"Bob" wrote in message
...

My distinguished colleague:

I have two thoughts.

First, once I too become so infirm, incontinent, and incapacitated
with age I will prefer to die in a boat rather than a planed
retirement community with 9 holes and a bingo game down the side walk.
So tied to the dock is preferred to the former.

Yes, you are quite correct. Perhaps I've been too hard on Bruce in Bangkok.
After all his situation could be far worse. But, I wonder if he wasn't stuck
with any realistic choices if he would still be stuck tied to a backwater
dock? A thing might be considered noble if it is engaged in by choice but if
one puts himself into a postition whereby he has no choices left to him
should he not be held liable for his backing himself into a corner?

Second, in many families, organizations, and cultures mediocrity is
rewarded and performance is punished. So we must take into
consideration the realm in which many consider truth and normal. To
ask them to perform is the same as asking them to believe the moon is
made of cheese. They just cannot wrap their minds around certain
abstract concepts.

I agree with you on this second point as well but with an addendum. Bruce is
a proud killfile and filter enthusiast. Therefore, his reality is warped by
his own self-imposed limits. He freely chooses to blindfold himself
respecting things as they really are. He chooses willingly to live in a
fantasy land and his conclusions are faulty by virtue of the fact that
reality is put on the back burner.

So, how can such as Bruce in Bangkik be expected to perform when the
parameters they perform by are not representative of reality? Sure, they can
give a performance by it is a parody of reality to those of us who choose to
live in the real world because we are not afraid to see. This is the root
cause of the innate failure of liberalism.

So they will castigate or attempt to castrate those who challenge
their safe world of hair dryers, refrigeration, and wives who run
their life as well as their boats.

Yes, that is what they attempt and it makes complete sense to others like
them. They find solace in numbers. They demonstrate, however, that they fear
the truth or anything else that does not buttress their limited perception
of reality. The very act of censorship is an act of cowardice and fear. I
feel sorry for such faulty minds. Their chance of success at any endeavor is
low due to their self-imposed skewing of reality. Is it any wonder why
rescue services and towing services grow exponentially?

Wilbur Hubbard