congregate here. But instead of goats, I remember chickens. I lived with my mom and a step-dad in a trailer in a field out in the middle of nowhere Louisiana where we had a giant garden and a bunch of chickens. And a rich guy had a weekend retreat across the road where he had a herd of show cows. And one morning we woke up and the show cows had got out, come across the road, knocked down the chicken wire, and got into our lovely garden: cows everywhere munching on our cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, lettuce--you name it, we had a big garden. And the chickens were everywhere. In fact, when I woke up, my first sense of the disaster outside was a chicken sitting in my window, clucking at me. Man those chickens were cool: chickens are much underestimated, in my opinion. But cows! I don't know: I think chickens have them beat. Never fooled around with goats, though, so I have no opinion on them.

The rich guy never even apologized. So it goes.

thanks for the link to Anderson's letter. We need to explore every avenue to protest this and raise awareness.

That always makes me think of the great Nasrudin:

The people knew that Mulla Nasarudin was generally intolerant of preachers and lecturers, so they asked him to give a sermon. He climbed into the pulpit and said: "Do you know what I am going to speak about?"

"No," everybody answered.

"If you are so ignorant, I am not going to waste time speaking to you," Nasarudin said and climbed down from the pulpit.

The following day he put the same question to them. This time everyone's answer was, "Yes, we know."

"If you know," Nasarudin replied, "then what am I here for?" And he left the mosque.

The third day, to the same question, half of the worshipers said, "We know," while the other half said, "We don't know."

So Nasarudin responded: "Let those who know tell those who don't."

do we? Nasrudin teaches us to doubt even ourselves.

we must doubt even that :)

"One day Nasrudin was walking along a deserted road Night was falling as he spied a troop of horsemen coming toward him. His imagination began to work, and he feared that they might rob him, or impress him into the army. So strong did this fear become that he leaped over a wall and found himself in a graveyard. The other travelers, innocent of any such motive as had been assumed by Nasrudin, became curious and pursued him.

When they came upon him lying motionless, one said, “Can we help you — why are you here in this position?”

Nasrudin, realizing his mistake, said, “It is more complicated than you assume. You see, I am here because of you; and you, you are here because of me.”"

Come join the feast of fools!

Don’t be hating, Hunthorse reminds us, whether you are upfront about it or disguise it. If you are jealous of another’s wealth or achievements, don’t be a hater. He also reminds us that if someone is not like us or did not turn out like we thought they should, we should not hate them. He is thinking of Bush, of course. He also thinks Chris Dodd has too much education. He thinks Al Gore was fat and believes that global warming is our greatest problem, and that Gore was beaten by Bush in the presidential election. He thinks some liberal posters on this thread have been hoodwinked by Ted Kennedy, John (married to Teresa Heinz) Kerry, and Chris Dodd, amongst others, because these people consider Bush a traitor to their class. I can infer from this, legitimately, I think, that he must conclude that some of the posters claims here have no merit because they are motivated by this complicated state of mind.

Were he in my logic class, I would ask him, with all respect, to consider the arguments that the posters are making, and not the hypothetical motivation for those arguments. I would tell him that arguments stand or fall on their own merits.

I would also tell him that I, too, do not want to be hater.

Insert more clearly phrased sentence:

He thinks some liberal posters on this thread have been hoodwinked by Ted Kennedy, John (married to Teresa Heinz) Kerry, and Chris Dodd, amongst others, and that these aforementioned people consider Bush a traitor to their class, and that is why they have set out to hoodwink these people.