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 Post Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:31 pm 
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I'm sure there are plenty of sayings that apply to my situation. Arguing on a bait and switch of topic, with no actual responsibility taken.

Something to the effect of if you wrestle with pigs, you're sure to get muddy.

I had decided to give up the message boards and do more constructive things.

And I found this in sorting out my myriad e-mails (ok, I have a few more than that). Its a discussion of President McKinley's work in the Phillipines.

It was a quote from the author of Fast Food Nation, and I'm not sure its in the public domain. But his quoted source is:

Shall we? That is, shall we go on conferring our Civilization upon the peoples that sit in darkness, or shall we give those poor things a rest? Shall we bang right ahead in our old-time, loud,pious way, and commit the new century to the game; or shall we sober up and sitdown and think it over first?

Would it not be prudent to get our Civilization-tools together, and see how much stock is left on hand in the way of Glass Beads andTheology, and Maxim Guns and Hymn Books, and Trade-Gin and Torches of Progress and Enlightenment (patent adjustable ones, good to fire villages with, upon occasion), and balance the books, and arrive at the profit and loss, so that we may intelligently decide whether to continue the business or sell out the property and start a new CivilizationScheme on the proceeds?

Mark Twain was called a traitor for what he wrote.

Discuss amongst yourselves if you would like...

For a little more of that letter you can look here:

Link

This link neatened by ModCo! Thread neateners since two minutes ago! When you think thread neatening, think of us!

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 Post Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:33 pm 
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You're url tag is messy. :torg:

Still, I'm not sure why you're quitting. I haven't seen much in the way of responsibility avoidance.

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 Post Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:57 pm 
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Oink. Oink.

I really don't understand, either. Personally, I have no intention of baiting or switching. I just say what it occurs to me to say. Sometimes this leads to a change of topic. I'm not sure what he means by 'no actual responsibility taken'; I generally mean what I say.

As for Mark Twain's remark, calling it traitorous is a bald lie; it is no such thing. I think he has an excellent point about the Phillippines. In the Phillippines, the Americans decided to play according to the rules of European-style imperialism, and the result was a disaster.

However, the Phillippines weren't what the Spanish-American War started over. It is a great shame that events there evolved as they did, because they did not have to.

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 Post Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:12 pm 
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What is this, some kind of open declaration of martyrdom on a web board? Quoting Mark Twain? Ech.

Self-righteous much?

I'm quite secure in my self worth, and will continue to waste my time here (with periodic hiatuses... hiati?... when I get burned out on politics) and will divert a thread onto something more amusing from time to time. And I won't feel bad about it, even if you choose to disassociate yourself from our community so you don't have to "wrestle with pigs".

Buh-bye.

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 Post Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:35 pm 
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I'm not sure I understand the point of this thread... am I missing something?

I'm going to lock this for now, PM me any reopen requests with more info.


Last edited by dotwarner on Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:42 pm 
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^ If you are the you're not the only one, because I'm not sure what this is supposed to be about, either.

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