Do I Not Comprehend the Written Word?

[Ellen Stuttle]

Folks,

I stick by my guns here. I think the remark was not wise for Barbara to have made. I thought so when I read it to begin with. I wouldn't have said anything about it had not Judith held Barbara's posts up as models of how to post in the circumstances. In general, I think Barbara has conducted herself admirably, but that particular comment I consider a gaffe and an unfortunate one given the past history between her and Linz.

In point of strict accuracy, Barbara does not, as she wrote: "see a man often befuddled by alcohol, which serves to make him still more grandiose and still more irrational." She has met him socially in the past, and she maybe saw him "befuddled by alcohol" on those occasions; she has instances from SOLOHQ of his posting enraged comments and then saying he'd been drinking. But Barbara lives in Los Angeles; Linz lives in New Zealand. Nor do his posts exhibit features which could easily be attributed to alcohol consumption. His spelling, grammar, verbal sharpness don't show signs of drunk posting. Barbara's assessment is a surmise not something she can document. Friends who know him at home say he doesn't show signs of befuddlement by alcohol. How can she claim to know what eye-witnesses deny? Reasonable supposition? Maybe. If she'd stated the charge AS supposition, I wouldn't consider it out of place. As stated, however, I think it's something she shouldn't have said -- and that it's something much more open to reasonable criticism than is Jonathan's calling Linz "Pigero," an example which Judith seems to have found noteworthily out of line.

I know: Why can't we all just get along? Because, as Michael has pointed out several times, each of us speaks for him- or herself here. This isn't a place where there's a group opinion. The amount on which we might all agree is maybe a thimbleful.

Ellen

PS: Thanks, Michael, for describing me as "cowed by [Linz] into adopting a double-standard." How well you know me -- not.

___

Edited January 26, 2008 by Ellen Stuttle

[Barbara Branden]

Ellen, I think it was reasonably clear that "I see" was not meant to be taken literally. For instance, I wrote, "You [Ed] apparently see a man who might be open to reason if he is brought to grasp that his irrationality is self-defeating; I see a man driven by demons..." It was simply a means of contrasting two views.

But I'm not going to argue further about my comment. I'm quite willing for anyone who thinks it was a mistake, to think that. Nor will I document it further than I did, that is, I said that Perigo apologized for a number of his Solo tantrums by saying he'd had too much to drink. If I were to continue this discussion, I'd be giving the ossue an importance in my judgment of Perigo that it doesn't have -- and I'd be starting another lengthy, futile, and pointless round of internet discussions and debates. For the record, I don't think Perigo is constantly drunk, and I didn't say he is.

Barbara

[Jonathan]

Jonathan, you wrote that you do not have enough evidence to agree that Perigo is "often befuddled by alcohol." But you have not, I believe, met him in social contexts nor read his many excuses on Solo for intemperate behavior. I have. And this was information Ed needed to be aware of.

You're right that I haven't met him in a social situation, and, although I remember seeing only one post in which he blamed his online behavior on drinking, I may have missed other similar posts. It's also possible that some of his comments on drinking had been edited out before I saw them, just as many people missed some of the best examples of his "rational passion" due to his editing.

J

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

PS: Thanks, Michael, for describing me as "cowed by [Linz] into adopting a double-standard." How well you know me -- not.

Ellen,

I am glad to hear that. I was getting quite a different impression.

It's also possible that some of his comments on drinking had been edited out before I saw them, just as many people missed some of the best examples of his "rational passion" due to his editing.

Jonathan,

That's not only possible, it happened several times that I know of because I saw them as they happened (meaning I would see a post, then look a few hours later and see that it was altered in much more than typos, correcting a misstatement or adding a new thought, with the blather removed). There was one (non-booze-related) that I kicked myself for not copying, where he stated flat-out that he was not an intellectual but a philosophical ruffian instead, or something to that effect. That would have made a good quote. But alas, I was slow on the draw and he deleted it.

Michael