What made you think I was insulting you?

For the record, I think your posts here are typically of a high standard. I read every one and usually appreciate them.

Nor did you hurt my feelings. I honestly don't give a shit if you agree with me or not.

And seriously, I'm playing a game. While the occasional rhetorical "victory" (and truly, they aint particularly common here, but thanks for the backhanded compliment) is one of the secondary payoffs, the primary one is that I get to test my arguments against very smart people and to learn some very interesting (to me) things along the way.

For example, I am well aware of the ongoing debates about the nature of consciousness, and thus choice, will, morality, and etc. But if you refuse to play then there's no game, is there? I wasn't suggesting that you make an argument about choice, per se, but just that you make an argument. Any subject will do, really. (Noting your on-topic / off-topic points, naturally)

You are plainly a smart guy. What? You think I want to argue with idiots?

Sorry I rubbed you the wrong way. I WAS ribbing you (so, I guess, sorry I ribbed you the wrong way, too), but it was intended to be good-natured ribbing.

Pax.

Why don't you let it rest

Neither Texas Rangers or Milky Bar Kids rest until wrongs are righted and the baddies are brought to book.

And this here Salon place is a "Journal". It has "journalists" here that write, "journalism," that in turn is often complimented by posters acting as citizen, "journalists," bringing other material to the party in "journalism's" ever present hunt for the truth.

It is not a "My Little Pony" fan club. Now I've supplied you with some top quality eye opening material why don't ya - go fuvkin' read it?

Why don't you let it rest. Aren't you capable of recognizing a good time to lay low, after someone else has run a little interference for you, to take the heat off?

I don't have much tolerance for people who try to get others thrown out of the room, particularly when it's done under the self-righteous guise of only being on behalf of someone else, as if someone that's less ego driven than if it's for oneself.

But you seem determined to self-destruct.

My guess is that if you continue to pursue your own obsession with 911, KB4hire will get his wish and you'll be escorted out. This is not a reflection on whether you are right or wrong on the subject.

Meanwhile, as a general comment, I think this thread is pretty much dead now, what with just the three of us, Black Knights all, blustering and tilting pointlessly at all around us, even though King Arthur and his crew have long since departed the forest.

First of all, you don't know what I missed or didn't miss. And spare me the condescending lecture on how to play the game, on what logic is and how it works. This is not your game and you are not the designated referee on logic.

Secondly, stop with the blatant projections. I didn't say my insults were adult and serious. I'm well aware that my insults were just as frivolous, indulgent and bad-tempered as your's.

However, thirdly, that wasn't what I meant by baiting. I meant the obvious attempts to draw me into some debate with you about the subject of free will. And you know and I know this wasn't because you wanted to have a friendly, if not entirely in agreement, discussion to explore the subject. I think it's fair to infer that you want to challenge me to some kind of a match, to compete... whatever words you wish to put to it.

Right or wrong, just taking that as a working hypothesis for a moment, I'm just not into it. This isn't a universal statement about myself - I'm only speaking of this occasion. I don't see the point, I'm not (in this instance) into some bottomless pit of sophism which can be nothing more than a word battle for some ego to come out on top. I don't understand why you seemingly can't grasp that.

I didn't intend to step on your toes, to insult your father, to abrade your sensibilities in any way. I could have no way of knowing how invested you were in the idea expressed in your statement about yourself and your choices.

Aside from everything else, such a discussion, which would be bottomless (neither of us is going to walk away somehow enlightened) is too far off topic. I don't mind stepping away from topic at various times, at by-play between participants, and all such digressions, but I think a multi-page epic about the concept of choice filled with thousand word essays might just get to be a bit much. Not to mention that it's a bit much for me, in terms of time expenditure and exhaustion.

I reject your repeated claim about simply making assertions. After all, your own insertion of a quote out of the blue followed by an assertion as to the choice one must make in this life was nothing more than that itself - something you seem to be blind to. But unlike you, I don't have any problem with that, when it comes to asides in the discussion.

So I'm just asking you to let it go. You've made it clear that you think I'm pretentious and illogical. I can live with that if you can. If you need to repeat the insult yet again, feel free. If you want to throw every insult back at me in some transparent variation on I'm rubber, you're glue, everything you say bounces off me and sticks on you, feel free.

I'm not going to enter into a discussion with you about choice. Period. This doesn't mean I think I'm better than you, that I'm more mature or adult than you, more clever than you, or anything else that might be running through your mind about what I might or might not think or assume.

Enough of this soap opera. It's got to be tiresome for everybody else. You want the last word - ok, take it. I said that before, but this time I'll try my damnedest to adhere to it.