[Buddha-l] Question answered

[Richard Hayes]

On Sun, 2008-06-29 at 15:54 -0600, Jim Peavler wrote:

> up to here you are right (according to my cynical rule), but you  
> suddenly change the rules to sarcastically say "people are successful  
> if other people [future historians and such] think they are". 

What I meant to say is "people are successful if they estimate
themselves successful on the fantasy that future historians will approve
them." Part of being successful, I take it, is not being seen as
successful by one's own countrymen. (Jesus said that). By that measure
of success, Mr Bush is surely one of the most successful presidents
since Warren G. Harding (who, according to John McLaughlin, was
America's first black president).

The argument that Harding was black apparently stems from applying the
old rule that a person is black if one out of thirty-two of his or her
ancestors were black. By that reasoning, of course, George Washington
was America's first female president, since fully half of his ancestors
were women.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico