B, Your previous is a most disturbing post. And for many reasons. To begin with, there is pattern in the existence of man, and that pattern is reflected in a path that has been well walked through the ages. It is reflected within our own souls but for those of us, not necessarily you, but others who are without experience enough or God-given wisdom to recognize it internally, it is indeed reflected in art, in a careful study of history and certainly on the written page by many of our great writers. Thus: On to King Lear by the immortal William Shakespeare and the words of Edmond the bastard son of the king, Act 1 Scene 2

A credulous father! and a brother noble,

Whose nature is so far from doing harms,

That he suspects none: on whose foolish honesty

My practises ride easy! I see the business.

Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit:

All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.

A study of Edmond throughout the play reveals him to be a character of this nature that you speak of, B., a man out for himself, selfish in his ambition and ignoble in his purposes. His ambition eventually comes to nothingness as can be expected. And such is not only in Shakespeare but in human existence in any time or any place in any society. The play is powerful, because on a deeper level we are all cognizant of this fact, even if consciously we try to deny it and for expediency's sake try to explain away its reality.

The play remains powerful, because human nature has a form like any natural process, the rising and setting of the sun, the sewing and reaping of wheat, certain immutable laws from which there can be no escaping, and no attempt at escaping except by those who ultimately will prove themselves to be fools.

Thus the great irony for many who exist and live the unexamined life! They strive for acceptance and praise in a society that they value for having certain standards, yet often reject those standards en route to what they believe to be their noble goals. They justify their ends with ignoble means and ultimately end in a tragedy no less poignant than that of those Shakespeare chooses to portray.

B, in short your assessments of human motivation are correct, but your praise of them is not so. Those who achieve great "success" through selfish ambition die alone and without the mental capacity to enjoy what they have gained. Perhaps, you have not seen enough to know this to be so, but I can tell you with certainty, it is indeed so. I cannot say that all great achievement is based solely in altruism, but it is based in a deeper understanding of one's relationship as a part of a greater whole. An understanding of this will enable a noble achiever to achieve noble and properous ends. A lack of this essential knolwedge will allow certain participants in this great adventure of life to appear as successful for a time, but such success is never of real substance or lasting or enjoyable.

Remember, my firend, "better a dish of vegetables where love is than great feasting with strife," and where selfish ambition rules over a man's soul, there can never be anything but strife. Such a man's days are filled with worry as to who is walking in his shadow, and his nights are full of wakefulness at every random, natural sound. Or else he is lost in a type of limited insanity that makes life bearable for him, but demonstrates him as a fool to all others who look upon him. Unfortunately, by arrogance and subsequent poor fortune, President Bush has taken on this mantle of folly. He has become a laughable and tragic figure to the thoughtful. It is questionable whether he has acquired everything he "wanted" because, in truth, few men at any given time can articulate or even know what they want. If you do, then you are rare. And if you ever acquire such things as you want now and find you are satisfied then, you will be rarer still. In summation, reviewing your post, these, quite atypically for you, are not good points you are making here. You would do well to perhaps start in on trying to see things in a different way. Now is the time to begin this. We are in for a wild ride and only the most prepared psychologically will make it through. If your goals remain selfish, you will not gather the qualities you need to ride this thing through to the end. Perhaps that is why you have not been able to see up until this point how poorly a company like Tyhee stacks up against Kimber. As one man's vision become clearer and better trained, inevitable consequences become for him what for others are chance happenings. I've never read a post from you like this previous one. That means something within you has changed. The story at Tyhee has changed and you are letting it change you. This is not good. Get the heck out. Cut your losses and get into Kimber with all you've got before something worse befalls you. That's as nicely as I can put it. Bull