From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 03:54:32 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com (Cypherpunks)
Subject: Re: take the pledge
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SV4.3.91.960719222636.17923E-100000@larry.infi.net>
Message-ID: <v0300762fae16be46b925@[206.119.69.46]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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> Look, folks, we all know that 99% of what David Sternlight posts is
> garbage. Why don't we all pledge not to answer any of his posts, and
> then he'll go away.

The more I see, the more I agree. I filter relevant stuff out of here onto
e$pam, and I've only sent out about two of Mr. Sternlight's "n-ty" total
posts in the past four days or so. He certainly is articulate and well
read, but he's considerably mired in heirarchical statist thinking. It's a
wonder he doesn't trip, walking with his head turned exactly backward like
that...

Our political differences aside, and in the spirit of keeping my killfile
from frying under the load of plonking him, ;-), I would like to propose
what could be called a compromise.

I challenge Mr. Sternlight to do two things:

1. Not to respond to this post. :-).

Actually, I believe that's part of my problem with Mr. Sternlight. He's
about the best tat-titter I've ever seen. On my high-school forensics team,
he would bat .500 in all his matches, because he would win all his negative
debates and have no affirmative case for the rest. Or, more to the point,
he might have one, but he never seems to present it except in rebuttal.
Unfortunately, the judges don't count those points, David, and even though
this is just a mail list, the same rules of logic and rhetoric are there,
whether we like them or not.  Which brings me to the second challenge,

2. Write something from scratch.

That is, actually *start* a thread. From scratch. Probably one of the
causes of a lot of the vitriol on this list is instant "Oh, yeah, sez who!"
ability that e-mail gives us. I would be very interested in something from
Mr. Sternlight where he gave us some facts, some deduction from those
facts, and some well-thought-out conclusions from those deductions. It
would probably be a treat to read, and, when done, would not be nearly as
objectionable as his frequent and voluminous pot-shots from behind the
hedgerows. Witty repartee is nice, occasionally, but, like rich food, it
can make one bloated and bilious when consumed in any quantity.


On a small tangent, my idea of a perpetual motion machine would be a
Sternlight/Hallam-Baker flamewar, those two seeming to be the greatest
tat-titters on this list (exclusive of those in my kill-file, who, of
necessity, will remain nameless here). Of course, this would be a paradox,
because even though Mr. (yes, *Mr.*, in the Oxfordian sense, Phill) H-B is
a thoroughgoing liberal crypto-socialist (in the "Myra Brekenridge" sense
of crypto) and Mr. Sternlight is an equal and opposite conservative, they
both end up holding the same end of the stick in arguments around here. I
find that quite interesting to think about from the standpoint of political
philosophy, but it doesn't make them any less annoying to read. For the
moment, anyway.

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga



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-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender."
                -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard,
                       for Bart Simpson
The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/