caroljane

Damn!, I mean holy galt. A vision came to me, clear as day, of my favourite classic movie, Airplane, and its soul-stirring last line, "Let's get started. Somebody's got to rebuild Rio de Janiero! And immediately I heard a harsh, stern and authoritative voice saying, "Never mind Rio de wherever,Somebody's got to rebuild Epistemology." What can it mean? I'm way late to Damascus aa it is, I don't need this! Awed. Carol

I have not looked it up but it occurred to my ancient memory that the original meaning of "begging the question" may have been the term I was thinking of - meaning, to forcefully state a position, then build upon it to make an argument which was not challenged by the other side. If said memory is faulty I will stand corrected. ie expecting rhetorical questions to be answered, etc.

Your key phrase here of the quote is "building blocks", and I love stories as much as the next person. But playing Legos with apples and oranges can get, well, rotten. The above I apologize for , for being a sketchy metaphor, because I for my own part am tired of the often-inappropriate use of metaphor and analogy to repeat one side of a discussion as an agreed fact. It is a sketchy metaphor for some debate tactic which has holes in it. I forget the name of the tactic but there is something logically wrong with it.

Thanks for that, I laugh genuinely at some of your cute remarks even when I don't agree with them, and I genuinely am grateful that you don't find me a one-woman olfactory epidemic!

You usually fix typos - penultimate letter should have been a "k", appropriately enough. Analogy is the last-ditch and weakest form of argument, and it seems to be getting feebler than it used to be, probably through overwork. Such analogies are like would-be parables set in a moral relativist no-man's-land.

Worthless or not, here we go - Rand's teachings on initiation vs reaction, as she walked her talk, depended entirely on whom she wanted to attack, and she could always justify it as retaliatory., always. Part of her infuriating genius. Keep studying, you will get it right someday. And I mean that sincerely, as I have meditated upon my mission on earth, as I do daily now that my days grow short, and I have found that one of my last tasks, Jon Letendre,, is to Save your Soul. To bring you out of the nighttime, and to help you fly spiritually , and be born again in the spirit at the altar of St. Burton Cummings.

Michael!!!!"Sometimes things only become clear by analogy? Yes, to those who can see only two things at a time, however ill-suited they are to be compared, it is a soothing easy way to advance your narrative You are good people too I know, but please stop comparing incivility and sexism to the kind of argument here, however rough and tough 0r sarcatric, we have been used to. Please and thank you.

Oh how odd you should mention dear old Gunga Din -- why I was just thinking, for no reason, of "The splendour falls on castle walls,". this "Brainstorming" and"Creative Collaboration" is all very interesting, my goodness!

Hey, at least he doesn't try to communicate with his dead mother through psychics, or spend hours talking policy with his pet dogs. And he doesn't go into drunken states where he thinks his mother is dead, even though she's alive and kicking. Buck up Jules!I say if MacDonald got us founded, and King got us through WWII, Trudeau can get us through Trump - with our own electoral rallying cry -eight more months! eight more months!

Indeed it does. It sounds like something a person did say who is bigoted against Jon Letendre. "an individual" as the courts say, but I have seen no evidence of individuality in him, nothing that he doesn't get direct from Trump Worshippers headquarters or Conspiracy Today. His obscene juvenile attacks on me are justified , because I am a leftist, and any filth he throws is fair, because after all, the left is always worse than anything the right could ever do, or say . I am bigoted, against bigots like him, oh yes. You betcha. Now if you will excuse me, I am late for my Luciferian study group at the Reformed Brandenite Brotherhood.

Oh, I am staggered! It is a genius plot and This Story Must Be Told. And finally the world will see sex scenes that reflect Real Life and Right Values and Canadian Respectability, I can't wait! I must commune with my muse now -- the first lines of dialogue are coming to me -- oh, oh, ohhh!

Sorry, I don't speak Deutsche, but at least I can spell it. Thank you for whisking me back to the Days of Yesteryear in the junior-high schoolyard.

Funny. I dislike olives, and dislike supposedly grown-up people whose brain and spirit and soul could easily fit inside one.

Very nice adaptation of John the Baptist's most well-known saying! Were your sources the Aramaic or the Greek?

Thanks, I don't open anything unsolicited except by mistake anyway, but I have got my messenger back, somehow.though I kind of wish I hadn't. Here is the first piece of fan mail I encountered: "I bet you are physically digusting too, really bad skin, overweight and stinking like a pig farm an hour after showering.".. Well, really, I know there is a bad heat wave here,necessitating many showers a day, but this is beyond presumption. Although the "pig farm" touch shows a primitive brain, indicating the writer acknowledges that individual pigs can smell unoffensive (indeed he may have specialized knowledge in that area) on the whole I think he has a lot of work to do on ad hominems to be taken seriously as an Elite Rationalizer and Middle Excluder. Still, England is leading in World Cup semifinal, so this distracts me from my own Elephant-Woman-like afflictions for many sweet moments.

Well of course we are all fat and ugly, but why should I answer your question when you wouldn't answer mine? I have read studies that said Trump worshippers tend to be, to put it delicately, non-readers.

Well why didn't you say you were interested in Rand? I have written a lot about her here, but the only things I have seen you write about were Donald Trump and pedophilia morning, noon and night, and how people need to be rounded up and lynched and whatnot. If I have been making people feel unsafe to talk Rand here, the elsewhere is easily found . SOLO is the domain of "Righteous Anger" Linz, wannabe Kiwi Alex Jones, and he is pretty much angry all the time, and he would welcome you with open talons.

You have me dead to rights here, that was my sick disgusting gaslighting mentally ill etc. question, in aid of questioning the universal significance of one poll taken on a college campus. Guilty as charged. Interesting to note that you are prejudiced against pigs, and probably all swine in general, no doubt due to your inadequate education. Pigs are very clean and intelligent animals, ask Lord Emsworth.

Totally on board! I am kind of a Zachary Taylor fan, no idea why, but am am also interested in the early FLOTUSes influence on policy, but I will not mention that it was Dolley who mainly saved the national treasures because some readers might be sensitive about losing the war of 1812, naming no Arizonan veterans' names, yoo-hoo Brant! Oops.

Why?

Marc, capable of what? Blowing up, or else intimidating an alien life force through sign language on his tiny fingers ? You know I love your enthusiasm and optimism, but come on.

So I take that as a No, you choose not to respond to my legitimate question. As is entirely your right, of course, Yours faithfully, CJS, Respectable Widow and Disgusting Creature # Multitasking Never Ends# Luddites forever

Your loss.

Ok my question is all shocking and disgusting although I do not understand the reference about narcs. But if you don't want to answer the question, just say so, I would not wish to disrespect any educational institute, even one who produced you.