The Little Thread Which Grew - the Apollo '73 to Everything But
- Thread starter lkwdblds
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lkwdblds
Crusader
Thanks Ted for the Prager video Clip.
Thanks Ted for posting the video clip by Dennis Prager. I had not heard those comments previously. To me Prager is quite a guy!
Then there is Ann Coulter with her fiery and non politically correct rhetoric. It seems to me that part of what she says is "shtick" which is purposely controversial and flies in the face of political correctness and that shtick is done soley to get her more book sales and enable her to charge more for her speeches. When she does get down to serious comments, she is very "in your face" and her communication knifes through the convention social veneer practiced by other orators such as President Obama.
Also, this would not be the Apollo '73 thread if I did not mentioned Coulter's use of her sex appeal and "cheescake" types of posses used to further her agenda. Below is a typical picture:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/127/368506948_e9160d0ba8_o.jpg
BTW - I just took the narcissist test and scored 11.
Lakey
Thanks Ted for posting the video clip by Dennis Prager. I had not heard those comments previously. To me Prager is quite a guy!
Then there is Ann Coulter with her fiery and non politically correct rhetoric. It seems to me that part of what she says is "shtick" which is purposely controversial and flies in the face of political correctness and that shtick is done soley to get her more book sales and enable her to charge more for her speeches. When she does get down to serious comments, she is very "in your face" and her communication knifes through the convention social veneer practiced by other orators such as President Obama.
Also, this would not be the Apollo '73 thread if I did not mentioned Coulter's use of her sex appeal and "cheescake" types of posses used to further her agenda. Below is a typical picture:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/127/368506948_e9160d0ba8_o.jpg
BTW - I just took the narcissist test and scored 11.
Lakey
Last edited:
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
That is an important point to keep in mind when attempting any evaluation of our social conditions and circumstances.
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
Strikes me one might have to be a bit of a narcissist to wanna do the test !:roflmao:
Now let me see how I shape up on it . . . it might even give me something I can boast about
Yes. That thought gave me pause like a mental speed bump that I rolled right on over.
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
Me2. Seems like there should have been three choices on each question. Maybe that, too, is a narcissistic trait, i.e. having to have it my way.
Enthetan
Master of Disaster
At times I wonder how the women on "The View" would deal with Ann Coulter being their token conservative panelist, replacing Elizabeth Hasselbeck.
Mark A. Baker
Sponsor
Strikes me one might have to be a bit of a narcissist to wanna do the test !
Now let me see how I shape up on it . . . it might even give me something I can boast about
Much less boasting about the score.
Mark A. Baker
p.s. 10
Enthetan
Master of Disaster
Much less boasting about the score.
Mark A. Baker
p.s. 10
I prefer seeing how high I can score on the "Are you a psychopath?" tests.
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
The Quantified Self
Or, management by stats taken to new levels. Good grief. These tech advancements are cool tools, but taken to extremes could be totally oppressive in the wrong hands. Imagine our favorite management person using these devices on staffs.
"Gary Wolf gives a 5-min intro to an intriguing new pastime: using mobile apps and always-on gadgets to track and analyze your body, mood, diet, spending -- just about everything in daily life you can measure -- in gloriously geeky detail."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrAo8oBBFIo
Or, management by stats taken to new levels. Good grief. These tech advancements are cool tools, but taken to extremes could be totally oppressive in the wrong hands. Imagine our favorite management person using these devices on staffs.
"Gary Wolf gives a 5-min intro to an intriguing new pastime: using mobile apps and always-on gadgets to track and analyze your body, mood, diet, spending -- just about everything in daily life you can measure -- in gloriously geeky detail."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrAo8oBBFIo
Enthetan
Master of Disaster
DM would have loved to equip Public with that sort of stuff. As soon as the public gets a dollar, cell phone would ring with a demand to hand it over.
The INCOMM setup was designed for remote micro-management, with routing forms being logged by the computer terminals whenever people would get to a particular station.
uniquemand
Unbeliever
I considered this to be a rather weak TED talk, and had similar thoughts while I watched it, but it could have it's uses.
Terril park
Sponsor
Just got back from my trip to the low countries. Met Anoncat in
Amsterdam. We were hoping we could meet Karin Spaink, sadly she was not currently contactable. She has done so much for the FZ.
So me and A had great fun in Amsterdams coffee shops, got on really
well, as expected from our several phone conversations, and found a mutual admiration for dutch Girls. Lol!
Then Traveled to Anoncats home way north in Groninghem and more fun.
A Cat showed me some of his place of work where artists sculptures are
made into bronze and other similar expert processes.
Acat had to go to work and tyen I drove the complete length of Holland. I was NEVER out of site of wind turbine farms!
Then stopped at Ghent,Belgium, where I have stayed a few times before, an old friend lived there. Perhaps the most original city of old dutch architecture. Went to a bar called " Petrus". Had to go in as Chateu Petrus is the worlds most expensive wine. It was in part I believe a gay bar. When I entered many people wore leather hats. That Gay? Anyway went to the bar and was served by a very beautiful and very curvaceous blond. She is studying law and is very passionate about the protection and rights of children. I referred her to Ex Scientology Kids. However she spent 4 years in Romania and there are even worse problems. One of her friends was there, a high powered Chef, who explained about Chateau Petrus etc. Both of these were great friends of the bar owner who was gay. Both stated he was a great friend and very trustworthy, and was known for years. So much for 1.1 comments!
Just about everyone leaving got a goodbye kiss from this adorable one.
I was included in. :]
Then on the way home went to the " Beer Farm". Bought 13 cases of
belgium trappist and Abbey beers which I can't get in the UK and are much cheaper there.
Amsterdam. We were hoping we could meet Karin Spaink, sadly she was not currently contactable. She has done so much for the FZ.
So me and A had great fun in Amsterdams coffee shops, got on really
well, as expected from our several phone conversations, and found a mutual admiration for dutch Girls. Lol!
Then Traveled to Anoncats home way north in Groninghem and more fun.
A Cat showed me some of his place of work where artists sculptures are
made into bronze and other similar expert processes.
Acat had to go to work and tyen I drove the complete length of Holland. I was NEVER out of site of wind turbine farms!
Then stopped at Ghent,Belgium, where I have stayed a few times before, an old friend lived there. Perhaps the most original city of old dutch architecture. Went to a bar called " Petrus". Had to go in as Chateu Petrus is the worlds most expensive wine. It was in part I believe a gay bar. When I entered many people wore leather hats. That Gay? Anyway went to the bar and was served by a very beautiful and very curvaceous blond. She is studying law and is very passionate about the protection and rights of children. I referred her to Ex Scientology Kids. However she spent 4 years in Romania and there are even worse problems. One of her friends was there, a high powered Chef, who explained about Chateau Petrus etc. Both of these were great friends of the bar owner who was gay. Both stated he was a great friend and very trustworthy, and was known for years. So much for 1.1 comments!
Just about everyone leaving got a goodbye kiss from this adorable one.
I was included in. :]
Then on the way home went to the " Beer Farm". Bought 13 cases of
belgium trappist and Abbey beers which I can't get in the UK and are much cheaper there.
CarmeloOrchards
Crusader
35 Secrets Your Pilot Won't Tell You
by Reader's Digest Magazine, on Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:52am PDT
We asked 17 pilots from across the country to give us straight answers about maddening safety rules, inexplicable delays, the air and attitudes up there—and what really happens behind the cockpit door. What they told us will change the way you fly.
What You Don't Want to Know
© Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Thinkstock
“I’m constantly under pressure to carry less fuel than I’m comfortable with. Airlines are always looking at the bottom line, and you burn fuel carrying fuel. Sometimes if you carry just enough fuel and you hit thunderstorms or delays, then suddenly you’re running out of gas and you have to go to an alternate airport.” -Captain at a major airline
“Sometimes the airline won’t give us lunch breaks or even time to eat. We have to delay flights just so we can get food.” -First officer on a regional carrier
“We tell passengers what they need to know. We don’t tell them things that are going to scare the pants off them. So you’ll never hear me say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we just had an engine failure,’ even if that’s true.” -Jim Tilmon, retired American Airlines pilot, Phoenix
“The Department of Transportation has put such an emphasis on on-time performance that we pretty much aren’t allowed to delay a flight anymore, even if there are 20 people on a connecting flight that’s coming in just a little late.” -Commercial pilot, Charlotte, North Carolina
“The truth is, we’re exhausted. Our work rules allow us to be on duty 16 hours without a break. That’s many more hours than a truck driver. And unlike a truck driver, who can pull over at the next rest stop, we can’t pull over at the next cloud.” -Captain at a major airline
What We Want You to Know
“Some FAA rules don’t make sense to us either. Like the fact that when we’re at 39,000 feet going 400 miles an hour, in a plane that could hit turbulence at any minute, [flight attendants] can walk around and serve hot coffee and Chateaubriand. But when we’re on the ground on a flat piece of asphalt going five to ten miles an hour, they’ve got to be buckled in like they’re at NASCAR.” -Jack Stephan, US Airways captain based in Annapolis, Maryland, who has been flying since 1984
“The two worst airports for us: Reagan National in Washington, D.C., and John Wayne in Orange County, California. You’re flying by the seat of your pants trying to get in and out of those airports. John Wayne is especially bad because the rich folks who live near the airport don’t like jet noise, so they have this noise abatement procedure where you basically have to turn the plane into a ballistic missile as soon as you’re airborne.” -Pilot, South Carolina
“At some airports with really short runways, you’re not going to have a smooth landing no matter how good we are: John Wayne Airport; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Chicago Midway; and Reagan National.” -Joe D’Eon, a pilot at a major airline who produces a podcast at flywithjoe.com
“I may be in uniform, but that doesn’t mean I’m the best person to ask for directions in the airport. We’re in so many airports that we usually have no idea.” -Pilot for a regional carrier, Charlotte, North Carolina
“This happens all the time: We’ll be in Pittsburgh going to Philly, and there will be a weather delay. The weather in Pittsburgh is beautiful. Then I’ll hear passengers saying, ‘You know, I just called my friend in Philly, and it’s beautiful there too,’ like there’s some kind of conspiracy or something. But in the airspace between Pittsburgh and Philly there’s a huge thunderstorm.” -Jack Stephan
“You may go to an airline website and buy a ticket, pull up to its desk at the curb, and get onto an airplane that has a similar name painted on it, but half the time, you’re really on a regional airline. The regionals aren’t held to the same safety standards as the majors: Their pilots aren’t required to have as much training and experience, and the public doesn’t know that.” -Captain at a major airline
“Most of the time, how you land is a good indicator of a pilot’s skill. So if you want to say something nice to a pilot as you’re getting off the plane, say ‘Nice landing.’ We do appreciate that.” -Joe D’Eon
“Cabin air is not as dirty as people think. A portion of the air is recirculated because that helps to reduce humidity. But it’s run through hospital-quality HEPA filters, and it’s actually cleaner than the air found in most public buildings.” -Patrick Smith, commercial pilot and author, askthepilot.com
“No, it’s not your imagination: Airlines really have adjusted their flight arrival times so they can have a better record of on-time arrivals. So they might say a flight takes two hours when it really takes an hour and 45 minutes.” -AirTran Airways captain, Atlanta
When to Worry
“It’s one thing if the pilot puts the seat belt sign on for the passengers. But if he tells the flight attendants to sit down, you’d better listen. That means there’s some serious turbulence ahead.” -John Greaves, airline accident lawyer and former airline captain, Los Angeles
“There’s no such thing as a water landing. It’s called crashing into the ocean.” -Pilot, South Carolina
“A plane flies into a massive updraft, which you can’t see on the radar at night, and it’s like hitting a giant speed bump at 500 miles an hour. It throws everything up in the air and then down very violently. That’s not the same as turbulence, which bounces everyone around for a while.” -John Nance, aviation safety analyst and retired airline captain, Seattle
“Is traveling with a baby in your lap safe? No. It’s extremely dangerous. If there’s any impact or deceleration, there’s a good chance you’re going to lose hold of your kid, and he becomes a projectile. But the government’s logic is that if we made you buy an expensive seat for your baby, you’d just drive, and you’re more likely to be injured driving than flying.” -Patrick Smith
When Not to Worry
“Pilots find it perplexing that so many people are afraid of turbulence. It’s all but impossible for turbulence to cause a crash. We avoid turbulence not because we’re afraid the wing is going to fall off but because it’s annoying.” -Patrick Smith
“People always ask, ‘What’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to you?’ I tell them it was a van ride from the Los Angeles airport to the hotel, and I’m not kidding.” -Jack Stephan
“I’ve been struck by lightning twice. Most pilots have. Airplanes are built to take it. You hear a big boom and see a big flash and that’s it. You’re not going to fall out of the sky.” -Pilot for a regional carrier, Charlotte, North Carolina
We Don't Get It
“Most of you wouldn’t consider going down the highway at 60 miles an hour without your seat belt fastened. But when we’re hurtling through the air at 500 miles an hour and we turn off the seat belt sign, half of you take your seat belts off. But if we hit a little air pocket, your head will be on the ceiling.” -Captain at a major airline
“If you’re going to recline your seat, for God’s sake, please check behind you first. You have no idea how many laptops are broken every year by boorish passengers who slam their seat back with total disregard to what’s going on behind them.” -John Nance
“There is no safest place to sit. In one accident, the people in the back are dead; in the next, it’s the people up front.” -John Nance
Advice for Nervous Fliers
“The smoothest place to sit is often over or near the wing. The bumpiest place to sit is in the back. A plane is like a seesaw. If you’re in the middle, you don’t move as much.” -Patrick Smith
“If you’re a nervous flier, book a morning flight. The heating of the ground later causes bumpier air, and it’s much more likely to thunderstorm in the afternoon.” -Jerry Johnson, pilot, Los Angeles
What Really Drives Us Crazy
“Please don’t complain to me about your lost bags or the rotten service or that the airline did this or that. My retirement was taken to help subsidize your $39 airfare.” -Pilot, South Carolina
“Here’s a news flash: We’re not sitting in the cockpit listening to the ball game. Sometimes we can ask the controllers to go to their break room to check the score. But when I fly to Pittsburgh on a Sunday afternoon, the passengers send the flight attendants up at least ten times to ask us the Steelers score.” -Commercial pilot, Charlotte, North Carolina
“I am so tired of hearing ‘Oh my God, you’re a girl pilot.’ When you see a black pilot, do you say ‘Oh my God, you’re a black pilot’?” -Pilot for a regional carrier
Those Silly Rules, Explained
“We don’t make you stow your laptop because we’re worried about electronic interference. It’s about having a projectile on your lap. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get hit in the head by a MacBook going 200 miles per hour.” -Patrick Smith
“People don’t understand why they can’t use their cell phones. Well, what can happen is 12 people will decide to call someone just before landing, and I can get a false reading on my instruments saying that we are higher than we really are.” -Jim Tilmon
“We’re not trying to ruin your fun by making you take off your headphones. We just want you to be able to hear us if there’s an emergency.” -Patrick Smith
“We ask you to put up the window shade so the flight attendants can see outside in an emergency, to assess if one side is better for an evacuation. It also lets light into the cabin if it goes dark and helps passengers get oriented if the plane flips or rolls over.” -Patrick Smith
It's Not All Glamour Up in the Air
“When you get on that airplane at 7 a.m., you want your pilot to be rested and ready. But the hotels they put us in now are so bad that there are many nights when I toss and turn. They’re in bad neighborhoods, they’re loud, they’ve got bedbugs, and there have been stabbings in the parking lot.” -Jack Stephan
“We miss the peanuts too.” -US Airways pilot, South Carolina
by Reader's Digest Magazine, on Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:52am PDT
We asked 17 pilots from across the country to give us straight answers about maddening safety rules, inexplicable delays, the air and attitudes up there—and what really happens behind the cockpit door. What they told us will change the way you fly.
What You Don't Want to Know
© Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Thinkstock
“I’m constantly under pressure to carry less fuel than I’m comfortable with. Airlines are always looking at the bottom line, and you burn fuel carrying fuel. Sometimes if you carry just enough fuel and you hit thunderstorms or delays, then suddenly you’re running out of gas and you have to go to an alternate airport.” -Captain at a major airline
“Sometimes the airline won’t give us lunch breaks or even time to eat. We have to delay flights just so we can get food.” -First officer on a regional carrier
“We tell passengers what they need to know. We don’t tell them things that are going to scare the pants off them. So you’ll never hear me say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we just had an engine failure,’ even if that’s true.” -Jim Tilmon, retired American Airlines pilot, Phoenix
“The Department of Transportation has put such an emphasis on on-time performance that we pretty much aren’t allowed to delay a flight anymore, even if there are 20 people on a connecting flight that’s coming in just a little late.” -Commercial pilot, Charlotte, North Carolina
“The truth is, we’re exhausted. Our work rules allow us to be on duty 16 hours without a break. That’s many more hours than a truck driver. And unlike a truck driver, who can pull over at the next rest stop, we can’t pull over at the next cloud.” -Captain at a major airline
What We Want You to Know
“Some FAA rules don’t make sense to us either. Like the fact that when we’re at 39,000 feet going 400 miles an hour, in a plane that could hit turbulence at any minute, [flight attendants] can walk around and serve hot coffee and Chateaubriand. But when we’re on the ground on a flat piece of asphalt going five to ten miles an hour, they’ve got to be buckled in like they’re at NASCAR.” -Jack Stephan, US Airways captain based in Annapolis, Maryland, who has been flying since 1984
“The two worst airports for us: Reagan National in Washington, D.C., and John Wayne in Orange County, California. You’re flying by the seat of your pants trying to get in and out of those airports. John Wayne is especially bad because the rich folks who live near the airport don’t like jet noise, so they have this noise abatement procedure where you basically have to turn the plane into a ballistic missile as soon as you’re airborne.” -Pilot, South Carolina
“At some airports with really short runways, you’re not going to have a smooth landing no matter how good we are: John Wayne Airport; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Chicago Midway; and Reagan National.” -Joe D’Eon, a pilot at a major airline who produces a podcast at flywithjoe.com
“I may be in uniform, but that doesn’t mean I’m the best person to ask for directions in the airport. We’re in so many airports that we usually have no idea.” -Pilot for a regional carrier, Charlotte, North Carolina
“This happens all the time: We’ll be in Pittsburgh going to Philly, and there will be a weather delay. The weather in Pittsburgh is beautiful. Then I’ll hear passengers saying, ‘You know, I just called my friend in Philly, and it’s beautiful there too,’ like there’s some kind of conspiracy or something. But in the airspace between Pittsburgh and Philly there’s a huge thunderstorm.” -Jack Stephan
“You may go to an airline website and buy a ticket, pull up to its desk at the curb, and get onto an airplane that has a similar name painted on it, but half the time, you’re really on a regional airline. The regionals aren’t held to the same safety standards as the majors: Their pilots aren’t required to have as much training and experience, and the public doesn’t know that.” -Captain at a major airline
“Most of the time, how you land is a good indicator of a pilot’s skill. So if you want to say something nice to a pilot as you’re getting off the plane, say ‘Nice landing.’ We do appreciate that.” -Joe D’Eon
“Cabin air is not as dirty as people think. A portion of the air is recirculated because that helps to reduce humidity. But it’s run through hospital-quality HEPA filters, and it’s actually cleaner than the air found in most public buildings.” -Patrick Smith, commercial pilot and author, askthepilot.com
“No, it’s not your imagination: Airlines really have adjusted their flight arrival times so they can have a better record of on-time arrivals. So they might say a flight takes two hours when it really takes an hour and 45 minutes.” -AirTran Airways captain, Atlanta
When to Worry
“It’s one thing if the pilot puts the seat belt sign on for the passengers. But if he tells the flight attendants to sit down, you’d better listen. That means there’s some serious turbulence ahead.” -John Greaves, airline accident lawyer and former airline captain, Los Angeles
“There’s no such thing as a water landing. It’s called crashing into the ocean.” -Pilot, South Carolina
“A plane flies into a massive updraft, which you can’t see on the radar at night, and it’s like hitting a giant speed bump at 500 miles an hour. It throws everything up in the air and then down very violently. That’s not the same as turbulence, which bounces everyone around for a while.” -John Nance, aviation safety analyst and retired airline captain, Seattle
“Is traveling with a baby in your lap safe? No. It’s extremely dangerous. If there’s any impact or deceleration, there’s a good chance you’re going to lose hold of your kid, and he becomes a projectile. But the government’s logic is that if we made you buy an expensive seat for your baby, you’d just drive, and you’re more likely to be injured driving than flying.” -Patrick Smith
When Not to Worry
“Pilots find it perplexing that so many people are afraid of turbulence. It’s all but impossible for turbulence to cause a crash. We avoid turbulence not because we’re afraid the wing is going to fall off but because it’s annoying.” -Patrick Smith
“People always ask, ‘What’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to you?’ I tell them it was a van ride from the Los Angeles airport to the hotel, and I’m not kidding.” -Jack Stephan
“I’ve been struck by lightning twice. Most pilots have. Airplanes are built to take it. You hear a big boom and see a big flash and that’s it. You’re not going to fall out of the sky.” -Pilot for a regional carrier, Charlotte, North Carolina
We Don't Get It
“Most of you wouldn’t consider going down the highway at 60 miles an hour without your seat belt fastened. But when we’re hurtling through the air at 500 miles an hour and we turn off the seat belt sign, half of you take your seat belts off. But if we hit a little air pocket, your head will be on the ceiling.” -Captain at a major airline
“If you’re going to recline your seat, for God’s sake, please check behind you first. You have no idea how many laptops are broken every year by boorish passengers who slam their seat back with total disregard to what’s going on behind them.” -John Nance
“There is no safest place to sit. In one accident, the people in the back are dead; in the next, it’s the people up front.” -John Nance
Advice for Nervous Fliers
“The smoothest place to sit is often over or near the wing. The bumpiest place to sit is in the back. A plane is like a seesaw. If you’re in the middle, you don’t move as much.” -Patrick Smith
“If you’re a nervous flier, book a morning flight. The heating of the ground later causes bumpier air, and it’s much more likely to thunderstorm in the afternoon.” -Jerry Johnson, pilot, Los Angeles
What Really Drives Us Crazy
“Please don’t complain to me about your lost bags or the rotten service or that the airline did this or that. My retirement was taken to help subsidize your $39 airfare.” -Pilot, South Carolina
“Here’s a news flash: We’re not sitting in the cockpit listening to the ball game. Sometimes we can ask the controllers to go to their break room to check the score. But when I fly to Pittsburgh on a Sunday afternoon, the passengers send the flight attendants up at least ten times to ask us the Steelers score.” -Commercial pilot, Charlotte, North Carolina
“I am so tired of hearing ‘Oh my God, you’re a girl pilot.’ When you see a black pilot, do you say ‘Oh my God, you’re a black pilot’?” -Pilot for a regional carrier
Those Silly Rules, Explained
“We don’t make you stow your laptop because we’re worried about electronic interference. It’s about having a projectile on your lap. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get hit in the head by a MacBook going 200 miles per hour.” -Patrick Smith
“People don’t understand why they can’t use their cell phones. Well, what can happen is 12 people will decide to call someone just before landing, and I can get a false reading on my instruments saying that we are higher than we really are.” -Jim Tilmon
“We’re not trying to ruin your fun by making you take off your headphones. We just want you to be able to hear us if there’s an emergency.” -Patrick Smith
“We ask you to put up the window shade so the flight attendants can see outside in an emergency, to assess if one side is better for an evacuation. It also lets light into the cabin if it goes dark and helps passengers get oriented if the plane flips or rolls over.” -Patrick Smith
It's Not All Glamour Up in the Air
“When you get on that airplane at 7 a.m., you want your pilot to be rested and ready. But the hotels they put us in now are so bad that there are many nights when I toss and turn. They’re in bad neighborhoods, they’re loud, they’ve got bedbugs, and there have been stabbings in the parking lot.” -Jack Stephan
“We miss the peanuts too.” -US Airways pilot, South Carolina
CarmeloOrchards
Crusader
Scientology wins legal victory, loses public image war
it's a Pyrrhic victory for the Church.
A Scientology legal victory on August 5th might not actually be cause
for celebration within the Church. The court protected Scientology's
freedom from inquiry into human trafficking charges, as well as the
church's right to deny fair labor practices to its ministers.
Meanwhile, the alleged abuses themselves, which the church once tried
to hide, have again become a matter of public record. In the cases of
Marc Headley- and Claire Headley vs. the Church of Scientology, et.
al, the church successfully convinced U.S. District Judge Dale S.
Fischer that its bizarre, and seemingly abusive, labor practices are
protected by the First Amendment under a principle known as
"ministerial exception." Under this principle, as long as an
employee fits a broad legal description of a "minister," the employee
is not protected by most labor or discrimination laws. The court
determined that members of the church's paramilitary branch, the "Sea
Org," fit that definition of "minister."
<http://www.examiner.com/skepticism-in-national/scientology-wins-legal-victory-loses-public-image-war-1>
Other practices that made it into court records include:
* Sleep and food deprivation of Sea Org employees;
* Heavy and demeaning manual labor as punishment;
* Screening and censorship of employee communications;
* Threats of job loss for those who refuse abortions;
* Physical and procedural restrictions on the ability of Sea Org
employees to leave;
* Church-enforced "Disconnection" (utter rejection) of former
Sea Org employees by their families; and
* Harsh discipline against Sea Org employees who voice a desire
to leave.
While it may come as a surprise to some that a church can legally
take these actions against its own members, by most ex-member
accounts, the situation at Scientology is nothing new. What is new
is that the church is becoming so ineffective at preventing its
secrets from becoming common knowledge.
it's a Pyrrhic victory for the Church.
A Scientology legal victory on August 5th might not actually be cause
for celebration within the Church. The court protected Scientology's
freedom from inquiry into human trafficking charges, as well as the
church's right to deny fair labor practices to its ministers.
Meanwhile, the alleged abuses themselves, which the church once tried
to hide, have again become a matter of public record. In the cases of
Marc Headley- and Claire Headley vs. the Church of Scientology, et.
al, the church successfully convinced U.S. District Judge Dale S.
Fischer that its bizarre, and seemingly abusive, labor practices are
protected by the First Amendment under a principle known as
"ministerial exception." Under this principle, as long as an
employee fits a broad legal description of a "minister," the employee
is not protected by most labor or discrimination laws. The court
determined that members of the church's paramilitary branch, the "Sea
Org," fit that definition of "minister."
<http://www.examiner.com/skepticism-in-national/scientology-wins-legal-victory-loses-public-image-war-1>
Other practices that made it into court records include:
* Sleep and food deprivation of Sea Org employees;
* Heavy and demeaning manual labor as punishment;
* Screening and censorship of employee communications;
* Threats of job loss for those who refuse abortions;
* Physical and procedural restrictions on the ability of Sea Org
employees to leave;
* Church-enforced "Disconnection" (utter rejection) of former
Sea Org employees by their families; and
* Harsh discipline against Sea Org employees who voice a desire
to leave.
While it may come as a surprise to some that a church can legally
take these actions against its own members, by most ex-member
accounts, the situation at Scientology is nothing new. What is new
is that the church is becoming so ineffective at preventing its
secrets from becoming common knowledge.
purple haze
Patron with Honors
the Doors = a breather from the past
After a wonderful visit yesterday with my one and only daughter who I love with all my heart, last night I saw a photo of The Doors up on her Facebook. Little does she know, her mom dated Jim in 1965-66, and the beat goes on.
I was [and still am] such a live music freak, that I'd go over to the white house where the Doors were practicing every afternoon, after my college classes at SMCC or after work at the local Sears Service Center [gal Friday], plant myself inconspicuously as possible on the white carpet in the small living room, back to the wall, just feet away from some of the most awesome music and musicians the world had jet to see.
One very dark night, Jim took me to dinner at a Greasy Spoon nearby, and, I'll never forget the lovely huge cook's shining eyes as he flirted with her, in his best Southern drawl...he exuded sex appeal but was so comfortable, in those early days, in his own skin, that it only relaxed and soothed and welcomed you in to his friendly universe.
He was one of my many friends in that very special Hart Ave neighborhood, who wouldn’t let me partake in whatever intoxication they were imbuing. I’d ask and the answer would undoubtedly be: “no, Candy, you’re where we’re trying to get to”. Even Linda would tell me of her latest brush with death, when I’d bring a basket of hibiscus’ by the morning after an all night trip.
Still freshly from Hawaii and very wet behind the ears, I was probably the only virgin Jim invited up to his pad, who denied his gentle request. I looked around and innocently asked about the ‘woman’s touch’ in the lovely apartment. Yes, he said, he had a girlfriend who was out of town at the moment. I don’t go there, I said, and we remained friends.
Earlier that night, while waiting to cross the street, Morrison had mentioned that someday he’d be rich and famous. My response was, why would you want to go there, for all the world to see? [you see, I was painfully shy, hiding behind my hibiscus in my hair].
Not too shy to be in one of his student films for a film class he was taking: he had me rolling down the steps leading up to my second floor Breeze Street apartment in Venice: as a surfer I thought nothing of rolling down in slow motion as he caught it on film.
“Brilliant” was all I remember hearing him say the last time I saw Jim, as I headed with a girlfriend in her VW Bus for the weekend to check out what was happening up North in a place called Haight Ashbury. BTW, when I moved up there later, to do drugs, I ran into my husband to be, Ira Chaleff, scn, and the rest is history… 
After a wonderful visit yesterday with my one and only daughter who I love with all my heart, last night I saw a photo of The Doors up on her Facebook. Little does she know, her mom dated Jim in 1965-66, and the beat goes on.
I was [and still am] such a live music freak, that I'd go over to the white house where the Doors were practicing every afternoon, after my college classes at SMCC or after work at the local Sears Service Center [gal Friday], plant myself inconspicuously as possible on the white carpet in the small living room, back to the wall, just feet away from some of the most awesome music and musicians the world had jet to see.
One very dark night, Jim took me to dinner at a Greasy Spoon nearby, and, I'll never forget the lovely huge cook's shining eyes as he flirted with her, in his best Southern drawl...he exuded sex appeal but was so comfortable, in those early days, in his own skin, that it only relaxed and soothed and welcomed you in to his friendly universe.
He was one of my many friends in that very special Hart Ave neighborhood, who wouldn’t let me partake in whatever intoxication they were imbuing. I’d ask and the answer would undoubtedly be: “no, Candy, you’re where we’re trying to get to”. Even Linda would tell me of her latest brush with death, when I’d bring a basket of hibiscus’ by the morning after an all night trip.
Still freshly from Hawaii and very wet behind the ears, I was probably the only virgin Jim invited up to his pad, who denied his gentle request. I looked around and innocently asked about the ‘woman’s touch’ in the lovely apartment. Yes, he said, he had a girlfriend who was out of town at the moment. I don’t go there, I said, and we remained friends.
Earlier that night, while waiting to cross the street, Morrison had mentioned that someday he’d be rich and famous. My response was, why would you want to go there, for all the world to see? [you see, I was painfully shy, hiding behind my hibiscus in my hair].
Not too shy to be in one of his student films for a film class he was taking: he had me rolling down the steps leading up to my second floor Breeze Street apartment in Venice: as a surfer I thought nothing of rolling down in slow motion as he caught it on film.
“Brilliant” was all I remember hearing him say the last time I saw Jim, as I headed with a girlfriend in her VW Bus for the weekend to check out what was happening up North in a place called Haight Ashbury. BTW, when I moved up there later, to do drugs, I ran into my husband to be, Ira Chaleff, scn, and the rest is history…
purple haze
Patron with Honors
purple haze
Patron with Honors
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
The Dalai Lama Says...
Dalai Lama: "Material progress and a higher standard of living improve comfort and health but do not lead to a transformation of the mind, the only thing capable of providing lasting peace. Profound happiness, unlike fleeting pleasures, is spiritual by nature. It depends on the happiness of others, and it is based on love and tenderness."
Dalai Lama: "Material progress and a higher standard of living improve comfort and health but do not lead to a transformation of the mind, the only thing capable of providing lasting peace. Profound happiness, unlike fleeting pleasures, is spiritual by nature. It depends on the happiness of others, and it is based on love and tenderness."
- Status