Being nice

I've been accosted with a meme -- the blogging equivalent of a chain letter.

Apparently antibiotics can't cure it, which is the case with all viruses, so homeopathic catharsis is the only thing for it. The 'Respectful Disagreement Meme' requires of me that I name three people with whom I frequently disagree, and say something nice about them. Hmmm.

1) First cab of the block is a Sicilian from Brooklyn. Chris Sciabarra PhD, PhD, PhD favours extensive footnotes over forceful prose and chairs over buildings, and while his musical taste is generally excecrable -- current 'Song of the Day' on his site is 'Boogie Nights' for Freud's sake!! -- he can write the hind leg off a very big donkey.

2) Second cab off the rank, which in my estimation should be moving very fast in a direction away from me, is Doctor Fred Seddon, a man whose project to reconcile David Hume, Plato, Ayn Rand and Immanuel Kant sets me off like finger nails down a blackboard, but who ... sheesh .. do I really have to say something nice about all three people here?

3) I don't think I've ever heard Tony Benn say anything with which I've agreed, although I did admire him stepping down from being Lord Tony Benn several years ago, and he does have a black belt in boring, but now that he's like a sort of more statesmanlike JimAnderton -- relatively harmless, utterly ineffectual, and almost the last representative of an extinct species -- he's like a household pet you quite like having around just to feel sorry for.

So who am I going to tag with this virus? Anyone that wants to pick up the infection and run with it, that's who. Pick up thy pens and write. Or use a keyboard if you must. :-P

[UPDATE: Chris Sciabarra has tried to say nice things about me here. Great footnotes too. Dr Fred tried to say nice things about me in an e-mail. I doubt however that I'm on Tony Benn's mailing list, and I know I'm not on Jim Anderton's.]