mstar1

Im beginning to wonder if the Red Sox will be eliminated before the Bruins and Celtics....but at least they are on a torrid ONE game winning streak now...

The Way Tree is a white oak? and here all these years I thought it was a red maple

It was a diseased Chestnut--couldve been a beauty but it had a catastrophically bad case of root rot--its nearly extinct now

My grandfather died when he was 113, he kept a job until he was 99 and worked in his garden and around the house until the very end of his life...He spoke about a lot of the same things as that gentleman...another thing...no matter what circumstances may have been, nobody recalls him ever being angry or upset about anything.

he had a good run

Im 55, Im just getting warmed up :)

Im often my own worst enemy and the only thing that stands in my way...the only demons are ones that I make up in my ownself

unless your talking about some professional wrestler named the "The Ultimate Foe" in which case I'd change the channel

I don't know if "the big plan" is to end capitalism, but if that's the plan.......WHAT IS GOING TO REPLACE IT?

I doubt that the next economic system has been thought up yet...There have been a ton of economic systems since the dawn of time that have come and gone, and get replaced by new ones as history progresses...

I doubt that capitalism is the final page in economic development or that it has to replaced by something that already exists (like socialism). There are elements of both that are good and there are elements of both that dont work well at all...

Im not an economist so I couldnt tell you! Some hybrid version might work-- my general sense is that smaller local (or regional) economies that place their own value on their own people, resources and quality of life would work much better than some gigantic global system.

Bhutan has an interesting system, they do not measure economic success by 'Gross National Product' but instead by "Gross National Happiness". They have a very complex series of calculations and indicators that keeps them moving towards that mark.

Something like that would seem more reasonable to me--nothing seems as dead ended to me as produce produce produce just for the idea of getting more.

what could any other religion offer? Christianity included?

IMO whether someone believes in eternal life or not, christianity as a whole has added immeasurably to the human condition.

The Christian church has always been a supporter and in or near the forefront of the arts, architecture, sculpture, music etc that has served to enrich peoples lives...

If there is a disaster somewhere you can bet that a ton of christian groups will be at the scene sooner or later offering aid of one form or another.

Schools, Universities, hospitals are all institutions of the church--not exclusively--but without them, life as we know it would not be the same...

....Even our three branch form of government was modeled after the Episcopal form of church polity which gives every member a voice....

People may argue over scriptural minutia, but without the general principals of christianity that have pervaded the culture for a thousand years(Love your neighbor, be forgiving, be upright and honest,have integrity, don't cheat-be generous---a million others things that i cant find the words for right now--etc)the western world would be a vastly different place.

The next time you are at St Judes Hospital getting treated, at a museum viewing the Pieta, somewhere listening to the beauty of Handels Hallelujah Chorus, watching an important vote in the House of representatives or watching hungry people get fed in a soup kitchen THEN think about what they have to offer---as i said earlier, even with the heinous things that have happened in the name of christianity, the world is immeasurably richer for its existence. The work 'in His spirit' continues

I personally am not sure if I can wrap my head around an actual physical resurrection from the dead or not, it's a very tough question that I wrestle with and have wrestled with for 40 years..I can see it easy enough in a more symbolic and figurative way.... Jesus definitely lives on in his stories, his parables, his words and his 'spirit' if nothing else. Is that enough? I dont know...Ive tried to make the 'leap' and at times I may for a short period then recoil back after i think about it.

---Whatever---Im Ok with who I am and if death be final Im fine with that too. Its a natural process,it was all a great ride--- Im not looking for any bonuses---- if I do happen to get a 'free gift' at the end of course I'll be overwhelmingly thankful but I am not going to bypass this life, all its hopes and dreams and all that it offers in hopes of one day getting it all straightened out somewhere else.

If it happens, fine, if not I still have no reason complain-To live was still a great great gift

I can see the benefits of Christianity without an afterlife--

Whether there is or is not an afterlife, The hope of an afterlife can be uplifting and motivating in and of itself...

I would never be a part of another TWI type group but even if it had nothing at all to do with an afterlife, Christianity still has many many beneficial aspects to it .

and.. who were the "several others"?

only one I knew about was Gahagan..

I asked that on the last page and got no answer yet--I think its probably politicspeak for "I was the only one but I want you to think that I was one of hundreds.

I'm a politician -its my job to stretch the truth to make me look OK--just wait til I get into office!"

Move over twi......

There's another ministry in town.

Mother Earth

"She" has been way more successful than TWI ever thought of being...everything I have ever eaten, breathed or drank, directly or indirectly came from "her"--all with no ABS, tithing, plurality giving or mandatory classes involved....Like most 'mothers' 'she' is vastly underappreciated.....

I doubt the treaty will ever see the light of day, there is too much good old fashioned exploitation and profiteering yet to do

Im a writer of Catholic childrens books, a second unit director of Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets, a painter of Australian seascapes, as well as an accomplished Scottish Footballer on Google.

The footballer (is that soccer or rugby?) even has his own bobblehead.

I apparently really get around !

I should run for office just to totally confusticate those who oppose me

He's getting to run for something and disavowing his cult background.

Who were the 'several other campaigns' that The Way supported in that election cycle?

Ive never heard any other names.

What gets me...is when they use God to justify that moral argument.

What really baffles me is that I HAVE heard that argument from people that are also vehemently "Pro-life" :o ....

...It makes my brain hurt.

Too bad the pol forum is no more...that would be fun--especially after reading his link

Another thing to factor in, is the availability of good health care for the under insured. Obviously he was struggling to meet the demands of treating his daughters illness. Is it moral that things are so costly, people can lose everything just to survive an illness?

I guess thats the big political debate these days. Personally to me it is reprehensible that in this country people have to do without healthcare yet there are others that seem to think that you must be able to afford what you are charged no matter how astronomical or its just plain too bad for you.

In my book Life>Money...anyones life > my money... but not everyone sees it that way, to some it is the other way around where their money>life...

I dont know how they come up with that moral argument

He couldn't come here and post it himself?

They look like a good team--on paper--but nobody ever won on paper---things will warm up(hopefully) I just hope the sox dont dig themselves too gigantic a hole that would take months to get out of----

Sad to see Manny go, especially on such a note...even with all the drama of the last few years, during his Sox years he was still the best hitter and funnest ballplayer I ever had the pleasure of watching----I'll miss the genius goofball--for better or for worse--there was only one Manny

Joe Posnanski

Manny Ramirez was a hitting genius.

I wrote this once before, and I continue to admit it’s a bizarre notion. But what is a genius anyway? The dictionary definition is “a person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative, either generally or in some particular respect.” MannyBManny is clearly not a generalist. The man has been ticketed for having the windows on his car tinted too dark. He has wandered to the outfield with a water bottle in his back pocket. In an era when nobody — and I mean NOBODY — with even two milliliters of sense would test positive for steroids, he apparently has now tested positive TWICE, the second time sparking his sudden and forced and merciful retirement from the game on Friday.

But in one particular respect … I never saw anybody hit a baseball quite like Manny Ramirez. You can — and I often do — a lot of crazy things with numbers. But do you know how many men in baseball history have hit .310 with 525 homers and 525 doubles? Of course you do. One. M-A-N-N-Y. He also hit 21 grand slams — only Lou Gehrig hit more. Yes, those numbers are skewed to single him out, but I’ll tell you one thing that those numbers do suggest: It’s possible that nobody ever hit more balls HARD than Manuel Aristides (Onelcida) Ramirez.

And he hit the ball that hard without even the slightest outward suggestion of anything resembling discipline or exertion or dedication. People may not have liked Barry Bonds but nobody could doubt the commitment he made to being a sensational baseball player. MannyBManny hardly seemed to care at all. I can only assume he DID care, and that he DID work hard on his hitting — it doesn’t seem even remotely possible that anyone could become that good at anything without extreme drive — but, yeah, he did an amazing job hiding that part of himself from the world. He cared so little that the main defense his fans had against the likelihood he was using steroids was that using steroids would take too much effort. He cared so little that at one point when he was still hitting rockets all over the park, the Red Sox put him on waivers. It was a bit like putting Alexander the Great on waivers just after he crossed the Tigris … only they didn’t just put him on waivers, they basically PRAYED that someone would claim him. Nobody did.

Of course, the story goes that the Red Sox were forced to keep him … and he led the league in slugging in 2004 and was named World Series MVP. In 2007, the Red Sox — with Manny playing a somewhat less prominent role — won the World Series again. In fact, Manny Ramirez’s teams always won. I looked this up once before in 2009 — at that time Manny Ramirez had never once played for a losing team in his 15 full seasons. His teams had made the playoffs 10 times and the World Series four times. He may have been a terrible teammate. He may have been an atrocious left fielder. He may have been the biggest pain this side of kidney stones. But the man hit baseballs hard. And because of him or despite him or both, his teams won.

In my own romantic view of baseball and the world, I tended to see Manny as baseball’s Mozart — an often vile personality who did one thing so beautifully that you could not turn away. He finished top five in batting average five times, top five in on-base percentage five times, top five in slugging 10 times. He faced Dennis Eckersley three times … he walked once and hit two home runs off him. He hit .643 against CC Sabathia. Here’s one that will blow your mind — there are 27 men out there who have had only one at-bat match-up with MannyBManny … and they will always be able to tell people that Manny hit a home run in that one at-bat.

When I wrote the Manny-is-a-genius piece, I talked to a few people in the game … and it was clear that these tough old baseball men who had no respect at all for the way Ramirez treated the game were almost absurdly awed by his talent. They talked of games he would play with pitchers during spring training to set them up later in the year. They talked of adjustments he would make pitch-to-pitch that were so remarkable they could only compare it to chess grandmasters. Bill James — co-host of the next Poscast, coming out Monday — insisted that Manny Ramirez would purposely get into 3-2 counts with a runner on first so that the runner would be on the move with the pitch and could then score on the double MannyBManny planned to hit.

I think “genius” — at least the way it has come to be understood — needs a bit of mystery. We can’t understand, most of us, understand how Einstein could have conceived of a whole new kind of universe or how Shakespeare could have written Othello, King Lear and Macbeth in a rush of two years or how the Beatles could have recorded Sgt. Pepper’s, Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road back-to-back-to-back. There is no mystery in Albert Pujols’ ability to hit a baseball. He works harder at it than anyone. He has a singular focus that obliterates all distractions. He has a deep faith, and he has a giant chip on his shoulder, and these things drive him to hit baseballs like almost no one in baseball history. It’s remarkable. But it’s not mysterious.

Same goes with Larry Bird — the mystery was not how he played such glorious basketball but what kept him out there on the courts, for hour after hour after hour after deathly hour, perfecting his shot, devising his moves, developing a sense of the game that could seem (if you did not know his work ethic) supernatural.

But Manny — I don’t know how he did it. Some will say he did it with steroids, but that seems a copout to me … I suspect a whole lot more players than anyone will ever admit used steroids. How many of them hit baseballs like Manny Ramirez?

I had dinner last night with someone who just returned from Japan...In the midst of the catastrophe most everyone there is donating their food , not hoarding it.

She also told me that to do otherwise would be near unthinkable in that culture.

I dont know if thats a cultural difference or a religious difference (Buddhist/Christian), but whatever the reason it was hopeful to hear after reading some of this thread.

Is that a true story?

That story is loaded --

His crime was selling pseudoephedrine, a precursor chemical to methamphetamine as well as a common sinus medication.

I understand his circumstances and feel for him, I do... but this is a very serious crime....Ive been in some of those sections of the country where Meth use is prevalant and it is an ugly ugly ugly problem.

This is not just stealing to meet a huge need of his, which if not totally forgivable would be at least understandable BUT it also is aiding in the creation of huge problems for other people and communities.

This is very serious sh!t these days--this was a real breach of judgment on his part in my opinion

However, John was held accountable for over 25,000 kilograms of marijuana (converted from a methamphetamine equivalency for sentencing purposes), as well as all of the actions of members in the drug conspiracy.

I totally disagree with the concept of sentencing based on legislation and not by the will of a judge or jury. Each case should be judged on its own merits and demerits and sentences should be passed according to the evidence on each individual case.

There's a third element that I have serious moral reservation about in that story....HE WAS APPROACHED by a criminal informant..

I know he sold the PE, but would he have if he wasnt coerced into it? Would a crime ever have been committed if it weren't set up by authorities for it to happen and them to get their subsequent arrest?

It all sounds like entrapment to me.

Whatever agency set up the buy would do their community a lot better to catch criminals instead of making criminals in my book.

Thats a sad story. I have alot of opinions on it but its very complex and difficult to discern where real justice would be.

I would have liked to have been on the jury and heard everything on that case....

I hope he has some advocates, it sounds like he needs them

back to the Associate Theology(?) Degree(?)..

there are few places in the world that seem to "recognize" that little "diploma".. or attach any significance to the "holy spirit" ring that some recipients were able to purchase.

Like.. maybe offshoots..

I know at least one ex way leader who writes in his books that he has a "baccalaureate of theology" from "seminary" in "advanced biblical studies"

Thats stretching it a tad--

I suppose it may sound better to his audience than telling them he spent time in a non accredited cult program...

In wayworld that would already have been categorized as 'believing', to steal the drugs to make enough $$ to take the class.

Reminds me when I took the advanced class and went wow. In my way poverty I was counselled to ask people for money, so I basically panhandled my friends and acquaintances until I had enough to go

There was no 'believing', faith and certainly not morality involved although I thought there was at the time. It was just a combination of manipulation and coercion with a spiritual veneer.

Makes me sick now

is it a moral use of your time to be worried about a hypothetical person ?

the kinds of crimes we see around us everyday, taking bribes, improper weights and balances, lack of charity to the poor, indifference to the plight of the debtor. Injustice is sacrilege,

You see at least a few of those in the hypothetical druggist, I really dont know where my place would be to enforce his lack of morality or what it is in general --if anything--although if death were imminent and there were no other way, I would steal the drug necessary to save her life. Im not sure what category that it would be in--nor really do I care--it would be an innate drive.

Interesting initial points on morality though. Im not the most upstanding person on the world by along shot but few things torque me more than organizations like TWI that throw all sense of morality to the wind because they are 'the called'and they are somehow exempt from common decency. I dont know how many times I have heard 'the law was not made for a righteous man'used as alicense for people to do whatever they wanted

Well.... a week into the season and the Sox have still yet to lose a single game at Home!...of course they havent played any home games yet either ---but at least its something :)

you watching the home opener today Bolsh? Geisha?

There used to be something on the frontpage stating that this was not a specifically christian site. There are a lot of christians here, some people of other faiths, and some people who are agnostic or atheists...All are welcome...some people are rightfully p1$$ed off

After I got out of the way I kept looking and looking and looking and looking in that dirty bath water and dang if I could find any baby anywhere. There wasn't one! There was an illusion of a baby with some good smoke and mirrors but underneath the slimy water it was never really there...

Im a christian now, but Ive tossed out the bathwater, the tub, the faucet, the bathroom, the plumbing and the illusions

He spends time in refugee camps...and when asked what it is like, he always says that people every where he goes are basically good.

I dont travel to the Sudan or Afghanistan but that has been my general experience...one out of a hundred might be a creep or potentially dangerous but its not enough to build my world around.

My father grew up during the depression and had what most of what we would consider to be less than nothing, yet somehow he and his family did pretty good.

Im not a big believer in listening to the prophets of doom. I have just enough very real problems to tackle every day without manufacturing hypothetical ones.

There has ALWAYS been dark side prophets of doom. They are rarely if ever right and somehow the human race has managed to always survive.

Even on the off chance they are right Im fine with it and ready, and certainly not going to lose any sleep over it.

Used to be, when you went on vacation you asked your neighbors to watch your house. Anymore, if your gone its probably your neighbors that robbed your house.

It depends on the community where you live, I just went on a work trip for a few weeks and left my doors unlocked. I didnt think twice about it.

My former girlfriend sold her house after 25 years and had to have a locksmith come and put a lock on the doors just so she could give the new owner a key--She never had a lock on the door for 25 years.

We've become too individual, we forgot we're members of a society.

Not everywhere, but in too many places thats true. I mustve moved literally hundreds of times over 20-25 years before I finally found a place and settled to the place where I felt comfortable and at home, where people actually seemed respectful, concerned and were willing to work together.

Community takes real work, if individuals arent willing to put in the effort and get involved to make it work they shouldnt be all that surprised if it gets overrun with big problems from time to time.