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.
-- 
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