Matt B wrote:
> <outburst of indignation>
>
> I've never professed to be a researcher, but feel entitled to air my views
> and thoughts.
Put your indignation back in its box because I'm not stopping you airing
your views. I think you're entitled to air them too, just as I'm
entitled to point out I think they're largely bollocks.
> I am a libertarian, motivated by the prospect of reduced regulation and
> control, with a firmly held belief in that to ban something makes it
> automatically more desirable.
And you're still thinking that in a few cases might just as well be the
same as everyone. It isn't.
> I prefer the carrot to the stick {{{ 
}}}* (as a behaviour modifier)
And so do I, but you've got to have someone who likes carrots. And if
they're offered a tasty apple instead of "you can get to your
destination faster and really /use/ that car you paid £15K+ for that is
advertised for its sporty performance" then you "social contract" carrot
is going to have a fair few noses turned up at it IMHO.
> I am motivated by the prospect of reducing road casualties.
Though something with a proven record of doing that is rejected out of
hand because it doesn't work according to your libertarian ideals. You
clearly have a clash of interests where your two motivations cross, and
it's foolish for you to pretend they don't.
> I am incensed when I see the old guard defending the old technology as the
> only way of doing something, and especially if part of the reason appears to
> be the prospect of punishing someone up for something which is a symptom of
> the larger social malaise.
I haven't seen any arguments in this thread that cameras are the only
way of doing the job, so that's a fairly pointless bit of indignation in
this context, but you're so busy being indignant you can't see that.
> Closed doors need to opened.
Only if there isn't something nasty on the other side, which you have
failed to demonstrate.
> Blinkers need to be removed. There's definately a better view outside of
> the tunnel.
FSVO of "better view". If it includes a deal of carnage it isn't
necessarily better to /my/ eyes. You are making unwarranted
assumptions, and have failed to demonstrate their validity.
> Its an exasperated "hands in the air" resignation that I should stop banging
> my cranium on the masonry
Maybe you should stop banging your head against the wall because you're
so set on one path that you have blinded yourself to the logical flaws
and personal conflicts of interest inherent in what you've been saying.
It doesn't seem to occur to you that the only reason you're a lone
voice here might not be everyone else is a stick in the mud, but you
might be wrong. But, hey, it's only peoples' lives at stake, so it
doesn't matter if we try something based on reading a selective few
abstracts and ignoring any evidence that contradicts them and topping it
off with some unsubstantiated reasoning based on a libertarian
philosophy, does it? Well, actually, it *does* matter, and I for one
think rather more care is required in tweaking things.
> * Bracing oneself for the comical/smutty retorts - feel free.
It's not funny, it's sad. I don't really doubt that you Really Believe
what you're saying, but you have failed to realise that that does not of
itself guarantee you are right. Or we'd all be running our computers
and heating off cold fusion jam jars right now.
You have demonstrated beyond much doubt that You Believe, but like the
JWs that come to the door you'll find that people need more tangible
proof than /just/ your Belief and a few selected quotes. The JWs are
sad that people can't see the "obvious" too, but again that's not enough
reason to take up their call.
Time to call it quits and get some useful work done on my part. I need
more than you repeating homilies about progress to be convinced that
your ideas represent progress, and if you're indignant about that, be
indignant about that: it's not the same as a useful factual and logical
argument about the matters at hand.
Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net
[email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
