'The War Is Not Over'

if there was any truth in what you said then you would go and post in your own forum where you can appreciate your 'art' without any interuption.

Limey wrote:

It is termed "free-form posting," and it is a work of art. If you post and you term it 'art,' then it is in fact art, and it is much more than a conversation with fools. It is a talisman, a benchmark, of civilization in our electronic time.

Captain James Cook. Did you know that William Bligh, the fateful captain of the HMS Bounty, was Cook's master? There is so much to learn about Captain Cook. Perhaps you are bored with British exploration of the Pacific Ocean. I can assure you will be thrilled with the next topic, the American religion of Church of Latter Day Saints.

The Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) is an amazing human creation. The fastest-growing religion on Earth, also the most centrally-controlled religion on Earth, it is very similar to the 'Borg' in the Star Trek Series 3 television series. If I were to create my own religion, I would model it closely on the LDS. Central control is the most important aspect of any religion I would want to command. Do you want your adherents to think for themselves? Of course not, you want them to follow the lead of the leaders. The LDS are without peer in this respect.

The LDS are in the news, that is, the FLDS, a loosely-separated group from the central LDS command structure. The LDS, and the FLDS by extension, have a command structure that very closely approximates the United States military. We have general officers, all the way down to buck privates. They all know where they fit into the hierarchy.

And people on here talk about Bush and the 911 conspiracy. You folks don't know what trouble is until you have met the LDS, these guys are like the dream police, they don't get paid to sleep or take vacations. They are the modern-day Borg.

Nightshift wrote:

if there was any truth in what you said then you would go and post in your own forum where you can appreciate your 'art' without any interuption.
<quoted text>

This is a public forum. I can paint with my palette of English words in public. You can argue with me and disagree with me, you can try to deny my freedom to post here, you can even violate the Topix Terms of Service and threaten me, but post here I will, as long and as lengthy as I like, because I am not breaking Topix' rules.

Nightshift, this is every bit as much my forum as yours, and in fact I posted here a full year before you ever knew this forum existed. Enjoy!

Nighshift, why don't you quit complaining and build your own website, controlled by you alone, and password protect it, and build you own blog there. Or, maybe you can come up with a billion or fifty and buy Topix and run it any way you like.

Until then, my fine British friend, I will endeavor to follow Topix rules (which do not prevent me from changing names at a whim) and create my objets d' art.

Maybe you ought to get on back to creating your own objets d' art.

I found the stuff about the British Navy in the 19th century more interesting, but the LDS is intersting too.

you are too insignificant for me to bother...if we can fill the void in your life then i am ok with that - i will be your surrogate parent. unfortunately i am a little busy today so like the spoiled child you are, you will be free to misbehave.

Borg leader wrote:

<quoted text>
This is a public forum. I can paint with my palette of English words in public. You can argue with me and disagree with me, you can try to deny my freedom to post here, you can even violate the Topix Terms of Service and threaten me, but post here I will, as long and as lengthy as I like, because I am not breaking Topix' rules.
Nightshift, this is every bit as much my forum as yours, and in fact I posted here a full year before you ever knew this forum existed. Enjoy!

Where was I? The FLDS, as an offshoot of the LDS, believe that the words of Prophet and President Brigham Young are infallible and inchoate. So, polygamy is the way to heaven, according to Young. It is required of FLDS men to marry at least three women, in order to obtain the position in heaven that is desired, that is, to become a god.

The Pentagon has dropped charges against a Saudi citizen alleged to have been the "20th hijacker" in the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

Mohammad al-Qahtani was one of six Guantanamo Bay inmates charged with murder and war crimes in February.

The Pentagon said the case against the other five defendants would proceed.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the suspects in a case before military tribunals at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay.

sounds as though they are still to scared to try these people through the US justice system. Why bother with truth when you can just resort to torture to get the required answer.

bill smith wrote:

I found the stuff about the British Navy in the 19th century more interesting, but the LDS is intersting too.

bill smith, I apologize for any previous affronts and assure you that you will always by me be considered a valuable and welcome contributor and even critic of my posts here. I hope to entertain and even enlighten, and may you offer the same to me and others here, as you have done time after time.

3 mother in laws?

Seventy wrote:

Where was I? The FLDS, as an offshoot of the LDS, believe that the words of Prophet and President Brigham Young are infallible and inchoate. So, polygamy is the way to heaven, according to Young. It is required of FLDS men to marry at least three women, in order to obtain the position in heaven that is desired, that is, to become a god.

We switch now, due to popular demand, to 19th century British naval history. But we are going to give it a twist, a sexual twist, but not a tawdry twist. We want to talk about Tahiti. It just so happens that when Capt. Cook and crew arrived to discover Tahiti, the natives had a novel social living arrangement: free love. Yes, mere mortals, the Tahitians believed in a communal atmosphere of raising children, which did not require the connection of any particular offspring with any particular father. Enter the British sailors, who could not believe their dumb luck.

The concept of 'free love' on Tahiti was the stuff of legends, and hundreds of very famous books were written about it for decades after Cook's discovery of these fabulous islands. The Tahitian islands were the closest human beings on earth could get to heaven. Here is why: the fishing was ridiculously easy, fruit grew from trees all year long, the weather was idyllic, no typhoons there, and the social mores of the islands was conducive to free love. Sadly, there was to be rain on this parade of wonder and bemusement.

Seventy wrote:

<quoted text>
bill smith, I apologize for any previous affronts and assure you that you will always by me be considered a valuable and welcome contributor and even critic of my posts here. I hope to entertain and even enlighten, and may you offer the same to me and others here, as you have done time after time.

Your stuff, especialy now is very readable and informative. If you don't drown is in posts I'm sure your presence will enhance the forum.

(My monikers at this time reflect various artists on Cook's cruises). Syphilis was a disease that, like many others, had not been experienced by the Tahitians or many other Pacific Islanders. A tutorial on the fauna and flora of the Pacific islands is in order. These islands were, by their isolation, protected from fauna like poisonous snakes and many types of infectious bacteria. Ergo their being heavens on earth, at least until the British showed up. At that time, lice, body lice, hair lice, and pubic lice, were endemic. Also fleas and rats inhabited all British sailing vessels. Bubonic plague was not unheard of, residing as it did in fleas attached to rats. When the British landed on Tahiti, they brought all of these fauna with them, and all of these fauna found happy homes in Tahiti.

Nightshift wrote:

you are too insignificant for me to bother...if we can fill the void in your life then i am ok with that - i will be your surrogate parent. unfortunately i am a little busy today so like the spoiled child you are, you will be free to misbehave.
<quoted text>

Nightshift, we are on a stage, a public stage. We are both actors on a stage. You can denigrate me, but your entreaties to your audience might indeed fall on deaf ears if you cannot entertain as I intend to do. Why do you castigate a fellow traveler in life? We are both alive, sir, and we both shall die. It is fortuitous that today our hearts beat together, that we breathe the same air, hear the same birds singing, smell the same sweet flowers. Can we not journey together in life, with death as our destination, without casting aspersions at one another. Sir, I will not take your bait. I will wish you the best, today, tomorrow, and forever.

I will draw a line and leave you to educate and entertain everyone here - I do not trust you but i have been wrong about posters before so i shall let you post in peace for now.

<---------- line drawn

Borg cmdr wrote:

<quoted text>
Nightshift, we are on a stage, a public stage. We are both actors on a stage. You can denigrate me, but your entreaties to your audience might indeed fall on deaf ears if you cannot entertain as I intend to do. Why do you castigate a fellow traveler in life? We are both alive, sir, and we both shall die. It is fortuitous that today our hearts beat together, that we breathe the same air, hear the same birds singing, smell the same sweet flowers. Can we not journey together in life, with death as our destination, without casting aspersions at one another. Sir, I will not take your bait. I will wish you the best, today, tomorrow, and forever.

Nightshift, with his kind entreaties, has finally helped me become aware of the power of topix. This is not only a battleground of ideas, it is a palette of thought, of dreams, of ideas, of hopes. It is a competitive battleground, unfortunately, but competitive it is. At nature, I am a socialist, actually a communist. I believe in a common effort, a common mission. After all, none of us get out alive, and our common purpose is to live together, live long, and live well. But I am also a pragmatist in final analysis, and it is a capitalistic world I reside in, and so be it. If I must compete, compete I will. I will paint my pictures, and the marketplace will either extol or discard them.

smith, I need a break. Any thoughts on 18th century British Pacific ocean history, or anything else?