I'm snipping a lot of this. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Optimists think we live in the best of all possible worlds, Pessimists are > afraid the optimists may be right. > James Branch Cabell? (Ya got me; had to look it up.) > >> I still recall fondly a dispute I had at a party long ago. I no longer >> recall the subject matter; philosophical, probably -- perhaps even >> religion. My disputant was a Jesuit Seminarian who seemed able to >> appreciate a good argument even as he set about to demolish it. A >> splendid time was had by all. Sadly, not everyone is capable of that >> level of simultaneous engagement and distance. >> > > Funny, I never discussed religion with Father Dolan. (At the time he was > second in charge of the matrimonial tribunal for the Archdiocese of Los > Angeles). He knew I was an atheist and a better biblical scholar than he > was. I listened to a long debate between Jarlath (yes, we were on a first > name basis) and my ex-wife (she's Gardinerian Wiccan), and the Irish branch > of the Church dealt with pagans for a long time before the reconciliation > with Rome a century and a half ago. We were friends, I was the software > support guy, she did field hardware support for the Xenix systems we > installed there to help with the paperwork (at the time we were both working > for Tandy/Radio Shack, out of different offices). The discussion happened > when Monsignor Helmut (Jarlath Dolan's boss) bought supper (at the Pasadena > Sizzler). > > I respect (and love and despise) Larry a lot too, but you've got a lot of > work and a hell of a challenge ahead of you. Just don't take anything he > says at face value. > You know, I don't get paid to debate him or anyone else. (Though I'd like to, sure enough.) Nor am I troubled by any messianic motive. If it stops being fun, I'll stop doing it. > Oh, and I've had that problem with Yahoo also. On my third Yahoo ID these > days. Good thing I don't use those ID's for anything important. Nor the > ones at AOL and Google. Haven't checked my Google mail in months. Hope > there wasn't anything I really needed to know. > I think I still have a Yahoo email address or two; haven't checked messages there in years. Never did get a Gmail account.
G.
