiasm for stocks and that there was a considerable amount of air that would soon be deflated from that overheated market, but I had no idea how MUCH! Anybody got any good stock picks? I didn't think so... Jeezus, just how low can it go?

This may have no relevance at all, but I seem to remember a definitely different "feel" to the ministry around about 1982 or so. IIRC that was the year the Vicster made his schlep to Nashville trying to hawk his wares on a national sorta venue. To me that whole "Soundout '82" (or was it '84?) thingy just smacked of a real sellout. The whole ministry trying to take on some sort of "Ah shucks" country-fried personna and all that GAWDAWFUL cornfed country music, the whole thing made me ill. That was my first time of really questioning the legitimacy of the whole of TWIdom. And then there was that big push to get "4000 for the 40th" - as in suckers to go "W.O.W.". THAT didn't happen either. Just another in a continuing litany of stuff that didn't really pass the smell test, when it came to being some sort of "blessed by GAWD" endeavor. Clearly, there were a number of things that Mr. Wierwille was pushing that were pretty much half-baked...

This year (in August to be exact) marks the FIFTIETH anniversary of the recording of Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" - arguably the greatest jazz album ever recorded. A veritable who's who of jazz legends performs on the album - Canonball Adderly, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Jimmy Cobb and, of course, Miles Davis and several others that I can't remember off the top of my head. I guess, even though they've reissued this album a gazzillion times, there's a new, special 50th anniversary ablum out, with additional tracks and other stuff thrown in. Might be a worthwhile purchase for any of the Jazzoids out there. Anyway, here's the best track off of said album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4TbrgIdm0E

Why? I think that many of us, besides just being insecure kids with the normal adolescent angst and uncertainty that goes with growing up, had issues with their fathers. Maybe he was adsent (or in my case - dead) or just a jerk, but in any case, Mr. Wierwille was able to exploit that void with his "aw, shucks, you're my KEEDS" routine (that sickens me to even contemplate, in retrospect). Mostly though, I think it was just the times. Tremendous social upheaval, the Viet Nam War still tearing this (and THAT) country apart, and the largest cohort group of teenagers to ever pass into adulthood at one time rewriting just about all of the rules for community, faith, love, interaction. And we got a good portion of that stuff WRONG. I don't think Wierwille could pull it off today. There's just too many ways to check up on somebody now. But there's no doubt some other way a conman will find his marks. They'll just have to spend a little more time thinking up a plan. The "I'm GOD's man here on earth fer ya" schtick is gonna be a lot harder sell today than it was fer Vic...

Denying reality was always a specialty in my little corner of WayWorld. "I don't care what my senses tell me, I KNOW I'm - (healed, got the job, got the money, have the ability, understand the guidance, on time for the teaching, ad infinitum)...

I find it more than a little remarkable that the religiously disposed are seemingly so threatened by THOUGHT. And it's not just this poor gimp. Since people first huddled together to beseech some unseen force to improve their lives, it seems thinking was always high on the list of things that should be curtailed. Just accept, don't think about it. Sure, it doesn't make any sense, but that's what GOD wants us to do! And then, of course, the next thing to get all freaked out about is the way your body naturally reacts. You got a little wood from looking at the girl's legs across the room? Oh boy! You're BAAAAAD! Those are IMPURE thoughts!. Oh gawd, don't you ever get tired of the nonsense? Hey, here's an idea! How about if something doesn't make any goddam sense, we can reject it and think about something that DOES? Works for me. And I haven't killed anybody or harbored any forbidden wood in a loooong time...

Plus the fact that, despite his prodigious ability at working a crowd, LCM seems to be a pretty dim bulb. Anybody who doubts that, I encourage to revisit the AOS video and realize that Loy actually thought that that production was a good idea (!).

Yeah, it was him and a few others with a certain charisma and public-speaking ability that really did the heavy-lifting to get the MLM business known as TWI off the ground in the early '70s. Their adherence STILL to the bankrupt concepts of Wierwilleism is mute testimony to their actual lack of integrity and/or reasoning ability. He was a nice guy but...

So, you're gonna name the baby "Juan Valdez"? (Sorry, my pictogram deciphering ability isn't what it used to be...) (CONGRATS!)

Yeah, there's not too many places - good or bad - I haven't been to around Seattle. The "Pike Brewing Co." has a "Pike Pale Ale", they're not too far from the market. Then there's the "Pyramid Brewing Co." down by Safeco Field, and "The Redhook Brewery" in the Fremont District. "Alaska Amber" near as I know is brewed in Juneau, but there's lots of places that serve it around Seattle...

None other than I think it's indicative of a mind that isn't working very well. Which is why I don't spend a lot of time conversing with the owner of said mind. As momma always told me "You can't argue with a crazy person"...

I think #1 on my list would be Jared Diamond of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" fame. Then I'd have to second RR's vote for Hunter Thompson. And then Louie Armstrong and I think I'd be on my lips. And yes, I do realize that it would require a time machine or maybe a really gifted spirit medium to accomplish most of this...

Well, I'm not Steve, but I would submit that that the only way any human has ever observed ANYTHING is by way of the senses. "Believing first and then seeing" is simply a textbook method of being taken in. And I would also posit that in the Bible quotation noted, that Thomas is the most virtuous one of the lot. Demanding proof is not an evil practice. It's a disciplined approach to figuring out REAL answers in life instead of accepting fairytales as guidance. "Believing first" never discovered any cures to disease or launched any satellites. Nor did inquisitive skeptics ever ride off on a Crusade or fly an airliner into a skyscraper...

The poor girl wouldn't be quite so homely were it not for that horrible growth on her eye. Maybe a good plasitc surgeon could help?

Pardon me for my "drive by" post, but I couldn't let this one pass. When I see phrases like "real intellectual honesty" used in regards to something as squishy as religion, um, I dunno. That strikes me as being UTTERLY ludicrous. Despite "witnesses" to the contrary and all sorts of studies - and even universities - devoted to some sort of intellectual pursuit of religious notions, it occurs to me that "spiritual" concepts and ideas are primarily driven by emotion and feelings. When you have a text as dubious and variously interpreted and as uncertain in origin as most Holy Writs tend to be, how can you EVER claim any sort of "intellectual" veracity? Doesn't it always boil down to phrases like "I just FEEL the Lord is showing me such and such", or "I'm being GUIDED to believe such and such", or - the common Wayfer phrase "I just KNOW blah, blah, blah". "Belief" is a lot of things, but a rigorous intellectual discipline it's not...

No, the tavern of note in the "U" district is the "Blue Moon". The Central - as the name would suggest - is in the center of downtown Seattle (or what WAS the center of town cir. 1890 or so). Basically it's right in Pioneer Square, just off the corner of 1st Ave. and Yesler St. ...

There's two beers that I remember as being "off the charts" - and as I no longer indulge - memory is all I've got left. One was "Black VooDoo" beer that was a seasonal sorta thing, brewed in (or maybe around) New Orleans. It was - as the name would suggest - a dark beer, but not overly heavy. Really tasty. But my favorite was "Watney's Red Barrel Beer" - ON TAP. You can find it in bottles at most good grocery stores, but it's just not the same. If you can find it on tap, it's really a treat. The Central Tavern (the oldest tavern still in operation in Seattle) USED to have it and I was known to imbibe in a bit of it from time to time. After an evening of indulgence, we'd usually start calling it "Watney's Wed Bawwoh Beeah". Uh, comes with the territory I guess...

What I'm almost overwhelmed with whenever I see anything from the WayWorld Lawrence Welkesque Show are the awful colors of everything. "Dark and drab" seems to be the order of the day. Does someone on staff there actually think those baggy blue suits (and the atrocious outfits the women wear) look good?(!) I mean, somebody actually wants them to look like that? It's just incomprehensible. Can you say "out of touch"? Sure, I knew you could...

Wow! Three unsubstantiated (and need I say "dubious"?) assumptions in just one paragraph! Hat trick!

I walked on the Great Wall of China, that was pretty cool. But I never did become a paleontologist, though. That kinda sucks...

Well, let me give you some specifics that maybe will help you understand why some folks don't get all warm and fuzzy when asked about W.O.W. In order to go W.O.W. I sold a small "hobby" farm ( 6 acres), left a lucrative job in a growing company (where I was "the man"), and alienated my family (they basically thought I was nuts and trapped in an abusive cult {they were right}). I've never regained that level of prosperity or had that good of a job since (it was a great job that I should NEVER have walked away from). While out in Alabama, about midway through the year, the branch leader in a nearby town decided it would be a swell idea to shoot his disobedient W.O.W. family member in the head (which he did). That particular family member would never return home alive and the BL spent the next several years in an Alabama prison. Another W.O.W. had an ailing mother, but - in order to stay true to her holy commitment - she stayed "on the field" while her mother died (this sort of thing happened FREQUENTLY). Other W.O.W.s can tell of the times they were raped, robbed, assaulted, had nervous breakdowns, etc. Going without meals, or housing, or jobs, or friends and family was the NORM, from what I could tell. Anything else was generally the EXCEPTION. And all this sacrifice for WHAT? To promote a conman's business, that's what. And to prepetuate a tired mythology. Sorry, no thanks, it was B.S., and yes, I DID try it TWICE. Gaaaawd...

I would say - without exaggeration - that participating in Mr. Wierwille's sales campaign (uh, going W.O.W.) was the MOST detrimental of programs that I ever participated in. I think, more than anything else I experienced in WayWorld, that it was the point where my life became seriously derailed. Here we were trying to force ourselves into some sort of spiritual epiphany, all the while we were simply being USED as a slave-labor force to promote the Vicster's business. NO, worse than slave labor. We were PAYING for the privilege of being used. And there were no epiphanies. I see many struggle to put some sort of positive spin on the experience, but when you actually hear what they went through, it's difficult to see where they got any benefit from it all. For the most part it seems that - at best - we lived through a self-inflicted year of poverty and deprivation, squabbling and compromising, self-denial and sacrifice - and all FOR WHAT? Gawd, you should have to have a license to be that stupid...

Here's some vintage Leo Kottke: His effortless playing and simple, unadorned performance shows what it's like to actually BE a musician, as opposed to a celebrity that relies on the studio to provide the substance. Makes me envy his ability. I don't envy the years of practice it musta taken to get there, but I sure wish I could do what he does now...