[Robotgroup] Wired Magazines Best Geek Cities

[Def Egge]

One of the great things about the United States of America is the  
First Amendment to the Constitution[1].  One can say anything, no  
matter how inane, uninformed, or insulting - as long as you believe  
that it is true - without fear of retribution.

Having only been in Texas for 31 years, I cannot consider myself an  
expert.  I resided in only two places in the panhandle, in addition to  
Lubbock, before relocating to Austin.  Nevertheless, I find the  
author's contention grossly inaccurate  and largely inapplicable to my  
experience in the state.  Furthermore, I'll guess that s/he/it has  
never traveled beyond the larger cities to learn - firsthand - what  
this great state has to offer.

It is interesting to see that the authors's logic is acceptable when  
used to bitch-slap the rest of the State of Texas[3] in a left-handed  
compliment to Austin.  I wonder if such broad strokes of  
generalization would be considered as politically correct if applied  
to women, gays, Muslims, hispanics, or blacks.

Austin, from my 21 years of residence, has neither a great lock on  
independent-mindedness nor on free-thinking.  There are more than  
enough conformists to go around.  I have met no fewer racists,  
closed-minded, and hateful individuals here than I have elsewhere.

So believe as you wish.  I have no intention of trying to persuade you  
otherwise.  I was not born here.  I chose (and still choose) to live  
here.

I apologize for the injection of politics into the list.  Let's return  
to the discussion of robots and robotic art.

[1] A greater thing, to my humble way of thinking, is the Second  
Amendment to the Constitution, since it guarantees the existence of  
the remainder of the Bill of Rights[2]

[2] The three boxes of representative democracy: the ballot box, the  
jury box, and the cartridge box.

[3] the complement, so so speak


All the best....

Mike



Quoting Leslie Filip <lfilip at mac.com>:

> Austin is an island of independent thinkers floating in a sea of
> ultra-right wing crazies and rednecks, that's all. Texas gets a bad
> name not only from "W" but from white boys dragging people of color
> behind pickup trucks down gravel roads on the end of a chain. I
> actually believe the writer of the article is fully justified in
> saying what he did. He complimented Austin while simultaneously bitch
> slapping the rest of Texas.
>
> Les, native Texan
>
>
> On 13 Feb 2007, at 11:27 AM, Vern Graner wrote:
>
>> Def Egge wrote:
>>> Old news ... and the writer is still an a$$hole!  Pardon me. but I
>>> don't find that last line funny in the least.
>>
>> I don't know if it was designed to be funny/critical, but rather to
>> be a
>> "compliment" (if somewhat backhanded) to the city and its
>> denizens.. at
>> least thats how I interpreted it.
>>
>> When you compare the folks in Austin to the folks in say, Vidor or
>> Odessalate, you can see how comparatively Austin and it's embrace of
>> "weirdness" was an anomaly.
>>
>> My $0.02 anyway... :)
>>
>> Vern
>>
>> --
>> Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
>> Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
>> Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course, if the network
>> http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
>> Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG
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>
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-- 


All the best....


Mike