Stewart Baldwin's Attack On Free Speech
D. Spencer Hines
1. There are MANY quite sensible and intelligent people in Alabama. I am
personally aware of a great host of them. I've always been puzzled as to
how Stewart Baldwin survives among them.
2. He starts from a false premise and reasons to an invalid and untenable
conclusion.
3. Firstly, Stewart says "Given the frequently hostile state of this
newsgroup." GEN MEDIEVAL and soc.genealogy.medieval are NOT in a "hostile
state" in any fashion. Actually, things are quite calm, mannerly and
civilized here. Perhaps Stewart has been isolated in his Ivory Tower at
Auburn University, where he teaches Philosophy, and perhaps some other
things, for far too long. He seems to have lost touch with the competitive
nature of Free Markets.
4. Secondly, he attacks the entire concept of what he calls "Freedom of
speach [sic]. He wants to create an Electronically Monitored Screen [EMS]
for his Utopia, where his ox and those of his close friends, allies and
colleagues will never stand the slightest chance of being gored. He is a
very thin-skinned man indeed.
5. Thirdly, his very flakey and ill-considered proposal for what he calls,
quite vaguely, "some form of computerized moderation" is utterly fallacious.
It is the standard solution proposed by folks who don't want to become
directly involved in censorship themselves, who "wouldn't dirty their hands
or minds" with "something petty" like that and who "just want the machines
to take care of these messy little problems" without the need for much human
intervention or hard intellectual and physical labor.
6. Stewart's half-baked proposal is the functional equivalent of the cries
one hears from folks who plea for an early end to the brutal dictator Saddam
Hussein, but want to do it without loss of life, CIA involvement [or indeed
any covert action plan that might LEAD to loss of life] and above all, any
conceivable involvement of American ground troops.
7. In summary, Stewart's quite wooly-headed and standard, flakey, academic
proposal --- is remarkably characteristic of those Americans who are quite
willing to will a desired complex "solution" to a perceived troublesome
problem --- but are totally unwilling to will the MEANS to accomplish the
desired objective.
GEN MEDIEVAL and soc.genealogy.medieval are both alive, well and functioning
quite nicely and do not need the meddling intervention of Plato's
Philosopher Kings, or their self-appointed surrogates to control things and
"fine-tune" the ebb and flow of data and information.
Sincerely,
D. Spencer Hines
--
"Well, that's what I mean. You know, if all the people who are named
...deny it....That's all, I mean, I expect them to come looking into it and
interview you and everything, uh, but I just think that if everybody's on
record denying it you've got no problem.....I wonder if I'm going to be
blown out of the water with this. I don't see how they can...if they don't,
if they don't have pictures."
Governor Bill Clinton --- Telephonic Advice to Gennifer Flowers [1991]
Leslie Mahler
I think this group would be really boring without you Mr Hines. Since
this is a medieval discussion group, its only appropriate that we have a
court jester, as well a master of spottting typographical errors.
Mike
here! here!
D. Spencer Hines
1. Stewart Baldwin, is indeed extraordinarily thin-skinned and quite a
tender flower --- who is easily bruised.
2. It is certainly not a foregone conclusion that Stewart will even respond
at all, with substance, to my post.
3. We shall see if he has the character, the intelligence and, above all,
the courage and intellectual grit to defend his rather vague and diffuse
proposal for implementation of a form of electronic censorship on GEN
MEDIEVAL and soc.genealogy.medieval.
4. This proposal, the conceptualization and implementation for which
Stewart does not really appear to have a very firm grasp, is for a
hypothetical Electronically Monitored Screen [EMS] [N.B. My label for his
wooly-headed proposal for censorship --- DSH.]
5. I, and quite a few others, look forward to some substantive response
from Stewart Baldwin on these important matters, which he has raised, *sui
generis.*
Sincerely and With Aloha,
Mike
I don't think he will respond. i've heard he is hiding out under a rock.
-----Original Message-----
From: D. Spencer Hines <shi...@worldnet.att.net>
To: GEN-MED...@rootsweb.com <GEN-MED...@rootsweb.com>
D. Spencer Hines
Well, there are certainly MANY quite THOUGHTFUL, SMART and INTELLIGENT
people, of all races, genders and walks of life, in ALABAMA, United States
of America, who disagree with this perverted point of view.
Stewart Baldwin, Professor of Philosophy, or whatever, at Auburn University,
seems to have a significant difference with some of his bedrock fellow
citizens.
It will be quite instructive to see if he has the grit and the courage to
respond substantively to my CONCRETE POINTS, previously expressed, with
something more than idle rhetoric.
Aloha me pumehana,
Tom Camfield
In article <6ef45b$3...@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net>, "D. Spencer Hines"
<shi...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> 3. Firstly, Stewart says "Given the frequently hostile state of this
> newsgroup." GEN MEDIEVAL and soc.genealogy.medieval are NOT in a "hostile
> state" in any fashion.
Could have fooled the hell out of me!
And if you'll excuse my saying so, you write (and I won't burden readers by
quoting your provocative use of adjectives) with an obvious anger that
makes me hope I do not encounter you driving on the freeway when you're in
a hurry to get somewhere.
Tom Camfield - camf...@olympus.net
D. Spencer Hines
1. Not in the least and totally unproven as well. I'm a very careful
driver.
2. Camfield seems to *want* to make SGM a "hostile arena" --- but it is
not.
3. Things are generally quite civilized here. However, some folks who
can't hold their own in a fair and free discussion get angry, vengeful and
act stupidly.
4. Stewart Baldwin is one of those tender flowers. He does not even have
the intellect or the courage to respond in a thread, which he initiated. He
believes in one-way communication, an abysmal characteristic of many of
those who dwell in the sheltered and isolated towers of academia.
4. There is nothing new in all that. Losers are frequently angry, vengeful
and act stupidly. Even a casual reading of History will prove the truth of
that bromide.
D. Spencer Hines
--
"I thought, well maybe I ought to give him a good slap across the face.
And then I thought, I don't think you can slap the President of the United
States like that." --- Kathleen Willey --- Former White House Volunteer ---
15 March 1998 --- CBS "60 Minutes"
Tom Camfield wrote in message ...