NO FREE WILL?

Scott Adams, at his Dilbert blog writes occasionally about free will. He doesn’t believe it exists. (Then I wonder what the hell I’m doing living my retirement in Thailand?)

Here is his most recent argument. Notice how similar his reasoning is to Clinton’s rationalizing about not having had sex. To prove there is no “free will” he must narrow the definition so that it matches his argument. But if you’re going to do that you must establish what you mean by the phrase first and then get at it. It’s not fair to do it the other way around. Then it should be clear that he is not writing about “free will” as it is understood by most people.

I must apologize to Mr. Adams for the cruel piece I wrote about his speech problem, The Idea of a Lifetime, just below this. I am a failed humorist so when I get a funny idea, I just must run with it. It was wrong to put it out for many reasons, but few can deny it is funny. The weird thing is that it would work, most likely.

I don’t think there will be many reverberations though. When last I looked, this blog was rated below 4 millionth in popularity, and deservedly so. The world will not be laughing at him.

GREYHOUNDS

Roger Simon has a sick greyhound. You can read the sad story *HERE*. It has cancer at a young age of five and a half.

It reminded me of a curious experience I had when living among the Kurdish tribes in Northwest Iran. The tribesmen had the most fierce, fearless dogs I have ever seen or even heard about. I don’t know the breed and, thankfully, I never encountered one on foot, but they would attack our vehicles. (Motor vehicles were extremely rare then and there.) One jumped off a bank and landed on the hood of my jeep. Another ran full speed, jaws gaping, into the grill of a jeep that was coming towards him.

I was surprised that the tribesmen also kept Greyhounds. These dogs were extremely friendly and gentle. They loved to run and would challenge our vehicles to a race by running down the road 20 feet or so and looking back to see if we were coming.

The contrast between the two breeds, living side by side, was memorable.

I hope the best for his dog. They are charming animals.