<HTML><BODY STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;"><DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Mark Seman writes:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>"If your were to take it in the simplest of general terms, he talks the<BR>truth. If your were to take it in the simplest of general terms, and state:<BR>"awareness and intelligence matters in a job like law enforcement," then you<BR>talk the truth. If your were to take it in the simplest of general terms,<BR>and state that: "agility and speed matters in a job like law enforcement,"<BR>then you talk the truth.<BR><BR>One can state any affair in the simplest of general terms, but when you want<BR>to talk **about** the truth, it is up to the *speaker* to know if his/her<BR>truth is the **only** truth, or just one of many, and by what frame of<BR>reference this is known to him/her, for then truth is a tool and not merely<BR>words. It is always up to the *listener* to decide whether that truth is<BR>his/her's as well, and by what frame of reference this is known to him/her.<BR>To know the *how* of truth, helps prevent being a tool of someone else's<BR>propoganda."<BR></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>To quote Manuel from <STRONG>Fawlty Towers</STRONG>, "Que?" </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Were you writing this late at night, Mark? Were you tired? Distracted? Listening to Pink Floyd's <STRONG>Dark Side of the Moon</STRONG>? I taught composition and rhetoric for many years and am still unable to discern a coherent thesis, argument, or conclusion in any of the above. Doug Wilson states, flat-out, that the reason the Atlanta felon overpowered his guard and escaped was because said guard was a woman. End of story. He blames the guard's gender -- and society's failure to recognize that all women everywhere are unsuited for law enforcement, military service, and other such "manly" pursuits -- for the killing spree that followed. Doug's argument, such as it is, has already been well-answered. The judge had chosen to turn off the courthouse's alarm system. The prisoner and guard were alone together in the courthouse elevator. Important protocols for prisoner transfer were ignored and/or dismissed. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Here's a question for Doug -- is it not possible that our enormous, strapping Atlanta murderer might just as easily have over-powered even a "Man of Chest" like Doug? Would the outcome have been any different if a doughnut-addicted, cigar-smoking, couch-potato male guard had been assigned this duty instead? The guard in this case wasn't over-powered because she lacked a penis; she was over-powered because she was on her own, the alarm system was off, and the prisoner had a plan. This tragedy could have happened just as easily to Barney Fife as to Thelma Lou. It's not about gender; it's about training and ability and protocol. (What would a male guard have done differently? Whipped out his willie and may the biggest organ win? Please.)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>BTW, if Doug had ever met any of the female guards at the Wake County Courthouse in my hometown of Raleigh, he'd button his lip pronto. They're all about six feet tall and five feet wide and look as if they were carved off the side of a cliff. They are far more physically imposing than any of the denizens of Christ Church, Credenda Agenda, or the New St. Andrews -- at least the ones that I've seen walking the streets of Moscow. Of course, perhaps they have a Mungo chained up in the attic of Anselm House, where they read him the story of the Maccabees and feed him raw meat, but somehow I doubt it. That would be more Mel Brooks than G. K. Chesterton.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>PS: Has Doug never heard of the martial arts? It's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog. I recall meeting a five-foot nothing woman in Durham who had fought off a six-foot assailant in a parking garage by kicking him repeatedly in the head until she "heard something crack." Nothing like a black belt in karate (or a loaded .44) to put paid to the limitations of sexual dimorphism. </DIV></BODY></HTML><br clear=all><hr>Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : <a href='http://explorer.msn.com'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>