Hi Gilbert Just a short reply to avoid both of us going endlessly round in circles. 1 To suggest that you are a "progressive" is a good way at humour! Someone who supports the current minority Republicans (as per your own admission) is not only a die-hard conservative but rather an 'extreme' one like the neo-cons. For instance, you have never been critical of the catastrophic error of invading Iraq---but then, you may well approve of it as long as your loved ones are not dying there and are far away from that horror.. 2. That poodle called Blair was as conservative as Thatcher was and indeed her political heir. Further, labels like liberal and conservative are more meaningful than you seem to imagine. Those who want to change society are progressives and radicals. We should be grateful to them otherwise, you and I would be sitting at the back of the proverbial bus in the southern states of the USA and apartheid would have been flourishing in South Africa and women would still be waiting for the vote in most advanced countries. Even further, poodles are led. They do not lead as you mistakenly suggest! 3. Religious beliefs and scientific understandings are totally different. The former are based on faith and the latter on empirical evidence even though I am hesitant when using the word "facts" but will accept that all scientific facts are provisional until falsified. The principle of falsification is built into anything deemed to be scientific. 4 Surely it is the case that specialism is about knowing more and more about less and less and thus quite the opposite of what you say. Also, as a medic, it worries me that you may not rely on the scientific evidence you should be relying on but on faith as sometimes indicated in your Goanet posts. 5 Hitler was honest in 'regurgitating' from the Bible but he was totally wrong in his 'honesty' in terms of outcomes. 6 We probably are agreed that the horrific Inquisition in Goa was not targeted towards gaining new converts from Hinduism when at its most intense. The inquisitors had their work cut out for them to keep the existing converts on the straight and narrow. 7 Finally, I have noticed your recent attempt to use the word "casteism" very misleadingly to try and 'protect' casteism by every trick in the book. My critique of people's writings/ideas is part of my business of being an academic. I am definitely not an "acclaimed Goan" as you say. Further when I stick my neck out over issues like caste and casteism among the so called Catholics Goans, I invite criticism of my writings and of which you are uncomfortable in your protectionist attitude towards casteism. You call this baiting but I don't feel strongly about "baiting". My only regret is that hardly anyone among the Catholic Goan casteists are bright enough and have what it takes to take me on in a fulsome debate/discussion that I would love to have. Do you mean they would not take me on if they could? All they can do is to be pathetically personal from time to time but even this is not often because they are mindful that in such circumstances I can be readily waspish. Sadly, your quips (against me) over Catholic Goan casteism are incredibly light-weight and I hope that, just as I demolished your previous claim that I referred to casteism incorrectly as a concept, I will have hereby demolished your most strange recent idea that I am using casteism to belittle fellow Goans. I am CASTELESS my friend and just a very ordinary member of the universal human race. To impose caste on me is racist as is invariably done in Goa, the prime generator of caste among the so called Catholic Goans and especially through Brahmin indoctrination of their children to perpetuate the ghastly practise. So let's get this absolutely straight about what I said over two years ago. I am totally opposed to all forms of racism of which casteism is a particularly obnoxious example. From this stance, Catholic casteists have no place to hide after 'ruling' the roost for several centuries in Goa. Do take it from me and others that, Catholic Goan casteists are finished intellectually, often materially and in terms of any credibility, except within their own insidious decadent circles. They will not die overnight. Sadly, sometimes, the arrival of death is prolonged unnecessarily even when, in analogy, the poisonous head of a snake is cut off from the rest of the body.. Regards Cornel. Gilbert Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi Cornel,
Thanks for your response to my post. To be specific to the points you raise, my (GL) reply to each of them follow your (CD) comments. I hope you have your 'humor button' switched-on. Kind Regards, GL
