Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/02/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark, I would guess that number closer to 10,000. A myriad, in fact. And yours is a powerful argument. Nobody's allowed, really, to refute it, to reject the morality of your view; and you could even strengthen it by mentioning alcohol's largest group of victims, the offspring. Yet one can't help notice your position's Calvinistic failure to recognize the human dilemma. You assume people don't want to die, or oughtn't want to, but nothing in our experience suggests this is true for everyone. A good number of people chase death their whole lives (see Gene Smith bio for one vivid example) and it is testimony to God's grace or biology's rigors or the gift of ambivalence -- * something* -- that so many manage not to die sooner than they might. I lived in the same neighborhood in NYC for 35 years and there were homeless addicts and alcoholics with HIV and hepatitis and TB and open sores who still took ten years, or more, to die. It was a continuing miracle to see them and talk to them on the street almost every day. When animals (vegetarian ones anyway) discover a plant that causes them to become intoxicated in some way, it's said they go back to it regularly. Even they, apparently, seek out some relief from the relentless g.d. obligation of being themselves. Always interesting to me that Muslims oppose alcohol, while the other desert religions do not: the Jews celebrate wine and on the Christian side, the Evangelists all agree, Jesus' first miracle was making more wine (at his mother's behest, no less) so people could *keep *drinking at a friend's wedding. I.e., the guests were already a day-and-a-half-drunk; the crisis lay in the possibilty they wouldn't be able to drink even more. So, as they like to say on TV in other time zones: Thank you Jesus. V PS You can have last word; I promise not to keep this going beyond that.... On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 2:54 PM, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote: > > < I was wrong. > > > > > A rare phrase round these parts. I might reach the same conclusion as > you > > did. Seems as likely as not. On the "I think we should dry up" front > > however I do not foresee agreeing with you. People who can control it > should > > enjoy it, especially good beer and wine. > > > > < What was the chaser...? > Irish whiskey. Usually Jameson's (that looks > > like J's to me, don't know why; it had a richer color but it's a b&w > > picture...) and in latter days frequently Bushmill's, which is more > complex > > and notably less sweet. Technically though I think the beer is the > chaser, > > no? It's all chasing something I suppose. > > > > V > > > Yes alcohol is such a highly civilized sophisticated effete gentlemanly > pursuit. > I'd never let a man marry my daughter who did not appreatate a good brandy > after dinner with a fine cigar. > Meanwhile for every person having major problems with hard drugs there are > a thousand who are having their lives ruined by the drug: CnH2n+1OH > which kills you very slowly and with a high degree of humiliation. > All kinds of organs shut down. Never in the same order. > > > > [Rabs] > Mark William Rabiner > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >