"Michael Daly" typed:

I've got to hand it to you, willy boy - there
are only a handful of idiots that have made it onto
the r.b.p ****list and you did it in record time.

Mike

Interesting, isn't it, Michael, the way Willie What has this elaborate
simile system comparing "wealthy" instructors (and those
non-instructors who believe in learning from the hard-earned
experience of others) to followers of a "religion", much the way
another polluter of r.b.p has this elaborate mental construct about
instructors "murdering schoolchildren" for personnal gain. There
seems to be a common paranoid thread running through the messages of
both of these very dangerous (to the uninitiated, who might follow
their advice) men.

The difference, in my eyes, is that Watt has a reasonable, commonsense
theory WITHIN THE CONTEXT of the calmwater boating he does. To float
around a pond or flat stream fishing or birdwatching does not require
any expertise as a paddler, hence it is not really a very good value
to pay for instruction or for expensive special-purpose boats for that
activity, and you can, indeed, teach yerself all the skills you need
to engage in the activity relatively safely. Watt's problem, though,
was that he was blinded by his own context, and did not think about
the consequences of his assertions in other contexts: offshore
kayaking and whitewater boating, which are both hazardous endeavors.
When practitioners of those more dangerous sports/hobbies took Watt to
task for what was dangerous advice in THOSE contexts, he became
defensive and dogmatic, and now he's gone over the top.

Well, come to think of it, the other guy has a reasonable device, too,
if HE could just learn to discuss it in anything but extreme and
absolutist terms. Looks like a very similar pathology in both cases:
a kernel of common sense within certain contexts, twisted all out of
proportion by an attempt to apply it universally, and then carried
into extreme rants by an inability to discuss the matter rationally.

-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty
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Richard Hopley, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net 1-301-775-0471
Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll.
rhopley[at]wfubmc[dot]edu 1-336-713-5077
OK, OK; computer programming for scientific research also matters.
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