Hiya Constance,

Continuing your petulant and nasty vendetta against Foxy, I see.

At least that means you'll let up on Suze for a bit.

Do you get your jollies from chumming up with the usual suspects and then assailing certain ladies with belligerent and unprovoked attacks?

Does it give you a feeling of inclusiveness?

It must be just about my turn for a bit of your pointless venom...I hope you don't leave me out.

I'm just in the mood for a joust....

On second thoughts, Constance, I shouldn't invite you to be more belligerent than you already are. Having reread your last post to Foxy, and having recently noted the odious post you wrote to Suze on another thread, I surmise you might be nursing some deep seated and problematical angst.

I hope you find a way of dealing with it that doesn't include regularly excoriating fellow posters (female) with whom you fail to share an outlook.

Dear Constance,

I trust that venting your spleen against me
has helped you in some way.

While I appreciate your taking the time to
quote from Mr Anthony (A.M.) Daniels, nee Theodore Dalrymple
to me - I am quite familiar with his work and
his quotes on communism.

Unlike Mr Dalrymple -
my family actually experienced the tyranny of communism
first-hand.

Dad's brother was tortured to death
by the retreating Red Army.
He was a high-school student at the time.
Dad's sister - a fifteen year old, had
to identify his body, had a nervous breakdown
and ended up in a Siberian gulag - and
there's much more - but you go ahead and preach
to me all about "political correctness" and
the evils of communism. I won't bother responding
to the rest of your attack on me - I simply can't
be bothered.

Suffice to add a quote from Mr Dalrymple:

"Facts are much more malleable than prejudices."

But don't let that stop you.

Constance,

I dont know what you are doing. But if you have got BOTH Foxy and Poirot in a tiffy you must be doing some good lol ;)

Foxy,

Pascal said that the beginning of morality was to think well; generosity of spirit is not enough (especially when hard facts get in the way). Life is too precious to be indifferent.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
- Elie Wiesel

Poirot,

There is plenty to be angry about when we are living in the Dark Ages. I just choose not to be one of the zombies who have succumbed to mind control. Don't worry, my angst is balanced to the beauty in life I can still see.

I agree that "the RC church remains a nightmare to some, maybe many" (as anti-Catholicism seems to have become, c.f. Constance’s reaction as misdirected as it is at Foxy of all people).

Constance’s metaphor might be one explanation of this nihgtmare. Another metaphor comes from my personal experience: mathematics remains a nightmare for many, and this is most often the maths teacher’s fault. Nevertheless, only very few people would argue that mathematics is useless or that a professional math teacher cannot contribute to one’s understanding and acquisition of mathematical skills.

I think that there are many philosophical systems that can compete with those built on the background of a Catholic worldview. And there are many Christian or non-Christian orientations that can compete with the traditionally Catholic on the level of spirituality and emotional satisfaction. But only a few religions or philosophical systems can BOTH.

My personal experience with Communism/Stalinism was not nearly as intimate as that of Dairymple’s father or Foxy’s uncle but living now in Europe in a, sort of, vicinity of Ukraine I can see closely the tragic consequences of attempts to resurrect the distant past with its cruelties, injustices and hatreds.