Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!twwells!bill From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: posting privileges Message-ID: <764@twwells.uucp> Date: 11 Mar 89 02:26:13 GMT References: <7526@pyr.gatech.EDU> Reply-To: bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells) Distribution: usa Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale Lines: 47 Summary: Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Keywords: In article <7526@pyr.gatech.EDU> gus@pyr.gatech.EDU (gus Baird) writes: : > Article 5382 of news.admin: : >From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells) : > Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale : > : > (For the inevitable question: yes, "racism". Check your dictionary. : > There is no better word that I know of. "Discrimination" does not : > cut it because there is nothing intrinsicly wrong with : > discrimination. Rather "racism" could be defined as "discrimination : > of people using irrelevant characteristics" but discrimination itself : > is essential to life. And yes, "contemn", too.) : : No more wicked, again, than the general custom of recognizing maturity : as a prerequisite to certain privileges, necessitated by practical : considerations and generally regretted. No, Mr. Racist, you are equivocating. If your criterion were maturity, you'd have a point. If you could show some relationship between maturity and being an undergrad, you might have a case. But your criterion is only being an undergrad. And that is an irrelevant characteristic. For example, your racism would exclude *me* from posting. After all, I don't even have a high school diploma! (But I'm 32, and much better educated than the average poster, so don't try on me the patronizing remarks that you used when replying to that 13 year old.) Your protestation of practicality is so much hot air. Have you, perhaps, forgotten the voting age? It is 18. What age do most undergraduates start at? Right. In other words, you are implying that the rest of the country is dead wrong when it grants to the typical undergrad the right to vote. And don't bring up the drinking age: you can't equivalence a deadly weapon like a car to an inappropriate posting or even to the imminent death of Usenet. You have a choice: either recognize that undergraduates are human beings, possessed of rights like all others, presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, as the rest of the country does, or accept your title of "Racist". --- Bill { uunet | novavax } !twwells!bill (BTW, I'm going to be looking for a new job sometime in the next few months. If you know of a good one, do send me e-mail.)