Hello fellow listmembers, It has been brought to my attention that my comment about ReiserFS having a greater intrinsic value than the life of Nina Reiser has had an alternate interpretation other than that which I have intended. Specifically, it's been brought to my attention that my comment has been interpreted as assigning a low value to women in general - that meaning was most certainly unintended, and I apologize for having worded my post in such a way that made this unintended interpretation possible.
I'm guessing that the primary source for confusion was my use of the word "bitch". As a clarification, I have used that word to refer specifically to Nina Reiser and not to women in general. My specific labeling of Nina Reiser as a "bitch" is based solely on my judgment of how she has mistreated Hans Reiser prior to her disappearance/death, it has absolutely nothing to do with her gender or any other characteristics, and it can't be generalized to other people or situations. I believe that Nina Reiser was in the wrong in the child custody battle that has allegedly led Hans Reiser to a murderous impulse, but once again that is my personal judgment specific to the Reiser case. I have had up-close exposure to several other nasty child custody debacles, and in many cases my judgment is that the man is totally in the wrong whereas the woman is in the right. In other words, it's a case-by-case judgment, no generalizations. But I still stand by my words that the wrongful incarceration of Hans Reiser at the hands of the USA nation-state is a tragedy for the Linux community, and *this* is the part that's relevant to Linux/FOSS mailing lists such as this one. ReiserFS was/is awesome, and Hans Reiser's inability to contribute to its further development is a major loss to our entire community. It is my political opinion that the Linux/FOSS users of the world should unite and form our own nation, develop and form our own military, and have the Linux Nation or whatever it should be called forcefully challenge USA for the release of Hans Reiser - but it's just that, my political opinion. You may agree or disagree with it as you like, but I should be able to express it. In any case, let's not discuss it here further as Chris Louden has asked. I also feel that I need to make a clarification regarding my views on the relative values of software and human life in general. I have said that ReiserFS had/has a greater intrinsic value than the life of Nina Reiser, and I stand by this value judgment. The specific case of this value judgment logically implies that it *is* possible in general to have a piece of software that's more valuable than human life. If anyone feels offended by this view, I apologize for my view being offensive to you, but I'm not going to change my core system of values. In my core system of values there exist plenty of things that are more valuable than human life, and that's just how it is. Furthermore, I am not a hypocrite in that I consider my own life to be of lesser value than certain other things: in fact, of all the things I have, my life itself is the least valuable! As a very specific example, most of you know that I find most modern technology disgusting and repulsive, and I absolutely require ancient computing hardware and software in order to have a happy and meaningful life. To me this ancient hardware and software has a much greater value than my life itself: losing my HW/SW would make my life miserable and devoid of meaning, whereas my own death would be mere cessation of pain and suffering. I very much hope that I die before my VAX does, and I am dead serious about this (pun intended). So if anyone is offended by my judgment of ReiserFS being more valuable than the life of Nina Reiser, here is my challenge to you: if I value my own life less than my ancient operating system, why should I not be allowed to pass the same judgment on others? Why should I be a hypocrite in reverse? Speaking of death, I very much hope that this thread dies. The only reason I'm making this post is to clarify that there was absolutely no misogynistic intent behind my original comment. MS _______________________________________________ LinuxUsers mailing list LinuxUsers@socallinux.org http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers
