June 2007 Screwballs of the Month

[JonLanceBarker]

hey everyone, i just encountered a Screwball!

this guy posted in a thread here on tWeb about a meeting between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church which primarily related to the issue of papal primacy.

not only was this guy completely off-topic, he was completely paranoid and venomous:

"An authentic anti-Catholic campaign is being conducted not only by the Russian Orthodox Church and nationalist forces, but also by State agencies," stated the Italian news daily La Stampa.
The president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in the Russian Federation, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, issued a protest statement declaring "with grave concern" that "an organized campaign is being waged against the Catholic Church in Russia," according to the independent Zenit news agency. …

…The position of the Catholic Church in Russia perceptively worsened when the Vatican raised the status of its four "apostolic administrations" to formal diocese.
The Russian Orthodox Church condemned the action as part of a plan to convert Orthodox Christians to the Catholic Church. The Russian government took offense, claiming that the Vatican failed to inform either the government or officials of the Russian Orthodox Church.
An official of the Catholic hierarchy in Russia denied the allegation, and stated that both the Russian government and the Orthodox Church were appraised of the move in advance.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/pr...TICLE_ID=27345

The Russian Orthodox Church continues to enjoy a special status with the Russian government, particularly at the local level. As a result, some Christian leaders are experiencing an increasing intolerance toward non-Orthodox believers. New visas and visa renewals have been regularly denied for foreign religious workers.
http://www.persecution.net/country/russia.htm

Hhmmm…

Of course, I’m not accusing the Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of collaborating with the domestic Russian intelligence service, the FSB,
and of course, I wouldn’t say there is intrigue and political influences affecting the bishops’ statements:

"These are the questions around which principal problems will emerge," Bishop Hilarion said. "I protested and will continue to protest if such important theological and ecclesiological questions are put to the vote. What is at stake here is not to identify a majority or minority opinion, but to find the truth."
Bishop Hilarion also said the commission's composition failed to reflect "the actual distribution of powers and views in the Orthodox world," since each Orthodox church was represented by two members, despite its size. (The Orthodox Senate?)
"However, the Orthodox church has a structure different than that of the Catholic Church, as we have no single universal primate. ... There must be no illusion that there is such a hierarch."

But I would ask Arsenio if the Russian Orthodox Church has any plans to canonize Marx and Lenin.

when soundly rebuked for his sheer hateful venom, he responded:

I apologize for the slip of my bold button,
But the intense indignation brought forth from my indescretion has very nicely concealed the facts going on in Russia that no one cares to acknowledge, and the Catholic Church knows better than to pull the tail of the tiger that wants to eat her.

The Russian Orthodox Church, in my opinion, is guilty of being in bed with a whore: a corrupt anticatholic regime, and NOWHERE has the ROC made any PROTEST on the matter of persecution of Catholics in Russia. This leads me to think the bishop's desire to "find the truth" over opinions is pure hypocracy. All the bishop can protest is the finding of truth by a show of hands while Catholics are persecuted and orthodox are untouched. Does he protest that???

Refering to the Catholic Church's hierarchy as "an illusion" is an opinion based on ancient politics, ethnic rivalries, social, a historical and cultural context that is often overlooked. And nit-picking what Church Father said what taken out of historical and cultural context is simply more Protestant nominalism.

Refering to the Catholic Church's hierarchy as "an illusion" is pure revisonism and contrary to the very words of Christ Himself. Catholics have always got their teachings from the bishops and the Pope, who get their teachings from from the Apostles , who get their teachings from Christ, who gets his teachings from God. The New Davidic Kingdom reveals and expands what is not-so-hidden in the hierarchy of the Old Davidic Kingdom. It is not an illusion.

IMO the Russian Orthodox Church is paranoid and suffering from an inferiority complex and is not really interested in "finding the truth", and they reject the very divinely guided mechanism for finding the truth. Evidence of this is the moral compomise they make with the evils of contraception.

Obviously there is more behind the persecution of Catholics in Russia that state sponsored intolerance. Wake up.

here's the original thread:

http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...52#post1984152

(note: if you see the "amen" underneath his last post, it was entirely accidental. )

[Adam]

Okay, Curtmudgeon. Thanks for clarifying for me.
My take: Obviously the man must have a high IQ. I suggest that in his case this indicates extreme narrowness of view, as convergent thinking is the type of IQ that excels in computer programming. My hat's off to him in recognition of what he can do that I thank God I never got into.
1. He thinks convergent thinking is a type of IQ.
2. He thinks that one needs a high ammount of convergent thinking IQ to do well in the computer biz.
3. He thinks high amounts of convergent thinking IQ, but not neccesarily a high IQ by any means, equals narrow mindedness, as the bolded part points out imo.

Thanks, Kelp,
For continually trying to defend me until Curtmudgeon's one-track mind derailed you.
I can easily see why C launched his attack on me in June Screwballs of the Month where he assumed I would not be looking. (No courtesy of a PM to me, of course.) (I usually restrict my inspection of Tektonics to the Stevec Constantine Conspiracy Crap thread, where the insults are equal from both sides. And yes, I only posted there once, so C would not have noticed my name there.) Thank you, Lance Q, for your better-deserved Screwball nomination that got me looking here and finding myself psychometric-analyzed (yes, I invented that word just now).
I'll avoiding the more technical stuff unless called-upon, hoping you'll read the more fun reply following.
It happens that I do have considerable interaction with computer programmers, starting with my anecdote (omitted by C) about how my counselor persuaded me in 1962 to avoid a dead-end career in computers, a field with no possible future. After getting my M. A. in History and teaching for a year, I went back in 1970 to get an M. S. in Business, Specialization in Accounting. This included several of the same courses the Specialization in Computer Science people took, in computers, programming, and operations research. By 1974 I received my C. P. A. license after auditing about a dozen organizations that were fully computerized, and doing my in-office work specializing on setting up computerized accounts and general ledgers for our bookkeeping clients. I then went to work for three years at a company written up in the Wall Street Journal in 1976 (and naming me) as the first company computerizing individualized estate and financial planning. I was actually doing some computer programming myself. The top-drawer programmers I met there were indeed creative thinkers. However, in the last thirty years I have continually run into computer programmers who could not even interact with me and my fellow accountants. They were just completely narrow-minded convergent thinkers. They could only understand their specialty, they were quite baffled by accounting, even though accountants are themselves usually ridiculed as narrow-minded. Very high IQ fellows indeed, but entirely lacking in creativity because they had convergent thinking with no divergent component.
Thank you, JPH, for your selection of me as a Screwball in May. I am quite proud of my concept of the anti-apologists I term the "Dirty Dozen". His quote from me is so exact that the twelfth nominee to the dozen inadvertently is not named. He was Darth Xhepherd. So the complete list of the Dirty Dozen is Apologia Phoenix, Darth Xhepherd, Flimflamboyant, Jason, jordanriver, JPH, LilPixieofTerror, Mountain Man, One Following Him, Sparko, Turgonian, and Vigilante. Most of these dozen gave such links to Glenn Miller that I had to assume that Glenn is a terrible guy. I have not read his stuff myself, largely because they liked him so well. So maybe he is a nice guy, I don't know. I also don't know, and none of the rest of you seem to know either, "Where did Glenn get his B. A. and Th. M. in theology?" Even if they were honorary degrees, I said myself in my further remarks that his website studies entitled him to them. At this point of no one stating even that, I begin wondering whether they were purchased from a diploma mill. People do that, you know. The boss of the company I mention above did that, bought a doctorate diploma from Williams College--the Williams "College" in New Mexico.
Adam

[Frogwarrior]

Adam, I would say that, athough there are a significant number of narrow-minded computer programmers as you describe, that is really more the "code monkey" type of programmer... the cream of the crop that get new and interesting things done really have to think "outside the box" to accomplish anything significant.

Like many fields, narrow-minded dull kinds of people may be well suited for the "grunt" type of work, but to really be good at it takes real smarts.

Though this is off-topic, really.

[Adam]

So maybe he is a nice guy, I don't know. I also don't know, and none of the rest of you seem to know either, "Where did Glenn get his B. A. and Th. M. in theology?" Adam

OK, all,
I've now read considerable patches of Christian Think-Tank,
And I can concur with the "nice-guy" consensus.
I would have proceeded along the same lines in the whole web-site lay-out.
We reach different conclusions because he takes very doctrinaire positions on evangelical theology, shunting everyone towards "independent non-denominational" churches (what I tell people is code for "Fundamentalist"), completely ignoring 2000 years of church history in the liturgical churches that brought us the Bible in the first place.
He tells everyone to read several times through the epistles, psalms, and proverbs before tackling the rest of the Bible. I'm just the opposite, starting first with the gospels (OK, after first reading the First Epistle of John), then the prophets.
In literary composition of the Synoptics, again he proceeds the opposite, taking extreme skepticism about the assured results of literary dependence and substituting his eclectic explanation of just three authors.
He takes a humble position not taking himself too seriously, and quotes other people for the gritty stuff, so he's no monster, far from it. I like him.
Adam

[Kelp]

hi.

Thanks, Kelp,
For continually trying to defend me until Curtmudgeon's one-track mind derailed you.

In point of fact I wasn't defending you per se, merely trying to figure out if I agreed with/understood Curt's analysis. If I had detected any missrepresentation, I would have said something, I hope.

I can easily see why C launched his attack on me in June Screwballs of the Month where he assumed I would not be looking. (No courtesy of a PM to me, of course.)

That's a tad accusatory. How do you know he didn't forget to tell you?

It happens that I do have considerable interaction with computer programmers, starting with my anecdote (omitted by C) about how my counselor persuaded me in 1962 to avoid a dead-end career in computers, a field with no possible future. After getting my M. A. in History and teaching for a year, I went back in 1970 to get an M. S. in Business, Specialization in Accounting. This included several of the same courses the Specialization in Computer Science people took, in computers, programming, and operations research. By 1974 I received my C. P. A. license after auditing about a dozen organizations that were fully computerized, and doing my in-office work specializing on setting up computerized accounts and general ledgers for our bookkeeping clients. I then went to work for three years at a company written up in the Wall Street Journal in 1976 (and naming me) as the first company computerizing individualized estate and financial planning. I was actually doing some computer programming myself. The top-drawer programmers I met there were indeed creative thinkers. However, in the last thirty years I have continually run into computer programmers who could not even interact with me and my fellow accountants. They were just completely narrow-minded convergent thinkers. They could only understand their specialty, they were quite baffled by accounting, even though accountants are themselves usually ridiculed as narrow-minded. Very high IQ fellows indeed, but entirely lacking in creativity because they had convergent thinking with no divergent component.

[Bolding mine]

Thank you, JPH, for your selection of me as a Screwball in May. I am quite proud of my concept of the anti-apologists I term the "Dirty Dozen". His quote from me is so exact that the twelfth nominee to the dozen inadvertently is not named. He was Darth Xhepherd. So the complete list of the Dirty Dozen is Apologia Phoenix, Darth Xhepherd, Flimflamboyant, Jason, jordanriver, JPH, LilPixieofTerror, Mountain Man, One Following Him, Sparko, Turgonian, and Vigilante. Most of these dozen gave such links to Glenn Miller that I had to assume that Glenn is a terrible guy. I have not read his stuff myself, largely because they liked him so well. So maybe he is a nice guy, I don't know. I also don't know, and none of the rest of you seem to know either, "Where did Glenn get his B. A. and Th. M. in theology?" Even if they were honorary degrees, I said myself in my further remarks that his website studies entitled him to them. At this point of no one stating even that, I begin wondering whether they were purchased from a diploma mill. People do that, you know. The boss of the company I mention above did that, bought a doctorate diploma from Williams College--the Williams "College" in New Mexico.
Adam

Well, based on your post after this, I see you've found that it's not a good idea to just assume, eh? I bolded that part above because you acknowledge that you have met programmers who are creative thinkers. You shouldn't have merely assumed the worst about Miller (even acknowledging your recent experience. You said that the creative thinkers were the top drawer programmers and you also said that Miller was quite successful.) before looking more carefully.

[Sparko]

Thanks, Kelp,
For continually trying to defend me until Curtmudgeon's one-track mind derailed you.
I can easily see why C launched his attack on me in June Screwballs of the Month where he assumed I would not be looking. (No courtesy of a PM to me, of course.) (I usually restrict my inspection of Tektonics to the Stevec Constantine Conspiracy Crap thread, where the insults are equal from both sides. And yes, I only posted there once, so C would not have noticed my name there.) Thank you, Lance Q, for your better-deserved Screwball nomination that got me looking here and finding myself psychometric-analyzed (yes, I invented that word just now).
I'll avoiding the more technical stuff unless called-upon, hoping you'll read the more fun reply following.
It happens that I do have considerable interaction with computer programmers, starting with my anecdote (omitted by C) about how my counselor persuaded me in 1962 to avoid a dead-end career in computers, a field with no possible future. After getting my M. A. in History and teaching for a year, I went back in 1970 to get an M. S. in Business, Specialization in Accounting. This included several of the same courses the Specialization in Computer Science people took, in computers, programming, and operations research. By 1974 I received my C. P. A. license after auditing about a dozen organizations that were fully computerized, and doing my in-office work specializing on setting up computerized accounts and general ledgers for our bookkeeping clients. I then went to work for three years at a company written up in the Wall Street Journal in 1976 (and naming me) as the first company computerizing individualized estate and financial planning. I was actually doing some computer programming myself. The top-drawer programmers I met there were indeed creative thinkers. However, in the last thirty years I have continually run into computer programmers who could not even interact with me and my fellow accountants. They were just completely narrow-minded convergent thinkers. They could only understand their specialty, they were quite baffled by accounting, even though accountants are themselves usually ridiculed as narrow-minded. Very high IQ fellows indeed, but entirely lacking in creativity because they had convergent thinking with no divergent component.
Thank you, JPH, for your selection of me as a Screwball in May. I am quite proud of my concept of the anti-apologists I term the "Dirty Dozen". His quote from me is so exact that the twelfth nominee to the dozen inadvertently is not named. He was Darth Xhepherd. So the complete list of the Dirty Dozen is Apologia Phoenix, Darth Xhepherd, Flimflamboyant, Jason, jordanriver, JPH, LilPixieofTerror, Mountain Man, One Following Him, Sparko, Turgonian, and Vigilante. Most of these dozen gave such links to Glenn Miller that I had to assume that Glenn is a terrible guy. I have not read his stuff myself, largely because they liked him so well. So maybe he is a nice guy, I don't know. I also don't know, and none of the rest of you seem to know either, "Where did Glenn get his B. A. and Th. M. in theology?" Even if they were honorary degrees, I said myself in my further remarks that his website studies entitled him to them. At this point of no one stating even that, I begin wondering whether they were purchased from a diploma mill. People do that, you know. The boss of the company I mention above did that, bought a doctorate diploma from Williams College--the Williams "College" in New Mexico.
Adam

Wow, thanks Adam!!

First I was deemed part of the "Axis of Evil" along with Mossrose and Jason, by Da Blonde, and now you, an arrogant, liberal, self-righteous prig puts me in the "dirty dozen" along with such great people as you list above. Thank you! It is an honor!

[Kelp]

How could anyone call mossy evil ?

[Meta Knight]

How could anyone call mossy evil ?

Dude...you don't remember her old encyclopedia entry?

[Kelp]

Well, that was joke. I was talking about Da Blonde. Did she mean it seriously? I've never met her and I think she left around the time I first joined, so I didn't know what she was talking about. [removing big nose from situation where it doesn't belong in 3, 2, 1...]

[Sparko]

How could anyone call mossy evil ?

see here:
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...&postcount=282

[lilpixieofterror]

Wow, thanks Adam!!

First I was deemed part of the "Axis of Evil" along with Mossrose and Jason, by Da Blonde, and now you, an arrogant, liberal, self-righteous prig puts me in the "dirty dozen" along with such great people as you list above. Thank you! It is an honor!

Thanks Sparko! Honor being listed with you too. So as a member of the 'dirty dozen' ^TM do you want to go kick some puppies with me after work at 11PM (CST)?

Edited to add: Oh I forgot to mention. I did the Relay for Life to help raise money for the American Cancer Society. Gosh I'm such an evil person that needs to be on the 'Dirty Dozen'^TM list!

[lilpixieofterror]

How could anyone call mossy evil ?

Mossy is a wolf in sheep's clothing. However; Trout is the secret grand master of evil.

[ApologiaPhoenix]

Mossy is a wolf in sheep's clothing. However; Trout is the secret grand master of evil.

Secret?

[lilpixieofterror]

Secret?

Oh opps.

[Kelp]

see here:
http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...&postcount=282

Was she just kidding?