I acknowledged that either my or your viewpoint could be the wrong one - in fact, indirectly I admitted that we could BOTH be wrong, which is a hell of a lot more than I've ever seen out of you. In fact, I can't think of any time that I've ever seen you admit that you made a mistake. That's why a lot of people don't bother replying to you anymore - when a stubborn close-minded person and an idiot argue, it's easy to tell who the idiot is. :)

Your "factual data points" have mainly been taken by grabbing the key sentences from somebody else's post that back up your particular viewpoint, and then blatantly ignoring everything else they've been saying. I pretty much stopped responding to you not because I was taking a drubbing, but because I was tired of fighting somebody who wouldn't respond to legitimate questions, and instead only picked the battles that they wanted to fight, then proclaimed themselves the winner. That's not how real wars are fought - you fight on all the fronts you HAVE to, not just the ones you WANT to.

I'll admit I'm not the best debater in the world. IWETHEY is the first time I've really spoken up for myself and my beliefs, and I'm still coming to terms with conflicts between the "real world" and what I see as the "way things should be, if we'd all stop acting like a bunch of animals, and actually gave a damn about each other." If you'd actually read what I'd said, instead of having your typical knee-jerk reaction to anybody who disagrees with you, you'd see that the only beef I have with you isn't that you have the "wrong" worldview - it's that you're not willing to give even an inch and admit that there's a possibility that somebody else MIGHT be right.

And that's the point where a debate devolves into an argument.

...and unfortunately, some that I don't have time to handle properly right now.

Yeah, I know I don't cite much. Problem is mainly due to time - As a full time worker/college student, this is pretty much my sole "entertainment" source lately. Maybe in about a year, when I'm done with college, I'll have more time to go digging through different sites looking for articles to back up my position. My comment about getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night for the past two weeks is unfortunately too accurate, and I wish it was due to something enjoyable.

I agree that you post a lot more "raw data points" than others in the form of newslinks - but I've also seen you grab one sentence out of a whole paragraph that somebody else cites, then dismiss the rest as an "incoherent rant" without explaining WHY you think its an "incoherent rant." IIRC, in formal logic studies, there's a specific name for that kind of fallacy, but it doesn't come to mind at present.

I'll also admit that it's possible I missed seeing you admit that you've been in error. I can't recall ever seeing such a post, but I'll admit the possibility. If you want to point it out to me, fine, if not, I'll take your word as a man of honor. Oddly enough, I do respect you as somebody who at least stands behind what they say. A lot more than can be said for one other person who didn't respond to a certain chess challenge a bit back... (No, not the two of you who are currently playing me - in fact, I wasn't the challenger...)

As far as the "blaming others for not letting you win" bit - I mentioned merely that you and I have incompatible .dll structures, and that from my viewpoint, you don't appear to have room to admit that other possible .dll structures exist. I probably did overstep that a bit - like all dogmas, (including my own!) they cannot accept the existence of a dogma that is not subservient to their own. I'd like to improve my debate skills, I'm just realizing that right now, it's counterproductive for me to worry about debate when I've got homework. :) I keep bouncing into arguments when my emotions get the better of me, and then bounce out when I realize I've got 1k lines of code due the next morning, which does give kind of a scattered appearance. :( Sorry if I've given the impression that I'm blaming you for my inability to debate.

I think the largest disconnect between you and me, however, comes on a philosophical level - we seem to disagree on a pretty deep level exactly what we should and should not do in response to recent world events. You might be surprised, if I ever ran off at the mouth, just what I would be willing to do in order to put an end to this threat once and for all, just as I have expressed my surprise at the actions you seem willing to do. In the end, however, we are ultimately on the same side - we do not wish to have threats to civilization wandering around Out There. Barbarians at the Gate, et al.

For now, I'll TRY to stop firing blanks into the crouds... And just chuck a few grenades when I find live ones.