Re: grim and humorless

[DonaldH675@aol.com]

Doug Wilson asks, with some frustration at having to repeat himself, 

>What standard are you appealing to, and why is that standard binding on
>anyone else?

He is even courteous enough to suggest that no one has answered his question
because we weren't clever enough to understand his complex paragraphs.

On June 13th, I wrote:

"We [those who don't share Doug's worldview] have many standards, many
theologies, many philosophies.  It's not a simple binary at all, but an
extraordinarily complex mixture of contingencies, compromises,
dissatisfactions, and agreements."

This reply may not satisfy you, Doug, but it is an answer.  

That each of us has *not* posted a long screed about the grounds of our
political philosophies speaks well for our regard for fellow listmembers.  I
think this particular conversation is already trying some readers'
patience.  (Not mine, I hasten to add.)

Doug also is put out by everyone else's "grim and humorless" tone.  Here's a
philological tidbit:  both "grim" and "Christian" arise from the
Indo-European "ghrei-," meaning "to rub."  Other derivatives are "grisly,"
"grime," and "cream."   We are, it seems, not only rubbing one another the
wrong way philosophically, but linguistically, and from a common root.

A tip of the grim pedant's specs to you all,

Melynda Huskey