<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Kevin, personally your observations provide perhaps one of the absolute best reasons why we should feel free to air our political thoughts on this or any other list. There is no real threat to the list here anyways. We are piano folks and mostly bound to each other by that common interest, and it is that we will most often converse about. A digresion here and there into this or that does no harm at all as far as I can see. On the contrary, It probably does the Thumpers and the Chest Pounders amoungst our midst good to make total and complete fjøls of themselves by exploding into total irrational expoundualtions about what they deem the center of true knowledge or some or another issue. Perhaps by doing so often enough they may come to realize how silly it all is :) Besides, it serves as comic relief, breaks the monotony, reminds us of our humanity, and gives us pause to remember we are all in the end in the same tub, and we'd better be able to get along well enough to avoid pulling the proverbial plug as it were.  Getting along in my book implies understanding, not avoidance, of ones own and each others views. A continuing effort me thinks. And like I said.... not to worry... we are piano folk and because of that fact this list will remain basically piano talk. RicB     "Kevin E. Ramsey" wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>     Look folks, I've thought about it for a long time now, and it seems that there are just some things which should be kept off the list. For the simple reason that not only do we all have different opinions, we seem to live (sometimes) in different realities. Depends on what you read, and what you believe, but we really can, and routinely do, live in different worlds. Or at least we perceive our worlds from different perspectives. I was watching a debate on TV one night, and one of the participants said something like "I don't know what history books YOU'VE been reading, but they don't agree with what I've read." I thought, that's it exactly!  When you accept certain things as fact, you act on that premise. I'm sure that some of the premises that each and every one of us has accepted could be fallacious. For instance, the issue of global warming; which scientist are you going to believe? The one that supports your own beliefs? In that case, you may have a different world view than I, and neither of us may accept a different view of our own particular reality.    Of course, you think "That idiot, can't he/she see the world as it is, it's as plain as day!"  Sorry, perhaps that person lives in a totally different world, and trying to get them to see things your way would be painful for them, so don't even try.    Personally, I try to think objectively, not emotionally, and when presented with the facts, I can be pretty much counted on to admit when I've been acting on a false premise. But then, I live in my own world, so how could I tell?     Kevin E. Ramsey</blockquote> -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A> <A HREF="http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html">http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html</A>   </body> </html>