So it begins..

[Randall Randall]

Jared Smith wrote:
> With apologies to those who are innocent,
> 
> The rampant dishonesty which is exposed on this LUG list is ethically
> offensive and entirely opposed to the 'style' of Linus Torvalds, known well
> for his humility and honesty. All of you who are taking advantage of Logitech 
> are bringing a negative impression to those outside the Linux community,
> including agents who lurk on these lists looking for criminals. I wish
> you would not celebrate thievery on a public list. I wish you would not
> celebrate it privately either, but can do nothing about that.

Doesn't it seem a bit inconsistent to you that you are complaining
simultaneously about people NOT being honest and about being TOO
honest?  I could understand if you found out somehow that someone had
stolen some keyboards and complained about that, but it seems clear
from the fact that they are willing to discuss it openly that they
do not see what they did as stealing.  (Nor do I; no force was used
on Logitech, and Logitech's website people chose not to limit the
prizewinning to one per person).

Calling this stealing makes stealing seem okay to those who see
nothing wrong with asking for a gift more than once.  Please find
some way to describe what you dislike about this that doesn't
include the concept of 'theivery', so that you don't devalue the
legitimate use of that concept for acts of force which deprive others
of their property.

> p.s. I don't lose my temper over people who are dishonest. I lose my
> temper over people who are dishonest and then trumpet it, or
> those who are dishonest and then deny it. 

If the dishonest deny their dishonesty, they're only still being dishonest
If they do not, then you need to find some other word, do you not?  You
can't say that someone is dishonest and honestly tells everyone, friend
or stranger, about their dishonesty.  Once you fix these inconsistencies,
you'll be in a better position to further your own agenda, whatever that
is.

> Dishonesty happens to everyone; denial is plotted by a few.

People choose to be dishonest; it doesn't ever just 'happen'.

Please forgive this outburst.  I don't usually post much to this list,
but the above pushed one of my buttons. :)  I care very much about
honesty, and couldn't bear to see it distorted like this.

-- 
Randall Randall <randall at randallsquared.com>
"[The] poetic justice of cause and effect compels
 respect, compassion." -- Faithless, God is a DJ.