Town Quixote's

[bybee]

A friend shared this with me. I don't know the attribution and maybe some of you have read it...anyway, I thought it poignant enough to share.

As a guitarist, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper’s cemetery in the back country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost.

I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch.

I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to play.

The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I’ve never played before and as I played ‘Amazing Grace,’ the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together.

When I finished I packed up my guitar and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full. As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, “I never seen nothin’ like that before and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for twenty years.”​

That's the best laugh I've had in a long time! Thanks:chuckle:

 

[Town Heretic]

Find the liberal tree. lain:

 

[Eeset]

Find the liberal tree. lain:

Just off to the left .....

 

[Town Heretic]

Open again in a day...in the meantime:

The TGIF Gazette
​

It's Friday in the ol Gazette and Man O Man have things been a little crazy of late...

...could you imagine Peter or Paul (or any other disciple) ever taking up arms, to fight in a war?

Yes. Especially if they were drafted. Both knew that the God they served had on many occasions called their people to war. Much of it as the aggressor.

Do the servants of Christ do such a thing?

Absolutely. A year ago one of the better Christian examples I knew died. He was a soft spoken man, reverent and kind, who went through the world with a humility and meekness that was exemplary and so rooted you'd never know without being told that as a young man he was a Marine fighting in some of the bloodiest conflict of the Pacific theater of WWII. I don't think you've earned the right to stand in his shadow and judge him, but you go right ahead if you want.

...You will not admit to me being right, however, because then it means that you are wrong - and that means your world crumbles.

Or...I don't "admit" it for the same reason I wouldn't "admit" that my favorite flavor of ice cream is trout.

...If the things that I have said on the matter are in fact right, then it's you who are 'wrong headed' and on the side of falsity.

That's how it works.

Found a solution for Granite's grousing in the apology thread...

Bybee...destroy this thread and the original remark, then claim you were just clearing space, did nothing wrong and want to concentrate on Patriot's football.

I hear that works anywhere in New England.

Before chrys staggered back into his awards thread with an unselfconscious gem...

...they have to protect innuendo and it protects them

...You should consider an "Invisible Ham" award.

While the persecution thread was getting flagellanty...

Fixed it for you.
[substituted Trinitarians for Christians]

A synonym isn't a correction.

And anna had to spoil some of the garment rending fun with...

Even the cakes are gay now? What is this world coming to?

Net or gross?

Anyway, the bakers weren't fined for not baking a (gay) cake. Apparently the bakers posted the couple's personal contact information on their facebook page, which led to death threats against the couple, and because of concerns for the safety of their foster children amidst the continuous barrage of threats, the couple feared losing custody of them.

The bakers were ordered to pay damages for emotional distress suffered by the couple ordering the cake.

And he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids. :IA:

Speaking of booze...

God made liquor so the irish would not rule the world
God made beer so the germans could
no wonder we don't get along

How do Germans tie their shoes?

With little knotsies. lain:

A German walks into a library.

German: I'd like a few books on war, please.
Librarian: I'm sorry, I can't check those out to you.
German: Why?
Librarian: You'd lose them.

Then Man was back being Manly...

Re: the Manly one condemning the victims in that South Carolina church shooting because if they were killed they must have had it coming, says Man...

It's only horrible to you because it offends your own subjective, personal, biased view of what's right.

It's horrible to me because it allows for people like you to look upon decent human beings destroyed by evil and create a metaphysical caste system by which they reaped something they sowed. It is a compassionless approach to human suffering that stands contrary to what I believe can be known of God through the example of Jesus Christ.

...you have a subjective, rather than objective, view of God, and His wrath.

All that reduces to is, "You don't agree with me, so you must be X." Assumptive nonsense running its legs off in a neat circle.

What is it then, if not pride or obstinacy?

A reasoned difference. What is your repeated "You can't grasp" (to sum) but an assumptive expression of the very thing you're attempting to lay at my feet?

...Truth is not relative, as you seem to be implying.

No, I've never said or implied that and no one could read me, quote a passage of my writing in support of the notion, which is why I suppose you don't.

Before IMJ returned waving a really ugly flag...

...according to a 2011 CNN Research Poll...most Democrats said southern states seceded over slavery, independents were split and most Republicans said slavery was not the main reason that Confederate states left the Union.

I'm not going to say a great many Republicans were simply ignorant of particular knowledge on the point, but I'm fine with you doing it. Because they were in 2011.

And contrary to your earlier statement regarding Southerners not considering themselves Confederate, 40% of them, according to that same poll side with the Confederacy and that would make sense since nearly half of all Southern males ages 18-50 (their ancestors) served.

That's not contrary to my statement that Southerners don't refer to themselves or consider themselves Confederates...Side with the Confederacy in what sense? I'm betting what I'll find if you provide a link is that that strong minority (emphasis on minority) supported the idea that the Southern states had a right to leave the Union. I doubt they were in support with the position on slavery.

In your opinion, however, 40% of your neighbors aren't worthy Southerners.

Quote what I actually said. Better yet, I will:

...Translation: Southerners with pride in their Confederate ancestry are yahoos and all others are good and decent people.

Or, Southerners who take pride in a slave state that permitted dehumanizing and unspeakable acts of barbarism are yahoos, either ignorant of that history or, worse, indifferent to it. Sure, they're embarrassing hold overs from the asinine romanticism of the period.

Tomorrow? More Manly yet, I talk to an atheist about holey matters and chrys haggles over the price...

 

[Town Heretic]

Saturday Afternoon Gazette​

Began a difference with chrys on the Court and abortion...

...the democratic party
kills babies and jobs it is destroying families and we need to destroy it

...The Democrats are a powerful force because many in the electorate agree with their overall political philosophy/approach. That's not going to change. And the likelihood of your altering the size of the majority you need on a range of issues that constitutes the difference is virtually nonexistent. Fortunately, changing minds on a single issue isn't.

But as long as you make your cause the former you waste energy, alienate people who could be your allies in the most meaningful of the issues imaginable...You won't win on unions...But you can win on abortion. And you can find allies that will otherwise be set against you on any number of different issues.

the republican party is the only alternative

Only because of that unrealistic, larger conflation. You should be partnering with anyone who agrees on the issue. Libertarians, pro life Dems, Independents. Anyone advancing the flag of human dignity and right.

Continued talking God with Al...

I think that I tend to have more interest in what actually is true than in a comforting illusion.

And that's part of the problem with your position. You don't know what's true, but you assume the de facto worse case context. lain:

Nonsense, you can't shift the burden of proof that way. If I claim that you owe me a million dollars then would it be your job to show me that you didn't or mine to show that you do?

But shouldn't it be your job to actively pursue an answer to the contextual truth of existence instead of passively allowing it to come to you?

When someone says, "I don't believe but I'm open to being convinced." I can't help thinking of someone who is open to being employed if someone shows up at his house with a job.

Noted THall was up to his old trick...

The Holocaust killed humans that were capable of fighting back, but too passive, preoccupied, and unorganized...

Still in the victim blaming business then. It's not uncommon for people, faced with evil, to be almost baffled and unable to process it. That said, the problem the Jewish population faced in Germany was that prior to the violence it had been isolated and stripped of power and means. Jews were not only facing one of the most efficient and powerful military forces in the world, but a mostly hostile population as well.

People should read Gilbert's The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy. Here's a link to a free treatment.

There were any number of armed uprisings against the Nazis by those same Jews. To write off that inhumanity by tainting the victims with some vestige of guilt is beyond wrong headed.

Then quip inquired...

Well, in regard to ontological, empirical skepticism...exactly what do you objectively suggest?

A different approach. Empiricism can't approach the question, so leaning on it is on par with attempting to change a flat tire by reading poetry.

before Al was back with...

...I witnessed that you owed me a million dollars below which for some reason I rather suspect you that you don't accept my testimony TH.

Because it's an empirical matter and you can't present empirical data that I'm incapable of refuting. So...that a liar or a madman might escape initial notice and be allowed to give testimony isn't a case against the weight and value of testimony, but is instead a case against liars and madmen.

...I can see millions of people nevertheless believing in the "wrong" gods around the world, so I have concluded that most people simply prefer to believe in gods albeit circumstantially and that the real truth however remains an unknown and perhaps unknowable.

I'd bet on any given day an alarming number of people are getting wrong answers on math exams.

Thanks TH, I can always mix the serious and the whimsy with you. :e4e:

If God didn't have a sense of humor at least one of us wouldn't be here...and possibly more. :shocked:

So I started talking about the Court after a chrys invitation that turned out to be another sad trap attempt...

...correct me if I am wrong but you agreed with the liberal judges in 12 of the 15 cases

Happy to correct you. You're wrong. I agreed with the majority decision in most of the cases. Roberts, no liberal, by way of example, issued one in King that I agreed with. The liberals were in block agreement. So Roberts should be called a liberal? Or the issuer of a liberal position?

so that does make you a liberal right?

No. My record would more closely resemble someone from the right, as with Thomas, who could vote with that block depending on their reasoning or for his own and less like one of the left, who voted with a united voice in by and large every case.

There was a unified conservative opinion on only four cases....That would put me 3-0-1 if you were as determined to make me out a conservative, which I'm also not.

With me it's all about judicial reasoning.

Of course chrys was happy to have the truth...nah, he'd already invested in..

town is a liberal
enough said

No, but thanks for underscoring the point your desperate grab in the phony awards thread whiffed on.

While in my movie thread I wondered...

...What if Rob Lowe was Iron Man...how different would it be?

Man O was back with his tar bucket for the dead in that South Carolina church...

...How do you know that they were good? How do you know that they weren't disobeying God in their lives?

It would have to have been all of them, gathered in a church to study the Word...on the face of it not the most likely scenario. Or, I have no reason to believe they were being disobedient and a pretty good reason to believe they were of the faith and killed by an evil man.

...You do not believe in that biblical principle then - of reaping what one sows?

Sure, but you're trying to twist that into karma and it isn't, was never meant to produce a metaphysical caste system whereby the victim of any calamity could be reduced to the inheritor of a sort of justice.

Your thinking is what led the "friends" of Job to assume his troubles were of his own making. But we know that they weren't.

...(And do you know that one can reason their way to a wrong conclusion?).

Can someone get a thing wrong? Sure. The fault is in the reasoning, not in reason itself and given the alternative...because if your reason is faulty but you value reason itself then someone who has the truth can move you to it. Where someone who, instead, sustains his view singularly from a sense of revelation is beyond correction, no matter the depth of his error.

I however did not come to the conclusion (of the shooting incident being the wrath of God) through reason

I think that's something anyone reading you would find abundantly believable.

, but rather, through revelation. If not for revelation, I wouldn't know.

And there you go. I don't think you know now. I think you're mistaken in a way that's proud, dangerous and callous. God help you.

...I suppose you may now ask me, 'Prove that what you have said, and do say, is true'. My friend, if proof is what you want I can't offer it.

That's what I said. Which is why your attempt that culminated in the world is round illustration is ironic, but given how it moves you, isn't funny.

...Town Heretic. When you have that revelation, you will no longer ask for proof.

I can see that.

Tomorrow? Daniel does definitions, kmo clarifies and stripe gets caught with his hand in the kookie jar. :chew:

 

[patrick jane]

it gets better every time i read the gazette -

 

[Town Heretic]

The Monday Gazette
Morning Edition :shocked:​

Today will be mostly about business minding.

So Daniel thought, for some as yet unclear reason, that bybee recognizing what the law said was "playing ball" with the sinners of the world...

...I won't follow any law that contradicts the Bible.

What part of the Bible mentions preparing cakes that sinners can't purchase?

After I said I expected more from a moderator than a participant in a Presidential debate...

I tend to agree with this. But at the same time I think it's sad that I do. lain: Not the agreeing with you part, the part about expecting more from a moderator than from someone who wants to be President.

I don't know why you felt you had to clarify that. . . :noid:

And Daniel was back...

Leviticus doesn't tell me to kill homosexuals. It says government should.

So if the government isn't doing what the Bible says it should then you're okay with letting it go? Not trying to usurp its authority?

Well there you go.

...I'll comply with the law if it isn't antibiblical. I won't believe the government is legitimate, but I'll go along to get along so long as I don't have to do anything unbiblical.

Okay. Back to my earlier question then and the practical distinction between you and bybee. Doesn't seem so great now, does it?

And...

Bybee is suggesting we just go along with whatever unless it's something she considers really bad.

Like you and taxes? But to me what she's saying is you obey the law so long as it doesn't require you to violate God's law.

And selling a cake isn't doing that...isn't actually even putting a stamp of approval on anything but commerce.

So chrys was still trying to paint me in a corner without enough paint...

that would be the fallacious part [counting Kennedy outside of the liberal block]

No...He's called a swing vote by those who follow the Court. That means his opinion isn't the product of either ideology as singularly as the other Justices.

no one calls kennedy a conservative

Nor is he, strictly speaking, a liberal. So you don't have to be voting leftist ideology to side with the left on any number of cases, as he and many of the conservatives demonstrate.

besides you

Now that's fallacious.

While in the debate thread chrys, who had once told me nothing was more important than abortion, well...

because the reason I vote republican is democrats kill babies and jobs [emphasis added]

Republicans kill babies. Every abortion since Roe is on them, because they made it possible.

Now when you get through chewing on that understand that you should be partnering with anyone who agrees with you on abortion, from Independents to some Republicans to the pro-life wing of the Democratic party.

But you won't because you hate democrats and you will not relinquish that. It's not just about abortion for you.

Rusha asked the million dollar question...

Why should one group be *protected* over another?

Not protected over, but elevated to an equal status. Why is that a necessity? Because majorities have had a history of withholding right from minorities. One of the things that distinguishes our experiment in government is its notion that all men are equal in right before the law.

Now if you empower those who have to only do business with those they like you, historically, segregate your society, both in terms of right and that old pursuit of happiness attending. It's a recipe for what you found in the South prior to the Civil Rights Movement.

Meanwhile...yeah, still...

...thomas voted with the liberal block 4 times

Rather, he voted as he saw the issue and four times that aligned with the way the left did. Now either he became a leftist then got better or you could reasonably say that those four cases were ones where you could reasonably rule a certain way REGARDLESS of whether you were of a conservative tilt or a liberal one.

Stripe mixed in...

...No business should be forced to serve anyone. It's called liberty. Liberals hate it.

Prostitution can be an exercise in personal liberty. Homosexuals having intercourse whenever and wherever it suits them would be too. So spare me the liberty as virtue nonsense given we both know you don't begin to believe it.

Service needs to be done without compulsion, otherwise it is called something else.

It is done without compulsion as no one compels anyone into a particular business. But if you are going to do and if you decide to enter into public commerce, voluntarily, then you'll have to do all sorts of things you might not like, like paying taxes and giving employees lunch breaks.

Then...

No reason needs to be given. The state cannot compel a person to sell something.

And they aren't. A bakery sells cakes. They're trying not to sell the thing that they're in business for...which is one way you know their reasoning doesn't serve a legitimate business purpose.

Tomorrow? Awards. lain: And apparently the day after that and the day after that, etc. And there might be cake. :chew:

 

[Daniel1611]

Let them eat cake

 

[Town Heretic]

The Hump Day Gazette​

Okay, where were we?

...he won't admit that democrats are now killing babies and jobs

See how he tied in jobs? Chrys wants to kill the Dem party, but it isn't just because they support the abortion mill his party set in motion. He has a range of issues tied to his ideology.

Else...everyone on the side of the angels, regardless of party, is an ally. Unless you're motivation is other and entangled. Unless you're Chrys...

And the birthday boy was blowing out a candle...

...Crime is not liberty.

I said it was an example of liberty without restraint. Your rebuttal doesn't rebut. Nothing IS liberty but liberty. What we're talking about is what you're allowed to do with it and no one is for unrestrained liberty. [but every virtuous person is for virtue]

...You're equivocating on what "public" means. Public means it is government run.

I'm not equivocating and no, it doesn't.

...Liberty is a good thing. It is not a bad thing.

As noted prior, liberty is simply a thing, without inherent virtue and the virtue or want or worse is found in the exercise.

Like bravery.

Many a Nazi was brave. It's also not inherently a virtue.

ManO was back at it re: a continuing attempt to blame the slaughtered victims of the South Carolina church shooting...

...You are merely judging by appearance.

No, I'm noting the facts at hand and against the unsupported notion that those alleged to be actively and uniformly (since they all died) rebelling against God would be found in a worship service at a church...

Therefore you cannot recognise the incident for what it was - the wrath of God.

...I've rejected it as rightly as Job rejected his friends in their similar estimation. And if it was possible for Job, then it breaks your posit as an automatic assumption...and the appearance/facts at hand speak against it...

...'Here's a reasoned response'. It's become quite clear by this statement, and the ones before, that reason itself is what you worship

Apparent to someone who needs to attach to reason a thing that shouldn't attach in order to elevate his own claim to a comparative respectability it cannot otherwise possess.

I worship God. I use my God-given reason to read newspapers through self-appointed prophets and judges of men and truth that cannot be measured.

...To you, it [reason] is far above anything else, even God... isn't it?

Of course not. Supra. Now stand still, I'm nearly at the sports page.

And then he came for our birthdays!...:shocked:

...Where in the bible do we find the saints celebrating their birthdays?

Where in the Bible do we find saints using air conditioning?

Imagine Peter having his own birthday cake, and blowing out all the candles; and a party being thrown in his honor to mark his 'special day'.

That's a happy thought.

Aren't birthdays egocentric - putting the focus on man, not on God?

Not inherently. A person can celebrate another year of the journey, a journey God should inhabit and lead. If your life is a partnership with God then nothing is removed from it or should be.

Has God commanded that Christians should celebrate such pagan traditions as birthdays, Easter and Christmas?

They aren't pagan. I'm not a pagan. No one I know who celebrates Christmas is, or Easter. If someone is celebrating something on those dates and they aren't Christians I can guarantee you that whatever they call it, it's something else.

And Tam said...

You mean some loving mothers bake a nice cake for their children on their birthdays?
HORRORS!!!!!

I bet it's devil's food! :shocked:

Somewhere, bybee said...

Can one have "too many friends"?

Yes, according to chrys, the number being "more than him" apparently. lain:

So AB started a thread...no, really...

Nominations are up for the following:

Poster Most Likely To Bore Even Themselves To Death

Repchk. I bet she can't even make it to the end of this award.

Before starting another thread anyway...

I wonder if they'll find her at her keyboard...and by they I mean archaeologists.

Wait, when do you announce the winner of the Captain Prissy Pants award?

When I feel inclined to, thank you so very much and not a moment before...

You're literally wearing them as you type, aren't you. lain:

Then Eeset got the better of herself...

... your ongoing fixation with locking the Gazette so you can control its contents speaks volumes about your insecurities.

...I only lock it when you troll it with one word bits meant to irk and which aren't within the spirit of the thread. But you know that.

Speaking of, I was looking for the post in my one off award thread from years ago when AB lost the AB poster award and I saw this:

....I don't believe Jesus would want me to report someone else.

Over a hundred reports later...what she must have against Jesus I couldn't tell you. lain:

And, well...you know...

I never win anything.

Well, they say not being nominated is a lack of reward enough.

Tomorrow? Someone blows out another candle and ManO gets his wings... lain:

 

[Town Heretic]

The Thursday Morning Gazette​

Things were getting settled in the love thread...

human beings don't know one thing about real love

Then why did you start a thread about it?

And like that (finger snap) the Turing test was overcome. :turbo:

And the reputation reset was all the rage...

...Today we deleted everything and we are starting from scratch.

Like an enormous TOL biscuit then. :chew:

Yes there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

That's some tough biscuit. :think:

You should put a giant "Fixed that for you" under rep power.

Meanwhile chrys award thread stretched on...

nor is there an innuendo award we can't have awards for everything but we do need to recognize unreasonable behavior and someone must make the call

Given how long this has gone on and how many unrelated side bars have padded gone into it you might consider a year long thread instead.

:think:

Something like...Chry's Windmills....or Tales of Sancho Ponzi.

Answered the burning question...

Do you want prostitution legalized?

Only within the halls of Congress, which would be redundant.

Poked my Soots friends about their rep numbers...

...I'm sure you will get lots of new points, as you are very well liked by all I know.

Not concerned about the pinball, Ktoyou. Just noting the tilt.

Some old clubs are secret clubs and not talked about, like Fight Club. Some are openly discussed like Sam's Club.

I think if you're going to have a secret organization you probably shouldn't hand out badges.

What's a soot?
Oh, and: :banana:

That right there has to be worth a thousand points.

While Stripe had the nerve to have a birthday in the middle of all the commotion...

Deja birthday... (it's funnier if you read it aloud)

And rain days started to worry...

...I hope you are getting less rain, as I pass by you when going to LA.

My yard looks like a botanical garden gone wild...I think I saw one of the azaleas eat a squirrel. :shocked:

I just saw two robins building an ark and some guy from the EPA declared my front yard a wetland. :think:

Rebutted chrys' "Oh, I'm here to point out the mean ones" defense...

...Five [fake awards] arguably fashioned to complain about mean spiritedness and six to evidence it. lain:

If this was a Supreme Court vote you'd have to convict yourself.

Then the whole Ashley Madison scandal broke, like a sleazy wave...

...My guess is out of the million accounts that were hacked 75% are probably faked.

Well, according to their wives. :drum:

Causing Pure to ask...

What is Ashley Madison and how does it relate to people cheating on their spouses?

It's a site where men and women can go to hook up for extramarital affairs. The first time I saw the commercial I thought, "That hand basket is going to get more crowded than the Hindenburg."

And UN to attempt a suspicious derail by inquiring of Pure...

Don't you have access to Google or Wikipedia?

Why should he bother when we're here?

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure there was something about a "user name" connected to that Madison story. :shocked:

Wrapping the whole thing up with Sherman...

I have no sympathy for Ashley Madison.

I don't know, Sherman...I thought her chocolate covered Ho-Hos beat the pants off Hostess. :chew:

Pricey though.

Tomorrow? Mottos and lions and chrys? :idunno:

 

[Town Heretic]

Friday Afternoon Gazette​

Things turned ugly in the college football thread...

what about Penn State ?

Isn't that the school motto?

And over in the True Conservative thread...

...If you ever want to settle an argument, all you need to do is compare the IQ scores of the people making the argument and you have a winner!

Hot dang! :banana: :devil: :banana: I knew that Time-Life Great Thinkers Who Agree With You series was going to pay dividends over time...unlike the ill-considered Time-Life Great Stock Tips series that didn't. :mmph:

Then Tam nominated chrys for troll enabling and...

:thumb:
He's been the poster boy all along.

Don't believe anything Tam says. I have it on good authority that most of the time she's a lion.

Darn you hooked on foniks. :IA:

Leading to...

TH is a swell guy.

Wait...:think:

:noid:

And...

see how I bring people together

Natural disasters will do that. :drum:

I don't know, but one of us went nuts...

Tapatalk has no rep impact and I can't admin from there, for the time being I may just put my sock on the tapatalk.

Well that's just ridiculous. How could a sock enhance the properties of complex machinery? If anything you'd be creating a potential endothermic nightmare.

Wait. Is your sock made of aluminum, because that might actually help.

Penny...Penny...Penny

Or maybe it was chrys...

arthur better get here soon
so it doesn't look like just town and the girls

You know, I've never really thought of you as one of the girls, but if they don't mind who am I to judge. lain:

Then quip asked an excellent question about choice and faith...

Neither perspective lends itself provable....so where does that leave us?

Unmoored from our empirical tether.

And...

Like a directionless balloon left to the capricious winds? In otherwords, our own subjective (read: relative) take on a world-view...or lack thereof.

Like Cortés on the cusp of the unknown, boats burning behind us.

The rep wars part II kept going...

The rep system should let newbies know who aligns with the standards and beliefs of the site management and who does not.

I thought that's what Soots was for? :think:

And...

...Maybe the best thing to do would be to scrap the whole rep system.

But then how would some people know they were better than other people?

Which gave me an idea...

me me me -

Done. And thanks bybee and FS, for the kind gesture and words.

Wouldn't it be great if we had a two tier system, one that noted the recipients and another number that recognized those who gave the most rep?

I wonder how that would shake out. :think: I don't know, but wouldn't that be lovely?

Tomorrow? Preparing for a different sort of lesson.

 

[FellowServant]

Woot! Woot! My initials made it in.

 

[Town Heretic]

Gazette Bonus: From the Editor's Desk ​

So the best thing about our current...crisis? The best thing about the rep scandal is it's giving a lot of people a lot to talk about, from principle, to principals. Most of the talk is hooey, of course, but it's excited hooey, fun hooey, even impassioned hooey.

With that and Musterion's kill the messenger approach I thought it might be helpful if I made a suggestion or two to certain members who are naturally a bit conflicted and uncomfortable about all the attention being given their bottom line these days. A guide for appropriate response, as I see it, with the end game being a steady erosion of interest in the point.

Poor response:

Jealous!/Maybe the problem is you./It's not important./What? Something's happening? Where? Numbers? Oh, no that always happens. Hasn't that always happened?/It's not a conspiracy, it's an impossible coincidence.

Better response:

Hm? Oh, yes. Rep. Curious business. You know, I was just saying to, wait, sorry, I have to take this call. Heh-heh. Good talking with you. Have to get to the bottom of this one of these--oh, I really have to take this./I know, I know, but someone gives you a pie.../But you know I'm going to spend this new power outside of the clique./I got nuthin, but I got a whole lot of it.

Best response:

 

[FellowServant]

Do I have a bottom line? lain:

 

[Town Heretic]

Do I have a bottom line? lain:

Only the unavoidable and innocent variety found in rep total. Holy cow. Nice job though. Eight posts since the reset and despite a significant handicap in terms of overall posting you're still slightly ahead of me...by about...a thousand points...or, over twice my total.

 

[FellowServant]

Only the unavoidable and innocent variety found in rep total. Holy cow. Nice job though. Eight posts since the reset and despite a significant handicap in terms of overall posting you're still slightly ahead of me...by about...a thousand points...or, over twice my total.

Thanks for noticing. I appreciate it. .. I guess those were an impressive 8 posts. What can I say? I'm just good like that.

 

[Town Heretic]

Thanks for noticing. I appreciate it. .. I guess those were an impressive 8 posts. What can I say? I'm just good like that.

How those posts aren't already the subject of a thread I'll never know. :nono:

I'm kidding. Apparently it's the luck of the draw, Johnson or Marlowe or Beaumont in the day of Shakespeare. Because just as your powers peaked there was a burst of utterly unique, glittering creative gems of posts among the Illuminati of the soot. A dazzling array of posts of a like heretofore unseen in the halls of TOL and your otherwise noteworthy, acclaim worthy noodlings were lost in the blinding haze of the day.

 

[FellowServant]

How those posts aren't already the subject of a thread I'll never know. :nono:

I know, right? I think I'm going to have to start a thread about why my impressive posts aren't already the subject of other threads.

I'm kidding. Apparently it's the luck of the draw, Johnson or Marlowe or Beaumont in the day of Shakespeare. Because just as your powers peaked there was a burst of utterly unique, glittering creative gems of posts among the Illuminati of the soot. A dazzling array of posts of a like heretofore unseen in the halls of TOL and your otherwise noteworthy, acclaim worthy noodlings were lost in the blinding haze of the day.

lain:

 

[Town Heretic]

The Sunday Evening Gazette​

It begins, as so many things will, with a dare…

Say something brilliant.

Something brilliant. lain:

Felt obliged to comment on the state of AB’s latest stab from the heart of something…

Boy, this threads really streaking through TOL space like a comet...by which I mean a frozen, lifeless block of rock, trapped gasses and ice. lain:

So...

Time for a new award I think:
Poster Most Likely To Have An Unfortunate 'Accident' With A Polo Mallet
lain:

And you know what?

"You must spread some ridicule around before giving it to Arthur Brain again."
lain: Son of a gun.

So I won the annual “What’s the point of this thread” award…

and the sophist of the year 2015 is Town Heretic

I just want to thank cholostrosom for going with his gut on this one. I know it can't have been easy to wait this long but he held on like a trooper.

:thumb:

Hope you don't mind that I shrank the award down to size and good luck with next year's awards next month.

Chrys was a real basking case…

you are right about lh but red could beat them at their own game and he didn't whine about it

He still isn't, you're just confusing that rictus of yours with a grin and scaling down. And you can't beat someone who's gaming unless you match tactics.

And then what in the world do you think you're winning?

Or, more to the point, when you manufactured your moment in that thing you thought of as the sun, didn't you on some level have to realize it was only a tanning light?

Must took the wrong approach (see: the most recent Gazette bonus material)…

You [AB] were the victim of exclusion bullying as a child, weren't you.

You're a member of soots, aren't you. Yep.

Conspiratorial AND envious. You are quite an emotionally eclectic mix.

You don't have to be either to see what just happened around here and, meaningful or not, it's interesting how the only people really going after anyone who notices or painting a giant rainbow on it are (and this is likely a tremendous coincidence) soots members.

Come on must, ride it out. You guys won whatever this is before it started. Gracious in this case is likely just silence, don't you think? Let the powerless march in protest. It's not like it will make any difference. And anna is right, in a year or so all the new kids will be thinking, "Wow, they got that far that fast. How aren't they all in the Hall of Fame already?"

And now that I think about it, why aren't you? Why aren't soot members automatically enshrined? :think: Or did that happen. I haven't checked in a while. :shocked:

Think of it this way: you got here seven years after I did, you have around ten thousand fewer posts and you're a couple of hundred soots rep points up on me. Good on you. Relax. Enjoy the view.

Then Eesostom (or chryset, I’m flexible with celebrity couple names) was opining…

he really is good at it and this gives others a chance to someday beat him at his own game

No one stands a chance. Even Ann Coulter would have to concede.

I'm just happy for the opportunity to let everyone else see the two of you being conceded.

TL was feeling a little like Humpty, but pushed…

....took me YEARS to get my first star

Edit: You'll always be a star to me, TL.

Hang on, TL, you know what they say, good things come to those who wait...unless you're an insider and then it's more like the old catsup bottle analogy after a few good whacks.

I kid because...you know, it's funny. My bet is that at some point nearly everyone will be in on it and we'll install a crank button at the bottom of each member's rep total where they can wager rep for the chance of more rep...maybe install rep-pal on popular threads where the authors can charge a small atta-boy, rep fee for perusal.

:think: The possibilities are endless.

Quip cleared his throat…

...ohhh nm thanks all!

What was that beginning? Like the worst Buddhist starter om ever. Unless you had a cold. :think:

Then Eeset suggested a forgiveness jubilee, where everyone could come in from the harsh cold of past transgressions…and the more I thought on it…

You know, all that sounds generous and reasonable and attractive at first, like a dream of a better, kinder world. Then I think about what you're up to and wake up laughing.

Tomorrow? Let tomorrow worry about it.

 

[patrick jane]

good stuff TH - i don't want to post because it disrupts the flow on the thread so i just subscribed. duh, shoulda b4.

my reps are worth 11 points now i just saw u go 1678 to 1689 when i repped. be back in 5 to make it 1700 or @ least 11 more -