Hello?

[Steelhead]

First things first in responding to this post from RedBug. Your (X-sender)
domaine name reads "shellx." Is this part of the Shell Oil Company, that
figures so demonically in GR, and has only recently admitted its complicity
(by wasting the Niger River Delta under a toxic muck of hydrocarbons and
benzene and helping to arm the death squads under Gen. Sani Abacha) in the
genocide against the Ogoni people in Nigeria and the execution of writer
and environmentalist Ken Saro-WiWa? Or is it merely the hyper-artistic
"shell" of your software? Detecting minds want to know. It might explain
something I've been curious about.

>I read this post from Jeff St. Clair (aka Steelhead)...

Are you the Philip Agee (who I am a great admirer of, of course) of this
list? Or what? Why would someone who posts under a pseudonym "out" someone
else who posts under a nom de plume, eh? Hiding something RedBug?

>I followed this thread and S's
>vicious, ad
>hominem attack on Ms. York

The attack was neither vicious nor ad hominem. Ms. Blaine had insulted me,
her students, poor Jules, and--worst of all--the Text of GR with her
ridiculous, how did she phrase it?...oh, yes, feminist pedagogy. When
students at NTU are forced to take her classes, paying good money that they
don't have and will never get back, do they really know *this* is what
they're getting into?

Taking classes in the humanities these days is like the helpless Eric Idle
in that old Monty Python skit. "Is this the room for abuse?" "No, you
moron, this is the room for an argument!" And on and on.

>This is a fairly old tactic of the Steelheaded one,
>to enter a discussion, or perhaps dangle a provoking, extremely binary
>opinion,

Say, I'm missing a few pages in my copy of Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics.
What the hell is a "binary opinion?"

> and then if everyone doesn't fall into his line, steps up the
>insults and name-calling (Steely's got the act of naming DOWN, my friends),
>slips comfortably into hyper-demonizing and then, when someone throws a
>little cold water in his face, slinks away for a couple of months

"Slinks away." I love that. Lil' RedBug, anyone tell you that you've got a
way with words. The phrase is so reptillian. It's something for a trout to
aspire to on that ole Darwinian ladder--I mean branch. Yes, I did retreat
to lick my wounds, venture out into the world (not this one, the Other),
press the flesh (not necessarily the Devil's) and do some real writing
(though no Testament's to date).

>I like this group and find SH vastly more intolerable than even the
>fabled Koopman.

Yes, I, too, miss Koopman. But read that sentence again. Is this what you
would call a "nonbinary" or wholistic opinion?

>There's a lesson, dear Steely, in that book we all admire so much,
>regarding Kindness.

What book is that? Jonathan Livingston Seagull? The Celestine Prophecies,
perhaps. Surely, not GR, which contains "lessons" (are you a real
professor...or do you just play one on the Internet?) about Kindness, sure,
but also about the power (for the powerless, in particular--students,
preterites, proles, housewives, prisoners, lefties--ie., the left
out--privates, teens) of low puns, bad jokes, harsh invective, blasphemy,
obscenity, sedition, etc. Particularly when you can prick pretension.  As
Mr. P, writing in drag as Wanda T, said, quoting Voltaire, Ecrasez
l'Infame!

>You once cleverly retorted when you were awhile back
>accused of in danger of being perceived as an asshole (when you made
>derogatory remarks about anyone who would read and enjoy DFW's IJ), that
>you saw yourself as Pig Bodine. You remind me much more of a left-wing
>Major Marvy.

TOO--SHAY! That's who I aspire to be all right, a left-wing Major Marvy.
Che on steroids (No, not to look like that bulky Antonio Bandares in Evita,
what a crime...Che was only 16 at the time). Just call me D-u-u-W-A-Y-N-E.
Say is my voice?..uhmm..yes...yes, it does seem to be just a few octaves
higher...oh no...They didn't...how could They! Waitaminute...This isn't so
bad. No, there are advantages to this Situtation. In fact, it's pretty
fine. When I cross my legs...Get that Pedro Almodovar on the line. I think
I'm just right for a role in his new flick....

>Substitute your name for Ms. Blaine's. It's a remarkable fit.

But is it orgasmic?

Steely