By Dave Freer
My Old Man always used to tell the story (over and over) about the Russian, British, and American Admirals having a meeting – presumably somewhere they could have their own ships and seamen (it’s a story, OK. His. He liked it) at hand. Now it was an uneasy meeting and the American Admiral suggested they start with a glass of Bourbon. The Russian said that was fine so long as they downed a glass of Vodka after that. And the British Admiral said that he’d join them provided they had a Scotch afterward. So they did and, much more relaxed, started their talks. But things got a trifle tense and they had to do it again, and again. And maybe a forth time. By which stage they’d forgotten what they were there to talk about and were instead bragging about their ships.
But as the British Admiral said it wasn’t the quality of the ship that mattered, it was the quality of the sailors.
“Da!” says the Russian Admiral. “And ours are the bravest. I prove it.” And he calls to one of sailors “Seaman Ivan Ivanovich. You will go to the top of that 100 foot mast over there, climb up and jump off.”
So Ivan does and falls, screaming to bone-splattering death.
And the Russian Admiral salutes the body and says. “Da. There you have the meaning of courage, as displayed by Comrade Ivan Ivanovich of the mighty Russian Navy.
“Ha. Jolly poor show.” says the British Admiral. “That may be the meaning of courage in Russia. Let me show you what the Jack Tar can do. Able Seaman John Smith. Climb to the top of that 150 foot, salute the flag, and jump off while singing ‘God Save the Queen’.”
And Smith does and falls to a horrible tuneless death.
The British Admiral salutes the dead sailor and says “And there, gentlemen, you have the meaning courage! You can’t beat the jolly Jack Tar.”
So the American Admiral calls to one of his men. “Seaman Sam Jones. Climb to the to the top of that 200 foot mast and salute the flag, and jump off. Stand to attention and whistle the Stars and Stripes forever, as you fall.”
The American sailor looks at the Admiral, and the mast. And then says: “Are you bloody mad, Sir?”
And the American Admiral turns to the other two and says: “And there, Admirals, you have the true meaning of courage.”
It’s a shaggy dog tale. My dad loved it, told it over and over again, probably because he could strongly identify with the attitude. It was a part and parcel of what he thought the US was about, and why he admired it.
I grew up believing it. It’s a message I do think ought to be propagated to those who think well of suicide bombers. It would do them good to know that they’re regarded as second class ‘heroes’ AKA meat-heads, and that real courage is living with the consequences, not hoping it’ll be over quickly and you’ll be in paradise. I know. It’s politically incorrect to look down on other cultures etc. etc. and if you don’t obey orders and do this… you’ll live with the consequences in publishing.
Unfortunately, for me the alternative is basically being dead. Yeah. Yeah. I’d still be walking breathing. But, just as if I’d betrayed the pact between me and my dogs and cats (especially the dogs as we’re their pack. To the death.) had I been willing to play ball and obey every dictate of the publishing machine PC requirements slavishly, I might have done quite well. Well, when I brought my dogs out of Africa, it effectively bankrupted us, but I came out here as Dave Freer. Not a zombie with another 26 thousand dollars and a hole where my heart and loyalty used to be. Likewise with writing.
You see, my Old Man only really knew American Servicemen in WW2. They were his window on the US. He did not know the book business. And he was as daft an idealist as his son and half as bad as my mum. He would have been nauseated and felt betrayed by my window, I promise you. He was, as I suppose I am, a sort of ‘conservative liberal’. For heaven’s sake: STOP reacting like Pavlov’s dogs (or obeying the Admiral) to a word and think The word has been appropriated and put an entirely false use in the US. The founding fathers of America were liberal. The constitution they put together was (and still is) the greatest liberal document of the time. It stood for FREEDOM. Freedom to choose, freedom from oppression. That’s why there is a Statue of Liberty, and that why ‘liberation’ means what it does. Any group or doctrine that sets bounds on what may be said (or thought) or written is NOT liberal. It’s not even ‘Liberal’ with capitals. That’s a false flag. It’s NOT conservative either. It’s REPRESSIVE. And those who fall in with this repression, who fail to believe in “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” lack the courage that I was raised to believe was the defining characteristic of men of honor and integrity.
Men worth being.
Men who think for themselves.
Men who, when they talk about ‘speaking truth to power’ know there are consequences. That’s another set of words whose true meaning has been replaced by absolute drivel. Speaking truth to power does NOT mean parrot the party line. It does not mean speaking what you think is ‘truth’ to someone who can do you no real harm. It does not mean saying ‘Mugabe is a saint’ in a book published in the US. That’s probably called ‘kissing up to your publishers ideas’ and is more like ‘speaking what the boss wants to hear to power’. Which is really really brave. Those in overall national power will actually try to protect your right to say this. There is no consequence, except that a lot of fairly powerless people will think you’re a moron. Saying ‘Mugabe is a genocidal racist kleptocrat’ in Zimbabwe… is speaking truth to power. Political Correctness is almost never speaking truth to power. Saying a man who opens a door for a woman is a sexist pig is politically correct, but telling the elder women of your Somali clan that ‘cutting'(genital mutilation) is mutilation and a bad thing… is speaking truth to power.
Those who follow the orders of Political Correctness, because they’re orders, are good at following orders. They are not ‘courageous writers’.
I’m not particularly courageous either. I’ve let editors cut pieces of books. I know the consequences of doing otherwise, and while I’m not going to jump from the masthead, I’ve put up with petty cr*p (and it hasn’t come from one end of the political spectrum only) to go on making a living. Of course, because a rebel I came, and I’m still the same… I’ve never sung anyone’s tune, and I think for myself. I believe in the individual and not the group-think party-line, no matter whose party it is. This doesn’t sit well with those in power – at least not those who fear those truths. I’ve tried to out-think them, to slide it in anyway. It doesn’t always work, but to give Baen credit, they’ve let me get away with at least poking fun at a lot of sacred cows, including a few the editors there find holy. I know I’ve paid the price with the rest of the ‘power’ in my industry, with slammed doors that I could have opened with a brown nose and a PC party line. Shrug. Sometimes a man does what he has to do. My dad paid a price for saying what he thought about apartheid. They couldn’t quite crush him, but they surely wrecked his career. But he went fishing and made enough money to look after his family.
And that’s more or less what I have to do. At least independent publishing and the much vilified Amazon lend me a fishing rod (the picture is a link that pays me, if this you believe is worth doing). Mr Bolg can skewer sacred cows and roast them.
And I remain me.
Mad Genius Club 
65 responses to “Courage, PC, and why I will probably always be a minor author.”
Dave, thank you. I raise my glass to you. I love your dad’s story. I hadn’t heard that particular version before, but it is the vision of the US that my parents, my mother especially, tried to instill in me. It’s also probably why I have so little patience for certain folks in publishing. The sound you hear is me applauding you for refusing to cave to those same publishers’ demands. I wish more had your stubborn streak of honor.
Amen
To abuse French (it’s good for them, really) C’est la me 🙂
And they enjoy it so much (sorry, couldn’t resist)
Great story, but the American sailor would probably have said something more like “Are you f—ing crazy, sir?” American English, dontcha know? 🙂 Gotta love the differences.
heh, I knew that, but it was my dad’s story – as told to a youngster. Those are his words. He’d been about, Army, mines, lots of time on commercial fishing boats… but I never heard him use any more virulent swear word.
Your dad sounds bloody awesome. And not just for the joke. It takes courage for a family man to stand up for his convictions, as well as a lot of trust that his family will back him up. It takes resourcefulness to make good when people are doing you wrong. Just hearing about him is a spine-stiffener.
And don’t ever change the adjective. Not only does that make it your father’s joke, but it also adds that tang of foreign flavor that makes it funnier. (Probably even more effective when heard live.)
he was a cantankerous old bastard :-), and not without flaws. But he was what he was.
Right on!
My first comment was similar to Catana’s – I would’ve thought he’d say, “Are you out of your f**king mind? Sir.” but that’s me 🙂
David, I shall always be a minor author also for I defniitely do not bend to the politically correct, commericalized “right” nor do I ever intend to speak someone else’s vision. I write what my characters need me to write. So far, my audience likes what my characters have to say. Unless or until I meet with widespread dislike, I shall continue to be true to my characters–and love that I am an Indie Publisher in the 21st century, instead of having sold out in the 1980s like I tried to do. Soooo glad I had too much ego then and failed. I’m so much better-suited to failure now that I’ve matured a bit ((grin))
I love that if I fail I can at least do it on my own terms.
I like the fact that where ever crash was a driver error in trad publishing – no matter what the evidence suggested… At least now at least failure is a driver error for real.
Yes, I might have sold my honor for a mess of pottage once too… well to some extent. The older I get, the stiffer necked I get I swear.
Have you considered writing a cookbook about the best ways to serve sacred cow?
BTW, this is why I care about getting young adult material from you. I want my kids to read you when they get old enough.
Thank you, Ori. 🙂 I think your kids are likely to develop independent thought by genetics and home background without me though.
I hope so, but my parents were not very successful in transmitting their values to me. I’m not a Zionist, and I have a lot less trust in the government’s abilities to do, well, pretty much anything.
I want to do better, but I don’t know if I will.
It’s always best served to those who never thought of eating it, and then found that they really loved steak 🙂
The Aussie version of this has – of course – the Aussie admiral in last place, with the phrase, “You’ve been drinking again you old bastard. Piss off and take your drunk mates with you.”
heh. The trouble with the Aussie version is that the sailor would know the admiral expected that. But yes. At least in places in Oz the attitude is still right. Oddly in publishing — this is not the case. Oz publishing seems to have gone so far up the PC creek it’s certainly out of touch with the average Australian, IMO.
That’s an Oz thing too, oddly enough – the self-proclaimed elites try to differentiate themselves from Joe Public to an extreme level. Publishing being a tiny, niche thing, they’re very much self-proclaimed elite, and it burns – severely – that the average Aussie just laughs at them
The bizarre – latest – part is the ‘creative writing’ Doctorates in English Lit. If that’s a Doctorate I earn one every 6 months. I understand the desire for respect and recognition. I also understand that this won’t change their attitude to the sf/fantasy I like. And the kind the literary establishment wants and will grant you grudging second class status for – unless like Atwood you become loudly and virulently anti-sf (sort of like a black guy wanting to join the Klu Klux Klan – about as much sense, and you will have to hang or beat a lot of ‘n’ – and you’ll still always be a little suspect) – no one but them likes.
I would expect an Aussie to say, “Bugger off….”, not ‘piss off’…..
Speaking as a trainee Aussie, ‘bugger off’ is for polite company 🙂
I’ve only heard that joke as a contest between US military services with the Air Force taking last place.
I like Dave’s dad’s version though.
Like most good ones it’s probably circulated in endless varieties. It’s good point though. Many a true thing said in jest.
[…] got about half way through this, and had to […]
[…] Dave Freer on Courage, PC and Power: Political Correctness is almost never speaking truth to power. Saying a man who opens a door for a woman is a sexist pig is politically correct, but telling the elder women of your Somali clan that ‘cutting’(genital mutilation) is mutilation and a bad thing… is speaking truth to power. Read the whole thing. […]
Your thoughts about suicide bombers remind me of words in the old Imperial Rescript memorized by Japanese soldiers:
“. . .duty is weightier than a mountain, while death is lighter than a feather.”
Hirohito used those words in his orders to the Imperial Army and Navy to stop fighting at the end of World War II. Ironically, he meant them in the opposite of the generally intended meaning: in modern American idiom — “Dudes. Fighting until you are dead is easy. Doing your duty by following my orders to surrender is hard. Do the hard thing.”
I suspect the honor of doing your duty is somewhat misunderstood these days.
Actually, I don’t think courageous people use the phrase, “speak truth to power”. It would never occur to them to qualify those first two words.
In fact, show me someone who declaims, “speak truth to power”…and I’ll show you a liar.
It’s a set of terms – along with ‘courageous writer’ often used in publishing / review / literary circles to describe the newest PC parrot. They basically mean the opposite to what words out of context do.
Okay….
Amanda wasn’t want to hear the truth about people who call other people ‘Death Lovers’ are the REAL ‘Death Lovers’, vis-a-vis abortion’s murders compared to historical combat operations.
So I said ‘adieu’. And I want, no longer, to hear anything from this misnomer blog site. And I thought I had set things so that I would no longer be pestered by it.
However, I keep getting these pestiferous e-mail notifications.
HOW ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH DO I GET AWAY FROM THIS PLACE?
TO: All
RE: Political Correctness….
….is the insane idea that you can pick up a turd by its clean end.
Regards.
Chuck(le)
[I am an escapee of a political correction facility.]
On a more to-the-proverbial-point example…..
The insane idea that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her own pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to a cop how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.
A small convention in Southwestern Virginia once had a large number of Baen authors scheduled. Which of course meant that a lot of Barflies showed up. We had BarFly Central, our own consuite so to speak. The woman who was the Con-Chair is also a Barfly. Something the rest of the Con-Committee didn’t understand at the time. Some of the regular attendees to that con didn’t much appreciate us…we liked guns, some were either currently serving in the military or were former military and our politics were not doctrinaire PC. So they labeled us…as I overheard one person breathlessly exclaim…Right Wing Death Lovers. (Truth be told there were few conservatives; but by and large calling a Barfly a “conservative” in the sense of a guy like Limbaugh is not going to be accurate.)
So they staged a coup and ousted the Con-Chair. AFAIK no Baen author has ever been invited back.
That was what I liked about the old bar. I don’t ‘fit’ the little boxes.
Sigh. I often wonder what will happen when (if?) the real world hits these folk. It’s like the joke about what the difference between an left-wing anti-apartheid activist and a right-wing racist was. Answer: About 2 weeks in Johannesburg. (another one of these jokes which had an unpleasant germ of truth. First world migrants arriving in SA with rosy spectacles usually rapidly became far more intolerant than people who were born there. Or developed even thicker and redder specs.)
TO: Quilly Mammoth, et al
RE: Say What???!?!
So they labeled us…as I overheard one person breathlessly exclaim…Right Wing Death Lovers. — Quilly Mammoth
If they support abortion-on-demand, they were seriously ‘projecting’.
Abortion on demand has killed over 50 million of the most innocent of US since Roe v. Wade (SCOTUS 1973). That’s more than all the men killed in combat during the ENTIRE 20TH CENTURY.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out….]
Okay, just a quick reminder to everyone, MGC is a no-politics zone. The abortion issue is a hot button that is best discussed on blogs other than this. Thanks!
Too bad for you and MGC…..
As ALL Life is about ‘politics’.
Good-bye and God keep you….
A parthian ‘shot’….
MadGeniusClub?
What’s your Mensa membership ID number that I can confirm with national?
And yes, I do. I can’t find it because I haven’t been a member for years, and don’t have the card in my wallet anymore but if you are a member (you are, right?) National will probably confirm my name. Or you might prefer to ask the Charlotte Blue Ridge chapter for records of a member of officer called Sarah Hoyt (eighteen years ago) Your point is? That proves I’m a genius, does it?
A Parthian shot requires that you be fleet and agile. Showing you have no sense of humor or ability to understand it is no part of it.
Wait, hold the presses, found it! (in an email asking me to renew) #1121425 and apparently I renewed briefly in the 2000s because the date shown is 2002. I did not grow any more enchanted with the organization and let it lapse again.
On Mensa, I’m reminded of the cartoon of a guy trying to push a door (labeled pull to open) to get into the School for Gifted Students. [Wink]
I’ve never had any interest in getting into Mensa mostly because I’ve heard it described as a “Club for people to boast of how smart they are because they don’t have anything else to boast of”.
Paul,
In some cities, at some times, it is a good way to make friends. There are certain things you can count on: these people will like SF, puns and beer seems to be a constant. BUT here’s the thing: it depends on the local people… like anything else. If I’d found fandom first, I probably would never have been a member. And I’m not claiming it makes me a genius. (My verbal IQ IS very high, the spacial reasoning… er…. we won’t discuss it.) I’m just answering someone who thinks this “proves” genius. (Rolls eyes.)
Yep, I should have included the “YMMV”. But he sure wasn’t a “good” advertisement for Mensa.
Good heavens, NO.
Chuck, as a bloke who has and uses guns (I don’t ‘like’ them – except in the same way a gardener likes a fork that works well. They’re tools in my everyday life) and who supports the death penalty (there are some people really not worth keeping alive. Not many, but a few. They can never be released, and it’s a bit like keeping a horse with three legs. You can do it, but it’s a no win for you or the horse) I respect your right to express your opinion, but it’s really kind of off-topic. As for the genius part, while I believe at least one of our members does do the MENSA bit, it’s a joke — that’s why the slightly more accurate words are crossed out in the title. The mad part is more accurate as sanity is a relative term. I really have no idea how you stop getting notifications. I’m just trying to reply to people.
Hi Dave,
I don’t give a flying flip what you think of Mensa. [NOTE: Only the jealous would deride it. As in Aesop’s famous fable.]
All I want is to stop getting feeds from this self-righteous, sanctimonious group. So full of themselves that they can’t talk about anything that involves ‘politics’, when everything we do has something to do with politics. Especially when all I was doing was pointing out to Quilly that his deriders were more lovers of ‘death’ than they accused him of being. [NOTE: If Amanda can’t stand the use of the word ‘abortion’, I suggest she seek help for something that is troubling her.]
Do you have trouble with comprehension? How do I turn off the e-mail feed? So I can tap me feet on the threshold to knock off the dust of this place on my way out?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[God is alive….and Airborne-Ranger qualified.]
P.S. So am I…..
This is why we don’t want anything “political” that is directly partisan or that causes people to go full throttle into partisan mode. First it brings out the idiots who can only view politics through the prism of “this goes here, that goes there” which is, in many ways feeding the leviathan government AND killing the real country. (Look at the way the president is carefully targeting every group for benes, so as to “collect enough votes.” Divide and conquer, right?) We each have our opinions on abortion. They probably would startle you. The reason Amanda reacted as she did is not personal. It is that we have experience that JUST the word will bring an invasion of trolls far more irrational and abusive than you’ve managed to be in this comment.
This is a writers blog, which only goes into politics when it crosses into what bothers us. Other than the fact that much of publishing IS an abortion, having an argument on right-to-life will do nothing but confuse those who came here for what the hell is going on with political correctness and publishing. As in my own blog, the rule is you can discuss first principles, but you can’t deride partisan opponents because they are partisan opponents and you should try to avoid waving the bloody shirt, because we don’t have time to kill all the spam that will come at target words. “Abortion” is one of them, it is not the only, and I apologize to my fellow bloggers for mentioning it in my comment this many times, because… well… there come the trolls.
Amanda wasn’t castigating you, merely remarking the discussion should go no further along those lines and bring up more target words along the lines of “well, if bill so and so” — Quilly who is one of our regulars knew that.
Also, we are not responsible for your technological incompetence. We did not turn on your email feed, and we can’t turn it off for you. We do not, believe it or not, have the ability to reach into your computer and flick stuff off and on. In fact, there is nothing we can do from this side. There might be nothing you can do, either, because it might be an issue of the hosting service. I’ve had the same complaint at my blog in the last week, and I’ve had the same problem myself. I accidentally followed an OWSer blog and I’m still getting feeds, despite having turned it off, so the problem is not MGC. I suggest you contact wordpress, as this seems to be their problem.
As for Mensa — let’s take off the gloves, Chuck(le) — I know a number of our bloggers qualify and — I’m sorry Dave, I know how you feel about this, but eff it — Dave does.
I quality (was a member for years.) My kids qualify. My husband qualifies. You can verify it if you wish, I used to be an officer in Mensa (Charlotte Blue Ridge Chapter and also Colorado Springs Chapter). I don’t talk about it, but it’s not a state secret.
If we’re going into politics, m’dear, perhaps you want to consider the fact that Mensa is one of the most leftist organizations out there both at national and 90% of the chapters level, an odd thing for a self-avowed “conservative” to support. Of course it makes perfect sense when you consider what qualifying tests in large part measure is the ability to test well. The people who test best are those who can parrot the status quo beliefs back at the testers and have learned the required behaviors (and yes, some of us learn to game it, but we’re a minority.) So, ultimately it is an organization of people who can conform exceptionally well. Since the status quo right now is soft Marxism and political correctness, (and has been for the intellectual establishment for my entire life), the political leanings of Mensa are “logical.”
I, personally, dropped the membership when the national Mensa newsletter had a picture of Clinton and a headline proclaiming how wonderful it was that we finally had someone intelligent in power. NOT because it was Clinton (though admittedly that didn’t help) but because in my opinion Mensa should be a social group for those of us who are outliers in that particular way and not a political group. And also because I grew up on Heinlein and I know too well “Smart” even if true counts for diddly when it comes to being a good leader or governing well.
Since you think politics belongs EVERYWHERE perhaps your millage may vary. However saying people who object don’t qualify is stupid. Have you read Heinlein? He had a lot of not so subtle digs at people who were “self proclaimed geniuses” and a lot of horrified countering of the notion that the smartest should rule. In fact the whole idea of a a dictatorship by intellectuals is a Marxist idea (and that applies whether intellectuals are really smart or just so called.) For one, the smartest man in one field can be and often is a total dunce in another. For another, even if you could — CAN YOU? — accurately measure IQ without bothering with such things as “getting back the answer we expect” which, yes, does apply even in things like pattern matching (But is not the point since until recently Mensa also accepted things like the SAT which are normed per politically dominant expectations) IQ by itself doesn’t denote life experience or interests or flexibility of mind or ability to grasp new situations, or pretty much anything. It denotes that for certain parameters you think better than other people. Does this make you more qualified to govern them? I don’t know Chuck(le.) Consider that just by where they started and where they ended neither Stalin nor Mao can have been very dumb. They were, however, evil and despicable human beings, and their reigns were pure unadulterated disaster.
Now please do turn off the feed, or junk anything that says “madgeniusclub” in the sender, but do stop trying to call others sanctimonious because the startling lack of self-reflection does NOT reflect well on you or Mensans in general. As someone to whom the label is attached at least in the historical sense, I don’t appreciate the aspersions your behavior casts.
It’s a good answer, Sarah. I know that in IQ tests I do rank as smarter than your average bear, and poor Pads did give the tester a hard time when he was given the 16 year old test (as a 12 year old) and to the tester’s obvious relief did get one question wrong… until pointed out that alkali was a valid term for the opposite of acid. I just know IQ is no measure of genius, and that I am quite a genius at being fairly stupid.
EXACTLY. My IQ measurement is pretty good, but in talking to real people — like people who DO things, from furniture building to computers — I’m a total dunce. So, I’m good with words. BAH. And Marshall who is, actually, technically, a genius (as in way more than the top 2% Mensa takes) can be an utter dunce about things like… well… girls. (Okay most men are.) So… What does IQ have to do with life?
I recall reading – a couple of years back – a very interesting paper on the narrowness of genius — ie. A ‘genius’ mathematician or musician or basketball player (it’s about the instinctive calculation of vectors. A kind of genius, i suppose) as soon as you tested them away from their area, they rapidly declined in ‘genius’ toward average or sub-average. I recall one of my Profs at ‘varisty proving this by example. How you could a genius at systematics and a moron at politics, marriage, art etc… but claim because you were good at one, you must be an authority on the rest. The scary thing about good authors is that “Polymath” is part of the job description. And a polymath genius is a scary concept ;-).
Sarah Hoyt: …In fact the whole idea of a a dictatorship by intellectuals is a Marxist idea (and that applies whether intellectuals are really smart or just so called.)…
Ori: I think this abomination was conjured up by Plato initially. After I finished reading “The Republic”, I looked at my calendar and breathed a sigh of relief that the author was dead and no longer writing.
P.S. As He said…..
A tree is known by its fruit. — Some Wag, around 2000 years ago.
Yeah a tree is, indeed known by it’s fruit, and yours seems to be nothing but rancid, sour grapes.
I qualify for Mensa, myself. Never bothered to join. Met a few of them. Over-educated idiots the lot. And, as a conservative, I’d really appreciate a useful idiot like you not identifying yourself as such.
(Oh, and I’ve also met a great many people, who might not qualify, but whose down-home wisdom and horse-sense I’d take over pronouncements from the smug, anus-sniffers at Mensa any day.)
Pat — SOME Mensans are lovely people. As I said, there are certain constants, and it’s a pretty good way to get in touch with SF fans, if you’re in a new town and isolated. Some Mensans are the asses of the universe. IQ like skin color or hair color or bone density is a human characteristic singularly divorced from virtue or moral worth.
I was kinda gobsmacked that our Pyrrhic – rather than Parthian visitor concluded I was saying something nasty about Mensa. I quote ‘As for the genius part, while I believe at least one of our members does do the MENSA bit, it’s a joke — that’s why the slightly more accurate words are crossed out in the title.’
I can only assume our ‘bright’ visitor missed the ‘while’ and the comma after bit.
heh. Why don’t you tell us what you really think, Pat 🙂 (OK, maybe not. LOL that was pithy enough)
Yeah, you probably don’t want me to get really exercised on this one…
here’s another one for you, Chuck….
If you live in a glass house don’t throw rocks at me.
Honestly? Intelligence don’t mean dick with out an honest, loving, unassuming heart driving it and supporting it. I’d be willing to bet that you get up, look in the mirror every morning and think to yourself “How many people can I impress with my ‘intelligence’ today?” . Newsflash Chuck. Most people don’t give a goddamn. I know I don’t.
Chuck if this blog bothers you that much you pretentious, arrogant prick…then IGNORE it. Personally I’m betting you lack the ability to do so. Now..go preen in a mirror, stroke your ego and tell yourself how smart thou art. Who knows? It might even be true one day.
buh bye chuck
Wolfie, he managed to prove you can be dumb (unable to find the ‘unsubscribe button’) and needlessly unpleasant while boasting about your Mensa stakes. Message: If you want to make a point, try not to let your vanity be so large we can’t see anything else.
Motivation is the engine. Intelligence is the gearshift that determines how effectively the engine’s power is translated to speed. But morality is the steering wheel that determines where you’ll actually go.
Neatly put, Ori
Dave
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