George Aar

I'm not sure anymore. Maybe it's the recurrent dream that one day I may have the opportunity to punch Zig Zigler in the mouth...

The only issue I'd have with Muslims at all is that, like any other garden-variety religious sect, they give over at least a portion of their allegiance to unproveable, unarguable, -often nonsensical- superstitions.

Anytime anybody adheres to tenets simply because their religion says so, somewhere down the road serious "stuff" is gonna hit the fan. Be it denial of modern medical care (a la Christian Science and JWs and others), or riding off to cleanse the Holy Lands from the heathen hordes (a practice I would have hoped died out in the Middle Ages, but...), or all sorts of depraved rites and practices pertaining to sex, food, entertainment (or denial thereof), or the adorable desire to blow oneself to Kingdom Come (and the ensuing orgy) and taking as many infidels with as possible, it all results from the abandonment of reason in exchange for superstitious pablum.

I can't think of anything more UNholy than religion, no matter the brand...

I'm a jelly roll!

Ooops, wrong misnomer...

LH,

I get a sense of some serious "inside Baseball" being played here, all the same. I think the whole bonus fiasco was just throwing a little red meat to the crowd while the real business is being conducted behind the scenes. I have nothing really concrete to base that on, it's just how it "feels". The numbers are so large for the "real" problem, and so inconsequential for the boner problem, but it makes good copy, no?

Well, you can include me in your "we" Geisha. I was going to post a similar thought (along with the "a suggestion is tantamount to a command, and "God taught ME like it hasn't been known since...", and the requisite fawning and servile obeisance stuff).

Maybe YOU didn't join in with the rest of us servile lackies Mr. Dove. But there were certainly plenty of us mindless, Stepford-wife, dipchits, standing in line to lick Mr. Wierwille's azz every time He made a dramatic entrance. And He played the role and encouraged the sycophant behavior at every opportunity. He had a "Messiah" complex, beyond any rational shadow of a doubt...

I'm getting the distinct, sinking feeling in the last few days that we're still being played, right here in the midst of all the carnage.

Yeah, sure, it's dispicable that these amoral sons a bitches are busy feathering their own nests with the meager retirement assets that a few of us had managed to scrape together over our lifetimes, but, if you step back from the mess for a moment and look at the larger picture, I think it's primarily a diversion.

Yeah, so some miscreants weasled away 160 million or so. And we're all focused on that (ultimately insignificant) amount. But what about the 125 BILLION that we've given away to prop up the Foreign banks the AIG was involved with? I really think that's the real atrocity. So they give us a minor deal to get all lathered up about and wax vitriolic, meanwhile they're hauling the SERIOUS money out the back door.

Hmmmm...

Oh, and don't look now WD, but he's got it relisted.

While I think his appraisal ability is sorely lacking, he's clearly not intimidated by baseless threats.

I'm still wondering though, is there anybody that gives a chit about this? To me it's sorta like knowing the secret to "sawing a woman in half" or some other hackneyed trick. Once you know what's really going on, why would you want to still pretend otherwise? Really peculiar...

I called them (the trunk office) and asked what their position on this was, and they told me. Their position is, it is their property. I agree ... because from what I know (and you know this is true, being in that position), twi always was the property owner of the tapes and the class was never meant to be sold individually to anyone. So I can be called names but to me, what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. Because they did wrong doesn't justify another wrongdoing to them. Bad behavior doesn't justify more bad behavior.

OM, thanks for reaffirming my low opinion of you. It's somehow comforting to know that my contempt was not misplaced.

With all the commotion over the inauguration and all, I completely missed his passing. Another legend of Jazz passes.

http://www.davidfatheadnewman.com/

Well, I won't criticize your friend too much, though the thought "imprudent" did sorta flit through my brain.

In a larger sense though, do you ever wonder at the wisdom of marriage altogether? Jeezus, it seems like they ALL end in divorce, sooner or later. And those that don't probably SHOULD. I'm just not entirely sure that men and women living under the same roof will ever work out well. They just think too differently (I'll spare you my feelings about the quality of women's reasoning abilities).

So my advice? Maybe life in an Ashram or a nice convent or a cloister of some kind.

Really, I think that sex is for kids. Once we start getting wrinkled and flabby I think celibacy is the only reasonable alternative.

Well, I'm am decidedly NOT a techy by any stretch, so I primarily find the site to be just farking annoying. Maybe I just don't know how to navigate it well enough, or I don't understand the basics of it, but I just avoid it for the most part. I tried too many of the stupid "Find our your I.Q." kinda games, only to find I'm just being pumped for private information or somesuch, so that kinda irritated me.

Other than that I don't know just what it is you're supposed to do there. There's no real chatroom, no topics to discuss. Just a place to post a line or two. I think it's meant for a much younger crowd than I hang with. Mostly, I just don't get it...

What I wonder about all the Wayfer-derivative organization "leaders" is,

do they really find working at a real job THAT odious? I guess they must, seeing as how they're so willing to continue to debase themselves perpetrating such a vapid shell game.

They're all well beyond disgusting, IMNSHO...

More to the point, one wonders if "Prophet's" followers ever realize the awful truth.

Of course I believe it's all a shellgame. Finding a "true" prophet is akin to finding a leprechaun, faith healer, Feng Shui consultant, or honest hedge-fund manager. In other words, not likely...

If you'd like to see what I've done with "What we were taught", it would neccessitate rummaging around in old disposable diapers, pop cans, and leaking garbage bags.

I'm not much of a fan of superstitious drivel anymore, especially the kind that is so agenda-driven. I echo the others in that it's good to see you back, but I don't share even a tinge of your apparent fondness for our WayWorld experience, anymore than I would wax nostalgic for my days of selling Amway products...

When the market rises 15-20% above its lowest point chances are good that the worst is over.

Oookay, but just how does one know when it's at it's "lowest point"?

Oh man, you've got WAY too much on your plate Ron. So sorry for your loss.

Best,

geo.

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...

Many moons ago I'd spend EVERY lunchtime at work listening to him. "Stand by for NEWS!" He made my lunchhour.

Though I eventually tired of his schtick, he was a unique presence on the airwaves. He carved out his own niche in the broadcast world.

He seems to have lived a long, full life - good on him! R.I.P. Mr. Harvey...

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...

To replace them with others is even weirder in the deny-reality department. :blink:

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...

I doubt it. Swaggart and Baker are making attempts. Baker seemes to be doing well. In comparisom to these three, TWI was a fart in a hurrican as far as membership and finances were concerned. So Baker and Swaggart could do well from their diehards followers even if that only represents 10% of their former following. Whereas LCM would do better working at Micky D's.

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 (!).