WordWolf

"Mission Impossible?"

"Django Unchained"?

Nice, and (IMHO), you didn't make any jumps that weren't warranted by general familiarity with the current political system. (That is, you didn't outline specifics of the system because you expect the instructor to be familiar with it, but otherwise, you moved systematically.) In fact, I'm just musing about something- not disagreeing, but wondering about phrasing. I was wondering if the sentence would be better served with the addition of the phrases "de facto" and "officially", with a slight rephrasing to accomodate it. On the books, the USA is still technically a constitutional representative republic. In practice, it's a plutocratic oligarchy. So, I was thinking, how about this? "Over time the Federal government has transformed into a de facto plutocratic oligarchy, while remaining a constitutional representative republic officially/on paper." That's just me thinking, there. Otherwise, I saw nothing in need of correction or comment. I thought that was worth repeating.

BOTH. Yes, he schemed to arrange people to abuse and use as sextoys. In that respect, he planned carefully, and detailed things carefully, and succeeded. As for the entire corps program, that was the bait for the trap, and vpw was incompetent to actually do a real Christian leadership training program. That's why it was all so slapdash and changed a lot from year to year. vpw was never in any kind of training program, and his time in school was looking for "soft options"- homiletics rather than church history or BIBLE LANGUAGES, supposedly a subject he knew about but was pretty clueless. So, he had no actual experience to draw on- nothing from a leadership program, and nothing from the actual military he CLAIMED to draw from with the program. That's why it all seems based on A) movie cliches B) passing whims C) things added on in passing Movie cliches include the "don't think-just follow orders" mentality that the real military doesn't have- ex-military ex-twi have made that very clear, from different branches. He didn't borrow from actual religious training- except to say they were inadequate while he pushed inadequate training on people. Sometimes it's hard to tell which things were slapped on in passing and which were whims. The whole "you will hitchhike then risk life-and-limb rock-climbing" thing was a little of both. It was obvious people were permanently injured with the climbing, and the hitchhiking was illegal and dangerous, and resulted in rapes and deaths- but vpw INSISTED it continue. Then there was someone who suggested they air everything during Spring cleaning and suddenly it became a doctrine. The only thing that seemed to be added carefully across the program was the SALES TRAINING- which was Dale Carnegie training taught without paying them their licensing fee, of course. Why a 4-year "leadership training program for Christian leaders" lacked anything professional except for how to become SALESMEN shows the priorities of those running the show.

George is up...

Sounds familiar, but I could use a little more...

Is the "the 3:10 to Yuma"?

Luke. From the thread "The Wierwille Heritage"... The thread is here:

Actually, vpw DID teach a Prosperity Gospel- but he taught the corps a Poverty Gospel. It should surprise nobody that vpw pulled yet another bait-and-switch. In Session 1 of pfal, we heard quite a bit that translates into a Prosperity Gospel- all of it centering about his false "Law" of Believing. With enough believing, mean men got rich, normal men avoided statistical crashes, children were killed, drapes were obtained, etc. But if you wanted to be rich, you Believed a lot....and don't forget you needed to Tithe as well, "Christians Should Be Prosperous" (the why-you-should-tithe manual) was usually required reading after Session 1. So, when apart from vpw, you were supposed to be prosperous. When vpw had to deliver, you were supposed to expect poverty- learn to live on little and expect little, eat disgusting food and not enough of it, wear hand-me-down clothes, etc. So, here's how it went. Tier 1. "Welcome to twi! With our teachings, you will learn to be Prosperous and Successful!" Tier 2. "Welcome to the corps! Learn to sacrifice to be best for God! Always do what we say and learn to do more with less!" Tier 3. "Welcome to the inner circle of twi! Here we lack for nothing material!" People were LURED IN with promises of prosperity and required to tithe and give more than that. twi had terms for 2 more levels of handing over money- -abundant sharing -plurality giving and if they could talk you into handing over ALL your money and never saving for the future, that's what they did- they certainly TRIED to. Those tricked into becoming drones for twi worked hard and got little for their efforts, less than out in the world where they actually aren't supposed to care about you. But for the handful at the top, all the money from the many at the bottom was at their disposal. vpw considered twi to be his personal piggy-bank- just as rosa-lie and donna do now.

It was. This 1990s suspense-drama revealed the killer....who was incorporated into the story solely to explain how the incompetent SET DECORATOR ended up tangentially in-shot in a mirror reflection in a supposedly empty room. Rather than fire him, the director made him a recurring character. That's how we got "BOB". The director hired a trainer to help one actor speak backwards for his role, only to find out the actor already knew how! (He'd done it with his friends in junior high school!) So the director cancelled the trainer and added more complicated lines for the character. The little guy who showed up in Agent Cooper's dreams with clues. The Simpsons spoofed that in their "Who Shot Mr Burns" 2-parter. This show introduced the Douglas Fir to the US viewing audiences. Agent Cooper was obsessed with those trees all around, as well as the really fantastic ("d* fine") coffee they served with the pie locally. The main plotline was to find out who killed Laura Palmer while dealing with a weird, small town. Once that was resolved, the show got a lot weirder.. Agent Cooper was there primarily to investigate the killing of Laura Palmer. Me, I liked the Judge Dredd spoof, "Twin Blocks", when Dredd tried to find out who killed Lola Palmer? With his own style, he cut a swath through the suspects, including "the mop lady." (Instead of questioning her, he cuffed her and took her into custody and snapped the broom.)

This 1990s suspense-drama revealed the killer....who was incorporated into the story solely to explain how the incompetent SET DECORATOR ended up tangentially in-shot in a mirror reflection in a supposedly empty room. Rather than fire him, the director made him a recurring character. The director hired a trainer to help one actor speak backwards for his role, only to find out the actor already knew how! (He'd done it with his friends in junior high school!) So the director cancelled the trainer and added more complicated lines for the character. This show introduced the Douglas Fir to the US viewing audiences. The main plotline was to find out who killed Laura Palmer while dealing with a weird, small town. Once that was resolved, the show got a lot weirder..

Sit back, and, if you have a chance, have a d* fine cup of coffee while I do stuff and come back later with some more clues.

Mark 5:1-5 (NASB) 1 They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. 2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, 3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. Does that sound anything like how you acted when they were accusing you? If not, they were f'ing morons for trying that accusation. Me, I probably would have laughed in their faces. If you want to avoid alcoholism, avoid bars. If you want to avoid advanced demon problems, avoid minor demon problems. If you want to avoid minor demon problems, avoid sin as best you can, mentally and physically. BINGO.

Good point. Poor terminology can lead to misunderstanding things because someone's trying to shoehorn their thinking to fit it into accord with a term that is incorrect and deceptively wrong. The Pharisees accused Jesus of having a devil. "Demonized" is probably as good a term as any for the subject of demonic activity. Irrelevant example of stupidity by misunderstanding terms: Someone once was telling of the resources at their disposal. They started saying what it was that they "possessed." vpw objected to that term because "only the devil possesses." If it were true that A devil possesses, then it would not be true that ONLY A devil possesses, because the term only means something because there's other usages- like possessing your computer or cellphone or change for the bus or things like that, or even abstracts like possessing the ability to whistle or wiggle your ears or whatever. What makes this even MORE egregious is- as was just mentioned- A devil doesn't actually "possess" the person according to the Bible. I mean, really, "possessed" is "daimonizomai" and stuff like that to even a cursory read of an Interlinear. vpw didn't know any better?

I think this is a very complicated subject, with related sub-categories confused for each other. As I see it (there's no STANDARDIZED terminology), there's demonic possession, demonic obsession, demonic influence, and temptation. With demonic possession, I'm referring to the extreme, when a person has no more control over their body- a demon is "driving." I don't think that could happen to a Christian for the aforementioned reason. With demonic obsession, the person still technically has control, but is prepared to choose to do what the demon wants, whether eagerly or grudgingly, but the result is the demon is in control without actually driving the person. I see Christians as capable at this stage, and it can look like demonic possession for most things- like if they commit murder or something similarly heinous. With demonic influence, the person's inviting demonic activity and may or may not cooperate and do what the demon wants. With temptation, the demon is trying to get some opportunity to act or influence.

This suspense-drama revealed the killer....who was incorporated into the story solely to explain how the incompetent SET DECORATOR ended up tangentially in-shot in a mirror reflection in a supposedly empty room. Rather than fire him, the director made him a recurring character. The director hired a trainer to help one actor speak backwards for his role, only to find out the actor already knew how! (He'd done it with his friends in junior high school!) So the director cancelled the trainer and added more complicated lines for the character. This show introduced the Douglas Fir to the Us viewing audiences.

vpw was a basketball player in HIGH SCHOOL and was never on the team in college. (He said "played basketball all through college", but he never tried to actually say outright he was on either a varsity or junior varsity team.) vpw never played for any team after college. (He said he was "involved with the Sheboygan Redskins" but never actually claimed to play for them. He did claim to invent the hook shot.) In short, vpw was a bit athlete who wasn't really one in college and deceived people by creatively phrasing the truth to make it sound like he was saying one thing when he was saying another.) As for lcm, his football success was slightly more successful than vpw's basketball "career." lcm played football in high school, and told us stories about how difficult it was to learn the MECHANICS of college-level football. Before that, he just ran into opponents, and now he had to learn a series of steps just to perform a block, and it wasn't easy. In college, he "rode the bench" and lcm bragged about being on his team when it was in the Orange Bowl, which was not a lie- but lcm barely got off the bench in the big game. He didn't get his uniform dirty in the big game. "Craig came to HQ basiclly right out of college at KU. He told us while we visited the Corps Chalet (his home on grounds) that he had dreams to play pro football, like most guys who play Division 1 NCAA football do. He said he was a star in high school ball but when he got to the NCAA he realized that all he had to do in high school was grunt and push people out of the way. Craig was always second string at KU. He told us how the COACHES felt other guys picked up the blocking schemes and techniques ("I had to LEARN stuff!" He said.) faster & better than he and played the other guys in practice more than he and he didn't get the opportunity he felt he deserved to prove himself. Therefore he warmed the bench, not playing as much as he wanted. He was upset about his lack of playing time when KU went to the Orange Bowl. His team did actually go to the Orange bowl but Craig wasn't a starter, he hardly even got in the game at all. He didn't get his uniform dirty; that's an insult to a football player." "Craig, to me always seemed a little too attached to his football career. It was pretty obvious to me that he felt he never really got the opportunity to show what he could do. He was angry about his lack of playing time. I believe he felt he was a Pro Bowl calibre player who was treated unfairly. That effected his performance, etc. he never got to play. He rode the bench in the Orange Bowl and it really burned him. Does it make sense to you guys that his behavior through the years reflects that he was definitely gonna do it HIS way. He was gonna do whatever it took to get the reins then run it as he saw fit, IN YOUR FACE!!!!!"

This suspense-drama revealed the killer....who was incorporated into the story solely to explain how the incompetent SET DECORATOR ended up tangentially in-shot in a mirror reflection in a supposedly empty room. Rather than fire him, the director made him a recurring character. The director hired a trainer to help one actor speak backwards for his role, only to find out the actor already knew how! (He'd done it with his friends in junior high school!) So the director cancelled the trainer and added more complicated lines for the character.

That's it. Margaret Dumond was the actress who worked in a lot of Marx Brothers movies. Some people dubbed her "the fourth Marx Brother." Some people have short memories. I understand they didn't know Gummo, who was never in the movies, just the stage-act, but Zeppo was in several movies, the last of which is this one. This before-and-after actually links 2 movies that bombed. Duck Soup wasn't popular until decades later, when college students began screening it while protesting the Vietnam War. It's possibly the purest Marx Brothers movie, which makes it the zaniest- not everyone likes their comedies that madcap. This movie, when released, did poorly enough that Zeppo considered this the right time to leave show business, so it's the last one to feature the original 4.

In this musical comedy, an interdimensional traveler ends up displaced from home and on Earth- where the humans make him the President of the tiny European country of Freedonia. Stars Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins, Margaret Dumond, and Julius, Adolph, Leonard and Herbert Marx.

Tango & Cash Jack Palance City Slickers

This suspense-drama revealed the killer....who was incorporated into the story solely to explain how the incompetent SET DECORATOR ended up tangentially in-shot in a mirror reflection in a supposedly empty room. Rather than fire him, the director made him a recurring character.

Ah, is this a before and after? Or is it an actual synopsis of a single movie? (If it's the latter, excuse me, I didn't understand.)

The titles are in order. You will have to think a bit to recall the musical comedy with the President of the little European country.

In this musical comedy, an interdimensional traveler ends up displaced from home and on Earth- where the humans make him the President of a tiny European country. Stars Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, Tim Robbins and Margaret Dumond.