Jos,

Thank you for calming the waters and parting the seas. It IS tiresome to wade through what ultimately turns out to be the "expression" of an emotional bias about ANY topic. The definition of DEBATE, as you are aware, INCLUDES the Qualification that there be a Respected Structure in the exchange of information, either that of Parlimentary Procedure, or the structure Implied by having equally matched Sides. Without such a definition, a Debate is no more than a street-level argument. (I am using the Meriam Webster definition: " a contention by words or arguments: as a : the formal discussion of a motion before a deliberative body according to the rules of parliamentary procedure b : a regulated discussion of a proposition between two matched sides")

I have learned that any Opinion worth having should be subjected to much scrutiny and critical evaluation. When a Forum is the arena for Critical Evaluation of a topic, all participants may prosper. When a Forum is the arena of Argumentation, only those who find Gladiators exciting will be Entertained, and only those who want to be Gladiators will enter the arena.

To be outside the Operating Room and adopt the position that 1) you can actually tell WHAT'S GOING ON INSIDE simply by how the patients look when they exit, and 2) that you can somehow ARGUE "Motive of the Surgeon" with the nurses and technicians who come and go from the room is, blatantly, Preposterous. The only way a person could adopt such a position, and argue with someone FROM THE INSIDE who was reporting on what is going on INSIDE would be to have ABANDONED one's notion of the critical processes of Reason, or, to adopt that position that the liaison and/or the organization are blatantly lying and have a Hidden Agenda which must be cleverly concealled. This ISN'T the Kennedy Assasination and Microsoft is Not the Warren Commission. (THERE'S a GREAT invitation...)
While Fox is an extremely important part of my computer universe, and while my anxiety over the eventual evolution (or deevolution) of the language grows with each new release, I can hardly use that anxiety as a basis for evaluating the World of Fox, or Microsoft.

I have to wonder, however, how capable we humans are of differentiating our FEELINGS from our THOUGHTS, and how conscious we are of the need to address the Where and When of giving one side predominance over the other. I fear that the real MOTIVE behind Most "discussion" is to simply gain Temporary Admission to a Sandbox where one can simply Express One's Emotions, regardless of the level of sophistication one has achieved in other areas. It would appear that Our World has, indeed, succeeded in perpetrating the Myth that "it's how you FEEL about something that's really Important". This leaves a great Wrent in the Garment of Humanity, exposing parts of ourselves that should, by any Mature Propriety, be kept Private. To celebrate such exposure is, at best, immature behavior.

Thank you for your Clarity, your Tact, and your Motive.

And thanks for the ear.

I shall now spend a few minutes contemplating the characters which adorn the picture of Raphael's "Academy" which is my Windows background image....they are Excited about their Debates....I wonder if they have defined the Rules yet....I wonder if we could do a Reality TV show based on The Academy.....

David