Hey, I served as an elder in the 29 Palms Cong!! E-mail me....
“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet
Posts by ThiChi
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Sound familiar?
by ThiChi in""for over three hundred years the rulers of the roman empire worshipped the god mithras.
known throughout europe and asia by the names mithra, mitra, meitros, mihr, mehr, and meher, the veneration of this god began some 4000 years ago in persia, where it was soon imbedded with babylonian doctrines.
the faith spread east through india to china, and reached west throughout the entire length of the roman frontier; from scotland to the sahara desert, and from spain to the black sea.
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ThiChi
""For over three hundred years the rulers of the Roman Empire worshipped the god Mithras. Known throughout Europe and Asia by the names Mithra, Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher, the veneration of this god began some 4000 years ago in Persia, where it was soon imbedded with Babylonian doctrines. The faith spread east through India to China, and reached west throughout the entire length of the Roman frontier; from Scotland to the Sahara Desert, and from Spain to the Black Sea. Sites of Mithraic worship have been found in Britain, Italy, Romania, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Persia, Armenia, Syria, Israel, and North Africa.
In Rome, more than a hundred inscriptions dedicated to Mithras have been found, in addition to 75 sculpture fragments, and a series of Mithraic temples situated in all parts of the city. One of the largest Mithraic temples built in Italy now lies under the present site of the Church of St. Clemente, near the Colosseum in Rome.
The widespread popularity and appeal of Mithraism as the final and most refined form of pre-Christian paganism was discussed by the Greek historian Herodotus, the Greek biographer Plutarch, the neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry, the Gnostic heretic Origen, and St. Jerome the church Father. Mithraism was quite often noted by many historians for its many astonishing similarities to Christianity.
The faithful referred to Mithras as "the Light of the World", symbol of truth, justice, and loyalty. He was mediator between heaven and earth and was a member of a Holy Trinity. According to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin given the title 'Mother of God'. The god remained celibate throughout his life, and valued self-control, renunciation and resistance to sensuality among his worshippers. Mithras represented a system of ethics in which brotherhood was encouraged in order to unify against the forces of evil.
The worshippers of Mithras held strong beliefs in a celestial heaven and an infernal hell. They believed that the benevolent powers of the god would sympathize with their suffering and grant them the final justice of immortality and eternal salvation in the world to come. They looked forward to a final day of judgement in which the dead would resurrect, and to a final conflict that would destroy the existing order of all things to bring about the triumph of light over darkness.
Purification through a ritualistic baptism was required of the faithful, who also took part in a ceremony in which they drank wine and ate bread to symbolize the body and blood of the god. Sundays were held sacred, and the birth of the god was celebrated annually on December the 25th. After the earthly mission of this god had been accomplished, he took part in a Last Supper with his companions before ascending to heaven, to forever protect the faithful from above. """“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet
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Become Ordained!!
by ThiChi inwell, are you ready to serve?
want to start your own congregation, preform marriages and baptisms and be in total control of all shunning, marking, etc.,?
while all the time reaping the tax benefits?
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ThiChi
Well, are you ready to serve? Want to start your own congregation, preform marriages and baptisms and be in total control of all shunning, marking, etc.,? While all the time reaping the tax benefits? Here is your chance to do it right (unlike the JWs!!).
“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet
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Why ban smoking?
by SusanHere ini have a question ... why ban smoking, but not drinking?
if there is a religious reason to ban the one, why not both?
which is more harmful to society in general, alcohol abuse or tobacco use?
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ThiChi
Frist thing I did when I DA myself was light up a cuban cigar! Sooo good!!!
“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet
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Taliban prisoners in Cuba
by Abaddon indoes this trouble anyone?.
it seems semantic tom-foolery to declare a war on terrorism, and then to say that prisoners of the war are not prisoners of war.. it also seems very suspect keeping them of proper usa soil, as where they are they are out of sight, mind, or appeal by civil-rights factions.. do not get me wrong.. i am not saying, "ah, poor ickle terrorists".. but in a war against terror, surely taking each and every opportunity to distance yourself from your enemies is the wisest and best course of action?.
why do anything that is even remotely dodgy or underhand?.
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ThiChi
""""We should always give solicitous attention to liberty, but what we are struggling to do right now is to discover how 15 steel-willed enemies of the United States succeeded in destroying the two largest buildings in New York and one part of the Pentagon, missing out only on two other probable targets, the White House and the Capitol. To find the hidden enemy will require Yankee ingenuity, and a couple of days off for the American Civil Liberties Union.""""
Go Bush, Go!!
“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet
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62
Taliban prisoners in Cuba
by Abaddon indoes this trouble anyone?.
it seems semantic tom-foolery to declare a war on terrorism, and then to say that prisoners of the war are not prisoners of war.. it also seems very suspect keeping them of proper usa soil, as where they are they are out of sight, mind, or appeal by civil-rights factions.. do not get me wrong.. i am not saying, "ah, poor ickle terrorists".. but in a war against terror, surely taking each and every opportunity to distance yourself from your enemies is the wisest and best course of action?.
why do anything that is even remotely dodgy or underhand?.
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ThiChi
Loss of freedom ahead?
There are two fires raging in the matter of President Bush and his proposed tribunals. One is historical/theoretical, the second, ideological.
The Constitution ordains that "The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."
Question No. 1: Are we facing a rebellion or invasion?
Question No. 2: Who decides?
And, No. 3, the decision having been made, who then redesigns, for the duration, that which, using shorthand, the Constitution simply calls "habeas corpus"?
The activity of Sept. 11 and what it implies -- continued terrorist acts on a worldwide scale -- can be classified as an "invasion" without cavil, and an immediate response to an invasion is properly undertaken by the commander in chief.
Now it can at this point be argued that an invasion calls forth a declaration of war, and this is the prerogative of Congress. But this formalism (it is, increasingly, just that) shouldn't be thought critical. On Sept. 11, a mutant form of warfare evolved. Responses to it are necessarily improvised. Al-Qaida is not a "government," and traditional declarations of war against it are somehow awkward, on the order of calling the fire department when you learn of the distress of a ship at sea. A comprehensive response to this innovative war against us is required of the commander in chief. Congress acknowledged the need to improvise in times of national challenge when in 1973 it passed the War Powers Act, specifying that the president should have freedom of action for 60 days against a perceived enemy. Moreover, post-Hiroshima, declarations of war are out of style. Presidents Truman, Johnson and Nixon didn't declare war against North Korea or North Vietnam. We found other ways of doing it, so-called graduated responses.
But after we acknowledge that Sept. 11 initiated the equivalent of an invasion and proceed to suspend habeas corpus, who is to design the new protocols? Bush has taken the initiative, but we are left without any empirical knowledge of how exactly prosecutions are to be brought about. What we have are flat contradictions about what is contemplated, and here divisions tend to be ideological. The clerks want to file protests, the soldiers, to go to war. Time magazine's Josh Tyrangiel charges that the proceedings can be secret, hearsay used as evidence, the defendant left without a right to challenge evidence nor the right to hear it; left without the lawyer of his choice in a proceeding in which guilt need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, the verdict need not be unanimous, executions can be authorized, appeals denied.
Alberto Gonzales, counsel to the president, writes in The New York Times that military tribunal trials will not be secret, except when classified information needs protection, that contemplated trials will be "full and fair," defendants will know the charges against them and will be represented by qualified counsel and allowed to present a defense.
Now the thing of it is, we don't know -- and we won't accumulate this knowledge without experience -- just what it is that we need to effect in order to enhance national security. Most people know that a search for justice can mean that you bring in 10 people even knowing that only one of them is guilty. With "due process," you find the guilty party and let the others go. In existing circumstances, you can't act on the absolute presumption of innocence, because negative findings on the matter of guilt don't add up to positive findings that the detained are harmless. We note that proposed arrangements are to be used only on non-U.S.citizens. That citizens have superior privileges (and duties) neither surprises, nor offends.
Suppose that Congress asserted a right, under the Constitution (Article I), to prescribe the conduct of justice in this war? Probably Congress would authorize everything that Mr. Bush contemplates, with here and there an accommodation. What really gums things up is hysterical formulations. "My job is to defend the Constitution from its enemies," Mr. Bill Goodman of New York's Center for Constitutional Rights advises us, "(whose) main enemies right now are the Justice Department and the White House." That finding is not only wrong, it is dumb. We hear from Alan Dershowitz and from Bill Press that what we are fighting for are such things as standards of guilt and innocence enshrined in current practice of law, which is foolish. What we are fighting for is to frustrate al-Qaida's designs on American lives.
We should always give solicitous attention to liberty, but what we are struggling to do right now is to discover how 15 steel-willed enemies of the United States succeeded in destroying the two largest buildings in New York and one part of the Pentagon, missing out only on two other probable targets, the White House and the Capitol. To find the hidden enemy will require Yankee ingenuity, and a couple of days off for the American Civil Liberties Union.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------William F. Buckley Jr
“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet
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Taliban prisoners in Cuba
by Abaddon indoes this trouble anyone?.
it seems semantic tom-foolery to declare a war on terrorism, and then to say that prisoners of the war are not prisoners of war.. it also seems very suspect keeping them of proper usa soil, as where they are they are out of sight, mind, or appeal by civil-rights factions.. do not get me wrong.. i am not saying, "ah, poor ickle terrorists".. but in a war against terror, surely taking each and every opportunity to distance yourself from your enemies is the wisest and best course of action?.
why do anything that is even remotely dodgy or underhand?.
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ThiChi
Valis, Patriot: Very well said. There is no proof of any mistreatment of these prisoners of war. And I see no “internment camps” for US citizens like Roosevelt provided during WWII.
"" The only historical precedent for secret trials in this country is what Roosevelt did in WWII. But he kept them secret in order to hide something from the public. So what is Bush hiding now?""Seeker: Wrong! George Washington and Lincon held them too!! You need to read, learn and think! I am all for the "Greater Good"
""He is not only making up the rules as he goes with regards to the prisoners over in Cuba; he is breaking/changing the rules as he goes here and it is really freaky how he is getting away with it."""
What rules are you talking about? Please cite the codes he is not in compliance with.......No proof. Not true. More Bull S**t.
“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet
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With friends like these.......
by Belmont inwe've been out three years after many many years enmeshed in the org; not df'd or da'd, just fading away for family's sake.
this is a letter we received this morning from a jw friend of 25 years' standing who has continued to invite us to her house for meals, and eat with us during the past three years.. dear****, when i first knew you had ceased coming to the meetings, my heart felt love for you both, made me visit you.
the intention was to win back my dear brother and sister.. over a period of time i have come to realize that you have ceased associating with jehovah's organization and my conscience now feels i cannot continue our association.. i am sorry to lose you as friends.
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ThiChi
I like Raymond Franz’ term for these types: “Institutional Friends.”
“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet
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62
Taliban prisoners in Cuba
by Abaddon indoes this trouble anyone?.
it seems semantic tom-foolery to declare a war on terrorism, and then to say that prisoners of the war are not prisoners of war.. it also seems very suspect keeping them of proper usa soil, as where they are they are out of sight, mind, or appeal by civil-rights factions.. do not get me wrong.. i am not saying, "ah, poor ickle terrorists".. but in a war against terror, surely taking each and every opportunity to distance yourself from your enemies is the wisest and best course of action?.
why do anything that is even remotely dodgy or underhand?.
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ThiChi
""quote:
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PLease name one US citizen who has not been granted their rights?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------You, and you don't even seem to be aware of it."""
Seeker: ha, hahaaaaaaa.......is this the best you can do? I now up your fine to ten days at ground zero and one term learning "Civics 101" & "World History" (you must pass with a D+ or better) Good luck.
“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet
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62
Taliban prisoners in Cuba
by Abaddon indoes this trouble anyone?.
it seems semantic tom-foolery to declare a war on terrorism, and then to say that prisoners of the war are not prisoners of war.. it also seems very suspect keeping them of proper usa soil, as where they are they are out of sight, mind, or appeal by civil-rights factions.. do not get me wrong.. i am not saying, "ah, poor ickle terrorists".. but in a war against terror, surely taking each and every opportunity to distance yourself from your enemies is the wisest and best course of action?.
why do anything that is even remotely dodgy or underhand?.
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ThiChi
“”It's not the either-or thing you seem to think it is. Remember the first time an Islamic terrorist cell attacked the World Trade Center? That trial was held in New York. Nothing bad happened. Your argument is just shown to be not valid.”“
Baseless points!! The attack on 9-11 demonstrates their capabilities in the present, in the US. Make that sentence ten days at ground zero...........
“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet