From time to time on Gaudiya Repercussions we may discuss people who are not members but are in the public eye in the larger Gaudiya Vaishnava community. Sometimes members are looking to locate old friends and yet those old friends don't feel they can join a forum for former Vaishnavas. For these and many other reasons, non-members may wish to comment on content from GR, perhaps to correct factual misinformation, to make connections with old friends, and so on.

We tried having a guestbook at GR and because we haven't upgraded our software, this effort left a loophole through which spammers managed to post porn links in other topics. (I had figured if they only hit the guestbook it would be easy to delete them because they'd be in one place.)

Then I tried ferrying messages over to GR, only to be shot as the messenger.

So let's try again, in a way that perhaps won't get me shot down verbally. :)

Guests are welcome to post comments. Please identify yourself in some way, if only by picking out a name as you would if you joined and picked a login. Please use a consistent name so that we can tell that comments A, C, and F were all by the same person. Comments will be screened until I un-screen them. Keep in mind that there may be a time lag if I don't log in that day. All comments must follow GR guidelines: no name-calling, keep your feedback on the issue rather than personal attacks, show respect for others' rights to their beliefs, and so on. You might want to read our rules and guidelines before you post.

I reserve the right to reject comments and will leave a note in comments if I think you need to revise your post (hence the usefulness of a "name" so I can be clear who I'm talking about). You can disagree vehemently with our topics and posts as long as you do so respectfully. I suggest you brush up on I-messages and also read our topic on Srila Prabhupada and consider it before you bother telling us that we can't talk about him in ways that dispute your understanding of him and his position. We already know that not everyone sees him the same way--even on GR.

In the same vein, we already know that many of you may believe that we are committing all manner of offenses at GR. We already concede that by strict GV rules, we are. No need to waste your time showing us the light and trying to correct the error of our ways. In fact, since we are set on thinking for ourselves and rejecting GV beliefs, if you are a strict follower of the GV path you may as well follow the injunction to avoid us out of concern for your devotional creeper. While we do have some members who are still devotees of Krsna, they tend to be of the less fundamentalist variety and are able to allow us our freedom of thought without preaching to us. GR is for former Vaishnavas and supporters, meaning those who actually support us in following our conscience and giving up GV if we felt that was the right thing to do. If a current Vaishnava self-identifies as a supporter, and can accept that we may talk critically of GV issues, then they are welcome at GR. We assume prospective members are adults who can make that choice after considering the material at GR. If at any time a member determines that GR is not for them, they may request that their account be deleted.

I cannot say clearly enough that if as a guest or prospective member, you feel that GR is damaging and blasphemous and so on, simply avoid it and move on. If you continue reading, don't blame us if you see a lot of things that you find offensive.

Whether I--or anyone from GR--responds to comments may depend on whether they seem to require a response, whether we have time, or whether we are in the mood. :)

Keep in mind that I log IP addresses and can and will block repeat offenders who cannot follow the guidelines or whose intent is clearly to harass rather than inform.

Wishing you all the best on your spiritual paths,

Tapati, owner and hostess of GR

When Spiderman 3 came out someone warned me not to waste theater prices to see it, and why. I have to say the same of the X-Files movie "I Want To Believe." I felt sorry for the actors that they were given such a shoddy plot and writing to work with. They deserved better. Four people walked out when we saw it--in an already sparse audience. I often like movies that are panned by the critics--but this was not one of those times. Other than a few good moments like the kind you enjoy in a bad Star Trek movie because you love the characters and miss them, it was a miserable experience.

Spoilers behind the cut!

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Too many logic flaws in one movie! Little reason for non-fans to even care about it!

As a side note, I have been reading comments but lately have not had energy to respond. Just want you all to know they are appreciated! :)

Without spoilers, I have to say I was not all that impressed with the X-Files movie and at times found myself fidgeting and impatient for it to end. Sad, really. Sure there were a few moments that I enjoyed but beyond the initial excitement of seeing our dynamic duo together in action...the plot lagged. Not as badly as the last Spiderman--it didn't drag on and on in the same way. The acting was just fine. They just needed a better script to work with.

Randy Pausch, famous for his Youtube video of his final lecture, dies at 47 from pancreatic cancer. I saw him give the same lecture on the Oprah show recently. It was amazing and I am sure at least part of the credit goes to the parents who instilled the values he lived by and provided such a good start in his life. It is a shame he couldn't have more time with his own children.

http://www.halfsatori.com/2008/07/celebration-of-life.html

My friend Ananda's inspirational doodles about consciousness dancing through the cosmos to the universal beat.

The matriarch of the 1980s Golden Girls TV show, Estelle Getty, is dead at 84.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 84.

Getty, who had advanced dementia, died about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday at her Hollywood Boulevard home, said her son, Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica.

"Estelle always wanted to be an actress, and she achieved that goal beyond her dreams," former "Golden Girls" co-star Rue McClanahan said. "Don't feel sad about her passing. She will always be with us in her crowning achievement, Sophia."

"The Golden Girls," featuring four female retirees sharing a house in Miami, grew out of NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff's belief that television was ignoring its older viewers.

Watching her work with Bea Arthur was a joy. Their timing was impeccable. If you never caught re-runs or the original shows, catch an episode on cable and enjoy. I guarantee you will laugh, even all these years later.

Legumes and indeed, all carbohydrate-based foods these days, often get a bad rap. However, in defense of legumes they do have a lot of good things to offer and have been a vital mainstay of poor people's diets throughout the world and down through the ages. The fiber they provide help prevent some of the diseases of the colon that modern low fiber diets have contributed to. (I had zero polyps when I was examined on '06--the doctor said that's very rare for someone my age in America.) Fiber is also good for a heart-healthy diet since it helps lower cholesterol.

Here's some more information for anyone wanting to make an informed decision about the role of legumes in their diet, perhaps in moderation and with an application of Beano. ( Read more... )Source: http://waltonfeed.com/self/beans.html where you can find much, much more information.

http://www.salon.com/news/primary_sources/2008/07/15/obama/

Note: I've been a busy bee doing some writing projects and haven't had time to post here much. Hope to be back to posting later in the week, maybe.

We saw Hellboy tonight and I think fans will all be very pleased. You got character development and plenty of action--a nice balance. I will add one minor spoiler behind the cut...

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I saw this group tonight on The Tonight Show and they were great but the lyrics cracked me up. The vocals were really good--if you put straight lyrics to this it would be a pop hit or something. I hope people are able to appreciate the quirky lyrics. Here they are:

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Reminds me a bit of Ani DiFranco's "Used to You."

Edited to add youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCU1JYmGxcA

Your result for The Attachment Style Test...

The Cuddleslut

33% Anxiety Over Abandonment and 17% Avoidance Of Intimacy

Take The Attachment Style Test at HelloQuizzy

Though I suspect if I had taken this as a teen I would have been much worse off...clingwrap perhaps? I still have my clingy moments but I credit Dave with helping me feel secure enough not to cling anymore.

I was referred (thanks Summer!) to a page listing the 20 Healthiest Foods for Under $1.00.

Also, if you are at all interested in someday traveling the country with an RV or tent, check out her article on Modern Day Nomads. Here's the story of how it all came about.

Of course nomad living just gives me homeless-with-kids flashbacks, but I've known people who were quite happy to live that way. I think it works much better for those without dependents, though I clearly got a sense at Leo Carrillo that there were still people with kids making use of the campgrounds out of homelessness rather than for fun.

July 29th, DVD release of Continuum, a Stargate: SG1 movie. (Straight to DVD release.) I hear someone leaked it already and MGM has an idea who it might have been. But no illicit copies came my way--just a few mouth-watering photos:

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If you've never seen Stargate I bet you'd still enjoy it. If you want me to fill you in on the back story I'll be happy to. :)

The other night we were looking at the offerings of our cable's "On Demand" feature. I thought it would be amusing to see what porn offerings they had, even though I don't really like the x-rated stuff. I just wanted to see what they had, maybe they had one of the classics like "Wifemistress" or "Emmanuele."

I had been coughing so much that my ribs and back hurt, so I was trying to avoid doing anything that would use those muscles.

But when I saw the titles I couldn't help but laugh, especially when I saw "12 inch Attack."

For some reason that title just struck me as particularly funny and I was off in one of those laughing fits where you just can't stop yourself and can hardly come up for breath. I guess it represented everything that was ridiculous about...well the kind of men who care that much about impressing everyone with their penis length.

I thought I'd die before I could stop. I would start to wind down and then I'd think of it again and be off, though it hurt so much I was simultaneously groaning in pain.

I don't think there could be an equivalent for women...Attack of the 12 inch vagina? Maybe Attack of the Quadruple D Cup?

I'm not a follower of Osho but I recently read this quote and what it says about religion, guilt, and social control is in line with my own observations. You have to realize that for most of human history religion has been aligned with government, and as such it was an enforcer of social norms and controls required by each government. You can see the culture wars in America as being a struggle between this idea that religion (specifically Christianity) should control our behavior and the idea that we alone should decide what is right and wrong and that should not be imposed on us by religion. While I don't believe in wallowing in guilt, taking responsibility for one's actions is of course the right thing to do, including making amends whenever necessary. Guilt, however, never helped anyone.

BELOVED OSHO,

I FEEL SO GUILTY WHEN WANTING TO EXPRESS MYSELF AND WHEN I FINALLY TAKE COURAGE TO DO SO, IT FEELS MORE LIKE A NO TO OTHERS THAN A YES TO MYSELF. THEN THE GUILT RETURNS BECAUSE OF THIS. POSTPONEMENT OR DEFIANCE ARE THE ONLY WAYS I KNOW BUT THEY SEEM PART OF A CIRCLE ANYWAY. BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE A WAY TO TRANSFORM GUILT?

My God!

Nobody has ever transformed guilt. It has to be simply dropped.

Why transform it? Do you want to preserve it in some form or other?

Guilt is not something that you are born with, it is not part of your nature. Guilt is created by the society.

For example, every religion creates guilt -- in different ways, but the technique is the same. All the religions live, thrive, on guilty human beings. First make them guilty -- once you have succeeded in making somebody feel guilty, you have almost killed his spirit. Now he will be a soulless slave to you.( Read more... )It is the greatest crime against humanity done by your religious people. They cannot be forgiven.

This story broke last night in local news when Hans Reiser, staring a sentence of 25-to-life in the face, agreed to take authorities to the site where he'd buried his wife Nina in order to set the stage for a late, post conviction plea bargain to second degree murder (15-life). His defense team had maintained that Nina might be in Europe. The burial site turned out to be less than a mile from his mother's house in steep terrain and likely would not have been found without his help. The murder is thought to have taken place after she came to drop off the kids for a visit and while the kids were in the basement. The area where the body had been buried was searched previously with cadaver dogs but the actual site was difficult to access.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/08/missing.mother.ap/index.html

Now, if they can just find the body of Drew Peterson's wife Stacey.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3810718

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/stacy.peterson.laci.2.564862.html

These women are dead but clearly misogyny is alive and well.

...a letter to Cary Tennis about migraines, that is.

Excerpt:

Dear Cary,

I've held off on writing this letter. I was raised in a household where we don't complain about aches and pains; I am supposed to be stoic and able to cope, but I'm beginning to feel defeated by pain. Eighteen months ago I started getting migraines. What started out as a low-grade migraine 15 days out of the month has turned into "Chronic Daily Migraine," in which every day I cope with pain that ranges from feeling like someone is attempting to use a bottle opener to pry off my cheekbone, to a thunderbolt-type pain that blasts along my forehead and makes moving my eyes agonizing.

Cary had a nice response, and as a migraine sufferer he at least knows what he's talking about. He referred the letter-writer to http://www.thedailyheadache.com among other things. It's good to see that I'm not alone. Coincidentally, I have a bad migraine that started last night, so it was a great time to see this column. I hadn't checked out Salon in awhile, so I can't help but feel like I was meant to see it.

Of course the letters in response have lots of ideas for treatments that worked for the letter-writers, so I'm learning about some things I haven't tried yet.

Don S. Davis died on June 29th of a heart attack. Fans may know him best as General Hammond on Stargate: SG1.

Excerpt:

His family released a statement that said "so many of you have been touched by not only the work and art of Don S. Davis, but by the man himself, who always took the time to be with you at the appearances he loved, that it is with a tremendous sense of loss I must share with you that Don passed away from a massive heart attack on Sunday morning, June 29.

"On behalf of his family and wife, Ruby, we thank you for your prayers and condolences. A family memorial where Don's ashes will be scattered in the ocean will take place in a few weeks, and should you wish to, please make a donation to the American Heart Association in Don's memory."

"Stargate: Atlantis" executive producer Joseph Mallozzi told reporters during a conference call July 1 that Davis would certainly be missed.

"He had a bigger heart and was even nicer than the Hammond character that he played," Mallozzi said. Fans "would approach him in the sense that they were approaching Gen. Hammond. but once they got to know him, they got to know Don Davis, a very warm-hearted, incredibly self-deprecating man, who sadly will be incredibly missed by not just the fans, but anyone who worked with him."

I didn't realize someone had made a youtube promotional video about my home town, Keokuk Iowa. It's actually got some really nice views, makes me kind of homesick. There's even a shot of fireworks. You'll hear all about our dam on the Mississippi, Chief Keokuk, our National Cemetery (where my mom and Uncle George are buried), the civil war reenactments, the George M. Verity steamboat (where I worked one summer) and so on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_O4SEsojak