Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!killer!tness7!tness1!sugar!karl From: karl@sugar.UUCP (Karl Lehenbauer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Jerry Pournelle Summary: The real problem is his mad friend died and now he doesn't have anyone technically competent to tell him he's full of crap. Message-ID: <2068@sugar.UUCP> Date: 1 Jun 88 04:29:29 GMT References: <7234@swan.ulowell.edu> <707@applix.UUCP> <893@entropy.ms.washington.edu> Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX Lines: 17 [Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed, flame level on maximum] It used to be Jerry Pournelle would say a bunch of stupid crap and his "mad friend MacLean" would tell him so and he'd print that, too, so we'd say "He's full of crap but at least his mad friend MacLean got it right." Then his mad friend died. Now we just say "He's full of crap." There are no self-correcting mechanisms to be found, within Pournelle or apparently the editorial staff of Byte magazine. To appropriate from Mencken, Pournelle is a tinpot pope in the Coca-Cola belt and a brother to the forlorn pastors who belabor halfwits in galvanized iron tabernacles behind the railroad yards, or, more succint if less eloquent, he doesn't know what the heck he's talking about and slams anyone who says so. (For example lunacy, the "one processor for every application" business of a few months ago and calling Wirth a "high priest" opposed to user-friendliness a few years ago.) To quote sugar!peter from around 1982, J.P. needs a new mad friend. -- ..!{bellcore!tness1,uunet!nuchat}!sugar!karl, Unix BBS (713) 438-5018