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Originally Posted by ryberg
Actually, on second thought, this way of thinking may in fact have a lot of potential, here! For example, I recently purchased an $80 boxed set of Coltrane CDs of his famous quartet of the early/mid-60s from Amazon, a purchase my wife might, you know, view as suspect or criticize. BUT, she could have stopped me, if she'd tried -- you know how that is, men! -- and she didn't, and, as a result, I bought it. Ergo, Delmy caused me to spend all that money on that boxed set!  It's her fault! I knew it!
And -- voilá! -- I am off the hook, ladies & gentlemen! 
At the same time, I can console myself with my Chiefs' early and even downright embarrassing departure from the NFL post-season by remembering that the Chiefs caused the Colts to get to the Superbowl. I mean, forget this guy Mann, Manson, Mannon, whatever his name is -- the Chiefs were in a position to have stopped the Colts but didn't, therefore we can under this approach conclude that they caused the Colts' current situation. Colts fans can just send cash, if they like. 
And I guess Ravens and Patriots fans can feel equally consoled.
Oh, but, hang on a second... Did they all cause the Colts to get to the Superbowl? And hey, didn't the Colts themselves have anything to do with it?
Aw, geez -- now I'm getting confused again... 
Steve |
Darty is a tough nut for me, and one of the reasons I'm not in the political threads as much as I used to be. He seems like a good guy with, at his core, a good heart, but his thinking and logic strikes me as so completely
different that I sometimes feel I am dealing with an alien being when I debate with him.
Some of the guys on the board are just assh*les, and its easy for me to dismiss their ramblings as nothing more than vitriol, bile and self-contempt. (
YEAH, I'm talking about YOU Mark - what you gonna do about it? ) Some of the guys on the board have a very conservative world view, but are obviously kind, compassionate people who share a deep respect for humanity, charity, and the other shared values of most Americans. (
Okay Mark, so you're really in this catagory... 
)
But then there are guys like Darty - honestly, he does seem like a nice guy, but his sense of logic and core values are so utterly confusing to me, that I can't even find a basis on which to interact.
Its like an experience I had in law school once. And please note, I'm using this story ONLY to illustrate my point about not being able to connect or relate to another human. I do *NOT* believe that dartay is a racist of any kind!!!
Anyway, I had a class in law school and needed a study partner. I didn't know anyone, so I just randomly asked the girl sitting next to me on the second or third day if she wanted to get together to share notes and work together. We started doing that, and she seemed like a nice person. We had some shared interests and hobbies and got along well. We met every couple of weeks, often at the ORIGINAL Kim Son location in Houston near the law school (I miss that place). After a while we were just... friends.
Later that semester we were out somewhere and started talking about post graduation plans. She was lamenting her situation, unsure about what to do, where to go, etc. I started in on the same lament. She looks at me and says (with NO malice whatsoever) "But aren't you Jewish?" I said yes. She kind of smiled and said, "So what do YOU have to worry about?" I asked her what she was talking about. She said something like, "Well, the network. You can work anywhere you want, can't you?" So, I laughed at her joke. She, in turn, looked at me with great confusion and asked what I was laughing at.
She wasn't kidding.
I share this story, again, only to illustrate my point that there are some people in the world who have SUCH a completely different view of facts, logic, reality, etc than I that I just can't find a shared basis on which to connect. For me, dartay is such a person. Again, he seems like a very nice guy, and I do not believe he is frothing with malice or bitterness like some folks on this board. I just find myself thinking that my core beliefs are so very different from his that I can't usefully engage him in debate.