| Author |
Message |
    
Harry Simenon
Unity Member
Post Number:
1950
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 - 08:39 am: |   |
(To be proclaimed aloud with stiff upper lip English accent.)
Dear Mindsighters.
Again I have seriously pissed off way too many people, which is nearly everybody as there are only few active members left. So I will switch into the lurking mode and let the situation cool off a bit. Perhaps some folks will return to Mindsight now before I chase everybody off.
Although I haven’t started any sensitive topics myself, I sure ended up in sensitive topics started by others. When someone claims something I don’t agree with, I feel an irresistible urge to refute that and freely speak my mind, probably in a somewhat undiplomatic manner judging by the anger I have evoked. And when somebody asks me a question I will answer that question to the best of my knowledge or state my opinion as clear as possible. My opinions are such that my answers to questions nearly always seem toxic.
To me it’s also interesting to learn why people think the way they do, certainly when people have a (very) different opinion than mine.
For me, the balance between a meaningful conversation and angering people remains very difficult. I obviously not always succeed at that… well; I maybe rarely or even never succeed at that…
When I’m having a discussion with someone I read the (often obvious) hints of irritation in their response and try to decrease some of the pressure caused by my impatience. But others read the posts as well and can build up quite an anger without timely feedback to me. And I sometimes forget all the peculiarities and sensitivities of some individual members of this site all together in the heat of a discussion.
I also noticed that people get angry by things I never even said. Even when I post something supposedly funny it is met with certain suspicion: “What the hell does that asshole mean with that moving library chair? That the US is technologically behind or something? I’ll show him!”
An elephant can never dance for very long in a room full of China. So, it’s time to leave you alone for a bit and let your heart rate get back to normal; I don’t want any cardiac arrests on my conscious!
Bye for now, and good luck to you all. Have fun. May your books be published and read to bits.
PS: but I’ll be back when you least expect me, so be good boys and girls; I might still be reading over your shoulder! And in your mind you will still hear my comments on anything you write…
(And I did hear those sighs of relief and the mumbling of ‘good riddance!’) |
Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2974
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 - 09:26 am: | |
Probably a good idea.
You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Jim.
Good luck, Harry. I hope you will someday find the answers that you seek. |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
2099
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 - 06:18 pm: | |
Perhaps some first hand observation is in order. Could it be that Harry is going off to join the Foreign Legion and will return when has something of substance to say? When you get to Afghanistan, we want to read your daily blog.
Seriously, Harry, you haven't been banned from the Forum and you are free to go or stay as you please.
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm |
Harry Simenon
Unity Member
Post Number:
1956
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - 04:28 am: | |
Well, it looks like some people get pissed off anyway, with or without me.
And no Fred, I haven't been to Afghanistan and I'm not intending to do so; I don't like being used as a pawn. |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
2111
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 - 04:40 pm: | |
...And if Queen Beatrix commanded you to go?
http://www.fdungan.com/lace.htm |
Harry Simenon
Unity Member
Post Number:
1964
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 12:16 am: | |
I'm a bit of a Republican concerning royalty. I think queens and kings are a bad idea, even if they are only some kind of a symbol like in our nation.
I would fight to defend freedom and humanity, I don't fight for neocons, nations or queens unless it is to defend freedom or humanity. |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
2113
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 12:47 am: | |
That's certainly not very sporting of you, Harry. Freedom isn't free, you know. Do you expect others to take up your slack? Somebody has to do it. Now, poor Beatrix is going to have to don a helmet and trudge off to Afghanistan.
http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm |
Harry Simenon
Unity Member
Post Number:
1966
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 10:19 am: | |
Fred,
I simply do not believe that the wars in the Middle East are about freedom. I believe they are about power, oil, money, control, anything but freedom.
You do believe it is about freedom.
That is my point I am trying to get across.
When I hear politicians talk about freedom and democracy it reminds me very much of Orwell's 1984, where those words meant the opposite, and ignorance was bliss.
I doubt it that Beatrix would trudge off to Afghanistan, although a helmet would suit her better than the weird hats she is always wearing. |
Stephen Lodge
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
678
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 10:24 am: | |
"When I hear politicians talk about freedom and democracy it reminds me very much of Orwell's 1984, where those words meant the opposite, and ignorance was bliss."
Only happens when you hear liberals talk that way.
http://www.stephenlodge.com
Novels by Stephen Lodge:
"Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit!"
"Nickel-Plated Dream"
"Shadows of Eagles"
|
Harry Simenon
Unity Member
Post Number:
1969
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 10:46 am: | |
"Only happens when you hear liberals talk that way."
Of-course, Stephen, of-course...
 |
Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2992
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 01:46 pm: | |
Harry,
What you clearly fail to grasp is that lack of freedom is all about power, money, etc., too. You need to pull your head out of the sand and look at the world as it really is. You seem to live in some mystical universe where people skip through the day tossing flowers and giggling.
Freedom is won by dedication to ideals and for almost all of the world those things involve control. Obama says the Berlin wall came down because of the will of people. It came down because of years of military and economic pressure on the USSR. People on both sides of the wall suffered because of opposing ideologies. The guy with the biggest stick won (usually does, and that's a fact.)The radical element of Islam is striving for control, oil and power, not peace. We, the free world, are in opposition to that as they are in opposition to our ideals.That is called war, a sad occurrence, but they have been with us since the caves.
Sticking a daisy in the end of a rifle barrel won't change that.
Fortunately for you, there are people who will go with Beatrix, helmet and all, to make the necessary sacrifices. Enjoy.
You truly need a reality check, IMO. |
Harry Simenon
Unity Member
Post Number:
1970
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 02:45 pm: | |
Bill:
I agree that you need military power to defend yourself so that a nation can stay free, but that is not my point.
The neocon machinery is not about freedom for the people, it's about filling their pockets with the money of the people by the blood of the people.
That is quite a difference I think.
The USSR came down because they wasted their resources in endless fights in nations like Afghanistan.
The West together with Israel is obviously in the offensive, the Muslim nations in the defensive. As you know by know three Muslim nations are occupied by the West/Israel, none Western nation is occupied by a Muslim nation. The West is fighting on Muslim land, not in their own Western nations fighting invaders.
"Sticking a daisy in the end of a rifle barrel won't change that."
I'm not a pacifist. But I'm not willing to support wars started by crooks by using lies and fabricated evidence for all the wrong reasons. That's all.
"You truly need a reality check, IMO."
Good one Bill!
 |
Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2995
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 06:55 pm: | |
"As you know by know three Muslim nations are occupied by the West/Israel,"
And, as you know, but don't seem to want to recognize, dozens of sovereign nations around the world have been attacked by entities that inhabit these nations you feel so sorry for. We're in there after the bad guys, not trying to
take over countries. Get a grip.
"But I'm not willing to support wars started by crooks by using lies and fabricated evidence for all the wrong reasons." ALL (including yours) national leaders tell various versions of truth. Besides, what you consider to be true, may not be, or at least to the guy next door. Again, you're trying to live in a black and white world, when its many shades of gray.
I am pleased that you are amused, but that doesn't mean you won't go get the
check up, does it? |
Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
3876
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - 07:07 pm: | |
Closing this one down versus moving it off to the Mead Hall...
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