Yes, I realize what I am saying........ This is why

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

I see the differences, both the good and the bad, between the America of the 50's and what we have now. The oh so gradual change in the attitude of the people. The slowly increasing power of the federal government. I lived through it. I've seen it.

The attitude towards the Christian religions that I read about and see on TV. The taxes we pay. The LAWS on smoking. The sueing of legal gun makers. The lack of education OUR kids receive. The money wasted on government programs.

All of this and more. And I don't see it changing but getting worse. I don't want to see or even think about the possibility of my son and daughters being economic and/or physical slaves of TPTB in this, the once most free country in the world.

You have seen or read about this. Remember the couple arrested for saying something that clinton didn't like. Free speech only if it is PC. I won't recap anymore. You either see it and agre or you don't.

Hope Y2K will be bad. Yes! No! Both! If it will stop that incessant message from AOL asking me if I want to stay on line, YES! For the pain, death and suffering it could cause, of course not!

To see freedom in this country for future generations? If it is the only way.... ???????

-- Mr. Pinochle (pinochledd@aol.com), October 30, 1999

Answers

No, I don't want it to be bad at all.

Do I think the country has changed for the worse in that control on people has tightened--yes. But I think most of it has to do with overpopulation and the corruption that money brings when concentrated into the hands of a few. It's not really political, left or right. It has to do with the worst in the nature of some humans who want power and don't care who they squeeze the life out of to get it... I don't know what the answeer is, but the suffering that Y2K will bring punishes the victims not the perpetrators.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), October 30, 1999.


Exactly Mara, well said, thanks.

Respectfully

Michael

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), October 30, 1999.


I agree, suffering visits innocent, powerless victims first.

I have to believe that education, too, has shifted so much that it has not carried humanity through these past decades with enough structure, dignity and awareness to understand and deal with our country's growth and changes.

By education,I don't mean just schools, or the prayer issue, etc. I mean all the methods and media which we as a culture, and as a national culture, use to educate ourselves and our children until they become fully expressive, responsible adults: television, movies, interfamilial communication, religion or the lack of it, preschools, day care and, yes, the schools themselves.

"The soup of education" has become a fermented cup for the young, a bitter brew for the old.

-- (normally@ease.notnow), October 30, 1999.


something is going to change Big change blowing this way on the Winds of Fortune

-- feel it (sense it@know.it), October 30, 1999.

Ok--In general we all agree that things have essentially gone to shit and that it seems the trend will continue in that direction. Well, It's OUR country!! What are we going to do about it??????

-- P. Revere (pissed@thestateofaffairs.com), October 30, 1999.


If Y2K is bad enough for people to stop the 90% of 3rd-world immigrants that we get these days, that will be one heck of an improvement! Of course, if things are so bad that we have a "Mad Max" scenario, that would be even worse than what we have now.

Today's "savage" society is due to the high proportion of "savages" allowed into the country since the immigration act of the mid-60s. The government is clearly encouraging 3rd-world illegal immigration. Recent issues regarding "worker's rights", "education" and "medical care" for people in the USA illegally are the latest indicators.

About 1 million Americans are murdered each year due to abortion. About 1 million 3rd-worlders are brought into the country (most "legally") each year.

If 3rd-worlder's aren't a liability, why are their countries of origin so primitive?

-- blunt (blunt@but_true.vr), October 30, 1999.


There is NOTHING that the average American can do to change the system. The system has to have a major overhaul, tearing out walls, ripping up floors, and throwing out a heap of garbage to be burned so it can not rise again; voting WILL NOT WORK. Millions including me have tried letters, phone calls, voting every time the polls are open, speaking out---Nothing changes. THEY are following their own plan and DO NOT LISTEN to the American public any longer.

The public officals are inside their little country club, scarffing up OUR money left and right and occasionally throw us a bone so we can fight amoung ourselves on how the tidbit should be used.

I do not trust anyone presently in office.

After they enter those Club doors they are inside the click and are following the CLUB rules and only listening to the CLUB members.

So what are WE going to do. NOT a d@#^ thing here my dear, I have wasted enough of my life trying to make them see the light. Make them see they are "the servant" and I and my fellow Americans are the "master"; it is a useless waste of my time to try to do more. I will just continue on with my life and if someone comes to take what I choose to keep then they will leave empty handed. I will take my stand on my own ground from now on.

Hope Y2K takes it all down myself so we can start fresh!

Don't tread on me

-- sick of the s#%$ (notthis@time.net), October 30, 1999.


For one thing, whether Y2K itself brings about change or not, conversations like this on the internet should never stop.

I understand that dilema Mr. Pinochle, I wish for change for the better, but I don't wish for society and innocent people to be victims in the change. Let those who want to be heroes be heroes, lets not force it or wish it on people.

I wish most profoundly for the internet to stay up and for free speech to continue to thrive, so that society educate itself about itself. So far the internet has been the most effective education tool for the entire global society. Wishing for Y2K to destroy technology is wishing the internet dead, and therefore freedom in the long run.

We are undergoing a change with Y2K no matter what. A global awareness of the fragility of technology. That in itself is a silver lining in Y2K. There already has been victims, and there will be more, it's inevitable. I wish for the least amount possible.

(BTW, I threw AOL in the trash a long time ago, I pick and choose the technology that's most appropriate for my needs.)

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), October 30, 1999.


Chris,

Fair enough, I can agree with much of what you say. I do not think it is necessary to physically destroy all of what we have created, a lot of it can still be useful. There is not so much wrong with WHAT our society is constructed of, but rather the WAY we have constructed it, and the way it is being used. I advocate the destruction of the SYSTEM not so much the STRUCTURE. Many on this forum seem to feel that one of our biggest problems is government, and I agree, but I would go one step further to say that our biggest problem is the monetary system, which is supporting the government, and as many have said "the root of all evil".

(*V*)

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 30, 1999.


And to that *V* I respond that we need that STRUCTURE in order to change the SYSTEM, and we need patience. Y2K does not allow us to be patient on the one hand, it has a fixed date. On the other hand, it has the potential to bring about change for the better, if given enough time and means, after the fact. We need to be patient and see what happens after Y2K, and hopefully a large part of society will have been made aware and more active about changing the SYSTEM for the better.

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), October 30, 1999.


Chris,

If you do not want to use my symbol correctly, just "Hawk" will be fine.

I am probably one of the most patient people in the world, but there is a big difference between waiting for something to happen and taking action to create the reality. I suggest to anyone on this forum who is constantly bitching about government and corporations having too much power that the simplest way to get the power back is to withdraw all cash assets from the bank. Y2K is a monumental turning point for the fate of humanity because it may be our only opportunity to regain the power we will need to redesign the system. It will be necessary to expose the Federal reserve for the fraud that it is by causing it to default. Then we will need to come up with a barter system or alternative currency based on real money which actually exists. If we do not act at this point in time, money will soon become completely digital and by doing this, the government, controlled by New World Order elite bankers, will be able to have complete control with no hope of us ever regaining it. They will virtually have ownership of all resources on this planet and be able to decide who gets what and when. We cannot afford to sit around on our luxury-spoiled asses and wait for the government to change things for the better. We have been waiting too long and things are changing for the worse. I have not had a bank account for over 3 years and it is quite simple to survive without one. By giving them the power to control what you have worked for, you are giving them the keys to control your life. Act NOW or forever hold your peace.

(*V*)

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 30, 1999.


We will never know exactly how Noah felt when he heard the people screaming and holding up their babies for him to save. He knew better than to go against the word of God. I have always believed that you don't mess around with God because he won't tolerate much and he will destroy the innocents along with the guilty. The Old Testament proves that. We need God to clean house again, I think he has left the people situation to his son for these last 4000 years to see if goodness, kindness, turn the other cheek do unto others preaching could win the war over evil. So far I don't think goodness has won one battle. The world is in dire need of a change be it y2k computer bugs or not.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), October 30, 1999.

Carol: Big problem with the Noah analogy: remember at the end of the story there was a rainbow? And the rainbow symbolized God's promise to never do that again? I still believe the promise, and I am reminded of it every time I see a rainbow. I think the cruel irony of Y2K is that, if it does turn out bad, we did it to OURSELVES. God did not have to do this. Poetic justice? Some people's opinion, not necessarily mine, as I do not presume to think I know WHAT God feels or thinks. Not for me to know. All I do is pray for His will for my life and follow it.

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), October 30, 1999.

Carol,

I do not want to shatter you religious illusion, but it is based on fear. The real God has no desire to punish us or no interest in saving us from ourselves. God created us in the "His/Her/The Everything" image of God, and gave us the free will and ability to have the same experiences that God is capable of, if we only choose to do so. We could end world hunger tomorrow if we could only agree to do so. Instead of waiting for God to show us what we should do, we should ACT based on our Highest thoughts, and the thought will become the reality.

(*V*)

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 30, 1999.


Thanks Chris and *Hawk* for your understanding of the problem. It is the system and not the structure that needs changing. Morasl relativisnm seems tto be the basis of modern liberalism and advocates situational morality. Thus making lies good depending on the situation. A truth in some situations ( I'm good, how are you) but in practice used always to further personal agendas. Thus a society based on lies. Well, civilization cannot survive on lies and our civilization will have to change or fall.

-- Mr. Pinochle (pinochledd@aol.com), October 30, 1999.


Pinochle,

I would not concern yourself too much with whether or not you perceive something to be a lie, but rather whether it is the type of reality you wish to experience. The New World Order manipulation of our society may be a lie to you, but it is a reality to those who currently hold the most power to shape the reality through action. When we sit on our duffs and whine about being victims of a lie, we yield our power to alter our reality. What we resist, persists.

(*V*)

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 30, 1999.


I have found nothing to disagree with in your last post Hawk.

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), October 30, 1999.

Happy to hear that Chris. I do not expect everyone to agree with everything, and that is the beauty of this forum of course, learning by sharing perspectives. I just do not want to be misunderstood as I often am because people predominantly fear change. I do not consider myself to be a destructive person, but rather creative, and an optimist for humanity in general.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 30, 1999.

Hawk what you just said is very interesting, because that is how I view myself as well. Perhaps then your problem of being misunderstood has to do with the way you convey others what you think, rather than what you think. It is a problem we all have.

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), October 30, 1999.

I do believe you are correct in that writing, voting, etc. makes no difference to the tune that our puppet politicians dance to, and there is a very simple reason:

The USA , as I remembrer, has a PATHETIC voter turnout, even for presidential elections,. It's around 38%, which is 3 out of 8! Yet, here in Canada, we regularly have federal voter turnouts in the 80's, and it's almost never lower than the mid-60's.

Yet, we have the same UN NWO ONE WORLD crap agenda being followed almost to the letter in this country as in the USA, in fact worse, because we have no Constitutionally written right to bear arms.

(What a wonderful oversight when Trudeau(he was known throughout the land as TURDO), repatriated the Constitution from Britain in the early 1980's. He didn't ADD a clause for the citizens' right to arm themselves to repel a corrupt, repressive government.

Since than, it has been a disaster in this country for anyone not on the government's official"aggrieved victim/repressed minority" list. They may as well have taken the damn thing out of Orwell's ANIMAL FARM.

That is where the famous saying painted on the barn(?) said"All pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others."

-- profit of doom (doom@helltopay.ca), October 30, 1999.


Hawk wrote: "The real God has no desire to punish us..."

Come now. Have you never read your Bible? God is a God of hate as well as love, vengeance as well as mercy. Deuteronomy Ch. 7 is as good a place as any to correct the false impression that so many have today, e.g., that "God is love" - and love alone.

-- PKM (.@...), October 30, 1999.


PKM,

Ah, but this is where your religion fails you my friend, God PERMITS hate, God does not INFLICT hate. As long as you continue to live in fear that God will punish you, your religious leaders will be able to control you. It is YOUR choice whether you choose to love or hate, it is YOUR choice what you consider to be right and wrong, and YOUR choice what type of behavior you choose to punish or reward. The fact that one man, Aldolph Hitler, killed 6 million Jews, is not nearly as shocking as the fact that millions of others stood by and ALLOWED him to do it. God gave us the ability to choose our experiences in life, and God does not limit those experiences in any way. WE choose whether we want to experience heaven or hell.

(*V*)

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 30, 1999.


Hawk:

Sorry to say this my friend, because I have enjoyed many of your posts, but you don't have a clue as to what you are talking about here regarding God. You are a theological basket case. Remember this. You can't make God in YOUR own image. It doesn't matter what YOU think about God it's what GOD thinks about you that counts.

I don't think you have a clue as to what the bible is about. You have made some highly ignorant statements.

In and of yourself you are quite insignificant in the grand scheme of things (as am I) and full of darkness and you have no say in whether you will have an afterlife in heaven or hell. You cannot say to the Creator of the Universe, "I'll continue as I please in heaven just as soon as you give me my resurrected body, perfect in every way, free of the taint of sin, sickness and corruption". God will look at you and say, "Go to your own darkness, you are banished from my light, life, joy, and beautiful creations".

And there will be Hawk, who knows God so well, his worm will never die. If you would have life eternal, only One person can supply that for you - Jesus Christ.

sdb

-- S. David Bays (SDBAYS@prodigy.net), October 30, 1999.


I must defend Hawk here. He clearly thinks for himself and is his own man. Whether I agree or not with something he says or how he says it, I respect that.

-- Chris (#$%^&@pond.com), October 30, 1999.

Interesting thread this one...

A couple of thoughts to Hawk and recents...I am not a theologian but an engineer. I have never written anything like this before and have only come to this after listening to tapes of the Bible for the last 40 days while commuting - even after growing up in church. The old testament took 36 of those days and the Gospels the last 4. I have 8 more to go. The last 4 days have been a welcome and enlightening period after the previous 36 with a lot of "aha" moments along the way. I did not understand an iota before hand and expect God has much more He wishes I'd learn and will teach me if I am open to learning it. So why is the world in the state we see and what is the solution. It is one and the same answer...

The first choice God gave man was whether to choose Him or self and therefore the world. The issue is not "money as root of all evil" but the LOVE of money. A choice for money over God, trust in money over God. Belief in the power of this world over the Kingdon of God. That is the problem. pure and simple. Money is a catch all for all that money can buy, stuff, pleasure, power, etc. But in the final analysis, anything which comes before God is what God hates. God desired from the beginning of man that man worship Him as recognition of His TOTAL Kingship, once acknowledging that and acting upon that belief and position He promises to care for, in an eternal way if not also a physical way, those that do. For those that don't, He demonstrates wrath and jealousy. The Old law was unkeepable by man, could never be met. It took thousands of our years on earth for that to be shown. God showed his Grace by sending a part of Him self to earth and allowing His Son to stand in as an offering to wipe the slate clean and to explain the nature of His Father. It is not fear of Him, that he desires as the primary motivation for obedience, but love and gratefulness with enough understanding of His nature to know fear and reverence before him have their place.

the requirement after Jesus: same as before, believe, obey, worship and have faith in Him first before anything else and then everything else will fall into place, but now the law is fulfilled.

He states the governments will still be corrupt, that some will not choose to acknowledge his Lordship or follow Him. Rather than whisk us on to a spiritual existence when we first accept Him, were are left here for a time so that others may see our faith and deeds, which are to glorify Him, and hear thru us a message that frees them also from all things we also hate about this corrupted world.

Through out history God has corrected people and nations to try to get them to see the light and waits on His people to work with Him in this. All the rumors of wars, wars, "natural" disasters, posssible technical disasters, are forecasted as to be expected. If one can accept God and believe in Him and the grace provided by Jesus, then none of what lies before is terrifying since it only impacts the limited physical world we see. His hope is that all will accept and receive His peace. Most of us try to fill up on everything but God and that is the simple, yet fixable problem with man. Pursuing anything else first, is empty, scary, pointless and will ultimately result in death unless a change is made. God uses world events (and leaders as specifically mentioned in OT and NT) to try and foster that change, and reminds us that while we predict the weather by looking at the sky, we cannot see the signs of the times.. or that we missed the point again, we focus on the passing/immediate while ignoring the eternal even give chance after chance (including the present chance). Seek Him FIRST and the other stuff (if the other stuff matters after God) will come and be in the proper perspective. That's His message. He won the game when he raised His Son. We win when we accept that. That is the reason we are told not to worry and it's a real good one, the only one that answers all the questions.

God's Peace to you.

-- wd. (wd@toptx.com), October 31, 1999.


WD: Great post. You sum it up nicely in the begining with: "The first choice God gave man was whether to choose Him or self and therefore the world."

Then: "God showed his Grace by sending a part of Him self to earth and allowing His Son to stand in as an offering to wipe the slate clean and to explain the nature of His Father. It is not fear of Him, that he desires as the primary motivation for obedience, but love and gratefulness with enough understanding of His nature to know fear and reverence before him have their place."

That says it all.

sdb

-- S. David Bays (SDBAYS@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.


SDB,

I will admit I am no expert on the bible, to me it is mostly very metaphorical storytelling with a lot of good and evil exaggerated to make the story exciting, as humans are so fond of doing. But I was raised a fairly strict Catholic and went to Catholic schools all the way up until high school, so I think I have a pretty good sense of how religion works.

Your perspective is a classic example of why much of mankind continues to struggle because he is unaware that he holds the keys to the universe. You are mistaken if you think that I attempt to portray God in the image of man. I am certain that God is the Everything, the Nothing, the Good, the Bad, the Love, the Fear, the Pain, the Joy, or in other words God is all that IS and all that ever will Be. What you are missing out on is that when the bible says we were created in God's image it means that we ARE literally pieces of God, as are all of creation. God created us in order to experience Herself in every possible way that our God-given Free Will would allow us to experience. What God does all the time which makes Him perfect is that She always seeks the Highest Thoughts and the Highest Experiences, it is not possible for God to do otherwise. Since God is pure spiritual reality, She created us in flesh and blood in order to experience what it is like to be not God and to allow us to find our way back to God. By giving us free will God is experiencing every possible range of experiences on our pathway to returning to God, thus allowing Him to experience everything that is Himself. When we always seek our Highest Thoughts and act on these, we will create the Highest experiences possible, and we will literally return to being One with God. Do you doubt that we are capable of acting on our Highest Thoughts and creating Heaven on Earth? Heaven is nowhere, or in other words.. now here. All we have to do is Know it and Live it.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.


Hawk: oookay ...but I urge you to read "wd"'s post and my last one in response to his.

You say you were raised a "strict" Catholic, and went to Catholic schools and therefore, ergo: you "know how religion works" even though you have not taken the time to understand the bible. Maybe you should go to a Baptist or a Pentacostal Church to get a different perspective.

Please don't make the mistake of equating RELIGION with having a relationship with the God of this universe, your Creator.

I don't hold the keys to the universe. I am under the firm and sincere belief that Jesus Christ does. But if YOU do then would you please stop this Y2K thingi.

Trying to be kind yet gentle because I like Hawk.

sdb

-- S. David Bays (SDBAYS@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.


Hawk: oookay ...but I urge you to read "wd"'s post and my last one in response to his.

You say you were raised a "strict" Catholic, and went to Catholic schools and therefore, ergo: you "know how religion works" even though you have not taken the time to understand the bible. Maybe you should go to a Baptist or a Pentacostal Church to get a different perspective.

Please don't make the mistake of equating RELIGION with having a relationship with the God of this universe, your Creator.

I don't hold the keys to the universe. I am under the firm and sincere belief that Jesus Christ does. But if YOU do then would you please stop this Y2K thingi?

Trying to be kind yet gentle because I like Hawk.

sdb

-- S. David Bays (SDBAYS@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.


sorry for the double post. Thought I stopped it in time to put a question mark on the last sentence. sdb

-- S. David Bays (SDBAYS@prodigy.net), October 31, 1999.

SDB and others,

From one of my all-time favorite books, "Conversations with God"... here is discussion about two questions in which man engages himself:

What is the highest choice?

What choice is the most profitable, or how can I lose the least.?

When life is lived from a standpoint of damage control or optimum advantage, the true benefit of life is forfeited. The opportunity is lost. The chance is missed. For a life lived thusly is a life lived from fear--and that life speaks a lie about you.

For you are not fear, you are love. Love that needs no protection, love that cannot be lost. Yet you will never know this in your experience if you continually answer the second question and not the first. For only a person who thinks there is something to gain or to lose asks the second question. And only a person who sees life in a different way; who sees Self as a higher being; who understands that winning or losing is not the test, but only loving or failing to love--only that person asks the first.

He who asks the second question says, "I am my body." She who asks the first says, "I am my soul."

Yea, let all those who have ears to hear, listen. For I tell you this: at the critical juncture in all human relationships, there is only one question:

What would love do now?

No other question is relevant, no other question is meaningful, no other question has any importance to your soul.

Now we come upon a very delicate point of interpretation, for this principle of love is misunderstood--and it is this misunderstanding which has led to the resentments and angers of life--which, in turn, have caused so many to stray from the path.

For centuries you have been taught that love-sponsored action arises out of the choice to be, do, and have whatever produces the highest good for another.

Yet I tell you this: the highest choice is that which produces the highest good for you.

As with all profound spiritual truth, this statement opens itself to immediate misinterpretation. The mystery clears a bit the moment one decides what is the highest "good" one could do for oneself. And when the absolute highest choice is made, the mystery dissolves, the circle completes itself, and the highest good for you becomes the highest good for another.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.


SDB,

You say that in order for me to be accepted I have to read the Bible, but what about people who can't read, does your God send them to Hell? You say God is angry and vindictive and my deepest instincts tell me that is not possible. I think there is one universal religion which applies to all of God's creation, and it is what all of us know deep inside to be true, and God's true religion does not discriminate or punish.

From the same book (on NY Times bestseller list over 2 years), this is precisely why I have a problem with traditional religions (this is God speaking through the author).....

You were told from your earliest days that you're "bad." You accept that you were born in "sin." Feeling guilty is a learned response. You've been told to feel guilty about yourself for things you did before you could even do anything. You have been taught to feel shame for being less than perfect.

This alleged state of imperfection in which you are said to have come into this world is what your religionists have the gall to call original sin. And it is original sin-but not yours. It is the first sin to be perpetrated upon you by a world which knows nothing of God if it thinks that God would-or could-create anything imperfect.

Some of your religions have built up whole theologies around this misconception. And that is what it is, literally: a misconception. For anything I conceive-all that to which I give life-is perfect; a perfect reflection of perfection itself, made in the image and likeness of Me.

Yet, in order to justify the idea of a punitive God, your religions needed to create something for me to be angry about. So that even those people who lead exemplary lives somehow need to be saved. If they don't need to be saved from themselves, then they need to be saved from their own built-in imperfection. So (these religions say) you'd better do something about all of this-and fast-or you'll go straight to hell.

This, in the end, may do nothing to mollify a weird, vindictive, angry God, but it does give life to weird, vindictive, angry religions. Thus do religions perpetuate themselves. Thus does power remain concentrated in the hands of the few, rather than experienced through the hands of many.

Of course you choose constantly the lesser thought, the smaller idea, the tiniest concept of yourself and your power, to say nothing of Me and Mine. You've been taught to.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), October 31, 1999.


Hawk is right. "Conversations With God" is the most enlightening book. I thank God for it. Ventura is right. Religion is only good for breeding religious intolerance of anothers views. In the end, in the grand scheme of things, we all are/belong to God, and will return to God. I must also say that (sorry about yours) my God was /is never stupid enough to create a being (Satan/devil/boogey-man) that was capable of kicking his ass or taking anything from him. Back to Y2K. Here's hoping that it takes all the governments by the elites - for the elites - DOWN. The federal reserve has to come DOWN. This is our only chance to regain our freedom and our rights again. The sheeples are ready for their slaughter, and your friendly neighborhood government will be only to happy to pull the trigger - a proven fact. Want some real fun? Check out the latest executive orders initiated by our loving prez. The gov is working hard to foster public opinion for disarming the populace - via sabotage. The facts are there, you only have to open your eyes. Arm yourselves, my brothers and sisters, a storm is coming.

-- God's own (death2nwo@aol.com), October 31, 1999.

>> There is NOTHING that the average American can do to change the system. <<

There is a far greater need to WORK the system than to change it. The system allows us to have a very large say in who makes the laws and who enforces them. But US citizens, on the whole, are taught by the media to devalue their power.

If we put one tenth the effort and money into using our political power as we put into entrtaining ourselves, the world would look a lot different. The Christian Coalition knows this. The socialist left once knew this. The politically-inactive middle class acts like it never had a clue.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), October 31, 1999.


I just had to clear up the statement that I feared God. Why should I fear God? I think God is brilliant, perfect and very cagy. I have always thought of religion and God differently than what was being taught by religions. I think God gave this world to his son. And his son has laid down his rules in the New testament. That's why it is the New testament.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), October 31, 1999.

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