Well, since there's no sign of Patrick yet, I guess it'll fall to me to defend him from you intellectual hoity-toities. I don't know where you get off stifling this young man's creative expression like this, but I'll have you know that everything he said is capital-D CORRECT.

> I was going to delete this, as this piece of illiteracy deserves, but at the last moment I was struck by how remarkably more clueless this is than the usual fly-by-night dunderheaded posts here. I can't help but pick this apart, because I can't help but think such unleashed showcases of witlessness exist only for that very purpose.

I'm glad to see that the intellectually-challenged among us exist FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT. While you're at it, maybe you should go to the special education department at your local high school and POINT AND LAUGH. I think that means you are a RACIST, sir. And there's no room for that in this man's army.

> > yes hello dave so u strongly believe in magic and the paranormal
>
> Nowhere did Dave ever say anything about "strongly believing" in magic and the paranormal. This thread of his was to solicit opinions on the subject, be they wise or foolish, not to assert his own.

Okay, you *obviously* did not read the thread. Here are a few quotes from Dave to refresh everyone's memory:

"Ok... have seen a ghost"

"I'd give anything to... an unmistakeable alien spacecraft."

Now if that's not asserting a belief in the supernatural, then you tell me what is. He'd even be willing to give them anything. *Anything.*

> > i think u need a hobby...
>
> Alas, if only all open-minded thinkers in the world would put away such wastes of time and take up knitting! What a better place we would live in if we spent less time pondering the mysteries of the universe and more time trading sweaters! It may surprise you, but amidst the time Dave squanders on thinking about the world and its unknowns, he *does* have hobbies. They include writing novels, playing the bass guitar, and spelling personal pronouns correctly.

Dude, spelling personal pronouns correctly is a pretty gay hobby. I mean, I could sit around all day spelling things correctly, and you know where they'd put me? IN A FRICKING SPELLING BEE. Not anywhere productive in society. So here you take a young man who is just learning to question the established thought, and you tell him to shut up. You tell him not to question Dave's authority, since Dave could BEAT HIM IN A SPELLING BEE. What the heck kind of logic is that?

> > ghost do not exsist because of no proof..
>
> A few hundred years ago, no one had proved the existence of Neptune, sun spots, quasars, black holes, or protons. Did they not exist then? Were they all hanging out in some metaphysical holding area, awaiting proof of their existence before manifesting themselves in reality? Or have such enlightened members of the 21st century as we are reached the end point of scientific research, having at last answered definitively every question about the universe left to ask?

I think I speak for anyone who's ever read a science textbook or taken a class (did you even *get* to high school, mister spelling bee champion?) when I say: DUH. Obviously they existed then. But those are different. Things like Neptune and quasars are *scientific objects.* As any ninth-grade science student would know, they're made of *scientific particles.* As such, even if we haven't found them, we know they exist. Objects like ghosts have been shown to be made of *antiscientific particles* (heliotropic positrons), which means they're the opposite: even if you HAVE found them, they DON'T exist. Maybe you should do some research next time, huh?

> > no pictures..
>
> Nor are there pictures of the wind, ambition,
> senility, vacuums, tension, love, or time. Do these not exist either?

Dude, I don't know what planet you come from, but there certainly *are* pictures of those things here on what we call "planet Earth." I even linked one below, just to help you out.

>> i for one have not seen one..
>
> I'm just guessing, but I'd say you haven't seen a wombat, a meteor, a murder, or a neutrino, either.

So what are you getting at, here? Are you saying that those things don't exist just because he hasn't seen them? Remember, SCIENTIFIC PARTICLES. We can *prove* that those exist *anyway,* because they're made of the right particles.

Besides, you watch who you talkin' to about murder, or me and my hommies will be packin' 9mms. BUZZ BAR!

> > and plus the pictures i have see of "ghost" were no more than a glare from the camra..
>
> Now there you've got me. Naturally if you disprove that one particular thing is a ghost, it stands to reason nothing else is either. Gosh, I wonder what it means that my digital watch is not your brain?

And I wonder what it means that my computer is not YOUR brain? I guess it means that you don't have a brain either! LOL, the irony!

And before any of you wise-acres try anything, yes, whatever it is that you're going to mention IS my brain. So shut up.

> I'm bored of this now, especially since even if you do return to read this I have little hope you would be able to comprehend it. The bitter irony -- or perhaps the great mercy -- of flaming idiots is that they'll never understand how thoroughly reamed they are.

And you, sir, are the reamedest of all.

> Instead of asking Dave to do you a favor by refraining from the mode of open-minded thought that has led to every discovery the human race has ever made, why don't you do US a favor -- since you owe us anyway by dirtying the place with your illiterate and very stupid squabbling -- and pick up some remedial lessons in English and courtesy before barreling into someone else's intelligent conversation with your blundering antidote to free thought?

Here you go with the stupid spelling bees again. And this time, I guess you want him to genuflect before he spells out "forensics" or WHATEVER ELSE, huh? I'll tell you what free thought is. Free thought is FREEDOM TO THINK. It's freedom to make an ass of yourself if you want. Freedom to go off on some rant about how ghosts can't exist because you didn't see them on Springer yet, and to tell someone who never claimed that ghosts do exist that he's a FLAMING NAZI GASBAG. This young man knows what free thought is, my friend. I bet he also knows the meaning of Christmas, and also who shot J.R. But you know what all that comes to in the long run? NOTHING. Because only free thought matters. Oh, and kindness, too. At least, Jewel says so. But I'm getting off the topic.

But I guess that's in the spirit of the original.