From: martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin)
Newsgroups: soc.singles
Subject: Re: More on guys who aren't dating Ed Wright
Date: 3 Oct 92 19:01:40 GMT
	<MARTINC.92Sep28105441@grover.cs.unc.edu>
	<ewright.717737097@convex.convex.com>
	<MARTINC.92Sep29210821@grover.cs.unc.edu>
	<ewright.717826420@convex.convex.com> <MARTINC.92
Distribution: soc
Organization: UNC Department of Computer Science
In-reply-to: ewright@convex.com's message of 2 Oct 92 22:26:57 GMT


Ed, here's just one example drawn from your recent post.

Here's what you quoted of what I said and your reply:

    In <MARTINC.92Sep30103015@grover.cs.unc.edu> martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin) writes:

    >   >   Colucci's post.  Or your quotations from the DUMB Book of Diet
    >   >   and Fitness about how exercise improves a person's outlook on
						      ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^
    >   >   life, increases creativity and intelligence, improves your sex
	    ^^^^  ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^
    >   >   life, etc., etc.

    >   >Ah.  We're back to "is that your medical opinion, Dr. Wright?"  You've
    >   >neither the expertise nor the data to have an opinion.  You've proven it
    >   >time and again.

    >Ed, you have this consistent problem of conflating "better physical
    >shape" with "better in every way, physically, morally and spiritually."

    Gosh, I thought a person's outlook on life, creativity, and intelligence
    *were* moral, intellectual, and spiritual characteristics.  And when I
    referred to your statements on those topics, you didn't deny them; you
    attacked me for daring to *question* them.  Now you're backing off again. 

And here's the whole paragraph from which you quoted:

    Ed, you have this consistent problem of conflating "better
    physical shape" with "better in every way, physically, morally and
    spiritually."  If you're in better physical shape, you will indeed
    look better and feel better.  If you feel better, you may well
    find yourself doing better at other things.  I doubt very much
    that being in better physical shape will make you a saint.  But
    then, being in worse physical shape doesn't seem to have qualified
    you for sainthood either.  However, if you persist in saying that
    I said that being in better physical shape makes you a better
    person physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually, then I'll
    persist in feeling I've been misquoted.

Now, let's just look at what you deleted for your reply:  "I doubt...
that being in better physical shape will make you a saint."  I do doubt
that: In fact, I wonder whether physical conditioning can really make
you "better" mentally.  (I think you may well find yourself being more
creative, but that I suspect is a side effect of not being troubled by
other complaints.)  I don't think I've suggested anything about the
morals of people who exercise.

But the real problem with this whole argument is that one cannot argue
*with* you -- one can only argue *at* you.

You don't read closely.

You don't listen to the arguments.

You remember, at best, selectively.

You then reslant what quotations you make by deleting any softening
statement, by rephrasing one statement into another, stronger statement,
and by exhibiting an ignorance of simple english that would seem
illiterate if it weren't quite clearly willful.

And for all the thrashing about that you do, you can't quite hide from
the fact that you feel like shit, and you are so frightened of the
threat to your identity that you can't risk change, even if it would
make you feel better.

The kind of intellectual dishonesty that you've exhibited is the sort of
thing that can make me very angry.  However, I'm not angry at you; I
find that I can't be, because it is so *clearly* a last-ditch, desperate
defense against the realization that you and you alone are the reason
that you *are* alone.  You'd rather rule in Hell than serve in heaven.

Fine.  But I wonder whether Satanic majesty is really a good
compensation for loneliness.
--
Charles R. Martin/(Charlie)/martinc@cs.unc.edu/(ne crm@cs.duke.edu) 
O/Dept. of Computer Science/CB #3175 UNC-CH/Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175
H/3611 University Dr #13M/Durham, NC 27707/(919) 419 1754
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am he who walks the States with a barb'd tongue, questioning every
one I meet,/Who are you that wanted only to be told what you knew
before?/ Who are you that wanted only a book to join you in your
nonsense?"  _Leaves of Grass_ xxiii.4.
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