Never, Ever Trust the French

but...set, i don't see a reason why call people names, no matter how much you disapprove or what you think of them.

In the case of Tinkerbell (aka cjhsa), Dashenka, he was calling me "lardass" and "fatass" and a variety of other charming names long before i put that Tinkerbell label on him. Foofie decided to question my patriotism and my service to my nation because i had "derided" Americans by pointing out not only that they are ignorant of the rest of the world, but proud of their ignorance. Leaving aside that Foofie apparently doesn't know the meaning of the verb "to deride," there is a point at which i'm going to serve people insults in return if they are bent on insulting me. If that bothers you, then i suggest you don't read my posts. I find it interesting that you level this criticism at me, but you apparently didn't care on all of the occasions upon which Tinkerbell has called me names, and had no comment when Foofie was accusing me of biting the hand which has fed me. Looks like a double standard to me.

I think the reason for that Set is that you are far enough above those stupid labels as to make them obviously ludicrous and, as well to make those who cast them about look foolish already. So, you are right, it probably is a double standard. However it is one you can readily endure and which, given your abilities, doesn't really disable you at all.

I have learned to respect and value your knowledge, and even more your insights and judgements - even, and perhaps most importantly, when I don't quite agree. I have actually had the experience of acknowledging (to myself, and in secret of course) that you were right and I wrong on issues we discussed. Despite this we started out with a bit of foolish invective and name-calling ourselves. It was, of course, all your fault: none of my vanity, pretensions, imperfect knowledge, or foolish condesention had anything to do with it at all. :wink:

So, for me at least, getting by this foolishness proved to be a valuable and beneficial thing. I think there are other like oportunities out there that are wasted as well.

I honestly don't really care who did what to whom and who started it. That's kindergarten vengeance. I thold cjhsa the same thing many times, that I really dislike when he does that to others, and I dislike it in dys and whoever else does it. that's just my 2 cents. The thing that happens is when namecalling starts, I can't even focus on what's in the posts, have a hard time to take them seriously....all in all, it takes a lot out of conversation for me.... not to mention that it is often against the TOS.

O'George, at least, is honest about the double standard. As for Dashenka's objections, i can only say that when attacked, sooner or later i will strike back. In the case of Foofie, i've endured his foolishness for a while, and in the case of Tinkerbell, i gave him the benefit of the doubt literally for years, until he got way out of hand, and indulged in name-calling with almost every post.

Given that i have met few members here personally, and don't recall that i've launched any personal attacks on anyone i have met, i don't worry about what anyone here may think of me. Most of these arise from political disagreements. One young member who has not posted here in a long time started a thread to ask who the neo-cons are. I answered with links and information for him, and was careful to point out that what i was reporting was what others have said about those called neo-cons. Asherman, with whom i had never had any problems, reacted as though i had launched a personal attack on him. I hadn't mentioned his name, and the entire source of his animus was that i had simply described who the neo-cons are alleged to be and what their agenda is alleged to be. In that case, i didn't even express a personal opinion on the neo-con agenda. He chose to take offense, and to behave as though he had been personally slandered--one assumes because he recognized in the description of the neo-con agenda his own political beliefs.

If people are going to go off the deep end when they have not even been insulted (as in this latest example, when my comment did not constitute derision for the American people, was not given in response to anything Foofie had written, and was not addressed to him nor written about him), then i make no apology for letting them have a dose of their own medicine.

I think this is the essential point. People, ourselves included, make mistakes and over-reactions all the time. Why amplify them? Why not pause, take another tack, and let it pass away. I do recall the Asherman incident and agree that he interpreted you incorrectly and then uncharacteristically (for him) reacted very intemperately. I think this was a very good moment to recognize that this was not the usual Asherman, and was instead very likely a misperception on his part, -- and let it pass. Amplifying it, or responding in kind only make the original error permanent. You certainly were neither threatened nor meaningfully insulted by his initial overreaction - which was fairly obviously wrong.

Please don't get me wrong. This is a standard that I fail to meet often enough. However, at some level, I know that I should.

So here I think that Dagmar, overbearing Slovak harpie that she is, is entirely right. :wink:

I will concede that there are plenty of others here who can be constant irritants in their own ignorance, prejudices and name-calling. One eventually gets very weary of it and slams them - something that I find myself doing perhaps too often. I regret it, but don't have a good answer there.

Another great post, ob1... except for the part that Dag is an over-bearing harpie

Well, we all know that the sisterhood always sticks together.

Oh I do know I can be an overbearing harpie at times, I do know that ;-)

Set, no need to get defensive, I don't even know most of the instances you're referring to. I value your contributions here on a2k greatly and have learnt a lot from you. All I was telling you was about my own physical reaction to when they get (sometimes) interspersed with namecalling, it tends to take away from the substance for me. That is all, no need to defend or explain. Just a feedback.

Not sure about the double standard, I've been known to be a harpie to everyone and I keep bringing the namecalling up to everyone that I see doing it. Cjhsa will certainly be able to be my witness, as well as dyslexia. So I'm not singling you out in any way. And, again, I enjoy your posts tremendously, especially when they are polite.

And I don't think you are a harpie at all. I was just reaching for some irony.

No further comment, other than that if i am slammed again, i will likely slam back.

Tinkerhellboy says you are a BFGPP.

Average European beech tree lifespan


I wondered about that...after googling, most online sources estimate that the average lifespan of a European beech is 100-150 years. The trees would have been rather ephemeral markers even without human intervention. However, it might have been a nice gesture, if the townspeople had wished to bother, to have preserved some of the carvings versus just grinding them all into paper.

They needed more paste to make french pastry.