B. U. G. S.

mderpelding says:

Truly sophisticated people can kiss my you know what.
Truman never rejected his machine politician beginnings.
The “sainted JFK” actually was hit by a Japanese destroyer in a war zone for crying out loud.
After being kicked out of a cushy Naval intelligence posting.
His father was ambassador to the UK.
I happen to like Bach, and other polyphonic music.
But blacks and blonds disgust me.
JFK’s, FDR’s , HST’s , and all their fellow travellors no longer matter.
None of us can change yesterday.
Every decent man I know has regrets.
Because our gut speaks to us.
I need your help for tomorrow.

Comment by mderpelding — 7/17/2006 @ 9:46 pm | Edit This

Please don’t talk past me.
I will try to reciprocate.

Comment by mderpelding

MY REPLY:

Reading this blog the last thing you would dare accuse anybody of being is KIND. But mderpelding is being kind here. He made a quick list of a few things things he knows. Repeat, “a few.”

I keep repeating that I make the mistakes I condemn. Again and again and again I have made the exact miustake I accuse other ex-professors of making. I assumed that the people I am talking to are ignorant. People like mderpelding are just a little bit tired of people making that assumption, in the same sense that Simon LeGare’s slaves were a LITTLE tired of being whipped.

Point taken, mederpelding, with apologies. I will do my damnedest, which is pretty damned, not to talk past you.

But commenters are also touchy about this. A lifetime of dealing with giggling professors will do that to you. I just admitted that I am thin-skinned about the World War II Generation. How can I ask you not to take it personally when I go off on a tangent you made me think of? Do you REALLY want to read, “Now, Joe, I am saying you are making the neo mistake here, but I am not accusing you of being a neo.” Very soon you would be saying, “Dammit Bob, get to the friggin’ POINT!”

I want people to start with the basics. This does not mean they are implying that I don’t KNOW the basics. In his quick little list, mderpelding said “After being kicked out of a cushy Naval intelligence posting.” I am going to look that one up. I didn’t know about it.

This reminds me of an episode in the old camp TV program “Batman.” Batman was explaining some obscure facts about Tutankhamen and Robin said, “Gee, Batman, is there ANYTHING you don’t know?” In a spirit of humility Batman answered, “Yes, Robin, there are things I don’t know. SEVERAL things.”

“Several” means more than one but not many. This was perfect camp. Batman admitted that, in the entire universe, not only was there something he did not know, but ther was more than one thing he did not know.

But not many.

You hit on one of the several things that even semi-omniscient Bob doesn’t know!!!

The reason I am worth bearing with is that I know that my pretenses are a joke. I just need to be reminded of it a lot.

And try to remember that you, too, can misunderstand what I am doing. Do you REALLY want me to go through all the “mderspelding/Joe, Elizabeth/Shari, Dave knows this and I am not accusing you of ….”? Do you REALLY want to read all that crap?

I go to a lot of effort to insist that you separate yourself from all the spam. I keep repeating that I am not the Ultimate Authority, I am leading a seminar. If I talk past you, call me on it. This is not a lecture.
Let me do my thing and you do your thing.

I am very often an ass. Just say so.