Help!!

In article <[email hidden]>,

David said:

Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread. Someone
please help me!!

Try not answering their posts. :-)

It takes two to continue a flame war!
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack Nicholson

David said:

Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread. Someone
please help me!!

Sit down and shut up.

Hope that "helped".

Cheers!
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"David" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread.
Someone
please help me!!

Putz! You picked the wrong thread. Start a thread about spider web material,
or Kevlar. Those threads will be strong enough to hang on to indefinitely.

David
me, sitting naked on a beanbag chair, eating cheetos

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David said:

Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread.

Someone

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

please help me!!

Sit down and shut up.

Hope that "helped".

Sure, it helped to reinforce that you are embarrassed by this silly
adventure to support a lard ass who persists in her 'athlete' fantasy. When
you run out of debating tactics you resort to insults. I do it all the time

Quoted message said:

Cheers!
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"David Cohen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"David" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread.
Someone
please help me!!

Putz! You picked the wrong thread. Start a thread about spider web

material,

Quoted message said:

or Kevlar. Those threads will be strong enough to hang on to indefinitely.

David
me, sitting naked on a beanbag chair, eating cheetos

Thanks - I take that as a show of support - (Cheetos are also my snack of
choice)

David said:

(Cheetos are also my snack of
choice)

That makes sense.

Dally

David said:

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David said:

Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread.

Someone

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

please help me!!

Sit down and shut up.

Hope that "helped".

Sure, it helped to reinforce that you are embarrassed by this silly
adventure to support a lard ass who persists in her 'athlete' fantasy. When
you run out of debating tactics you resort to insults. I do it all the time

I am spanking you in this debate. I provide sources, definitions, history,
and arguments in support of my position. You only make arbitrary claims which
you do not support with anything besides your own subjective intuition about
what usage feels right for certain words.

The only sense in which I have "run out" of debating tactics, is that I have
choosed to use a number of debating tactics, whereas you just keep yelling the
same thing over and over.

Here's my summary:

(1)
First, we had a debate about whether she was a "triathlete" or not. I ended
that one quickly by quoting a dictionary definition of triathlete as
"one who participates in triathlons",
(2)
you quickly conceded that one, and initiated another debate about whether or
not she's an "athlete".

(3) I then quoted definitions, including the origin of the
word "athlete",

(4) whereas the best you could do is propose that some undefined
yardstick exists. You did not provide any source for your competing
definition. You then proposed the existence of a hypothetical
case of someone who trains hard and yet does not perform.

(5) I made a case for not addressing hypotheticals -- my argument is that if
these people actually existed, the language itself would evolve differently,
so the language in our universe is not relevant to this hypothetical universe.
I offered an example of how the language has evolved for a particular sport.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

On Mon, 01 Aug 2005 21:17:32 GMT, "David" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread. Someone
please help me!!

I think you're doing okay, but if all else fails threaten them with
the dreaded alleged "killfiles", or submit an abuse report!! ;o)

On Mon, 01 Aug 2005 21:17:32 GMT, "David" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread. Someone
please help me!!

Sure. GET THE HE** OUT OF HERE YOU DORK!

TBR
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day
the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the
White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Anyone with degrees from Yale and Harvard is presumed to be intelligent,
but George W. Bush has managed to overcome that presumption."

Donovan Rebbechi said:

I am spanking you in this debate. I provide sources, definitions, history,
and arguments in support of my position. You only make arbitrary claims which
you do not support with anything besides your own subjective intuition about
what usage feels right for certain words.

You are so good at this. I just started swearing. He drives me crazy
with his smarmy combination of nonsense and insult. I really don't read
him very often, just when someone like you or Lee takes him on. I wish
you wouldn't do that, because then I get exposed to his pathology.

Quoted message said:

(5) I made a case for not addressing hypotheticals -- my argument is that if
these people actually existed, the language itself would evolve differently,
so the language in our universe is not relevant to this hypothetical universe.

Although that part is true, I'd point out that the language really has
developed to describe my version of being a bad athlete. Athlete is
almost always qualified. "Special olympics athlete" is different than
"olympic athlete" in level of achievement expected, but not in level of
dedication or value or even competitiveness in their events.

I'm doing "short course" or "sprint" triathlons and that's
quantitatively different than "ironman" triathlons. Interestingly, I
believe Charles smarmily suggested I'd be embarrassed to call myself a
triathlete in front of a 'real' one. A friend of mine did Lake Placid's
Ironman last week, has a brand new ironman tattoo on his bicep, and
showed up at my race holding a sign and cheering me on and was probably
the first person to congratulate me on being a triathlete. Triathletes
are like that, very welcoming to newbies. Part of the ethos is that
people are valued for showing up and trying.

Luckily, I understand the language. It appears you do, too. David is
just caught in a sad, sad world created by his own self-imposed limitations.

Dally

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David said:

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On 2005-08-01, David <[email hidden]> wrote:
> Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread.

Someone

Quoted message said:

> please help me!!

Sit down and shut up.

Hope that "helped".

Sure, it helped to reinforce that you are embarrassed by this silly
adventure to support a lard ass who persists in her 'athlete' fantasy.
When
you run out of debating tactics you resort to insults. I do it all the
time

I am spanking you in this debate. I provide sources, definitions, history,
and arguments in support of my position. You only make arbitrary claims
which
you do not support with anything besides your own subjective intuition
about
what usage feels right for certain words.

The only sense in which I have "run out" of debating tactics, is that I
have
choosed to use a number of debating tactics, whereas you just keep yelling
the
same thing over and over.

Here's my summary:

(1)
First, we had a debate about whether she was a "triathlete" or not. I
ended
that one quickly by quoting a dictionary definition of triathlete as
"one who participates in triathlons",
(2)
you quickly conceded that one, and initiated another debate about whether
or
not she's an "athlete".

(3) I then quoted definitions, including the origin of the
word "athlete",

(4) whereas the best you could do is propose that some undefined
yardstick exists.

Is that unreasonable? While technically, any human being trained to compete
in any sport, whether it be football or lawn darts, could technically be
called an "athlete", the vast majority of people have higher standards for
who they consider "athletes".

A 700 pound guy tossing some darts in his backyard while sitting on his
lazy-boy recliner doesn't cut it as an "athlete" in my mind. And I bet most
people would agree.

Spungo said:

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David said:

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
> On 2005-08-01, David <[email hidden]> wrote:
> > Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread.
Someone
> > please help me!!
>
> Sit down and shut up.
>
> Hope that "helped".

Sure, it helped to reinforce that you are embarrassed by this silly
adventure to support a lard ass who persists in her 'athlete' fantasy.
When
you run out of debating tactics you resort to insults. I do it all the
time

I am spanking you in this debate. I provide sources, definitions, history,
and arguments in support of my position. You only make arbitrary claims
which
you do not support with anything besides your own subjective intuition
about
what usage feels right for certain words.

The only sense in which I have "run out" of debating tactics, is that I
have
choosed to use a number of debating tactics, whereas you just keep yelling
the
same thing over and over.

Here's my summary:

(1)
First, we had a debate about whether she was a "triathlete" or not. I
ended
that one quickly by quoting a dictionary definition of triathlete as
"one who participates in triathlons",
(2)
you quickly conceded that one, and initiated another debate about whether
or
not she's an "athlete".

(3) I then quoted definitions, including the origin of the
word "athlete",

(4) whereas the best you could do is propose that some undefined
yardstick exists.

Is that unreasonable? While technically, any human being trained to compete
in any sport, whether it be football or lawn darts, could technically be
called an "athlete", the vast majority of people have higher standards for
who they consider "athletes".

A 700 pound guy tossing some darts in his backyard while sitting on his
lazy-boy recliner doesn't cut it as an "athlete" in my mind. And I bet most
people would agree.

And there's the crux of the matter. Point well made Spungo!

"Dally" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Donovan Rebbechi said:

I am spanking you in this debate. I provide sources, definitions,

history,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and arguments in support of my position. You only make arbitrary claims

which

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

you do not support with anything besides your own subjective intuition

about

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

what usage feels right for certain words.

You are so good at this. I just started swearing. He drives me crazy
with his smarmy combination of nonsense and insult. I really don't read
him very often, just when someone like you or Lee takes him on. I wish
you wouldn't do that, because then I get exposed to his pathology.

Quoted message said:

(5) I made a case for not addressing hypotheticals -- my argument is

that if

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

these people actually existed, the language itself would evolve

differently,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

so the language in our universe is not relevant to this hypothetical

universe.

Quoted message said:

Although that part is true, I'd point out that the language really has
developed to describe my version of being a bad athlete. Athlete is
almost always qualified. "Special olympics athlete" is different than
"olympic athlete" in level of achievement expected, but not in level of
dedication or value or even competitiveness in their events.

I'm doing "short course" or "sprint" triathlons and that's
quantitatively different than "ironman" triathlons. Interestingly, I
believe Charles smarmily suggested I'd be embarrassed to call myself a
triathlete in front of a 'real' one. A friend of mine did Lake Placid's
Ironman last week, has a brand new ironman tattoo on his bicep, and
showed up at my race holding a sign and cheering me on and was probably
the first person to congratulate me on being a triathlete. Triathletes
are like that, very welcoming to newbies. Part of the ethos is that
people are valued for showing up and trying.

Luckily, I understand the language. It appears you do, too. David is
just caught in a sad, sad world created by his own self-imposed

limitations.

Quoted message said:

Dally

Oh, I forgot to mention - I've been doing some bookeeping lately and I know
what double entry means. So that makes me an accountant. (of course I may
not be a 'very good' accountant but I will wear that tag from nowon. (and
'tough' for all the real accountants out there who have just had their
profession devalued)

David said:

Quoted message said:

(4) whereas the best you could do is propose that some undefined
yardstick exists. You did not provide any source for your competing
definition. You then proposed the existence of a hypothetical
case of someone who trains hard and yet does not perform.

That is the whole issue - you do not include performance, achievement,
talent, etc in your definition of 'athlete' - that is preposterous

No, "the whole issue" is that the thing that you call "my definition"

(1) is actually the definition of the Merriam Webster dictionary, not "my"
definition,

(2) the history of the term, which I again support with referenceable sources,
supports a literal reading of this definition.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"Spungo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David said:

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
> On 2005-08-01, David <[email hidden]> wrote:
> > Donovan and Dally are driving me away. I am hanging on by a thread.
Someone
> > please help me!!
>
> Sit down and shut up.
>
> Hope that "helped".

Sure, it helped to reinforce that you are embarrassed by this silly
adventure to support a lard ass who persists in her 'athlete' fantasy.
When
you run out of debating tactics you resort to insults. I do it all the
time

I am spanking you in this debate. I provide sources, definitions,

history,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and arguments in support of my position. You only make arbitrary claims
which
you do not support with anything besides your own subjective intuition
about
what usage feels right for certain words.

The only sense in which I have "run out" of debating tactics, is that I
have
choosed to use a number of debating tactics, whereas you just keep

yelling

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the
same thing over and over.

Here's my summary:

(1)
First, we had a debate about whether she was a "triathlete" or not. I
ended
that one quickly by quoting a dictionary definition of triathlete as
"one who participates in triathlons",
(2)
you quickly conceded that one, and initiated another debate about

whether

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

or
not she's an "athlete".

(3) I then quoted definitions, including the origin of the
word "athlete",

(4) whereas the best you could do is propose that some undefined
yardstick exists.

Is that unreasonable? While technically, any human being trained to

compete

Quoted message said:

in any sport, whether it be football or lawn darts, could technically be
called an "athlete", the vast majority of people have higher standards for
who they consider "athletes".

A 700 pound guy tossing some darts in his backyard while sitting on his
lazy-boy recliner doesn't cut it as an "athlete" in my mind. And I bet

most

Quoted message said:

people would agree.

But Spungo - this gargantuan may have registered for the event, worn the
right outfit, paid his dues and most important *actually* finished the dart
game. Certainly that must give him an athlete's status?? What if he really
longs to be an athlete?

Quoted message said:

Spungo said:

Quoted message said:

(4) whereas the best you could do is propose that some undefined
yardstick exists.

Is that unreasonable? While technically, any human being trained to compete
in any sport, whether it be football or lawn darts, could technically be
called an "athlete", the vast majority of people have higher standards for
who they consider "athletes".

There is a general notion of "athlete" which is based on qualities that
develop with training for athletic contests. In other words, there does
exist an athletic stereotype. The stereotype does not define the term
though.

Quoted message said:

A 700 pound guy tossing some darts in his backyard while sitting on his
lazy-boy recliner doesn't cut it as an "athlete" in my mind.

I agree, but the grounds for my view are different -- I would argue
that his training is not physically strenuous, whereas the word "athlete"
originally refered to and continues to refer to demanding activities.

If the 700lb guy ran 80 miles a week, I'd call him an athlete. But 700lb guys
don't run 80 miles in a week (because they can't).

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David said:

Quoted message said:

(4) whereas the best you could do is propose that some undefined
yardstick exists. You did not provide any source for your competing
definition. You then proposed the existence of a hypothetical
case of someone who trains hard and yet does not perform.

That is the whole issue - you do not include performance, achievement,
talent, etc in your definition of 'athlete' - that is preposterous

No, "the whole issue" is that the thing that you call "my definition"

(1) is actually the definition of the Merriam Webster dictionary, not "my"
definition,

(2) the history of the term, which I again support with referenceable

sources,

Quoted message said:

supports a literal reading of this definition.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

OK, if it makes you feel better, let's add a few hundred thousand basket
cases and otherwise barely mobile people to the rank of 'athletes'

David said:

Oh, I forgot to mention - I've been doing some bookeeping lately and I know
what double entry means. So that makes me an accountant.

(1) please support your claims with referenceable sources.

Quoted message said:

(of course I may
not be a 'very good' accountant but I will wear that tag from nowon. (and
'tough' for all the real accountants out there who have just had their
profession devalued)

(2) the notion that athletics, like accounting, is a purely professional
activity is ludicrous. Until quite recently, it was quite the opposite -- a
purely amateur activity.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"Donovan Rebbechi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Spungo said:

Quoted message said:

(4) whereas the best you could do is propose that some undefined
yardstick exists.

Is that unreasonable? While technically, any human being trained to
compete
in any sport, whether it be football or lawn darts, could technically be
called an "athlete", the vast majority of people have higher standards
for
who they consider "athletes".

There is a general notion of "athlete" which is based on qualities that
develop with training for athletic contests. In other words, there does
exist an athletic stereotype. The stereotype does not define the term
though.

Quoted message said:

A 700 pound guy tossing some darts in his backyard while sitting on his
lazy-boy recliner doesn't cut it as an "athlete" in my mind.

I agree, but the grounds for my view are different -- I would argue
that his training is not physically strenuous, whereas the word "athlete"
originally refered to and continues to refer to demanding activities.

If the 700lb guy ran 80 miles a week, I'd call him an athlete. But 700lb
guys
don't run 80 miles in a week (because they can't).

Fair enough, I guess. I do consider really fat football players athletes so
I suppose your example works.