The Rules

I welcome rational, reasoned debate here. That means you can't rely on "I feel..." or "I think..." with no support. If you are going to the trouble to express yourself, please feel free to do so, but understand that I expect everyone to ground their arguments in empirical data rather than emotions, so explain why you're thinking or feeling something.

Furthermore, if you make personal attacks or are overly insulting, I will warn you, and if you persist, I will delete your comments. Call it censorship if you must, but I'm really not interested in promoting the prevalent culture of entitlement, ego-gratification, and irrationality... I sincerely had hoped that the title of the blog would've tipped you off to that.

Friday, February 18, 2011

The Rules

You know, I'm not a person who is big on blogging. Honestly? I think that most bloggers are the kind of people who are just babbling because they fear silence. Now that that's out of the way... Let me say this first: I DO NOT THINK that I am better than you. I DO NOT THINK that my opinions are more valid than yours. That said, I expect for you guys and gals to present logical and cogent arguments when you're debating with me. If you're one of the 'madding crowd' who just spews off what you heard/read in the media, and seems to be incapable of rational, independent thought, then be prepared to enjoy the full extent of my scorn, because you are, as the kids say, weak-sauce. Now, just to make things nice and sparkling clear: I usually won't debate you on Baseball. I definitely won't debate you on Basketball. I doubt you'll find me involved Hockey arguments... My expertise is Football. My father was an All-American tackle at a Big-10 university in the 50s. He played Professional Football for 5 different teams across 7 years during the 60s. (Both on AFL and NFL teams if you were wondering.) I was an unplanned child, with two older sisters, so- as you can likely guess- I had a football in my crib from <15 minutes after I was born. I was a pretty decent football player, but I don't like to talk about it. Let it just be said that an injury ended my career, just when it was most promising. Regardless, the point is: I've been living and breathing football pretty much since 15 minutes after I was born. Does that make me better than you? No. Does that make me always right? Certainly not. But it does mean that I'm not just going to 'take your word for it'. You're going to have to come up with some fundamentally sound and factually grounded arguments, because I'm fairly certain that I've got a stronger background in football than 99% of the football fans these days, regardless of how strident they may be. So, bring it. I love to have people question me, and I'm more than willing to invest the time and effort in coming up with a response to someone who presents a solid intellectual challenge to what I have said. But if you can't come up with rational arguments?? Be prepared for me to mock you, because I don't have time to waste on people who try to puff themselves up as experts, when they are really just irrational fans.