From: nospam@example.net   
      
   (written at 30000 ft somewhere over the baltic sea...)   
      
   Good afternoon older,   
      
   On Fri, 9 Feb 2024, oldernow wrote:   
      
   >> Wise choice! Please see attached file for more information.   
   >   
   > AW, shucks, I'm not seeing a way to deal with what I imagine to be MIME   
   > attachments in slrn. Installed Alpine to see if it might be more robust along   
   > those lines, but for the life of me (Alpine man page, Alpine "help" while   
   > running) I can't see how to specify creds to authenticate a running Alpine   
   > session to a remote nntp server.   
      
   Not on the internet, so this is from memory, press (S)etup then (C)onfig and   
   then fill in the nntp details on the third row. I _think_ when you try to   
   connect to the nntp server that alpine will ask you for your login/password and   
   then save it do disk. Let me know if that doesn't work, and I'll dig around in   
   the .pinerc and will send you how it looks like in my own.   
      
   > If there's not a way, feel free to send it to the email addy at the bottom of   
   > this post.   
      
   If there's a will, there's a way. ;)   
      
   >> Ahhh sorry for confusing you. I meanted alpine the email and news client. It   
   >> is brilliant! Written in C, compiles without any problems and you can   
   >> automate it to your hearts content. Have a look at https://alpineapp.email/   
   >> for pure email bliss. =3D)   
   >   
   > I might tinker with it.   
      
   Happy tinkering and let me know how it goes! =)   
      
   >> Touch=E9! But life has taught me that if you agree too easily your better   
   >> half will know what your doing and scold you for that. So first disagree   
   >> lightly (even if you don't care, just in order to give the lightest hint of   
   >> a discussion) and then agree, and she will love you for it. ;)   
   >   
   > That's quite possibly the most useful paragraph I've ever encountered online!   
      
   Glad to help. It's always nice, regardless of topics, when you do hit upon one   
   of these nuggets! =)   
      
   >> Ahh, the final house! Haven't reach that stage in my life yet. On the other   
   >> hand I'm only 41 so still just a, what do they call it...  whipper-snapper?   
   >   
   > C'mon, now... *everyone* knows there's no way to know what to call someone   
   > without knowing their skin color....  profusely>   
      
   True! Usually when people ask me for my skin color, I say I'm a negro, but   
   since we're not actually seeing each other, the jokes is completely lost. ;)   
   But you can safely assume whitish/pinkish depending on how much sun there is.   
   )   
      
   > 41? Mighty fine age!   
      
   Doing my best! ;)   
      
   >> Ahh... this explains all those bible-people in alt.atheism who are trying to   
   >> save the people of little faith. I always thought it was some kind of nasty   
   >> bot, but perhaps they do overflow with divine inspiration and think that   
   >> alt.atheism is the perfect vehicle for this inspiration.  ;) Glad they   
   >> haven't found this little oasis yet!   
   >   
   > Atheism's *fightin'* words to them!   
      
   That's a shame. I was hoping for some good old philosophizing there as well but   
   its drowning in bible quotes so in the end I stopped following it. =(   
      
   >> Oh, in that case you might like Huxleys Perennial Philosophy? He does what   
   >> we do, and compares notes between several religions. The difference is that   
   >> he made a product out of it and earned some money. ;)   
   >   
   > There might have been a time. But these days that sounds too voluminous for   
   > me.   
      
   It's not that bad... around 300 pages if memory serves and mostly he is   
   comparing quotes from various religious texts to see how they reinforce each   
   other.   
      
   >   
   >> What made you exit your fundamentalism?   
   >   
   > 8 December 1980.   
   >   
   > Okay, that's a degree or two of hyperbole stated so starkly.   
   >   
   > But, I believe that was the beginning of my end in fundamentalist protestant   
   > Christianity.   
   >   
   > I was part of an evening cleaning crew on the campus of Bob Jones   
   ...   
   > I'm not sure how to describe what "esoteric" meant to me, but a key aspect   
   > was de-emphasizing/discarding information/matters/practices that felt more   
   > "addressing the outside of the cup" than what might lead to inner   
   > transformation.   
      
   Fascinating journey! My own philosophical and ideological travel is definitely   
   not so long and fundamental. When I was young I was very conservative and   
   actually fairly trusting in a good, old, conservative government and I did give   
   politicians the benefit of the doubt. As the years passed, I had a few chances   
   to meet with some politicians, I joined the youth section (for 3 months) and   
   started to read a lot of libertarian texts, philosophy economics, etc. And one   
   day when I looked back I discovered that I no longer trusted politicians,   
   loathed them in fact, had no trust in the government, and had more tolerance   
   for what other people want or do not want to do in the privacy of their   
   bedroom. I could in fact go so far as to say that if my neighbours want to live   
   in a communist community they are more than welcome to try as long as they   
   don't drag me into it. So in short, I found myself having moved from being a   
   conservative to a libertarian/anarcho capitalist or however you want to slice   
   and dice it.   
      
   But this worries me!   
      
   I moved from conservative as a young man, to libertarian as a older man, and   
   where will that take me when I'm an old man? Will I become a marvel of   
   "freedom", pot smoking, bdsm-practicing, self-sufficiency/farm owning crazy   
   man? Or did my trip along freedom lane stop or slow down before getting too   
   extreme? ;)   
      
   But these ideological shifts seem to run in the family. My father started as a   
   pot smoking communist complete with long hair and a somewhat hippie lifestyle,   
   until he met my mother who transformed him, slowly, over the years, to a mild   
   conservative. Probably in US terms, someone belonging on the right hand side in   
   the democrat party, with some questions where he has a clearly republican bent.   
      
   Well... time will tell!   
      
   My wife did tell me however, that she discovered that during her time spent   
   with me, she has become more libertarian too, and her trust in politicians and   
   governments has decreased as well, so clearly I do have a positive influence on   
   people. ;)   
      
   >> Oh wow! Had no idea! =3D( You're saying the idea of the journalist as the   
   >> lone gunranger fighting by himself to disclose corruption and injustice is   
   >> no longer a thing in the US?   
   >   
   > I'm saying that's what I believe. I've no idea what the masses think, because   
   > that would require trusting journalists. :-)   
      
   True!   
      
   > See how it's a matter of faith either way?   
   >   
   > More importantly (for "me"), it's become irrelevant, as in knowing most   
   > (probably all) of it having zero positive bearing on my life.   
   >   
   > If I'm living just fine knowing nothing about people eight houses away, how   
   > could knowing about people in "Ukraine" improve my life, or even merely seem   
   > significant? Just because others drone on about it?   
      
   Aha! So not only a spiritual seeker but you are a stoic sage as well! ;)   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)