SMITH LANCES BLAIR, KIND OF

By Larry Parr

Of course, Lance Smith does not identify any specific statement of mine that
he feels has been demonstrated to be incorrect. -- Louis Blair

One Louis Blair ploy, which he employs often, is to ask a question
or make a statement, and when he is queried why he did not ask relevant
questions of others or address relevant issues, he announces that there is no
obligation or felt-need for such question-asking or statement-making in this or
that instance.

The next Blair ploy is to state that this writer or another have
shown no examples of him stating that he is under no obligation or feels no
need to ask this question or make that statement.

Lance Smith is right to claim victory, kind of.

I say "kind of" because to claim victory is to say that the game is
over. However, Mr. Blair may return and address Mr. Smith's point without
suffering penalty; and so the game starts all over again.

There are no victories here until the other guy concedes the point or
suffers some hideous electronic nervous breakdown. Or hangs himself from a
ceiling strap on a subway train.

Meanwhile, we await Louis Blair taking up Tim Hanke's business offer,
which would make Mr. Blair a ton, based on his ludicrous business analysis.

What a snorter!

Hold the presses, the Blair reply has just come off the wi "I
feel no need to take up every business deal proposed by Mr. Hanke."

An intellectually honest chap would instead write: "When attempting
to criticize the Kopec-Terrie book buyback, I added up some numbers like a
mathematician who knows nothing about business. I made a fool of myself. Tim
Hanke called me on it. What are holding costs anyway?"

Hold the presses, the Blair reply, containing both ploys, has just
come in off the wi "I feel no need to state I made a fool of myself. No
one has shown instances of my stating I made a fool of myself."

True enough.