Well, there we have it. I guess the "silly season" is going to be a long one this time around.

I was twitted once by a super-twit for presumably getting my philosophy from episodes of "Star Trek." What brought on this particular snipe was that I quoted the words of the Klingon messiah, Kahless. Worf expresses his disillusionment at learning that the person before him was not actually Kahless, but a clone of Kahless. Kahless (the clone) responds, "But if the words are true, what does it matter who says them?" I think both Plato and Aristotle would agree with that statement. Therefore:—

I have no problem at all with GUESTs posting or starting threads—with the exception of one quibble. Many a GUEST posts good stuff, ranging from cogent comments and provocative questions (provocative in the sense of stimulating thought and good discussion, as this thread started out to be), and now and then, even bits of wisdom. The reason for my quibble has manifested itself in this thread most graphically. The thread started out pretty well and then seems to have tanked. The problem is that one cannot tell which GUEST is which. One GUEST posts something that you want to respond to and another GUEST comes in and responds to your response in a manner you were not expecting, or there are a number of posts all attributed to GUEST that express a multiplicity of viewpoints, and you don't know if you're talking to two (or three, or four) different people—or one person with multiple-personality disorder. All too often it gets so chaotic that all you can do is mutter "p'TAHK!" (Klingon for "garbage!"—or worse), back out, and go to another thread—or go make a sandwich as I will soon be doing.

I can understand why some folks might want to remain anonymous (to say "If you aren't up to some kind of skullduggery, why won't you identify yourself?" is roughly the same as a McCarthyite or an Ashfordite saying "if you don't have anything to hide, then why should you object to my tapping your phone?") and I can respect that. But all too often, it does make for a great deal of confusion and renders a thread unworthy of continued attention.

This is not a prejudice on my part, or some kind of flame against GUESTs, it is merely an observation from about four years of experience on this forum.

'Nuff said. K'Plah!

Don Firth

P. S.: I shall look at the links above. It looks like some good stuff. I'll check back later.