[AccessD] freelancing job sites

I  don't know which is the cause and which the effect, but I notice a
parallel phenomenon in TV. This is most especially true in news commentary
shows: rather than politely wait for the other side to present his/her view,
and then respond with an intelligent rebuttal, the point seems to be that
interruptions are good and the more volume and vehemence, the better. One is
hard-pressed to find a show (save and except on NPR) where a person is
permitted to present her position without interruption.

Some executives somewhere must have decided that this makes good TV. Well,
perhaps for some percentile it does. Call me old-school: I prefer the rules
of debating: cogency++, drama--, I'm almost prepared to grant, but then that
illuminates the great divide: some of us think that the media are here to
distribute information; others think that the "information" is just a hook
to grab eyeballs to sell to the advertisers. It all reminds me of the old
joke about an AI generating the perfect book title: after extensive keyword
research, the AI came up with "Famous Dogs of the Civil War".

Each further step into this nonsense reinforces the accuracy of Noam
Chomsky's take on the mass media, or for that matter, Goering's: tell a big
lie often often enough, sprinkled with a tad of truth here and there, and
they will gobble it up.

Let us please return to common courtesy and manners, and forego the use of
such strategies as "argument ad hominem" (argument against the man, or in
modern parlance, argument against its propounder -- a sex-free description
of what should be obvious). Cases in point:

The attempts by the Nazi regime to discredit Einstein because to accept his
"Jewish physics" arguments would be tantamount to objecting to the
extermination of these vile people.

Because you are not First-Nations DNA you could not possibly understand what
it was like for us.

Because you are not female, you could not possibly write about women, and
the converse. (Actually, having written fiction and even sold two
screenplays, this notion is interesting; it suggests that any script
involving both females and males ought to be co-authored by one of each sex.
But to make it more interesting and challenging, the male half of the team
ought to write the female parts and vice-versa.

This could be an interesting experiment -- not scientific, obviously, but I
can envision a script. Let's invent a new genre called TransLitDev. The
nomination awards would go to the most convincing impersonations of the
opposite sex. We could even introduce the concept of the Doubling Cube (nee
backgammon), which might go like this: original sex = female; she doubles
and pretends to be a male; her opponent, seeing the subterfuge, redoubles
and claims the Female high ground... what is she to do? Meet the challenge
and turn lesbian, or refuse the challenge and turn into a one-eyed monk?
What is one to do?

Just trying to work on a game-scenario here LOL.
A


On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 2:17 PM, John Bartow <john at winhaven.net> wrote:

> That's sad. I saw nothing in there that should elicit hate. Our society
> seems to be devolving into a group of people who have nasty, ignorant,
> arrogant arguments rather than open minded, well-informed, conversational
> debates. I think electronic media and the anonymity it provides gives a lot
> of people the idea that they can forget about common courtesy and manners
> :o(
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Susan Harkins
> Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 11:27 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] freelancing job sites
>
> I've never had an article illicit such hateful feedback before. Mostly,
> people are generous when they disagree, but a couple of them want my head
> on
> a platter, and I don't really understand why -- there's really no attack in
> the article, so I'm truly surprised at some of the hateful responses. I
> mean, it's not like I said, "You're a crappy developer if you use bound
> forms" or something. :)
>
> Susan H.
>
>
> > Spot on Susan!
> >
> >>
> > <http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-things-you-shouldnt-beli
> > eve-ab out-freelancing/2685?tag=content;blog-list-river>
> >
>
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