Messages

Maybe it is just to remind us that evil does exist within the souls of some people.  

And Rastus, by all accounts the terrorists who have done these beheadings are not Iraqi's, they are imports - Jordanians who just happen to see an opportunity to murder Americans.  No one invaded Jordan.  

I often wonder what men like them pray for 5 times a day. And notice, they select only easy targets.  They are not attacking fully armed marine units that can and will fight back.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies what they have done. No excuse is good enough.

They are evil, personified.  Certainly not the only evil in the world, perhaps just the most visible right now.  

As to serving a good purpose, just what might that be?  The only sadness and outrage over the beheadings - and little it is -- are coming from the victims families and friends, coming from people here in the states who cannot conceive of doing such a thing to another.

Our veneer of civilization is very thin.  I agree with that.  In essence, we are one nuclear war away from the caves.  Who knows what any of us would do to survive - to protect our loved ones, and to keep what little we might have?  Fight if attacked, yes.  But to drag sleeping people from their beds and them behead them is not self-defense or fighting for a cause.  It is simply murder.  

Maybe those who committ the beheadings do it because they think they have nothing left to lose, nothing and no one they value enough to want to conduct their lives like more civilized men.  

They are not civilized and no good can come from what they do.  It certainly doesn't get them much of what they claim they want.  

Five minutes after they are dead, what do you suppose goes through their minds/souls, knowing the agony they inflicted on someone else?

I cannot fathom it, and hope I never do anything in this lifetime that will lead me to finding out.  

Doesn't mean I don't wonder if it isn't time to start terrorizing the terrorists and their families.  Which, of course, would only make things worse.  That would make all of us -- well, them.  

The real question is how do you stop a fanatic?  I don't think anybody really knows.  

Sounds like you are in the dark night of the soul....a place where everything seems hopeless and pointless.  Been there many times.

When it was at its worst - and I mean totally suicidal -- I got through it every day by telling myself:  I don't have to do that today.  I can always do it tomorrow.  

I knew, even then, that it was the one thing I could never undo.  The day came when I no longer wanted to do it.  

Might work for you, to get you through each day.  I now realize that I was trying to solve temporary circumstances with a permanent solution.  

Most theories of depression now say that it is anger turned on oneself.  You nickname = fists of fury - may offer a clue as to the source of it.  And yes, emotional upheavals can certainly affect the body with pains and disease.  They are connected.

You cannot control the emotions or reactions or lack of affection others in your life may have for you.  You can only control your reactions to the circumstances and the people around you.  As a young man, there are certainly things you can do to remove yourself from a non-supportive environment. And perhaps, you are misreading those around you, who may actually love you but cannot show it - or don't know how to react to what you are going through.  

All life has value.  Yours does.  You are here and your existence is its own reason for being. Sometimes just getting out of bed and putting one foot in front of the other is a huge personal victory.  

And do get some counseling or treatments, medical or alternative ones, whatever you are comfortable for with.   Don't just suffer in silence or alone.  

Another thing that worked for me was to think of something I really, really wanted to do sometime in my life and I focused on that, knowing that if I died, I would never be able to do it.

Music was also a source of comfort as was figuring out who and what I so angry with.  And then I worked on letting it all go.  

Just let it all go and focus on yourself, on what you want for yourself.  Just because that sounds a bit selfish, doesn't mean it is.  You are the person inhabiting your body and you are the one who must live your life.  

It takes some time to work out of a major depression, but you can do it.  Some of the other suggestions people gave you are very good.  Try anything, start anywhere.  And if you think you have no reason to live, remind yourself that the person inside you is reason enough.  

Years ago, I also had a dear friend kill herself.  It shocked me out of any inclination I ever had to do that to myself.  I saw how it devastated her family and friends.  

There is always some other way out of the problems you might be having.  Always.  Doing anything else is better than doing that.

I hope you find the will within yourself to just go on, a day at a time, minute by minute until you are able to make some decisions that will be better for you.

Dear Enrapture:  perhaps you are experiencing some kind of possession which can happen when one dabbles in the occult, particularly related to Crowley.

Try any of the many cleansing techniques here or on the web.  You may need some assistance getting rid of whatever it is that has attached itself to you.  

Wish I knew someone who could help.  Just look for someone who isn't going to try to talk you out of thousands of dollars.  

Good luck....Jena

Been one of those 14 hour work days....

I didn't know hurricanes were a republican thing.  Thought they occured in all administrations -- and all presidents dump federal money into hurricane states, also forest fire areas, flood areas, massive snow storm areas, earthquake areas.  They all do it...and cheese for the camera at the same time.  If they don't do they get accused of not caring.  When they do show up, they get criticized for playing politics with the suffering and loss of people.  

As for the rest, maybe we just need a war day and get it all over with at once.  Just have a day where anyone can do their worst to anyone they want to and can....and get away with it.  After that day, lobotomies for anyone involved in such things.  

Better yet, let's get all 190 Premiers, Presidents, Dictators, grand whatevers, in a big stadium armed with anything they can carry.  We tell the last guy alive OK You Win....and we can all go home and get on with the business of whatever life we choose to have.  

Maybe we could have peace for a day or so.  Maybe even a week.

Maybe we could even pay some attention to solving some of the world's problems that plague the ordinary persons in the world.  

Have a good week, all.

Quiet Storm...Is there a negative rumor or conspiracy plot about the big, bad old USA that you don't or wouldn't believe?  Just a thought.

Myself, I know the government allows some questionable, if not despicable things to occur.  But most of this stuff is just rumor, conjecture, conspiracy fears, unprovable claims, and in some cases, just outright hair-brained lies and made up evidence.    

None of which means the terrorists are the good guys.  And Putin has to blame someone - he can't very well blame his own government.  

And no, I do not believe the President had anything to do with the planes crashing into buildings on 9/11 or the school attack in Russia.  I blame the people who actually did those things.  They are at fault and not one of the victims or the countries deserved to be on the receiving end of those events.  There is no possible excuse they can use to explain away what they did.  Not the USA government.  Not the Russian government.  Just their own fanaticism.  

As for the Israeli's - well there are a billion Muslims who think Hitler was right and they would be happy to finish the job.  So of course their intelligence agencies are extreme.  They have to be.  The survival of every Jew in Israeli depends on it.  How would you like to live there knowing that at any given time someone could try to blow you up?  I don't imagine they rest easy too often.

So, please, could you at least try to see some good in the USA and not be so eager to believe the worst anyone can think of - or at least be a little bit skeptical of some of these things?

I am always fascinated by some people who claim Bush is as dumb as a brick and then give him credit for designing some grand scheme to destroy the world, take away all our rights, and get terrorists to do his bidding.  And that he has somehow gotten everyone in the government to go along with it all and hide everything from everyone.  He is either the dumbest man alive or the smartest.  These are the same folks who come up with all this so-called evidence that rarely holds up to scrutiny.

Things may not be as good as you want them to be but they are likely not nearly as bad as you seem to believe they are.  

Presidents come and go as do events.  And the world goes on.  

And why wouldn't you think earthquakes and hurricanes can go together?  3 earthquakes in Japan preceded Ivan and there have been rumblings in California now for over a month.  Probably not a cause and effect relationship -- just nature doing what it does in different places.  Hurricanes in one place and earthquakes in another.  Other places have drought or wind storms.  These are natural events, not bizarre occurences.

Glad you got through the hurricane thing and hope no more are coming your way.  

Peace.....Jena

OH! NO! Not another conspiracy theory - hiding under every rock![]

Now I have to be afraid of the rocks in the garden turning me into a walking vegatable?  

As for Putin, he is right.  We cannot very well expect him to negotiate with those who took over that school and caused the death, some by beheading, of so many children if we won't negotiate with Bin Laden and others like him.  Telling him to do it was a stupid remark on the President's part.  He knows Putin and he knows he will never negotiate any more than he will.  Either one would really have to face the wrath of their people if they did.

And yes, the government did encourage independence for that part of Russia which has been fighting for it for nearly a hundred years.  The terrorist attack really had nothing to do with that issue.  Some terrorists just saw it as a handy excuse to attack and kill.  

Unlike the US, which is sometimes too politically correct in dealing with terrorists, Putin and the Russian government will not fret over giving them a fair trial, or any trial at all.  They will simply hunt them down and kill them.  

Good for Putin.  I just hope he doesn't sacrifice his own people's rights to do it.  I would hope he doesn't lead his country down the path of another totalitarian state as bad as the Soviet state which collapsed.  Tho if I recall correctly, he was a part of the KGB himself. He will have a hard enough time just staying in power after these attacks.  And maybe that was the purpose of it all.  Another Russian government collapse would lead to chaos all along its southern terroritory.  A terrorist's dream.

We live in trying times.  It is 1939 all over again.  But there is not just one man, or one government, that is causing so much bloodshed and terror in the world.  Unlike WWII which had a definite end, this kind of thing could go on for decades.  I hope not, but realistically, there seems to be an unending stream of young terrorists with no real value for life -- theirs or anyone else's.

Sooner or later, we in the USA will face another big attack.  The attacks of this year around the world just seem to me to be the test runs.  I don't know if we are better prepared, or not.  If someone is really determined enough, there are millions of easy targets around.

I forget who said "Pray for peace, but prepare for war."  But it does have a certain wisdom in it, doesn't it?

The world seems to need a good bloodletting every 30 or so years.  Could be we are overdue.

Maybe it is just plain exhaustion...I know I am really tired after a hectic two weeks.

Or it could just be we are all crisis-ed out and on crisis overload.

 Seems like every news show is blaring loud music and big, bold banners about something -- hurricanes, war, the Sudan, the election, the candidates, you name it and they turn it into a crisis.  When everything, including all the big murder trials, gets treated as a crisis, I think we just become immune to whatever we hear.  It is hard to find some low-key, just the facts type of news on any channel these days.  The closest I have found is the BBC International which at least doesn't scream the news at you every few minutes.  

I think what I have been feeling lately is that I can't do anything about all that, but I can do something about the here and now - where ever I happen to be.  A feeling of that just has to be enough.  It is not really indifference to what is going on in the world as much as it is a recognition that I can't really do much about those problems no matter how much I might want to.  

Right now I am in a low-stress mode of events come and go.  Some are good and some are horrible,  but the people around me are what is important.

I guess it is kind of zoning out, but it is also very calm.  

I do know what you mean about going blank-minded tho, sort of an all talked out feeling.  More meditative, more wanting to sense things than to think or rationalize about them.  Seems to have been that kind of week.

Adam...as you may recall the big "O" and his gang as you call it, has been wrong on every prediction he made.  

Sooner or later those clowns in  our Congress will reinstate the lapsed ban.  Not that it will do much good.  Those who really want them will find ways of getting them - they always seem to.  A ban on them just made it a bit more expensive and inconvenient for them.  

I don't worry about the "Zhendi" crowd attacking anytime soon.  Its the nutso's and fanatics who value their own lives so little that they value everyone else's not at all, that are cause for concern.

I make it a point to avoid people like that by not putting myself in their path.  

The best weapon is to not need one.

Of course, I was fascinated by the study that showed that a town where just about everyone had a concealed weapon legally, the criminals did pass them by.  As Awakening pointed out, it is the only thing some people respect.  So I don't favor disarming people if they want a gun in the home.  But assault rifles are not just little self-defense items.  There is no mistaking the intent to kill with one of those and to kill indiscriminately.  

Makes me wonder what's next.  Do I have to wonder if the guy next door has a tank in his garage and that's why his car is always in the driveway?  Canons off people's patios?  Sounds insane, doesn't it?

Yet it is possible there are people out there who would go out and buy a home tank or canons just to have them "just in case."  And they would tell you that this is perfectly normal reaction to the current state of affairs here.  

I certainly hope things don't get so bad that I have to learn to drive a tank over the guy next door, who at the moment, just has a too messy garage -- or at least that's what he wants everyone to believe.[]

Kazbadan.  Hi, there is such a shortage of math and science teachers in the USA that if you have the credentials you could get a job just about anywhere.  Many of the major cities have even begun to recruit in countries like yours which has a bit of a surplus.  

Give it some thought. In the meantime, I hope you find a job soon that you are happy in.  I have been teaching all of my adult life.  It has become so much a part of me that I can't imagine doing anything else.  It can be such a joyous thing.  Do whatever kind of work you can get to make a living, but always keep trying to find a teaching job.  Don't give up on it.  If you really love it, someday you will find the right school for you.

Oh, goody...I can just imagine the assault guns in the hands of the street gang members in Chicago.  As if they don't already wreck havoc with drive by shootings.  Its nuts.  

And this latest nuke race amongst smaller countries seems almost like a contest to see who gets to nuke us first.  Oh, well.  I suppose we can take some small consolation in the fact that if the Korean dictator uses them on us, there will be no more North Korea 30 minutes later.  Iran would likely just lob them over to Israel which, of course will send a bunch back.  And India and Pakistan will finally solve their over-population problems by nuking each other.

Dismal scenarios and one can only guess at what effect it might have on the planet as a whole.  I don't think the people who are so hell bent on having these weapons see them as horrible as they are.  And they somehow think they can survive the devastation once something like that is let loose in their part of the world.  

I know I wouldn't survive it.  I don't understand what they think they can gain by it except death, destruction, and absolute misery for any who do manage to survive.  

Talk about bad karma!  Not enough of a peace consciousness loose in the world.  At least not yet.  I fear that, unfortunately, it may take these kinds of disasters for that to truly happen.  

2005 and 2006 could be extremely violent years.  

We certainly don't need more crazy folks with assault weapons loose on the streets and in the backwoods of America.  Its not as if they don't already have a stockpile of all other kinds of weapons.  If they only killed each other with them, who would care?  But that doesn't happen.  There always seem to be a lot of innocent people just going about their daily business that get shot because they happen to be in the way.  

Please medidate peaceful thoughts and intentions -- lots of them.  Send off clouds of them into the air and care not where they settle.  Where ever they settle, they will be needed.  And keep sending them.  Don't stop.  There needs to be a counterbalance to the killing sickness that seems to be infecting more and more of our people.

Peace.....Jena

Quiet Storm, Of course he would...the man is nutso and has a massive ego.  He has absolute power there.  So did his father.  

His people are starving to death and he wants to play macho-dude. Anyone who complains about the starvation and deaths, gets put in prison, regularly tortured, and never seen or heard from again. He doesn't care how many of his people die as long as he stays in power. Any food aid that is sent gets distributed to his huge military before the children see any of it.  In the past, he has used his attempts to make nukes as a means of blackmailing other countries into giving him food and fuel.    

He has made it quite clear that when he has them, he will use them on Japan, China, South Korea and probably Alaska or California if he can get them there.  No doubt, he also wants to sell them to terrorist groups as well.

Of course, the South Koreans are trying to make nice, but they could be looking at their own future.  He wants their wealth and will decimate them and his own people to get it.  

Of course, it could be a test run that backfired on them.  In that country, anything is possible.

Hi, PW...congrats on your first teaching job.  I am also an English teacher and dept. chair.  I am currently doing 12th grade World Lit - all works in translation.  It is my favorite thing to teach.  We are starting with The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Alchemist as a part of my semester them of Great Journeys.  

7th grade - Jr. High -- can be fun - kids in the early teen stage of still a child but not nearly as jaded as the 17 year olds I have.  I am sure you will be doing a lot of grammar, writing, vocab and literature.  

Just remember, never let them see you sweat....they will know you are a new teacher - in other words, Fresh Meat for their pranks.  Just keep a sense of humor about it and you will do just fine.  And find an organizational system that works for you so you don't get swamped.

I am also a mentor to the student teachers who come into my school which is surrounded by major universities in Chicago so I see a lot of them each year.  

This past week as I was chasing two of my youngest teachers home at 5:30, I had to remind them that the school does welcome them home and say How you doin?  Best advice I can give you.  Pace yourself and you can get through this very important year in your career without stressing out.  

Feel free to ask me anything -- my email is on my profile.  

Have a great school year.  Jenadots

I tend to get personal premonitions.  Something will happen and I realize I lived it through in a dream sometime before.  I have also avoided some very serious events with just getting that feeling of danger about something.  

World events are a mystery because most of the time I don't exactly know what it is that I am "seeing" in that dream state.  Hard to put a place or a time on things.  

M-J, I think you are probably right about a serious war in Israel -- and there have been many predictions of someone destroying Jeruselum.
If that happens, all hell will break loose.  What too many people forget is that when the Israeli's say Never Again in reference to the Holocaust, they really do mean it.  They will nuke everybody around them if some terrorist group or country takes out Jeruselum.  Simply put, there will be no more Gaza Strip or major city of a country that let's itself become involved in such an action.  

It is frightening to think about and peace in that region of the world just seems impossible from generation to generation.  I am sure a lot of good people have tried but to no avail.  Sometimes I think the only people that really want peace there are those of us who do not live there.  Both sides are so into revenge and retaliation killings to the point of irrationality.  I used to think a Palestinian state would stop the violence there, but I don't know if even that would end it.  

Hope I am wrong about that.

I just wonder how much more of this the average person in Florida can handle....and people get very panicky and raging when so tired, and hot and hungry and thirsty and sleeping on gym floors.  

I had been thinking of Florida as a possible retirement place for me later in life, but I doubt I could handle what the people there are trying to cope with.  I love the ocean and being near it, but 3 really bad hurricanes in such a short period of time is more than anyone should have to cope with.  

Part of what I don't understand is why, after so many hurricanes, they don't have building codes that require all power lines to be below ground.  And obviously, some buildings are more solid than others so it would seem to me if there is any rebuilding, they have to quickly do something about the building codes.

I even thought that maybe the people in mobile homes could use bungee cords anchored in cement to hold their homes down.  If these can stand the weight, gravity and force of someone going off a bridge or a building, it just might work to hold down buildings and roofs.  

Anyway, let's all be as generous as we can be and make donations to the Red Cross which is always on the scene with as much help as they can muster.  I support my local chapter and know that any amount of money is helpful to supply food and water and blankets to those who have none in this kind of disaster.  

Maybe if they hadn't allowed most of the Everglades to be drained, these things wouldn't be so bad.  Nature always gets its way and all that water is sure filling up the drained areas of the Everglades now.

I don't know how I feel about the military and Fema spreading out there.  I was appalled at the stories of looters going into some of the most decimated areas and robbing people of whatever was salvageable.  But I am sure it is also frustrating and a bit scary if you didn't grab the right documents to prove who you are and where you live.  

Could be any of us in some other kind of disaster.  One wants protection but not interference.  A difficult balance.  

Hope you and your family come out of it all safe, Quiet Storm.  

Jena

I think most experts have traced the earliest native american tribes as coming here via a land connection in the bering straits of Alaska.  Makes sense as the Eskimos who have always been rather isolated from others look almost the same as some of the people of Mongolia and Tibet.  As the tribes moved south, their appearance may have changed a bit, but there is a resemblance.  Also, modern day Incan Peruvians look similiar to the Tibetans.  

Interesting how they migrated and what a jouney, via foot.  Talk about sore feet.  No doubt it took many generations to move throughout north and south america.  

I can also see the connection between the original Australian aborigines and many South Pacific islanders including those in Hawaii.  They were a traveling bunch.  

Maybe that's the point -- keeping the weirdos away.  

Sooner or later tho, it will probably attract some.

It probably is some religious sect as it certainly is not a fashion statement -- or at least let's hope not! []

I agree, QS - there has been absolutely nothing on TV but the hurricane for at least 24 hours - and I am in the midwest.  

I think the media enjoys doing everything it can to stir up panic - and to justify all their expensive crews hanging around beaches and buildings just waiting for some kind of disaster.  All of CNN and Fox News, CBS, ABC and NBC seem to be there along with some locals from here - standing in the rain, hair all a-blowing, and claiming "ain't it awful" and nobody is here except us who have so much macho that we can take it....Did you see Geraldo in his storm outfit...any disaster and he is there.

I am sure there is a lot of damage to houses and landscapes and flooding and it is sure no fun being in a massive storm for days, but you are right, the news people seem to be in panic mode - far more than the people like yourself who actually live there.  

It is almost like they are said that hundreds haven't died or been injured last night.  

I am a news junkie, but is it really news that trees get uprooted and roof tiles blow away and streets flood during a hurricane?  Not that I don't care about helping the people who have lost everything - I do, and I make a contribution to the Red Cross whenever I can -- but the news people need to be run off those beaches and find something else to do with themselves instead of waiting for someone to get hurt or killed and then asking the stupidest question of How does it feel?

Glad you are doing OK...hope this is the last hurricane of the season, but it probably isn't.

Stay dry if you can.....JD

They need to take her to a male strip joint.  Take her to see the Chippendales in Vegas.  She can smoke and drink and find a beefy boy for her other needs.[]

Like Beavis, I don't much like the dying part -- I guess it all depends on how you go -- suddenly, or in some long, drawn out painful process or some terrifying one.  

But the death part, I have no fear of.  It is what it is.  

Socrates said if there is nothing after life, then it would be a big, long sleep that never ends.  If there is something after life, then he would finally get to walk and talk with all the famous poets and heroes of his age.  He said, either way would be good for him.

I certainly believe it is more than a big, long sleep and hope it is a place of healing, friendship, beauty and peace where one doesn't need money or have any concerns for the physical and that I get to spend a good long time there before having to be reincarnated here again.  I think after a life in the physical realm, we all need a good, restorative place to renew out spirits and gain a perspective on the lives we just led.  

In any case, it's not as if we have a choice about it.  It is our one, last final obligation.  Oh, we can delay it or avoid it at certain times in our lives and not be careless with the bodies we have, but ultimately, it is the one thing we all have to do.  

Like birth, it really is our one common experience. Its what makes us all equal and makes life fair - happening to both Kings and beggars and everyone in between.

I just consider it a change of address, a going home to my true home.

So, what do you make of all the Sci-Fi movies that have us as food for ET's or places for them to nest and breed?  What fears are being mirrored or manifested.  There are also a lot of plot lines of other species intending to wipe us out one way or another.  

I recall that in the 50's it was giant, mutated bugs after us -- a reaction to the fear of what radiation from atomic bombs could do to us.  Now its that other beings want to eat us or breed in us or just annihilate us.  

Is it just that "scare me to death", Halloween ghost story thing or is it expressing some deeper, hidden fears?  

I think your theory that our stories, and movies are just stories on film, do reflect a mass consciousness.  Its counterpart that the movies and other media also shape our mass consciousness also has a ring of truth.  Obviously, we are influenced by these stories whether it is in books, games or movies.  But how much do we influence the ideas of the creators themselves....I don't know.  

Who could have predicted the popularity and success of Mel Gibson's movie, Passion?  Even he said the usual money people in Hollywood wouldn't finance it.  People thought he was nuts to do it, yet somehow he tapped into the spiritual hunger of millions.  

What do you think is the next trend in this area?

Dear Quiet Storm...if they tell you to leave..leave.  I was traveling there during Andrew and was in a hurricane in the Bahamas.  This one looks nastier than either one of those and they were awful.  Never been so scared in my life.  The wind got so bad that we thought the shelter was going to be blown away.  

So for your own safety, go to a shelter if they tell you to....
I know it is a hard thing to do, but your life is more important than any stuff.  Hope you will be safe.

Jena

Oddly enough, I do find myself agreeing with Quiet Storm on this one...two rich guys from Yale.

I know it takes a lot of money to run for office, but it seems that people from more humble backgrounds get shut out of the opportunity even if they have the desire and the interest to.  

And I often wonder why even those in Congress who do come from more modest means seem to be so rich after they leave office.  Maybe its the speakers fees.  

Anyway, in the next election I would like to see some candidates that didn't inherit or marry great wealth but had to work like the rest of us.  Oh, I know John Edwards comes from humble beginnings, but class action lawyers are notorious for getting very rich and very quickly and seem to end up with most of the settlements.

I have to agree, it is getting pretty wierd out there.  Maybe it is just the full moon! []

Hi, QS.  Ok --

I was open to Oazaki's initial postings.  But the further "out there" he got, the more skeptical I became of some of his claims.  

Doesn't mean I think anyone is stupid for not being skeptical.  And any delusions I had about myself are long gone.  

I "get" what Oazaki is saying and what he is not.  I just get it in a different way from you is all.  I have a different view of it.  

And that's OK.  Hope you have returned to school and gotten your driver's license and gone out and had some fun during this beautiful summer.  I assume your breatharian experience is coming to an end and hope it went well for you.  How are you feeling from it?

JD

Mike, if you will recall, I said he has found "a few" followers here.

And I have the right to express the opinion that Oazaki is trying to start a cult of some sort.  You don't have to agree with that.

And, in a discussion that was started on his motivations, I have a right to express some thoughts on why he does what he does.  Again, you don't have to agree with my opinions.

Expressing opinions that differ from yours - or that you don't happen to like, is not calling anyone stupid.  I am hardly the first or only person to express skepticism over Oazaki's claims and motivations. And generally speaking, he doesn't like any skepticism and has been known to be quite condescending about it.  

Just what is your problem about me expressing my opinions and with me? I really don't understand why you are taking anything I said about Oazaki's motivations so personally.  

I have made no personal attacks on you.  Yet you persist in seeing one
and then claiming "isn't that calling us stupid?"  You and who else?

No one else seems to think I am insulting them, except perhaps Oazaki who knows and accepts that I am a skeptic.  

Oh, well....you don't have to like anything I or anyone else says here.  And you certainly don't have to agree with any of it.  No one will call you stupid for expressing a different opinion.  And no one has.

But your accusations are a bit out of line - and that is being polite about it.

Enough said....if you want to persist in seeing insult where there is none, persist away.

Thanks, Clandestino.  

Jena