Path: news.net.uni-c.dk!logbridge.uoregon.edu!feeder.qis.net!feed2.news.rcn.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!not-for-mail From: Jerry Avins Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets,comp.lang.apl,comp.lang.awk,comp.lang.beta,comp.lang.cobol,comp.lang.dylan,comp.lang.forth Subject: OT Re: Einstein's Riddle Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 12:54:47 -0500 Organization: The Hectic Eclectic Lines: 35 Message-ID: <3AB647E7.9E4584A6@ieee.org> References: <3AACB567.A59B8497@Azonic.co.nz> <3AACE6CF.7F05484D@ieee.org> <0W8r6.178$fo5.14165@news.get2net.dk> <3AAD60F3.120F284A@ieee.org> <3AAE371A.2F9F596F@brazee.net> <98m43a$fe2$1@localhost.localdomain> <3AAFB378.AB166E8C@ieee.org> <98q3f1$bid$1@localhost.localdomain> <3AB0DFC6.FC100A64@ieee.org> <98sq19$ton$1@localhost.localdomain> <3AB61B58.CF536ECA@brazee.net> <3AB6273D.E6C18536@ix.netcom.com> <3AB631EE.858EC6DC@brazee.net> <3AB638AC.BA3A0132@ix.netcom.com> Reply-To: jya@ieee.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: UmFuZG9tSVb9Fg4jHXR62Rq74q1QqebCD3chzf4h95jLGodYfPS/w6kWxWAe+TMb X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 19 Mar 2001 17:54:59 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: news.net.uni-c.dk comp.ai.neural-nets:67647 comp.lang.apl:29467 comp.lang.awk:17260 comp.lang.beta:12802 comp.lang.cobol:102928 comp.lang.dylan:24236 comp.lang.forth:78695 J Thomas wrote: > > Howard Brazee wrote: > > > So how do we decide whether a being is sufficiently like us to be > > protected? If we can't tell the difference! > > That reminds me of an ethnic joke. I hesitate to tell it since I'm not > a Baptist. > > A river was in flood, and a man saw somebody in the river, obviously in > trouble, and managed to rescue him. The half-drowned man thanked him. > "Oh, it's just what's expected of me, I'm a christian." > "A christian? So am I." > "I'm a Baptist." > "What a coincidence! So am I!" > "I'm a Free-will Baptist." > "Yes, same here." > "A Jesus Heart Free-will Baptist." > "Me too!" > "Are you a Purity Jesus Heart Free-will Baptist?" > "No, I'm Holiness." > So he pushed him back in. > > The thing I find encouraging about the joke is the implication that if > the man hadn't been christian at all, there wouldn't have been any > problem. There is subtle bigotry in the other direction, too. It has happened several times when I went out of my way to help a stranger in trouble, that the thanks included the phrase "You're a good Christian." There's a deep-seated (and incorrect) assumption there that's not entirely pretty. -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. -----------------------------------------------------------------------