hey serena, one thing i’ve heard over the years is that Native Americans are actually allergic to alcohol, their tolerance is so much lower and then there’s that whole darned oppression thing. that nasty combo showed up in my family, too, same heritage level as you on dad’s side, one generation further back on mom’s. in my grandfathers’ generation, it was considered poison, they were both tetotalers, however, one generation doesn’t necessarily break the cycle. i like you bringing up the whole seventh generation concept. we are to treat the planet well, not just for your own time on it, but in consideration of your seventh generation’s home.

it all depends upon circumstances and attitude toward circumstances no matter who or what gender, race, la, la, la you are.

you’re website link brought me to an article that directly reflects my experience with scientology. everyone should read the blog on brainwashing. they do make you feel welcome, then they tear you down and tell you only through them and their books can you be fixed. i love the revelation that they used gang tactics.

amen, elizabeth.

omg yes! and they were/are just as dogmatic about persuading you that their point of view is the correct one while making you question youself in the process.

re: any other cult that convinces someone they are nothing with it/him/them i typo’d where i meant *without* it/him/them.

i will say as little as i possibly can about my experiences with scientology, because i do believe it is a manipulative social system to make people feel there is something wrong with them if they don’t follow “the book” and is subversively dangerous. i began reading Dianetics on my own in college, and found that chapter by chapter it was systematically using psychological manipulation to break down the reader. not even halfway through, i threw the book against a wall and then tore it up, because it was obviously dangerous to individuals who did not have the strength of character i possessed. i resented the attempt at being played the fool. i am a HUGE reader and have never reacted like that to any other book i’ve read in my life. i also was aware of what frannie em mentioned earlier, but in a different way. i had heard a quote by LRH, that if you want to make a millions, invent a religion. a few years later, i ran into a girl i knew in college on newberry st in boston, on my lunch break. she was kinda strange, like a frightened bird, when we were in school together, and now here she was wrapping her arm around me tightly, and forcibly walking me away from getting my lunch, and into a building for the initial assesment thing they do to everyone they can get. it was a “psychological test” that i went along with so i could humor her, leave, get my lunch and go back to work. 90 minutes later, they are trying to convince me i needed help and they were the only ones who could give it to me. i was starving, and now PO’d that they were still trying to rook me. mind you, i was pretty happy at that point in my life, and isn’t there something in anyone’s childhood, etc, trials, whatever that can be manipulated to someone else’s end? they were very persistant, and when i didn’t go along with the program and asked repeatedly to leave, they sat someone else of a higher rank down with me, to further tell me what was wrong with me and how only through their help and the purchase of their books could i be happy in my life. I WAS happy until i walked in that door! finally i said if they didn’t allow me to leave of my own accord, i was going to notify the police of their cultish attempts to keep me from my free will, and if they were trying it with me to this degree, it was a form of kidnapping if they did it to someone more impressionable. so that’s my experience of scientology. make of it what you will, but i believe it to be as brainsuckingly dangerous as charles manson, the hale-bop guy, or any other cult that convinces someone they are nothing with it/him/them. unfortunately, it masks itself well through it’s subversive tactics and is mainstreaming now.

i’m with you on peter jennings. remember how he held america’s hand through 9/11 with such dignity and for so long?

chin-chin!

don’t forget about the boys this is happening to as well. an even darker and more underground market. please, cynthia, shed another revelatory light on NAMBLA which tries to justify sex between men and young boys. the public needs to know to keep our sons safe from these pedophiles, too.

lol! and kudos on getting yr 1st at 65.

i was asked yesterday if my daughter was my granddaughter. i laughed, then thought, hhmmm…my sister-in-law is 2 years younger than i am and is a grandmother. of course, her daughter was pregnant at 16, and she had her at 20. both of which, in this day and age, i believe to be way too early. i started at 29, and am ending at 42.

42. 3.5 mos ago, still trying to get back on my feet, was on bedrest the whole time, but i have a beautiful, curious baby i didn’t think i was going to have ten years after my previous 2. however, we went into trying for her with the attitude of if it happens great, if it doesn’t oh well. no treatments, and i’ve previously had a partial hysterectomy (down to one ovary), so i really wasn’t expecting this to happen at this stage. but fertility treatments at 70, when you already have ‘plenty of grown children’ - jeesh. the idea of my mother (approx the same age) doing that makes me feel really creeped out.

tim and george, but what gets me is, in the same time frame, we lost cyd cherise and dody goodman, and there was barely a blip on anyone’s radar about these 2 great entertainer WOMEN.

who said it was by plane? my car keys, my kids and plenty of diaper supplies. my big boys and i have been planning a cross country camping trip for years that was supposed to happen this year, but baby happened instead. shooting for the big nature sites and tallest buildings and pacific ocean and sleeping under stars in 2010 now. kids will be 15, 11-12 (aug), and 2. i haven’t travellled crosscountry camping in over 20years, can’t wait!