Hello Denys, and other friends:

Thanks for the welcome. It's a gracious gesture from such a prolific poster, both on-topic and OT.

OT postings don't bother me, per se. The ones that work to demonize and insult people seem like soapbox material, to me. I have an opinion about the postings, so I labelled mine under "OT: Mars." Odd, that. I wanted to feel like I was part of a debate, I suppose.

To Brice, on another list, my posts were "mealy-mouthed invective." Aside from being an oxymoron, the depiction doesn't feel accurate. I am trying to see the bigger picture, even promote peace through respect. Believe me, if there's anybody who could expel more damaging invective in fewer words on this list than me, I'd like to meet them. And I do mean meet them; this high ground of internet screeds and trolling offers a lot of cover for the sniping I read.

Denys asked:

"I thought my line “Algore does to science what Michael Moore does to history,” was very clever, thinking that anyone who took offense to that would be confused and conflicted.

"So Ron, when you took exception to it, is it because:

"a) You think that Michael Moore’s movie was correct in every way but that Algore’s movie is crap and equating the two is an insult to Michael Moore.

"b) You think that Algore’s movie is correct in every way but that Michael Moore’s movie was crap and equating the two is an insult to Algore.

"So, is it a or b?" 

Now that's clever, I'll admit. Kind of like, "When did you stop beating your wife?" All in good sport, I hear you say. Some people don't like boxing as a sport. I like a good fight -- one with no repercussion except bruises, bragging and belt transfers.

But when it comes to the commander in chief or his 2000 rival, I don't believe that's a sport. Nor do I think that your two choices you gave me cover the range of what I meant to say. I can point to a recent ABC "docudrama" that was as biased as either Gore's movie or Moore's. These are editorials, really. It's unfortunate that ABC decided to air its program with all of its factual errors. Dramatic license has been used for centuries to tell tall tales. I'm off ABC now, and all of its advertisers. A letter to my local affilate made my boycott evident.

What I meant to say about Algore (as you call him) and W is this: pulling down anybody with subjective facts seems unlikely to change the outcome of the future of the US. Running for office, posting in a widely-read forum like a newspaper or even a daily newspaper's blog, even working in a precinct as a chair, joining a volunteer organization -- that's the sort of thing worthy of brainpower and passion. Everything is just an exercise of First Amendment rights.

OT is a good exercise of humor, writing skills and thinking. I just have a preference for information instead of opinion. I think it's pretty clear to me right now where you and Brice stand on those topics that can have a political angle. It disappoints me that anything not directly related to the HP 3000 or computing veers toward socio-political debate here, and on another list we both read.

(Oh, and I've got that I-64 t-shirt, too. I'd love to be talking about MPE/iX 8.0, let along 9.0. I still believe someday in the future we can discuss that here, once OpenMPE gets a lab up and running. That's another group still reaching for the respect they deserve.)

(Okay, I spent 10 minutes on this one. And I'm beginning to see how this is addictive. Good thing I already had today's NewsWire NewsBlog story online. HP's calling off its 3000-to-9000 conversion kit program. Read about it at <http://3000newswire.com/blog>)

Hope everybody has a good Monday; thanks for playing. And I'm looking forward to seeing Denys and everybody else at GHRUG in November.

Ron Seybold
3000 NewsWire

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